Bodyweight bench press

[davidgessen]

my next workout is:

Bodyweight Bench Press
Pull Ups
Run

Workout Description:
For 1 minute do as many reps of bodyweight bench press as you can. Rest for 1 minute. For 1 minute do as many pullups as you can. Rest for 1 minute.

Repeat this cycle for a total of 5 rounds (total time 20 minutes). Count your reps on both the bench press and the pull ups. Shoot for at least 100 of each.

3 mile conditioning run

Repeat BWBP / Pull Up routine. Try to match your numbers from the first set.


My questions are:

I need to load on my own weight and press it? This is hard.

also, I perform squat on smith machine, is it ok? Does it matter if I squat with squat machine or not? because I feel much more safe with smith machine...

I don't want to perform deadlift. I'm 15, 5'6.
I want to get taller, at least 5'9. Because I heard deadlift hurts your growth, I don't want to do that exercise.
I was thinking I can do other exercises in my gym instead.
Such as lug curl.
Can you write me the exercises that I should do instead of deadlift? thanks :)

[montstar]

Back extension.

[scskowron]

From whom did you hear that deads hurt your growth? I'm not sure if there's any validity to that if you're executing it properly.

[scskowron]

my next workout is:

I need to load on my own weight and press it? This is hard.



Yes. Don't forget to include the bar (usually 45#).

[king henry viii]

smith machine squat = no
regular back squat requires you to stabilize the weight AND squat it. smith machine requires no stabilization, hence it's not as effective.
if you don't feel safe with the weight then you're probably doing too much weight. remember to point your toes outward, around 45 degrees.

who says deadlifts stunt your growth? i've never heard that.

[bigv123]

Stay away from the Smith machine for the love of all thing good! That contraption had ruined more perfectly good compound exercises than any other single piece of exercise equipment. Like henry said, it take all the stabilization out of the movement. This, in effect, turns the squat into an isolation movement. That's just not going to serve you very well. Compound movements are the bread and butter of strength and mass building. Squats...Deadlifts...Flat Bench Press... these are the 3 staples of weight lifting, regardless of your goals. Lots and lots and lots of folks just don't understand this concept. Many of them don't WANT to understand it because these movements are hard and they have to actually exert significant effort. And...they will make you hurt. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) saps the life and motivation out of more people in the gym than anything else.

In a related vein, there's a fairly standard tool used to gauge a persons' strength. In the strength field (where I've been living for the past 15 years) if you can squat, deadlift, and bench 100% of your body weight you're considered average. To actually be considered "strong" you need to be able to hit 200%, 200% and 150%. Exceptional would be 300%, 300%, and 200%.

Last, in regards to deadlifts. The idea that deads would "stunt your growth" is beyond asinine. Heavy, complex movements like deadlifts accomplish two VERY significant things in addition to the specific muscle adaptation. #1 - it increase the amount of testosterone in your body. For anybody interested in physical activity this is almost always a very good thing. #2 - it cause a significant release of Growth Hormone (GH). If you're unfamiliar with GH, I'm sure you've heard of HGH. While not literally true, the general usage is that GH is your body's natural produced hormone while HGH is synthetic...kind of like the relationship between testosterone and steroids. Needless to say, GH will actually HELP you to grow, especially in your adolescence. Read up on it...

V

[scskowron]

Last, in regards to deadlifts. The idea that deads would "stunt your growth" is beyond asinine. Heavy, complex movements like deadlifts accomplish two VERY significant things in addition to the specific muscle adaptation. #1 - it increase the amount of testosterone in your body. For anybody interested in physical activity this is almost always a very good thing. #2 - it cause a significant release of Growth Hormone (GH). If you're unfamiliar with GH, I'm sure you've heard of HGH. While not literally true, the general usage is that GH is your body's natural produced hormone while HGH is synthetic...kind of like the relationship between testosterone and steroids. Needless to say, GH will actually HELP you to grow, especially in your adolescence. Read up on it...

Very interesting - I didn't know any of that. Is there any particular reason that heavy lifts will increase release of those chemicals more than bodyweight exercises and light lifts?

[bigv123]

Yes, absolutely. Part of it deals with the adaptation response to systemic fatigue rather than the localize response to isolation movements. For example, you take two bicep exercises, let's say standing barbell curls and single arm, machine preacher curls. Load up a weight that has equal perceived effort. Now do the same amount of sets and reps. Studies have found that the latter exercise produces next to nil muscle growth or strength gain, while the former does it it spades. Likewise, take the aforementioned standing barbell curl and have one guy do heavy sets with low reps (ex: 5 sets of 4-6 reps) and have another guy do higher reps with reduced weight (ex: 3 sets of 12-15 reps) and then compare the adaptation from each. Once again, many studies have shown that the higher rep, reduced weight exercises don't produce the kind of size and strength gains that heavier, lower rep work does.

Mind you, this is probably NOT idea for training for BUD/S. Strength is not really the primary physical characteristic that gets tested. It's muscular endurance that's key. These things are very very different. They key off different types of muscle fibers primarily and use completely different energy cycles for ATP production. But, this discussion was about strength.

Personally, I think base strength training is very important for potential SEALs heading off to BUD/S. Increasing the capacity of your ATP - Creatine Phosphate Energy cycle as well as the Anaerobic Glycolosis cycle will help you greatly in muscle endurance primarily because it helps increase your perceived effort threshold. The idea is that while that log weighs let's say 200 lbs regardless, because of my base strength, it "feels" a lot less heavy to my neuro-musculature system than it does to you. Thus, I have to exert less effort to get the same result. This isn't to say that you should abandon high rep sets of calisthenic exercises like push ups, sit ups and pull ups...quite the contrary. The two should be used together and will, imho, yield a highly synergistic effect that's considerably better than either alone.

V