Weightlifting, in vain?

[J. Darko]

I've been thinking whole sunday about this until midnight, so I decided to open a topic about it. I encountered thousands of problems that make me lose my motivation to work out.

You see, recently, I've been thinking about what I want from life and I don't know what it is, which is problematic by itself. But, I'm thinking about travelling a lot and persuing extreme things, like the military, climbing, surviving, fighting. However, that way, I can't be lifting weights all the time. What's more, is that I can't decide wether I should be powerlifting, weightlifting, or just building mass. Weightlifting seems like a lot of fun compared to benching, squatting and deadlifting all the time, but it won't build much mass I think. I can't combine all those things, because my body seems only to be responding to highly specialized work outs. For example, if I'm good at rope skipping, I suck at running. If I don't do chin ups every other day, the number of chin ups I can do regresses. If I work out with a skipping rope one day and run the next, neither activities progress very fast.

And to make matters worse, naturally I'm a really skinny guy and I've noticed that I lose strength and mass fast, really fast. I haven't been deadlifting for over two weeks because I ruptured the muscles in my ankle. Today I tried my best and it was a mere 120 kg. That's 40 kg less than over 2 weeks ago and yes, I did eat enough.

So I feel like I'm doomed to be skinny and weak and stuck to lifting weights almost every day for the rest of my life, making me highly immobile for doing adventurous things.

 

[deNominator]

Priorities. Obviously being in shape and weightlifting is important to you, but in reality it shouldn't control your life. If you want to get adventure and go out and do things, do it! Even if it's at the cost of some strength. You know how to get it back and you will. At the very least you can do body weight exercises on the go. Weightlifting is just another part of enjoying your life, not the entirety of it. My opinion, kind sir.

Don't join the military.

 

[J. Darko]

I know man, I know I'm becoming way too obsessed with this sht. Grrr..........I just can't resist the urge of this whole over analsing thing. I analyse way too much because I want to do everything perfect.

 

[zekko]

So I feel like I'm doomed to be skinny and weak and stuck to lifting weights almost every day for the rest of my life, making me highly immobile for doing adventurous things.

You probably know this, but you shouldn't lift weights every day.
Your muscle needs rest in between in order to grow.
Or you could get injured.

 

[J. Darko]

You probably know this, but you shouldn't lift weights every day.
Your muscle needs rest in between in order to grow.
Or you could get injured.

Yeah I know...but I'm way to bull headed. I don't lift in the weekends though, but it would be healthier if i just stick with 3 days as week.

 

[itishe]

What is the point of working out if you can't enjoy your body and it's capabilities?

 

[Kerpal]

With a 120 kg deadlift it's too early to even be thinking about whether you want to do powerlifting, weightlifting or bodybuilding. No matter which you choose you should just focus on getting stronger for a while first.

BTW, how deep are you squatting? In another thread you said you squatted 310 (I assume lbs) for reps. If you're true squatting 310 for reps you should be deadlifting a hell of a lot more than 265 lbs.

 

[maqnetik]

sounds like youre overtraining and you also need to focus on those weak points more.

 

[Jitterbug]

Weightlifting seems like a lot of fun compared to benching, squatting and deadlifting all the time, but it won't build much mass I think.

These guys aren't very muscular at all, are they?

http://www.ptcfrankston.com/doc/newsletter/86/11.jpg

Those are the lighter weights. Look up photos of some 100kg class weightlifters.

All of your "thousands of problems" is just a problem of priorities. If your number one priority - which trumps everything else - is to NOT be skinny and weak, you'll find your motivation to work out.

And it's not meant to be easy. You're whining about losing some mass & strength cos you didn't train for a few weeks or not eating enough... I know guys in the lifting game who are battling cancer and other serious illnesses, or who are disabled, while being skinny hard-gainer. Every kg they put on the bar is a struggle, yet they don't quit, and they're far far stronger than you.

You may be weak physically now, but don't be weak mentally.

 

[Kerpal]

Weightlifters do squats, bench presses and deadlifts too btw. And some powerlifters do the snatch and clean & jerk and derivatives.

 

[Jitterbug]

Not bench press, but they do a lot of overhead pressing.

 

[Kerpal]

Some of them bench.

