Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

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I enjoy barbell squats. Out of all the lifts I've done, its one of the most intuitive. Especially when it comes to compound barbell lifts. I just go down, and go back up. Its so intuitive that I have to actively pay attention, to make sure I don't turn other lifts into a fucked up version of a squat. If there was a way to turn preacher curls into a squat, I would have figured it out. I'm sure my form isn't absolutely perfect, and if I was trying to compete, there would be plenty of room for improvement. But, again, relative to other lifts, it requires minimal effort to have reasonable form.

I assume this means I'm built fairly well for the movement. Even so, there's a million other things that work. During one of my diets, I had a few times where my vision would white out right after I racked, and I'd have to hold onto the rack to stay upright. Since then, I've been enjoying hack squats just as much. Subjectively, I feel like I can get closer to failure, more consistently, without having to worry. Especially on a diet.

I'd never shit on barbell squats, but yeah, they're one option of many. Which option is best depends on a bunch of different factors, which will change for you over time.

Honestly, I think one of the biggest things in favor of compound barbell lifts like squats is how easily standardized they are. With machines, if you use a different one, you have to worry about how much the equipment itself weighs, what the movement path it locks you into is, how it positions the rest of your body relative to that, how well oiled it is, what the resistance profile is like, and a million other autistic things I don't understand. But you can pick up any barbell, throw some plates on it, and know what to expect. And when you tell people how much weight you can do, they'll actually understand without you spending half an hour explaining all the intricacies of the specific machine you use. ("I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me bro, its really like 50℅ more on any other machine... Cause reason...")
 
24nagging said:
1) they are not the most effective movement to hit the muscles it involves (quads, glutes, calfs)
2) the first muscle to give out is the lower back, and your quads can take way more than your low back
3) all of this is because it is not a stable movement, which means energy goes to stabilizing yourself instead of generating stress to the muscle
4) it is a massive risk the closer you get to failure (which is the hole point of hypertrophy training)
5) it stresses your joints to a massive degree, because of the instability. Hip pain is the most common injury from squads
honestly, if you are not powerlifting or you just really really really like it, why bother? do literally any other squad movement if you want bigger/stronger legs
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This Christmas I threw my niece over my shoulders in a fireman carry and proceeded to do three sets of ten. Thank you, barbell squats.
 
Here we go, gentlemen, into the worst two weeks of the year
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Day 1 wasn't too bad. Don't think many people wanted to go to the gym on New Years but I did manage to see some funnys. Someone was half repping squats at 1.5x body weight and another dude was doing triceps and abs on a cable machine specifically designed for flies. There were 7 other stations for him to do his thing but he insisted on doing them on the flies cable
 
honestly I just try to not watch or see other people at the gym. I get too annoyed at seeing bad technique
 
One new kid at my little gym getting coached by one of the owners/personal trainers. I think for the most part the people that make New Year's resolutions to the to go to the gym are probably going to wait for Monday. They're probably way too hungover today.
 
Shoutout to the tomboy/dyke/pooner who was lifting when I came in and still lifting when I left but please don't do decline pushups in the squat rack on a bench in the squat rack otherwise good job.
 
I think there were two non-regulars total when I went yesterday even though it was holiday short hours. Agreed on expecting Monday to be the pain day, but I go so early I'm assuming I'm going to miss the worst of it.

The only irritating behaviors I see on the regular are holding equipment while dicking around on a phone for 10+ minutes and this one intensely irritating dude who will just grab something large like a smith machine or incline bench, rack it and then just kind of buzz around like a fruitfly doing other shit with dumbbells and cables and periodically coming back to do a set or sit on the bench to do fuck-knows what on his phone. Dude also leaves the weights racked when he leaves so you never know if he's actually done or not.

hog cranking frog said:
Anyone take vit d supplements? Shit work?
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Yeah. It's worth it. Take it in a combo with K2, helps with recovery significantly and it's cheap as hell.
 
gym was definitely way busier than usual today. no big deal, the herd will thin out by february.
 
Weightlifting is weird, man. I've been eating a caloric deficit lately and I didn't sleep at all last night, but when I went to the gym today I crushed my previous total volume by almost 1,000 pounds. Also, I figured out why there was such an imbalance with my preacher curls. Turns out I wasn't sitting all the way forward when I was doing the left arm so it didn't have as much leverage as my right. After fixing my form I was able to immediately go up 10 pounds.
 
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