dan-ger-ous. I've seen too many colossal f*ck-ups to not use those clamps.

shoulder day today. should have done it yesterday; but things happen. :-)

Day off for me....from lifting, and from dickheads. :-)

:-)

good call. :-)

Yea it's dangerous but I don't lift very heavy. Usually not more than 150-175 lbs unless I'm squatting. I use the clamps when squating and while doing power cleans.

Today did a quick work out of close grip bench, power cleans, pec flys, and some walking. Was going to do some squats too but all the stations were being used by guys doing shrugs :-)

at least they weren't all being used by guys doing curls. :-)

yea that's annoying. These guys were still doing damn shrugs when I went to walk on the treadmill. We even have a "machine" for shrugs. It uses plates and everything. Same crap was going on last time I was at the gym. How long do you really have to do shrugs?...

Hey, I do curls off the rack...but I curl more than most people at my gym squat. :-)

LoL! yeah ... I'm not talking about people like you, Tom. :-) I'm thinking more of the DB I saw doing curls with a 10 on each side in the enclosed power rack. :-) wow. don't get me wrong: I can't curl enough to justify being in the rack ... which is why, of course, I DON'T go in there to curl. :-)

I don't like to curl with the straight bars, but I do just the bar for the 21's at the gym. At home I have one of those curved curl bars.

Curls with the straight bar are great for forearm devleopment as well...I have never done any forearm excercises in my life, don't need to.

Curls with the straight bar is my favorite arm exercise. I take pride in my leg strength above all else though.

You guys should pick up a set of these
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lock-Jaw-OLYMPIC...item439c62e127

I have two sets now. Very nice. Maybe I could set up a group buy on them if you guys are interested in having your own set. They are so much nicer than the spring collars. The guy does offer bulk discounts...

Shrugs are overrated.

Really? I always feel like it bothers my wrist. That's why I don't use the straight bar for curls very often. Those clamps look great by the way! I wouldn't mind getting my hands on those!

ya ... underhand, close-grip bent-over rows are nice for forearms, too. as many rows as you do, Tom, I think you'd still have crazy forearms even if you quit your curls. :-)

for straight bar curls, we have shorter bars on a couple of curl racks. unfortunately, people still feel the need to use the big bars in the squat racks and power rack. :-)


random recovery/accessory day. basically did some shoulder rehab and compound shoulder/lat/arm exercises (pulldowns, pull-overs, various rows). hungry now. :-)

No wrist issues here with straight bar curls. Although I prefer to do hammer curls or more of an isolation movement for biceps. Way to easy to have other muscles do the work for one on bicep exercises.

I use the big bar for my straight bar curls, Dokk, I like the option of using several different width grips to hit the bicep in different spots. If my wrists are sore on a day, I usually use the EZ-Curl bar which takes some of the stress off the wrists for me.

Did a rep-volume day for chest today. I was strong enough today to go 110s for reps on the incline dbs, then threw 225 on the barbell for reps on the flatbench. Did some 225 close grip bench for my outside chest and tris, then finished up with some machine flyes and some bodyweight dips. Back day tomorrow.

Max effort lower today. Decided I wanted to give deadlifting a try for my ME exercise.

135 x 10
225 x 10
315 x 5
365 x 6
405 x 1
455 x 0 (failed 3/4 of the way ... grip)
460 x 1 :-) PERSONAL RECORD
465 x 0 (not even off the ground -- body just said "no")

Cheater Squats (bench squats above parallel): 225, 315, 365, 315, 225 ... just for speed, basically

Cable rope crunches: 4-5 sets to failure with the whole stack

That was it. I'm just stoked about the new (albeit small) PR on deadlifts. I effin' LOVE that lift. :-)

Image

mmmmm ... cake. :-)

maybe if I didn't eat so much of it, I might be lifting more. :-)

:-) :-)

Back today for me too.

T-Bar rows....5 plates for 5 sets of 18

Barbell rows 245 for 5 sets of 12

Cable pulldowns, cable rows, and finally 3x10 pullups to finish 'er off.

Still pumped an hour later. :-)