All lifts to body weight

Rycn

I'm working on getting all major lifts (bench, squat, row, dead, press etc) to bodyweight and then I plan to work on endurance, is it a bad idea to only go as far as bodyweight with each of these exercises? Like will I just end up with bad muscle imbalances?

Questions a bit mad, don't really know how to phrase it!

token

If you managed to have all those lifts at bodyweight you would be imbalanced but it's not going to work out like that anyway unless you trained the absolute **** out of your upper body and neglected your lower body entirely.

A good rule of thumb to see if anything is lacking is check the ratio of your lifts against each other. Everyone will have their strengths and weaknesses but if anything is straying too far from these ratios it might be worth paying special attention to it.

Press 1
Bench 1.5
Squat 2
Deadlift 2.5

The first few months that I started training I could bench more than I could squat which was definatly an imbalance so I've paid a lot more attention to my squat than my bench since.

shg101

Rycn wrote: »

I'm working on getting all major lifts (bench, squat, row, dead, press etc) to bodyweight and then I plan to work on endurance, is it a bad idea to only go as far as bodyweight with each of these exercises? Like will I just end up with bad muscle imbalances?

Questions a bit mad, don't really know how to phrase it!

Not a bad idea at all, would put you far ahead of the general population, but some exercises will be much easier than others as far as achieving the goal is concerned (eg squatting vs bench press). You may well hit the squat and deadlift goal earlier than others. IMO you should continue to slowly add weight to those exercises (with good form of course) beyond bodyweight until you catch up on all exercises.

See Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength for a good program to achieve this.

When you shift to endurance you should still have a strength maintenance program ongoing.

marathonic

Interesting post. From what I've read, the idea of having all weights the same would cause imbalances. However, an interesting long-term goal (for me as a beginner anyway) would be to get the toughest excercise to bodyweight (i.e. the O/H press in the Starting Strength program).

I wonder would it be feasible for a newbie to expect to achieve this in one year? Probably not as the O/H press is a very tough one to increase the weight on.

Rycn

token wrote: »

If you managed to have all those lifts at bodyweight you would be imbalanced but it's not going to work out like that anyway unless you trained the absolute **** out of your upper body and neglected your lower body entirely.

I won't be neglecting my lower body at all.

shg101 wrote: »

Not a bad idea at all, would put you far ahead of the general population, but some exercises will be much easier than others as far as achieving the goal is concerned (eg squatting vs bench press). You may well hit the squat and deadlift goal earlier than others. IMO you should continue to slowly add weight to those exercises (with good form of course) beyond bodyweight until you catch up on all exercises.

See Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength for a good program to achieve this.

When you shift to endurance you should still have a strength maintenance program ongoing.

Thanks man, this is what I was thinking.

Do you think there will be any major muscle imbalance issues, or at all?

lastlaugh

Rycn wrote: »

Do you think there will be any major muscle imbalance issues, or at all?

Hi OP,

I've been doing Starting Strenght for about 5 week now and I've been doing a log http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056064165&page=3

I'm about to Squat BW and have passed BW on Deads already. It will be a while before I bench BW and I don't know if I'll ever Press BW tbh.

If you regularly add weight to all those lifts you should see progress pretty quick, I can't see why you would stop Squatting or Deadlifting heavier that BW once you reach them. Rather, you should continue working on you Bench & Press and at the same time add weight to your Squat & Dead

squod

Rycn wrote: »

I'm working on getting all major lifts (bench, squat, row, dead, press etc) to bodyweight and then I plan to work on endurance, is it a bad idea to only go as far as bodyweight with each of these exercises? Like will I just end up with bad muscle imbalances?

Questions a bit mad, don't really know how to phrase it!

I did that for the first years of parenting. Not so bad esp when imbalances aren't so important after only two hours sleep. Prehab is way more important IMO.

Rycn

squod wrote: »

I did that for the first years of parenting. Not so bad esp when imbalances aren't so important after only two hours sleep. Prehab is way more important IMO.

Hi, can you explain this I don't understand. Cheers.

shg101

Rycn wrote: »

Do you think there will be any major muscle imbalance issues, or at all?

Nothing that is serious from a biomechanical perspective I would say. It's not like you're doing quads but not hams, biceps but not triceps, abs but not back - that kind of imbalance.

Plenty of people (wrongly) ignore squats & D/L in favour of upper body without big problems, and you will be a lot better than that.

Still, best advice is to keep adding weight to squats/deadlift (with good form!!) as you're trying to work up to benching your B/W.

By the way, make sure you're squatting sufficiently deep - that will slow your squatting progress for a while. Easy to squat bodyweight when your range of motion is small.

Currently I'm doing Stronglifts 5x5, in the triathlon off-season. 3rd time I've done this. Will end up squatting 1.5x, deadlifitng 1.75x, benching 1x, O/H pressing 0.75x bodyweight, before I switch to more sport-specific routines after XMAS.

Rycn

shg101 wrote: »

Nothing that is serious from a biomechanical perspective I would say. It's not like you're doing quads but not hams, biceps but not triceps, abs but not back - that kind of imbalance.

Plenty of people (wrongly) ignore squats & D/L in favour of upper body without big problems, and you will be a lot better than that.

Still, best advice is to keep adding weight to squats/deadlift (with good form!!) as you're trying to work up to benching your B/W.

By the way, make sure you're squatting sufficiently deep - that will slow your squatting progress for a while. Easy to squat bodyweight when your range of motion is small.

Currently I'm doing Stronglifts 5x5, in the triathlon off-season. 3rd time I've done this. Will end up squatting 1.5x, deadlifitng 1.75x, benching 1x, O/H pressing 0.75x bodyweight, before I switch to more sport-specific routines after XMAS.

Thanks for the advice, great help

squod

Rycn wrote: »

Hi, can you explain this I don't understand. Cheers.

I'd turn up at a gym and bench, squat and deadlift about a 100kg for say 6x3.
The prehab thing has been done here as well. I've done two rotator cuffs in over the last number of years. (not even big weights mind).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=59214168&postcount=14

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055498667&page=2

BossArky

token wrote: »

A good rule of thumb to see if anything is lacking is check the ratio of your lifts against each other. Everyone will have their strengths and weaknesses but if anything is straying too far from these ratios it might be worth paying special attention to it.

Press 1
Bench 1.5
Squat 2
Deadlift 2.5

Agreed.

Another simple ratio check is sometihng like this, where your compare against your bodyweight. These are the ones I used to use as targets when starting off.

Press 0.66 (I just made this one up)
Bench 1
Squat 1.333
Deadlift 1.666

Hanley

BossArky wrote: »

Agreed.

Another simple ratio check is sometihng like this, where your compare against your bodyweight. These are the ones I used to use as targets when starting off.

Press 0.66 (I just made this one up)
Bench 1
Squat 1.333
Deadlift 1.666

I prefer that one.. .much more realistic for the average guy.