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From my personal experience, for the majority of people, I would recommend to stay away from classic body building weight trainning. I trainned that way for sev
by Octabrain 4y ago
From my personal experience, for the majority of people, I would recommend to stay away from classic body building weight trainning. I trainned that way for several years in my early twenties (back then, I was even a certified body bulding trainner) and the overload in my joints was a recipe for disaster + the kind of body I developed was disfunctional for activities other than weights themselves.
The excercises I've been doing for years now (apart from other activities (climbing, gymnastics, martial arts etc)) are mostly own-weight ones (pull ups, push ups, dips, squats etc with variations). Every now and then I perform them using a weighted vest with a maximum of 20 kilos. This has kept me in very good shape, injury free and agile.
- humanlion87 4y agoMay I know what you are referring to as the "classic body building" exercises. To me the classic ones are squat, bench and deadlift. I am curious why you think it's a disaster.
- nordsieck 4y ago> To me the classic ones are squat, bench and deadlift. IMO, those are classic powerlifting exercises. From what I can tell, the pro body builders typically do a lot more machine work and other isolated movements because it has a better stimulus:fatigue ratio than large compound movements.
- ehnto 4y agoWe're getting confused I think, these are typical powerlifting movements now. But classically, by which I mean in the past, those compound movements were big in bodybuilding circles as well.
- runnerup 4y agoThose aren’t very classic for bodybuilding, rather they are the ones for powerlifting. Bodybuilding uses a very wide variety of movements incorporating dumbbells, barbells, and machines to train every single muscle periodically (even focusing on little tiny ones no one else would care about). Here’s a good example of a bodybuilding training routine: https://thinksteroids.com/community/threads/first-bodybuilding-contest-prep-log.134397177/post-2436648 https://thinksteroids.com/community/threads/first-bodybuildi... That said, I’m also curious what GP was referring to, specifically. Was he saying like “don’t do dumbbell curls”?
- glfharris 4y agoI'm not sure linking to a post detailing the PEDs alongside their routine is typical of the average person who does bodybuilding style training.
- LudwigNagasena 4y agoPEDs seem to be the most classic bodybuilding routine.
- trentgreene 4y agoCompetitively, sure. Casually, no.
- pschw 4y agoIIRC they were the basis of the routines in Arnold's _Education of a Body Builder_... doesn't get any more classic than that.
- Octabrain 4y agoBy classic I meant the typical set of isolation excercises focused on heavy load of weights. I said a disaster because I felt that continuing on that path I would have injuried myself.
- jimt1234 4y agoThose are powerlifting exercises. In fact, that's the exact order of events in most powerlifting competitions. I competed in powerlifting in my 20s; my life revolved around squat/bench/deadlift. I enjoyed it, but yeah, he's right: training like that is very specific, like anything else, I suppose. I could squat, bench and deadlift a ton, but literally anyone could beat me walking up the stairs, or even arm-wrestling. The first time I tried CrossFit, it nearly killed me. And yeah, powerlifting tore my body to shit. Back then, the only time I wasn't in pain, was when I was lifting.
- balfirevic 4y ago> Those are powerlifting exercises. They are also classic bodybuilding exercises.
- _yb2s 4y agoDoing the traditional powerlifting lifts like you mentioned is something can can be sustained long term, and has incredible health benefits. I am a competitive strength athlete, and there are a ton of people in the community that have been lifting competitively for as much as 40-50 years and are still in great shape. Proper form and technique are critical to preventing injury, I have only seen people get injured when they are doing things unsafely or incorrectly. I have never had a major injury or issue with heavy weight training, and have been doing it for 17 years now myself. It's been life changing for me- I have so much more energy, focus, mental strength, and calm. Competitive bodybuilding however is a totally different thing (very different lifts- mostly light weight, very high rep), and I think the extreme diet and drugs alone takes a toll on your body regardless of the workouts.
- tuatoru 4y agoI'd add overhead presses and weighted pullups and pushups to squats and deadlifts. Bench presses are for impressing other gym rats. Overhead presses are much more beneficial for your shoulders.
