It does affect your game......I noticed from the start.....I stretch more now......Too bad I still shoot in the 90's......
After leaving the world of investment banking and suddenly having time on my hands, I've resumed weight lifting. In about 6 months, I've gone from doing 3 sets 185 (6 reps) to now doing 3 sets of 250 (4 reps). If I were to max I would guess I could do about 300. I still think bench press is an overrated movement. I think the best exercise in the gym is the deadlift. It works the back of your legs/gluts as well as your lower and upper back (traps). It is very hard to work these areas and deadlift hits them all. This is not my strongest movement, but I've worked myself up to doing 6 reps of 300 which is a dramatic improvement from where I started.
Damn, and all this time I thought the zzhiggins gang were muscling guys around this past weekend only to find out that TJ was mixing it up right with them! The deadlift is a great exercise but it seems like squats do exactly the same stuff and are not as dangerous as the dead lift. However, a lot of the guys I work out with don't like to do more than 200 on the squats because they don't have belts to support their backs and they also feel their knees get too sore. I know a guy who has lifted pretty much his whole life and he told me that if you can squat well, then your bench press will go up and he is up to about 340.
I think there are slight differences in the muscle groups worked by doing squats and deadlifts. I think the pulling motion in deadlifts gives more work to the traps and lower back than squats do. Both work the lower body very well. I think squats may also recruit more of the shoulder muscles (especially the rear shoulder muscles) as you balance the weight across your back. It's a tough call. I just feel more confident with the weight at my knees as opposed to across my back. You can always just drop it on deadlift if you can't finish. With squats it gets ugly.
Yea, I think you are right about the traps and lower back, now that I have envisioned that exercise in my mind, TJ. However, I don't know much about dead lifts as for some reason, this is an exercise that I don't see many people do, at least the people I work out with. I thought that I had read somewhere that it can be a dangerous exercise, but I may have gotten that idea from the fact that it is an exercise that is not popular like the bench press or dumbbell curls or dips, etc.
I'm 6 feet tall, weigh 195lbs, and I workout about 2 times per week, and have been finishing my benchpress workout with one rep of 315 lbs. I start by warming up with 6-8 reps of 225, then about 4-5 reps of 250, then 2-3 reps with 285. Then I'll do as much as I can on the last rep. I think if I put more time into weightlifting and really focused on getting huge, I could get up to 350lbs in a couple of months on bench.
Man you weren't kidding... PB: 295, but they say it didn't count because I was using my teeth to hold the bar.
How do you like the BowFlex? That seems to be the one home-gym that has stood the test of time, which has me thinking about getting it in the future. I've got a gym membership, but hell, I go sporadically at best. Driving through traffic in Houston during the week is more than enough of a deterrant to keep me from the gym. Anyway....how do you like the BowFlex??
Wow. Trader J is a badass. I kinda laughed when I read this thread title. "How much you bench?" in Jock-Vernacular is equivalent to "how big is your rod?" in p*rn. It's the bar by which high school footballers (at least when I was there) set their worth. The most I have ever pressed is 345 but that was in high school. I am curently on a weight lifting regiment and I am a total puss. I died pressing 205 this morning. Funny little story...at least to me...a few weeks ago I had a buddy in town from Austin and we were at the apartment of a mutual friend and we were hammered. i mean piss drunk. Well this buddy and I have always been competitive and as we have grown older we seem to forget that we are not 17 any longer. So any way we start playing the 'who is a bigger badass game' and we end up on this weight machine seeing who can incline the most. When the thing was on the middle of the stack it was hard. but neither of us would lose. We both ended up doing the whole stack...I think it was like 240 lbs or something. something I could NEVER do sober and never do without provocation from my buddy. I was at the gym a few days later and decided to base my workout on what I had done that night and needless to say I could not even lift the plates off of their resting place at 200 pounds.
24 hour fitness, 610 and Richmond. I'm the guy in all the Rice Owls clothes. My schedule is super irregular though, b/c I'm usually out of town during the week.
I thought this thread was dead. Forgot all about it. I really like the BowFlex although I haven't been working out lately. It's certainly not because of the equipment. I've got the leg, lateral, and squat attachments. They all do their job effectively. Once you pick up the exercises and movements, workouts are a breeze. Switching between exercises is fast and easy. I was benching up to 270 on it and I did make excellent gains in strength and muscle mass. I recommend it if you can part with the $1700 or whatever it is now. Truth be known I got mine for free because I had an accident...the pulley wheel bolt came off and the pulley wheel flew off and hit me in the head really fast and kind of hard. Hard enough to put a slit in my forehead which required 20 stitches or so. That happened a few years ago. I had to repair mine with free parts from them as they were making them with defective parts before. It was a pretty bad scene. But, that didn't stop me from getting back on and enjoying many more workouts. It's not free weights but it is good resistance and I believe requires more muscles and effort to keep your form. A lot of people have bought it and returned it. I don't know why. They must not be serious about working out and felt let down because it wouldn't do the work for them while they just sit back . I would find it hard to believe if anyone who lifts weights regularly disliked the BowFlex. They may prefer a real gym. But, the BowFlex has so many exercises and is so convenient. It's a gym in itself. You can even do rowing. I need to get back on it. You can try it and send it back if you don't like it if you can get it back in the boxes . I really like mine and it broke and injured me. I have the classic style and it has imperfections. Yet, it is still holding up and very solid. No problem with the bows, either. Their broken in and still going. I'm not sure about these "ultimate" versions that are one piece. They seem pretty cool. I recommend it unless your married to free weights and/or like going to gyms. Oh yeah...the lifting motions of the exercises feel natural and smooth as well. Surf
Thanks for the reply Surf. I've been wantting to talk to someone with a BowFlex for some time for an opinion. Of course, nothing beats a gym a free weights....getting the motivation to go to the gym is the problem. Do they sell those things used? (I know....ebay, right?)
I only get to workout once a week because of my schedule. Right now I can bench about 280. Hopefully I'll get some free time over the summer and I can get up to 300+.
