Coaching?

dango

I'm 181cm, 73kgs with puny arms and thighs and want to get bigger. Currently doing a bastardised version of stronglifts/starting strength in the college gym. Eat around 3,500cals and seem to be slowly gaining weight which I'm happy about but would like to increase my lifts.

I train 3 times a week. Training is:
Pullups 8x3,
squats pb 70kgs 5x3, (squat and dl alternating days)
deadlift not so often think pb is approx 60kgs 8x1
benchpress 50kgs 5x3. (bench and standing press alternating days)
Standing press pb 27.5 5x3 ( I find this the hardest by a long way)
Dips bw 5x3 (only incorporated them recently)
Leg raises 20sec x 3 and plank 20 sec x 3 (most training sessions).
Generally ok flexibility except for hips which have poor flexibility and impact upon lifts.

To the matter at hand, I really want to improve the big compound lifts, squat, deadlift and bench press properly but i'm not 100% about my form and I know that stops me progressing. I've watched rippetoe and so you think you can squat/bench but would like some hands on coaching to make sure everything is going the way it should especially with the scare tactics I get from everyone about the dangers of squats/dls etc. I want to make sure I'm doing the lifts correctly from a technical point of view.

As the current college gym will be quiet and handy for work during the summer and being a student finances won't be amazing, I don't think I'll be able to join a second gym over the summer however I was wondering if there is somewhere I could get a couple of coaching lessons? I don't feel like going to the gym instructors and would prefer someone who has coached before. Live in northside Dublin but don't drive so city centre would be handier.

I'd appreciate any suggestions/advice.

mufcboy1999

im not from dublin so cant really recommend anyone for you but as far as your form and technique on exercises such as the dead lift and squat etc the best thing to do would be practice with a light weight or just even the bar on its own in front of the mirror in the gym, for exercises like the squat and deadlift you would want to approach the mirrors from a side view aswell to make sure your back is straight and that your knees dont come out over your toes and that you are actually approaching the bar correct for the dead lift i.e when you are dead lifting you'd want to keep your head up and squat into picking up the bar using your hands to get a feel for the bar and then use whatever grip you use not all people use the alternating grip but in my opinion your better off with it as most will tell you, if you do it that way instead of just bending over and picking it up your less likely to injure yourself. So for the dead lift when you practice approach the mirror from a front view but also do some practice reps from a side view too.

as far as the squats i assume if you are lifting heavy weights you do it from a rack, so just make sure you have the bar resting comfortably behind your back there is a kind of cushion area on your upper back across your shoulders, just 2 feet slightly more than shoulder width apart, pick a focus point, head up, and on the down phase make sure you sit right into it but at the same time make sure your knees stay behind your toes on the way up dont lock your knees (never lock any joint when your lifting weights).

you could do a few air squats in front and side view of the mirrors to practice your form aswell, but if you are not lifting of the rack for squats there is a way of lifting the bar over your head to squat im sure its on youtube.

as far as flexabilty, if you want to improve this you'd want to hold your stretches for at least 30 seconds aswell as doing them regularly, its hugely debatable some people argue you need to stretch much longer to improve flexablity even as long as 15 minutes, but generally in teaching you'd be telling people at least 30 seconds of maybe 2-3 sets of whatever area your looking to improve.

I remember about 2 years ago i started kickboxing and literally i could not lift my leg to kick past my hip for about 2 months, years of playing football and other sports gave me terrible flexabilty in my groin area, but i worked hard on it and done some serious stretching sessions and i can now use the full motion in my kicks (well that was last year, i packed it in because of work at the time and other sports so im more than likely back to square 1 again:D)

its hard to get it across to you over the computer, hands on teaching is the best. if your not willing to ask your gym instructor etc try youtube there is some good instructional videos on that but beware there is also some bad ones.

even try pick someone out from your college who is studying and training to work in the fitness industry, im sure he wouldn't mind helping you as he would be able to improve his own technique in teaching at the same time.

il help you as much as i can, just ask me anything and if i can help i will.

thats the longest post i ever wrote

dango

Hey thanks for all the pointers. I'll definitely bear them in mind when i'm squatting/dling in future. I'll give it a go with mirrors next time, it's just quite difficult to concentrate on doing everything while critisizing your own technique at the same time! I suppose i could record them and watch them afterwards but like you said, hands on teaching is the best. I might go to one of the instructors over the coming days, see how it goes and report back.

Colm_OReilly

Stephen Weinmann at www.performancetherapy.ie would know his stuff around this and you could do a few privates with him.

Burkatron

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

Stephen Weinmann at www.performancetherapy.ie would know his stuff around this and you could do a few privates with him.

+1 on this! Steve is a good coach. He's working out of Kinsealy Lane business park in Malahide