- _yb2s 4y agoIf you're seriously training the basic lifts, you also need to do lots of accessory lifts to balance things out, and ideally have a professional teach form. I would argue that both overhead presses, and bench presses are valuable, and complementary for generally becoming strong. The bench press is unique in that it engages more of the upper body muscle in a single, coordinated movement than almost any other lift... some refer to it as the upper body equivalent of a squat. Overhead pressing is also valuable, but isn't a replacement for it, it's just different.
- HyperSane 4y agoCompetitive bodybuilders almost universally use anabolic steroids to achieve extremely unnatural levels of muscle, which is hard on the heart.
- xeromal 4y agoI know 3 types of names that from the outside look the same but mean different things within the strength circles. * Weightlifting (Clean & Jerk, Snatch) * Powerlifting (Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Maybe Bentover Row) * Bodybuilding (High volume isolation exercises)
- runnerup 4y agoBut is your version better for aesthetics in addition to being better for wellness?
- Octabrain 4y agoWell, that's a subjetive question but for giving you an idea, with weights I had a bigger body (as a result of the muscular hypertrophy) that was heavier, slower and had to develop and maintain with a strict diet whereas now I am ripped (no fat, well defined, six pack etc)
- arcturus17 4y agoThere are safe ways to do hypertrophy with weights if you manage volumes and exercise selection well. I've been training in bodybuilding, powerlifting and powerbuilding styles for the last 18 years and have barely had any problems. Conversely, I've also trained in bodyweight/calisthenic styles and have had problems resulting from overuse, as I was cranking up the volume to make up for the lack of resistance. I don't think a style of training is better than any other, people can get outstanding results or get injured in all types of practice - it all boils down to the program detail and the individual. What works best for me in terms of maximizing wellness is low-volume (3x3 or 3x5), high intensity (but not too high) strength training with compound lifts, a few accessories (rotational, abs, rear delts, etc.), plus any cardio that's not heavy on the joints.
- paxys 4y agoThere is zero science behind this. Professional body builders have chronic issues not because of the exercises but rather the intensity of training and specialized focus on certain muscles/aesthetics. You can say the same for pro athletes in most other sports as well. An amateur doing a standard squat, bench press, curl, deadlift etc. routine with manageable weights and good guidance/form is absolutely going to benefit from it. A quick, high intensity weight routine few times a week is probably the best lifestyle change you can make for long term health.
- Fricken 4y agoAt the climbing gym body builders show up and they're more likely to be worse than the typical sunken chested beginner. Dancers, gymnasts, Martial artists, and calisthenics guys show up and tend to do pretty well at climbing straight out of the gate. They bothered to learn how to move, and the skills translate at least somewhat. When it comes to health and longevity, simply going for a brisk walk on a regular basis will realize the lion's share of benefits.
- jakeinspace 4y agoSure but anyone who’s heavy would struggle climbing. Even truly athletic and flexible heavy athletes like football or basketball players.
- Fricken 4y agoSome of these guys can do pullups all day, but they only train within a strict range of motion and they aren't necessarily any good at doing anything outside of that range. When I started climbing I could do 3 pullups, and now I can do 18 in a set. I don't train pull-ups, just climbing.
- tuatoru 4y agoFor good climbing, I'd have thought you need to be able to do muscle-ups (pullups that end with you balanced over the bar, pushing down to support yourself).
- davidvarela_us 4y agoI strongly disagree. Weight training is one of the best gifts you can give your body. It keeps you healthy and event prevents injury if done correctly. What you did wrong was not weight training but following an unbalanced training regimen. No judgement there, I was guilty of the same when I was younger. I think younger/uninformed lifters tend to "ego lift" and focus on size over aspects of physical training. It is easy to fall into this trap when social media is heavily skewed toward steroid users. Building physical strength is no sin. But you have to approach it from a health and not ego-centered perspective. This means lifting within your ability and with good form, practicing mobility exercises, and understanding the kinetic chain. Developing a healthy body is a lifelong and rewarding journey. I recommend anyone starting their fitness journey to ground themselves in functional strength and physical therapy instead of the bro culture that is rampant in the fitness industry. I recommend the channels AthleanX and Kneesovertoesguy on YouTube if you want learn from people who teach safe and balanced approaches to strength.
