You’re “all in” for lifting weights and you’re not worried about form?
I should probably pre-make the “I need medical advice, sports injury (that’s interesting)” thread for you. This isn’t about macho and pumping yourself up and yelling like a madman in the mirror. It’s about seeing the muscle work as you exercise, seeing where the greatest flex is and working from the point of greatest use. Trust me, it only sounds hokey until you learn to do it.
It’ll also make your weight room look twice the size. So when you’re showing potential members what they’re subscribing to, they will be impressed by how much equipment you have. Only later to realize that they were seeing double.
Wait are we still talking about the bedroom or the bedroom? :)
Maybe.
No. Nononononono. Mirrors suck. Mirrors are for bodybuilders, who are men who shave themselves, fake tan, drench themselves in oil, and pose on a stage in bikini briefs for other men.
A real weight room should be as Spartan as humanly possible. It should look kinda grimy, actually. Bonus points for having a constant haze of lifting chalk in the air.
Walls should be unadorned. No fresh coats of paint. Bonus points for cracks or plaster chipping off the walls. HVAC should be just enough to keep you from passing out or freezing to death, depending on your climate.
In short, it’s a place to work, and to work hard at that. Everything else is just a distraction.
Mark Rippetoe says mirrors do more harm than good. This is the most important thing in your weight room.
Buy it, read it, know it.
That book is thirty bucks, Yew Ess Dee!
Certainly there must be some free websites illustrations I can print out.
Mark Rippetoe should have been there when I nearly blew out my shoulder. If I would have had a mirror I could have seen I was lifting one side much faster and with more strength than the other. Something you can see but not always feel. Where were you when I needed you Mark?!? Thou hast forsaken me!!!
I had a good M&F illustrated guide at one point, but I’m assuming you might be able to lift some stuff from their website. It looks to be mostly video stuff now though ElG. I’m sorry I don’t have a better link.
Rippetoe would have given you better cues that don’t require a mirror. Read the book.
The book is worth its cost. Don’t be so fucking cheap.
There is a wiki, but it isn’t as good as the book: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki
Rippetoe himself answers questions at the Starting Strength forums. Bonus: Rip’s caustic sense of humor.
Did I mention the book was worth its cost? You won’t find the forty pages of descriptions and cues on the squat alone on a random website.
Also: please, for the love that is all that is good and holy, don’t take routines or advice from popular magazines like M&F or Flex or whatever. They all pretty much suck unless you’re juicing.
Rippetoe is the exercise messiah!
WWRD?
He’s not the messiah, although he’ll tell you you might see Jesus on the last few reps of a heavy set of squats. And if you’re doing 20 rep breathing squats, Jesus might ask to work in.
The only other good technique book I’ve seen (although I haven’t really looked) is by Stuart McRobert. I’ve noticed a few differences between the two and usually pick and choose whatever seems safer and more natural for me.
Rippetoe’s term for feeling the position of your body and the weights without using mirrors is something like “kinesthetic sense.”
But yeah, I can’t imagine anyone lifting free weights in their own private weight room without owning one of these.
I will agree with Damien. On his advice I bought that book, after weight training for 2 years and not knowing what the fuck I was doing. I’m in my 3rd week now of the program and the progress has been, frankly, amazing.
Also check out http://stronglifts.com/, it’s pretty cool for advice and tips on form and stuff.
I can’t wait til I can afford my own house so I can build a weight room. I plan to hang A-team posters, classy swimsuit calendars (like things that say “GOT CRACK?” with 3 girls in thongs bent over), a replica Conan sword, and have a little bed for my dog so we can hang out while I lift. I’ll give him all the pig ears my fiancee won’t let him have, because she says they’re gross.
I would come over to Wallapuctus’ house and lift weights and then play Atari with him.
I will have to put in an Atari then, right next to the kegarator.
The book is worth every penny. Buy it.
Yes. And stencil the following in black spraypaint on the bare wall.
These are the precincts of pain.
A goddess lives here.
Her name is Victory.
Hardcore yo.
You could always make a wall-size rasterbate of Ahnold making his “I GOTTA POO” face.