Nice!

@livetodiscover

Yeah. My mistakes? A narrow grip, and too much weight. Narrow grips for deadlifts absolutely kill muscle engagement, and with too much weight, it doesn't contribute towards any fitness gains.

@DZhukovin grip and proper body positioning are important for sure, as is not over doing the weight since usually doing so leads to crap form or worse, injury. I like to use a challenging weight that I can still lift with good form but less repetitions to help supplement the lighter more comfortably semi challenging weights that I can do at higher reps.

@livetodiscover Couldn't have been put better, Kate.

Can't say the same for my grip.

@DZhukovin grip is why I am at the weight I'm at. 185 is not something I could do for higher rep ranges and also any higher and my hands slip. I'm in no hurry to go to higher weight and can tell grip strength is a limiting factor for this lift for sure.

@livetodiscover

The hand problem is tough and a lot of people never solve it without negating the lift and getting reduced results. There is a way to take baby hands and make them into meathooks, do you wanna know?

@DZhukovin I use pull ups, and any exercise where you need grip strength (farmers walk for example) to build grip strength. I've had great grip strength in the past especially when doing more acrobatic training like rope climbs with no feet, aerial silks, and pole. Any gripping motion will build it...which I suppose is a pretty obvious statement. Lol

@livetodiscover

I have used the farmer's walk and gripping movements for quite some bit of time, but with low yield, even when mind-muscle connection was fully there.

The problem with a workout like the farmer's walk is that it uses static resistance, which not only encourages knots in muscles, but is also not efficient for improving grip strength.

There are semi-isolation workouts for the fingers, palms, and forearms *(each individually, mind you. So we are not talking about traditional workouts like a forearm curl or a wrist-twist, since everyone knows those already) that involve concentrated but full contractions, and lifting at sticking points, which vastly improve grip strength, but in a more efficient and direct manner. They are good for taking tertiary and secondary muscles, which tend to be less mature, and developing them into more primary muscles.

No. This was standard deadlift. If I didn't go for the full range of motion it would be Romanian . No bounce, especially since they were metal plates and I hate that clanging they make haha. I'm not too worried about any big gut issues. Most smaller framed, not over weight female powerlifters I've seen look normal so...guess I'll worry about that when I get really heavy lol.

I did a pyramid today so my reps wernt a lot for this weight, about 5. The lower weights were in the 8-12 range. I did 135, 155, 185 and back down. 3 sets each weight.

@livetodiscover Ok I promise this will be the last time I say anything about big guts. You're right you're kind of small framed but your appearance is all about proportions. You're going to increase your torso/chest measurement about the same regardless if you wear a belt or not. You could keep your waist close to what it is now and maybe even a little smaller if you start wearing that belt consistently but if you don't your waist could increase 2" or even more. Enlarging your waist 2" or more with your small frame is a very big increase. Hell even 1" for you would be a lot. Say that chest measurement increases 2" also. If you don't wear a belt that waist increase wipes out that proportional chest increase. Like I've said before your body your rules but if you ever, even years down the road, want to do a physique contest it's unbelievably difficult to get your abdominal muscles to atrophy to a smaller size. And those other lifters; were they wearing weight belts throughout their training history? If not look at those same women and imagine them with a waistline 1"-3" smaller. I know we are all inundated with all the 'core' workout BS nowadays and sometimes I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness but please believe someone who has thickened his gut, and seen plenty of other folks ruin their proportions with thickening their waists, and is now trying desperately to get a smaller waist back. Here's another link for you. It's from Charles Glass an amazing trainer. I was following his advice back before there was social media. We may want to talk about Romanian/High Hip/Stiff-leg deadlifts too. Not sure what you were saying.

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@kmdskit3 I will look more into abdominal wall thickening for sure. Also by Romanian I assumed you thought I was only returning to mid shin like what I understand Romanian deadlifts to be. I assumed this was why you asked if I went all the way down.

@livetodiscover I call them hi-hip deadlifts. They're a little different and I do go all the way down. Feet shoulder width apart or even closer (us guys have to keep our legs a little farther apart or else 'things' get mashed ) , grab the bar just wide enough to clear your thighs, just barely bend your knees (called 'soft-knees' ) , then 'hinge' at the hips: while keeping your back flat or better yet keep a little lordosis and without bending your knees anymore than they already are rotate at the hips. The best metaphor I've come up with is your spine is the door, your legs are the wall and your hips are the door hinge. You fold your straight upper body over towards the floor until your upper body is about parallel to the floor. Your hips can and should move backwards some as your upper body folds over but your hips DO NOT DROP. Your butt should stay high. Hence high-hip deadlifts. Here's a video that's pretty good although she shouldn't go nearly as high as she does. Time Under Tension, or TUT, is one of the most important factors for muscular growth and she's removing most of the tension at the top.

