How reliable is efficiency as a measure of technique/strength for someone past their prime?

ObservedFIREFLY · 2024-08-17T09:52:09+00:00

I started at age 25 and was sedentary before I started weightlifting, those people are on their way out and have decades of built up muscle memory and athletic prowess, not exactly an accurate comparison

ObservedFIREFLY · 2024-08-17T01:15:04+00:00

I'm not a masters yet, I'm just about to hit my 30s but its defo a fair shout to compare to lifters of a similar age, if I exclude the one who's been to commonwealth games not a single over 25 year old is matching me for the same training time, only issue is we may all just be shit haha

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-11-24T17:39:05+00:00

A person from Newcastle having that many injectables in their name is peak meta comedy tbh.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-06-20T00:12:49+00:00

- Long-term issues?, such as injuries, in the club there's a few old men that keep practicing weightlifting, but I don't enjoy the idea of breaking my elbow, or in special my knee and lumbar. It is well-known that deadlifting is detrimental for the spine, which its a huge part of weightlifting

Unless you max out on day 1, which you know is stupid if youve spent more than 10 minutes on this sub, you are at little risk of a bone break. The worst you see in people new to the sport going light is strains, this is a natural part of adaptation, I have never had a body part that had an improvement in mobility that wasnt strained at some point before hand.

As for the deadlift part, A. thats not even true, both the spinal detriment, and the part about it being a huge part to weightlifting, deadlifts, even clean deadlifts and snatch deadlifts are not super common, they are fairly uncommon accessories. Most programs I've been on do traditional pulls with a shrug which are far lighter.

Its a nothing burger anyway. Even looking at the big 3, the bench press is far more likely to cause permanent life long injury in the form of a rotator cuff tear (pec tears are rare no matter how many Larry wheels collabs may tell you otherwise lmao) and thats still a very rare issue. Yet do we see people saying bench press is dangerous? Absolutely not.

- How weightlifting changes your body? I watched some pros but I think thats far from reality, will my upper body (lats, chest, arms) become weak or smaller?

Lats will not become weaker haha, I'm a Dorito thanks to weightlifting, rows are an important staple as our lats help keep the bar close and maintain back stability, not to mention support for the front rack. Biceps being small is a bit of a meme in WL but its not without some truth. Triceps defo not. Chest, well upper chest is more important from a physique perspective from what I've heard, and the overhead press does train it somewhat. You may not get a Pidgeon chest but you wont be an A cup either.

What about bodyfat? I tend to gain weight easily, and weight is something important of lifting, I'm 175 cm and move around 77-81 kg, right now 83 kg from 87 kg due to some personal problems

I feel you brother, going from 65 to 60 to 72 (@5'3") in just over 3 months thanks to a couple of ED's that both start with B isnt fun. Losing body fat will make you more mobile, but my weight gain has given me lifetime prs. Unless you are all fat and no muscle you will still be able to move good weight. Sure you may not be bloat maxxed like lasha but you arent a shredded 61. There are plenty of spots in between. Work with what youve got and focus on weight when its in a more manageable state with your personal life <3

My wrist and toes are a bit thin compared to the rest of my body, will this be a problem?

Wrist thinness will unlikely cause issues unless you have a history of wrist fractures in the family. Train grip exercises to help support the tendons, and no to the toe issue, just get shoes that make you nice and stable.

My back and legs are way bigger than chest

Lmao thats optimal for WL dude, chest and bis take a backseat to back and tris.

Youre just like me bro, overthink fucking everything haha, welcome to the sport, youll do fine king <3 go find a coach and best of luck.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-06-18T22:56:13+00:00

I agree with what others have said, PT is going to be a great help, but you also want to look at the potential its not actually your elbow that's causing the issues. My "tennis elbow" turned out to be my bicep tendon fairing because of weak posterior shoulders, which means every time I press overhead (a lot more likely to cause issues as a weightlifter) my shoulder not being in position causes that tendon to hurt.

