First complete failure

David wrote:>

Quoted message said:

What are your training objectives? Strength? Hypertrophy? Are you doing 8
sets of dumbell presses? What other chest exercises are you doing? Give me a
rundown of your workout

Training objective is strength. I think I've reached my max
hypertrophy by this time, given the limitations of the small amount of
testosterone I have as a female.

Chest/shoulders day consists of -
4 sets of incline DB presses. 10,8,6,4
4 sets of flat DB presses. 10,8,6,4
4 sets of Arnold shoulder presses 10,8,6,4
4 sets of rear deltoid flye machine 10,8,6,4
4 sets of cable triceps pushdowns 10,8,6,4

increasing weight on each set while decreasing reps.

I've been doing the same routine for awhile now and have reached a
plateau so I'm looking to change it up soon.

The rest of my workout is similar to the "3 day intermediate split" on
Krista's site. Legs on Day 1, chest shoulders on day 2, back and bis
on day 3. repeat the following week.

"Deb" wrote>

Quoted message said:

Lee Michaels wrote

Quoted message said:

I advise all the folks I train to do the
dumbell bench press to the side of the chest. I also have them use a
parallel grip. When this is pressed to the top, there is almost full
chest
width between the dumbells. Alos lower the weight a little in front of
the
arms to reduce shoulder strain.

This hits the chest quite well and allows you to dump the dumbells either
consciously or using a "sudden collapse" mode. I have talked to a fair
number of individuals over the years and the sudden collapse mode of
movement failure is VERY common. If you suddenly lose it, it is not a
slow,
controlled or safe process.

Nothing wrong with being a safety freak. I like what you describe
above - it seems that it would eliminate the problem I had when failing
because the weights would not be hovering over my body at the point of
failure. I'll give the new form a shot.

Some more comments.

I also advise many people who to look closely at the incline press. For many
people, this works better for them than the flat bench press. Less strain on
shoulders, etc. Use a similar form as described above. Also the incline
press is easier to dump the dumbells without injury.

One difficulty with the incline press is that many people just have a hard
time doing it. This is because they haven't developed a "groove" for the
movement. They need to spend some time to "learn" the new neuromuscular
skills. During this time it is essential that you use lighter weights until
the new movement is learned.

And any new movement should employ lighter weights until you are certain
that you can do the new movement safely. Remember, as we get older, our
joints are not as forgiving as they were when we were younger. Give
everything a chance to adapt. Again, think safety and a prudent approach to
training.

"Deb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David wrote:>

Quoted message said:

What are your training objectives? Strength? Hypertrophy? Are you doing

8

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

sets of dumbell presses? What other chest exercises are you doing? Give

me a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

rundown of your workout

Training objective is strength. I think I've reached my max
hypertrophy by this time, given the limitations of the small amount of
testosterone I have as a female.

Chest/shoulders day consists of -
4 sets of incline DB presses. 10,8,6,4
4 sets of flat DB presses. 10,8,6,4
4 sets of Arnold shoulder presses 10,8,6,4
4 sets of rear deltoid flye machine 10,8,6,4
4 sets of cable triceps pushdowns 10,8,6,4

increasing weight on each set while decreasing reps.

I've been doing the same routine for awhile now and have reached a
plateau so I'm looking to change it up soon.

The rest of my workout is similar to the "3 day intermediate split" on
Krista's site. Legs on Day 1, chest shoulders on day 2, back and bis
on day 3. repeat the following week.

Your routine looks good to me - you're mixing it up well. I thought you
might bave been doing 8 sets of flat presses.

Dnia 2005-06-29 Deb napisa³(a):

Quoted message said:

So, there I was flat benching 40 lb dumbbells this morning, my 8th and
final set of chest. I've done these weights for months, always bang
out 5-6 reps on the final set.

Rep 1, Rep 2, pushing upward for rep 3.....suddenly both my arms just
seemed to disappear....my hands stayed gripped around the weights, but
both of them fell straight downward onto my chest and crashed into both
breasts before I found my arms again and threw the weights off me onto
the floor.