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@kmdskit3 gotcha. So we were thinking of the same thing. A deadlift by any other name....lol. I've always called them Romanian but high hip does seem more descriptive and gives a better visual.

One question regarding time under tension. I have heard of this concept as well. For the video of the woman doing the high hip deadlift you showed, you mention her releasing tension at the top. What I'm thinking is that for hamstrings and lower back I see that the tension would be off, but squeezing the glutes at the top makes it good for glute work. So maybe it's less productive for hamstrings and lower back but better for glutes?

@livetodiscover There's multiple factors to consider when it comes to muscular development: nutritional, energy production, blood flow, hormonal and mechanical. Time Under Tension, or TUT, is mechanical stimulus to the muscles. The greater the range of motion without compromising your joints and the longer the TUT the more stimulus you get. There are three different types of muscular contraction: concentric, eccentric and isometric. The first 2 are moving contractions, positive and negative respectively, while an isometric contraction is basically a non-moving contraction. An isometric contraction is great for creating that mind-muscle connection and is great for posing but since there is no stretch and contraction of the muscle, no movement of the muscle, there is no way to move weight. If you aren't moving weight there's no way to increase the weight and if you aren't increasing the weight, or the reps, there's no progressive resistance and no muscular growth. This gets back to your question about the woman in the video. Her isometrically contracting her glutes at the top of those high hip deadlifts isn't going to do much because there's no real resistance. She'd get more out of the exercise by stopping about 6" or so lower than she is and keeping that moving tension on her glutes and hams. Also another problem locking out movements like squats, deadlifts and any type of lower or upper body presses is when that tension is taken off the muscles it goes directly to your joints. Believe me when I say if you lock out on these type of exercises over years of lifting you will tear up your joints.

@kmdskit3 I'm curious as to your thoughts on joint stress with a conventional deadlift. I always thought not doing a full range of motion put more stress on joints. Of course locking out legs on some thing like a leg press and holding it in that position I could see being terrible for knees for example. But how about knees on conventional deadlift at the top portion of lift (when you normally squeeze glutes)?

@livetodiscover Anytime you lock out joints against gravity, i.e. deadlifts, squats, leg press, any upper body press, you take the tension off the muscle. TUT is one of the most important factors for muscular growth so why take that tension off after every rep? You're cheating yourself. Also as I said locking out in those exercises transfers the weight from the muscles to the joints and if you do that over a period of years you are almost guaranteed to tear up joints. This joint pressure isn't just about your knees; it can also be your spine, hips shoulders, elbows, etc. depending on the exercise. If you're some kind of strength athlete then to have an official lift you probably will have to go to full lockout which is another good reason to decide if you're going for muscular development or just moving weight. And the 'squeezing glutes' thing: it's an isometric contraction that you can do anytime, anywhere. You'll do more for your glute development by keeping them under the tension of a moving contraction while lifting.

@kmdskit3 I have heard of the idea of partial reps before for sports training and to be able to do more weight and shock the body. I need to find some good science based text books about all this as there is so much information spewed on the internet, it gets quite overwhelming lol

@livetodiscover It will be difficult to find this kind of research because I'm talking about muscular development rather than just strength. Try to focus on studies that are researching 'muscle hypertrophy' . One good source I've used is the magazine 'Muscular Development' . They almost always site their sources which can be rare in the bodybuilding community. And finally you may never find exactly what you're looking for in a scientific journal because remember I'm talking about proportions, structure, symmetry, balance, muscle shape, etc. All of these are hard to quantify scientifically. The closest to hard numbers a bodybuilder has are regular measurements with a tape measure or body composition numbers and neither one of them tell the whole story either. Any decent bodybuilder/physique competitor will read about a different kind of workout that makes sense or just a different way to work out a muscle then goes into the gym to try it out. If anyone takes this seriously they will end up experimenting on themselves eventually. I realize I'm still focusing on appearance rather than just strength. Am I missing what you're after or are you still trying to figure it out?

I love deadlifts. I haven't been doing them for long. I can't remember if I did them in the military or not. I think I did dumbell or Romanian but not standard. They seem to be a lift I am more naturally better at than say squats or bench press.

@livetodiscover Kettlebell swings are also excellent.

@Mitch07102 ya know...I haven't used kettlebells in awhile. Might have to bring those back into my routine lol

Thanks!

@livetodiscover Have you been shopping belts? I've been eyeing the Shiek belts for months but just haven't gotten around to it.

@ShahJiggy I really need to. I'm scared to go past 200lbs without one.

Thank you

Thanks!!!!

thanks