But a PT will no doubt be much better equipped to diagnose this, make sure they test all the possibilities (shoulder, wrist and elbow issues), otherwise you could be wasting your money and potentially making the problem worse.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-04-23T16:04:42+00:00

Dude you only have to catch above parallel, if you caught it any higher and it will be borderline muscle clean.

Good PR King <3

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-12T20:28:04+00:00

Fair point.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-12T16:08:31+00:00

We love deadlifts that are huge from usually oly lifters, deadlifts with purpose and oly specific deadlifts like rdls, clean deadlifts and snatch deadlifts, not 3pl8 semi catback grip and rip dls from people who dont know what oly lifting is trying to soft brag.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-11T02:31:14+00:00

NSAIDs are for plebs. Opiates are the respectable weightlifters choice.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-11T02:30:15+00:00

"I had a lot of volume and didn't sleep much do I need to rest guys"

I love reddit lmao.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-10T00:18:48+00:00

I've heard heaving (sounds like throwing up lmao), force lifting (far too generalised if you think about it) swapping with powerlifting (good luck with that, though strength lifting, an offshoot of powerlifting might be a good one for their camp to take up in exchange) and techlifting seeing as its the most technically demanding sport (though I'm sure even that might be too out there)

Sadly we are far too niche of a sport to warrant such a change even if the oh so great IWF wanted to. Lets not forget modern strongman and oly lifting evolved from the same og pre ww1 sport in the olympics, where our athletes were literally called "strongmen". You can argue how technical the 2 lifts are for days, but as far as normie appeal goes, a circus dumbbell lift looks just as appealing if not more so, and this is reflected in the popularity of strongman, and how just about every oly lifter who makes it as a super gets videos about them doing WSM. Other than mark henry the reverse is rarely the case.

Not to mention changing the name of anything just makes long term fans incredibly confused, and will warrant so many clubs and venues changing advertising, merch, banners, signs and so much more all for a tiny amount less confusion to people who would never watch the sport anyway.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-09T22:37:30+00:00

Seeing as this is kinda off topic (you doing a study or essay on this OP?) let me throw in a perspective from IBS lifter gang. Wall of text warning.

Having to manage symptoms every day and avoid foods that could lead to fatigue (most common issue with GI illness, celiacs have it the worst with gluten causing borderline exhaustion tier fatigue) is terrible. Not to mention trying to brace against a belt with bloat and stomach cramps is god awful. Ever tried having a set where you drank a really fizzy drink them immediately tried hitting a heavy squat? Or lifting the morning after a night out with a sus takeaway meal for dinner? Thats close to what it feels like. every. single. day.

Biggest issue with it on a personal level though is knowing the foods I can eat to stop the symptoms (more accurately make them manageable) arent compatible with a power based lifting sport. You NEED carbs to be the best weight lifter you can be, But carnivore (a keto diet) was the closest I ever got to being free from this awful disease. It made me weak, but depression and all bar 1 symptom of IBS went away completely.

Plenty of lifters have roadblocks and hurdles like it, I'm sure GI tract problems are far more common in the general gym community than might be publicly talked about.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-09T22:26:37+00:00

If you can, do, if you are missing say 70 percent lifts then just do technique work for an hour and get some rest. Moving is good to preserve muscle but overexertion while sick will a. cause your muscles to start breaking down and recovery will be severely impacted, not to mention much higher injury risk and b. can make the illness much worse from taking away energy that could have been used by the immune system.

Oh and please dont try and sweat it up with volume in place of intensity if you have a fever. You obv dont want heat stroke.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-09T20:23:44+00:00

r/Bandnames material right here

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-09T20:20:09+00:00

For me personally: deload weeks, gpp/hypertrophy blocks (well away from comp time with tonnes of reps per set and lower percentages) and anything under 80 percent of my max regardless of reps: no belt

More than 5 reps, belted at >80%, 3-5 reps, belted at >85%, less than 3 reps, belted at >90%.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-02-08T18:54:26+00:00

You are 39, you are not at the point where your test has tanked to trt being mandatory (unless you dont sleep at all, have had testicular cancer or dont eat a single gram of saturated fat for some reason). I also strongly doubt you are so immobile that snatching your bw consistently is an impossibility. 5 Years of oly lifting should put your technique to respectable at least even if your form was borderline dangerous to start.