I can't figure out what happened...but it was certainly scary and I
ended my workout right there. This has never happened to me before in
almost 20 years of working out. I'm sure I'll have some nasty bruises
tomorrow. I'm glad I wasn't benching alone with a barbell.

It happened once to me too and also with dumbbells during benching. I
guess what really happened in my case was that I exploded from the bottom
and somehow lost my balance. I was too exhausted to regain it and one dumbbell
fell down on me in similar fashion to what you described. It never happened
with a barbell. Not even close to the same "feeling" of really losing any
control over the weight above me. I guess that barbell is much easier to
balance.

--
Andrzej Rosa 1127R

On 30 Jun 2005 07:23:41 -0700, "Deb" <[email hidden]> wrote
in misc.fitness.weights:

Quoted message said:

John Hanson said:

I'd ask for jpgs but that is bush league. I think a personal
inspection is more in order:-) Also, I hope you started training at
the age of 12 like I did.

In all seriousness, what do you think happened or what do you think is
the most plausible explanation?

I started working out at the age of 17, actually. That doesn't make me
much older than you'd like me to be:-).

36 is a good age!

Quoted message said:

Well, now that I've had some time to think about it, there were
probably some "factors" that contributed to this incident.

Number one, I skipped one week of chest after strictly keeping the same
schedule for 7 months.

Hmm, my bench goes down if I don't train it for a week or so. But, I
skipped bench for 9 days until last night and I didn't seem to lose
any strength this time.

Quoted message said:

Number 2, I was drinking a very strong mixture of iced coffee, sugar,
and half and half that probably caused me to shake without realizing
it.

Stick to brandy next time:-)

Quoted message said:

Number 3, I had just come out of a severe bout of depression that
literally washed over me on Sunday morning and didn't lift until
Tuesday afternoon...cause unknown. Never felt anything like that
before. I'm consulting with my OB/GYN today, as a a matter of fact,
about possible crazy hormone fluctuations that may have caused those
horrible feelings. So, I'm thinking that my concentration could have
been affected by it without me realizing it.

That sucks. You taking (or quit taking) any supplements that might
have cause your depression? Or was it because I stood you up Saturday
night?

On 30 Jun 2005 07:33:08 -0700, "Deb" <[email hidden]> wrote
in misc.fitness.weights:

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] wrote:>

Quoted message said:

diiiiyam, a chick who can press 40# db's for several reps, not bad.
All natural I presume? (insert lewd breast comment here)

Unfortunately, it's all natural.

It's quality, not quantity.

John Hanson said:

That sucks. You taking (or quit taking) any supplements that might
have cause your depression? Or was it because I stood you up Saturday
night?

actually, the doc said that my progesterone came up high at last week's
blood draw, which he said could cause crazy mood swings like that.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Deb said:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Well, now that I've had some time to think about it, there were
probably some "factors" that contributed to this incident.

[snip]

I don't work out with free-weights, yet, but you can hurt yourself on
machines, too. Knowing this, I try to pay *particularly* close
attention to how my body's reacting to a work-out if I feel
anything's out of the ordinary. Sometimes it just seems to be
"mysterious and unexplained energy deficit." *shrug*

Right now I'm taking a rest & re-feed break, after working out three
times a week, almost w/o fail, for four months. My discovery of the
apparent need for this just happened to coincide with my mid-summer
two-week vacation, which works out kind of nicely 🙂. I decided this
was necessary after experiencing two less-than-satisfactory workouts
in a row. Not only did I seem to have lost a bit of strength and
endurance, but the first of those two work-outs during which I
apparently over-stressed something and the second during which I
discovered what I'd done the first time--by re-doing it. No serious
or lasting damage, but I took this all as a clear warning it was time
to give it a rest.

--
Jim Seymour | "It is wrong always, everywhere and
WARNING: The "From:" address is a | for everyone to believe anything upon
spam trap. DON'T USE IT! Use: | insufficient evidence."
[email hidden] | - W. K. Clifford, ca. 1876