- AmericanChopper 4y agoAthleanX is a fake-natty idiot who has made a meme out of himself by giving consistently self-conflicting and nonsensical advice (and by using fake weights in his videos lol…). Kneesovertoesguy has great advice for joint health, but nobody should pay any attention to AthleanX.
- bavell 4y agoThis is just FUD. I've learned a ton from AthleanX in the past few years and love his no-nonsense approach. Especially great are all the corrective exercises he includes for posture improvement and injury prevention. The worst thing I could criticize him for is his clickbait Youtube titles - the content is solid though so idgaf.
- peter_l_downs 4y agoI will second the endorsement for AthleanX and KneesOverToesGuy. They have both helped me recover from injuries I suffered due to imbalances created by poor training practices. They've helped me improve both strength and mobility (turns out they're related!) and stay healthy. KOTG has been most helpful for injury recovery; Athlean X is mostly just fun. But they both promote learning about your body and the kinetic chain and how an exercise affects your muscles.
- wintermutestwin 4y agoBody weight exercises can be a recipe for joint overload compared to weights/machines. For example, bodyweight pullups or dip are way more weight than I would do for a 12 rep working set and don't allow for warmup weights.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dirtyid 4y agoIRC barbell strength training injury rates are lower than most activities for CASUAL practitioners but explodes (like most sports) when progress towards relatively advanced levels, which IMO, and in agreement with you, is probably counter productive for most people. I can't seem to find the routines NASA gives astronauts on ISS to prevent muscle atrophy and maintain bone density, but it was something stupid easy (as in achievable for gen pop) like 10s with around body weight on squats / deadlifts on their fancy ARED lifting machine, and 50-75% for overhead / bench, with the explict goal of minimizing injury chance. But they do exercise very frequently, almost everyday since no gravity, but I think most people are fine with doing even a reduced volume version a couple times a week. Issue with bodyweight activities, is they're pretty poor for developing and maintaining lower body strength, and that (i.e broken hips) is one of the top reasons people break themselves in later life. It doesn't take much for one badly leveraged move climbing/gymastics/martial arts to enter snap city. Especially with explosive concentric components, i.e. something like depth jump is considered extremely high risk injury exercise. There's a lot of bodyweight movements especially in context of activities where one can over-exert/commit. Modest weight training is calibrated and repeatable and less risky in that sense.
- syntheweave 4y agoMy personal anecdotes agree, somewhat. A genuine full-body movement(like the various modes of crawling, my go-to for general exercise) involves more joints and stabilization than bodybuilding motions, which tend to be isolated. Training naturally, it's easier to experience overall healthy results with a balanced approach since everything supports everything else. At the same time, bodybuilders tend to be as big as they are in large part because of an intense drug culture. Advanced natural bodybuilders will top out around the physique of a Steve Reeves, which is big, but nothing like a Schwarzenegger or later pros where the drugs are in play. With that degree of hypertrophy it's going into a realm where the muscles are often stronger than the joints; mobility tends to suffer and injury rates rise. Olympic weightlifters and powerlifters don't have quite the same problem because their training emphasizes overall strength, which also improves their mobility, so you can find video examples of heavy lifters who break their PR and then jump up in the air and do splits. Those guys are still using PEDs, and they are still heavy and gas out quickly in another athletic setting like climbing, combat sports etc., but they avoid having precisely the same kinds of issues. I do think the weights are good at being efficient, which is a different aspect of this. Programming in some weights as a way to progress through a plateau elsewhere can be a great idea. But they add a ton of fatigue because they're so efficient, so it's quite easy to overtrain without a periodized approach, and in my weightlifting days I was basically always near or over that line of overtraining. Nowadays I use bands, but as a supplement, just as with the weight vests.
- 0xcde4c3db 4y ago> Advanced natural bodybuilders will top out around the physique of a Steve Reeves, which is big, but nothing like a Schwarzenegger or later pros where the drugs are in play. It's also worth keeping in mind that many "natural" bodybuilders are also using drugs, just less aggressively. Apart from the rampant "fake natty influencer" phenomenon, there is simply no way for competitions to catch every possible stack/cycle (especially stuff like HGH or insulin).