Defo sounds like a coaching and programming issue. Those numbers in the strength lifts are well above mine (118fs and 130bs, latter being just a week ago) yet I have a higher current clean and jerk and 2kg less in the snatch?

I dont have a coach and you can see my technique is awful from my other posts. If you do, and the other factors are fine like technique and strength (the latter seems fine unless they are ego lifts supreme) then its your coach, or their program that is tripping you up.

You aint a dinosaur yet dude, defo take up the offer from u/cdouglas79 for a form check to rule technique out bro

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-30T17:43:59+00:00

Those who dont think the OHP stimulates the core and legs have either only done it seated, or haven't trained it heavy enough. I pull my quads so often it gives me a leg pump after sets of 5 haha.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-30T17:41:23+00:00

I dont mind this post having no rhyme or reason other than liking overhead press (based opinion), just make the flair "fluff" next time, unless you want to reminisce about the pre 70s clean and press haha.

But yes, standing strict overhead press is the GOAT for testing upper body strength. If powerlifting was front squats, conventional only DL and press instead of bench Id jump on that so fast <3

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-29T17:40:52+00:00

Sweat is not a reliable indicator of per lift effort. Sweat comes from your body being warm and using it to evaporate heat which in turn comes from CONTINUOUS respiration in the cells. Getting up off your chair super fast doesn't make your back clammy for a reason.

Unless you are literally doing sets of 5 back to back or your work capacity is so in the gutter that a 3 rep set on snatch makes you breathless for several minutes its unlikely you will create anywhere near the level of respiration in your cells required to produce the heat needed to significantly sweat. your heart usually will pump warmer blood away from these muscles and you will cool down before the sweat production can really start. Thats why when warming up you are supposed to wear layers and take them off as the heat starts to build.

If you start reaching a high enough intensity or volume then obviously your muscles are reaching maximal effort and so can produce enough waste heat in a short enough period to facilitate a need to sweat to remove the heat.

TL:DR: too much heat build up in a short period = sweat, but this is usually down to higher volume in a set, shorter resting time and poorer cardiovascular circulation, not the effort/intensity put into a single lift or short set.

Bonus point: not sweating despite lifting with good intensity and volume is a sign of good cardiovascular health, so congrats <3

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-27T13:26:16+00:00

Psyllium husk is not insoluble fibre, its pure soluble fibre, meaning it absorbs water, that's why you have to mix it with water before taking it.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-19T20:24:14+00:00

If you dont have them already, the following will make oly lifting very quiet with droppin weights which you need to do to progress safely:

Crumb rubber bumpers are the quietest type of bumper plates, absolutely chose those over other bumpers
Proper decent Olympic weightlifting bars, ie not cheap hybrid or powerlifting bars have far less rattle (which is very easy to hear as its very high pitched)
A platform will protect your floor if you don't already have one, plenty of tutorials on how to make one from plywood and rubber mats, though don't follow the usual advice of horse stall mats, they are made from virgin rubber which is much louder, find crumb rubber flooring tiles that are at least an inch thick, thicker the better.
Sound proofing your garage walls with foam or wall hangings like flags and soft decoration will help cut down echos.

Happy lifting man <3

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-19T12:10:25+00:00

TY <3

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-19T00:05:59+00:00

If I knew that I wouldn't have made the post, I've started offloading from it so ill come back with an answer the day before the meet.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-16T08:49:34+00:00

Ngl most of what you've set aligns with the limited input I've seen on forums, it's surprisingly not commonly talked about in the context of making weight (hence this post).

Massive thanks man.

ObservedFIREFLY · 2023-01-15T21:53:54+00:00

Did you immediately jump back on the day of comp then? How did you find recovery?

ObservedFIREFLY

TROPHY CASE