Yes that is excellent, how much do you weigh tommy if you don’t mind me asking?

300kg 😉

I’ve been lifting weights for the last 3 months (primarily Squats); not in the pursuit of body building or powerlifting, but to become a stronger cyclist. Time will tell if it’s working…

I’m currently doing (among other things) 4×10 Squats at 100kg* (which is a huge improvement over where i was when i started). I’ve not really lifted weights before, and it’s quite satisfying to see such a large improvement in such a short space of time.

I’ve been training 3/4 times a week (i know that’s too much, but i’d be bored otherwise) and running on days i’m not in the Gym. Personally, my muscles don’t ache after training, unless i’ve been doing deep squats (targeting glutes and hip flexors). Whether that’s good or bad, i’m not sure.

*caveat: I train on my own, so this is with the use of a Smith Machine.

If its totally killing you at the load and intensity that you’re doing and you are not a 4st weakling then you’re doing it wrong. Breathing and core control will be your friends.

Time will tell if it’s working.

Three months should’ve been enough. No improvement?

well i started this plan today

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Improve-Your-Body-Position-100-in-30-Days-Blueprint-2013.html

I just did 20x goblet squats quickly with a 24kg. Strange really, didn’t get out of breath until I stopped. Also it seems to exercise my arms and back much more than my legs, but I guess they are used to that kind of punishment.

Three months should’ve been enough. No improvement?

I’ve been away from home since November. I’m coming home next week, so i’ll soon be able to get back on the bike.

Squatting and deadlifting twice a week on top of cycling is probably too much IMO.

The number one thing that determines how often you can train/how strong you will get/how quickly you recover is genetics.

Find what YOU can recover from and ignore what other people are doing.

As someone has posted, deadlifts and squats hammer your CNS. This takes far longer to recover than your muscular system.

You can get away with hammering yourself into the ground for a while, but sooner or later you will crash and the result will be, you will start going backwards.

As someone has posted, deadlifts and squats hammer your CNS. This takes far longer to recover than your muscular system.

Wwwwwwwhawhat?

90 kg bench is amazing!

40 kg front squat and 60 kg dead lift should not leave you drained for 24 hours, in my opinion, even at 3 x 8 reps. I have been doing Crossfit for a couple of years now, those weights were not huge when I started. I am not sure what advise to give though apart from keep at it, focus on form and enjoy it. I was always into cardio type exercises but I get far more out of an hour crossfit class than a long run, swim or ride.

The only thing that springs to mind is whether you warm up sufficiently? Your muscles need to be firing, especially for squats.

OK, minor update. It turns out the system my gym uses is 6 sessions at 3x 8 reps then back to 4x 5 reps for 6 sessions and repeat.

Towards the end of the 6 session of 3×8 it did get a lot less fatiguing. Just had the first session back at 4×5 and the difference was amazing. They up the weights and focus on improving technique, so I’m now on front squats of 50kg and dead lifting 75kg, which seemed so much easier than 8 reps of 40 & 60kg respectively. The idea is to ramp the weight up over the next few sessions, then drop it back a bit and consolidate in the next 3x 8 rep phase.

Cool, Ive just upped my Squats to 70kg and doing 5sets of 5 at the moment, thinking about upping it to 80 or 90kg next week too as feel I am getting stronger.

Deadlift is at 86.5kg at the moment, had it at 108kg last week (1.5 x Body weight), but I popped/pulled something in my abs trying to lift it, so dropped back down to 86.5kg. I weigh about 70-72kg.

the thing I am really struggling with at the moment is pull ups, I really cant do more than 5, but if i weigh 70kg, then I am essentially lifting 70kg BW, which i cant really do on any other excercise i.e I cant bench 70kg or shoulder press it.

I can do about 3 press ups as well!

The only thing I’ve been really good at was Bench Press where my PB was 95kg (did think it was 90, but had a look back and did 95kg twice over the years). I had always wanted to get to 100, but never managed it.

Will be interesting to see how the new stuff goes. Still learning the technique, which goes a bit sloppy when I get tired, so plenty of room for progress.

Im OK with press ups, think my max to failure is somewhere in between 30 and 40. But I am only Benching 2 x 25kg dumbells at the moment and cant see me being able to up this any time soon. I think i did slightly more on a bar maybe 60kg total, but the bar seems to hurt my shoulders when benchpressing so sticking with dumbells.

sorry to jump in but,….someone mentioned about not doing the two together? I’ve been doing 4 exercises every workout (once, maybe twice a week). Not sure if I should split it down? I.e. I’m doing 3 sets 10 reps of:
Deadlift: 40kg,50kg,60kg and about to increase by about 2.5kg
Squats: 27.5kg, 30kg, 32.5kg
Bench: 25kg, 27.5kg, 30kg
Shoulder press: 3 sets at 20kg, try to get to 10 but I am struggling massively even when its the first thing I do after a warm up.
Then some planks/Vsits/leg raises etc.

Would it be better just to do upper body once a week and do lower on a different day then or does it not really matter that much?

Depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you want to get as strong as possible split the squat and the deadlift up. Both as so taxing you will grind to a halt with progress pretty quickly.

Throwing riding into the mix, it is probably better to do something like an upper/lower split as deads and squats both work the legs, which can be hard to recover from if you are riding on top.

trying to get a six pack 🙂 I just want to be strong really, not particularly strong in a specific way or super strong, just strong. I need to give a proper hill climb a go too cuz not tried one since been squatting (since Christmas). Sure must have made a difference to my speed 🙂 I’m not riding much at the moment, fair weather rider. **read ‘massive pussy’**

I would recommend checking out a crossfit blog aimed at women for specific advice, there’re loads about. Remember a six-pack is much more about low BF% than strength or bulk, and depending on your genetics you may or may not be able to achieve this healthily.

I know, been working really hard on my diet, I’m down to 19%/20% body fat now, pack is nearly there but still its always the very last bit that’s the hardest. Especially when I haven’t been hungry all day but now I’ve just had an omlette I also want to eat the massive bar of dark choc in the cupboard 🙁

[/quote] Yes that is excellent, how much do you weigh tommy if you don’t mind me asking?

Dragging this back up to defend myself after the 300 kg slur 😉
actually I am on the weighty side of the scale at 120kg so should be able to go big. max bench is 135kg.

Somebody mentioned planks earlier on and I read an interesting article stating that once you can do 1:30 to 2:00 then they are quite pointless and you should be doing more dynamic stuff (press ups on medicine balls, TRX on the feet and and wobble board on the hands) to get improvememts.

I been doing squats since last winter. 6×25 75kg. I weigh just under 70kg
My legs are still has painfully skinny – but certainly felt the benefit from them. Will def be continuing to do them.

Yeah, lived in lots of them back in the 70’s and 80’s but none of them tall enough to have an elevat… oh, wait.

6x2575kg

Blimey I thought your legs would be like tree trunks lifting that kind of weight?