 

[Jitterbug]

Maybe, but that's not the norm. I've been to several weightlifting centers and there's no bench at all to do bench press. Just row after row of squat racks and lifting platforms. Most of the pressing I've seen is done overhead - strict press or push press - and the only other type I've seen is dips. Any BP done is outside of their normal training program in their own time.

 

[J. Darko]

Yeah got to stay tough and focused.Need a serious ass kicking for whiing too much. I saw those chinese weightlifters, there's a documentary about them on youtube as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3AO1mUsjB0

I'm wondering if it's just good genetics though...And btw...I saw the dutch championship of weightlifting and these guys are horribly skinny, have poor form and only snatch like...80 kg. I guess that´s the best a Dutch man can do...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUV7RLmxvk0



I decided to train like this:

Back Squat / Front Squat
Bench Press / various grips
Clean and jerk / Power Clean and jerk
Snatch / Power Snatch
Chin ups / Pull ups

This way, I can get the best of both worlds. I squat ATG, my deadlift is low because I lack grip strength. If I can´t hold the bar, I can´t lift it. I´m working on yoga stuff as well in order to get more flexible for the lifts. Can´t get my arms behind my head and my back rounds at the bottom of the squat.

 

[Jitterbug]

I'm wondering if it's just good genetics though...

A lot of weightlifters (not those Chinese ones in particular - I don't really know them) got into the sport because they were sick weedy kids who wanted to become strong. Read up the biography of Tommy Kono, who was an American weightlifting and bodybuilding world champion for an example.

my deadlift is low because I lack grip strength. If I can´t hold the bar, I can´t lift it.

Use chalk, work on your grips with something like Captain Crush Grippers or Fat Gripz, grip harder on the bar as if your life depends on it.

I have terrible grip leverage - soft & short sausage fingers and sweaty palms. I've never let that hold back my deadlift. No guy should fail a deadlift around 160kg because of weak grip. Most guys I've seen at the gym who fail a low deadlift because of grip are simply not being intense enough.

 

[Kerpal]

As a general rule, people who are competitive at a high level in weightlifting are the genetically elite. It's a sport that automatically selects for people with good recovery abilities, good injury resistance, a high percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers, the potential to develop extremely high levels of maximal strength, and the ability to generate large amounts of power in proportion to maximal strength. Some of them were literally selected to be weightlifters in childhood because they displayed these attributes at a very early age.

 

[maqnetik]

Maybe, but that's not the norm. I've been to several weightlifting centers and there's no bench at all to do bench press. Just row after row of squat racks and lifting platforms. Most of the pressing I've seen is done overhead - strict press or push press - and the only other type I've seen is dips. Any BP done is outside of their normal training program in their own time.

most weightlifters dont want anyone to know how much they bench. with or without STEROIDS.

:nono:

 

[Jitterbug]

Are you retarded or something?

The BP is not a contested lift in weightlifting, nor does it have any carryover whatsoever to their contested lifts.

Nice work there with the steroid tag on those stronger than you.

 

[Kerpal]

They would still be the strongest in the world if steroids were never invented. Not only are they born with the potential that 99.9% of the rest of the population isn't, they also work their asses off. The steroids just let them train even harder.

 

[J. Darko]

I should definately get some chalk to enhance my grip strength. I do think almost everyone uses steroids these days, but I also believe in hard work to get what you want. I don't want to make excuses. The different opinions are confusing though and it makes me wonder how these weightlifters develop big tits without the bench press. I thought that the jerk would only develop their shoulders and their upper chest.

Also, I've read into sport specific training for kickboxing and it seems that there are two schools of research: on the one hand researchers say that nothing is sport specific, even power development is only specific to a particular movement. so olympic lifts are not necessary. On the other hand research says that sport specific training might not be sport specific, but olympic lifts do teach your muscle fibers to develop more power which can carry over to things like kickboxing.

Also, researchers recommend not to simmulate sport specific movement, like boxing with dumbbells, because it's never the exact same movement and therefore will teach you bad habits. And...researchers recommend for a lot of sports a minimum of training time, with just the clean, the squat, the push press, pull ups, and some explosive movement with a dumbbell. So...ditch the bench press for sport specific training and more time and energ for the push press,or will m chest be underdeveloped if I do that...


Shocking thing is...research kind of points in the direction of what Rocky Balboa does. In the latest movie he's also cleaning, push pressing, kettlebell snatching, squatting. He does bench presses as well though.