Joe wrote:I have researched all those questions Nayto, so I don't need an answer on them.
Hope you don't mind, but I'll answer anyway given that there are a million opinions out there and most of them are wrong. Also for the benefit of other readers.
Joe wrote:Well I may get the book soon, I have to order some other books too. Just a couple questions to keep me going for now.
1)How do I know if I have enough protein.
Diet: I drink a lot of raw milk, I have one main meal with meat a day.
Would milk suffice for protein (I do not want to adulterate my milk with pea protein).
I do not eat sugar and I work at hard-labour so I do not understand how I got to be overweight this year. I think I am just getting too old and everything is on it's way out lol. Yep.
You need about your lean body weight multiplied by 1.6 for weight gain. Maybe a bit more than that if you are losing weight.
Raw milk is really an amazing food for strength training. It's quite high in carbohydrates which are great for muscle growth, but the down side is that the rapid energy release of carbohydrates means the amount of fat gain will be higher as well (but if you do manual labour and don't have any other sugar, I suppose that will offset it). It has a fair amount of fat and protein which is good and you get the added bonus of some natural growth hormone in the milk. I personally drink about 500ml of milk around training time.
Joe wrote:2) Would you hit a point where you could not increase your weights, I have added about 1kg+ per a week.
Yes, absolutely. This is inevitable. One just needs slight adjustments to the programming to get further gains assuming you're sleeping and eating enough.
Joe wrote:3) I enjoy the barbell exercises a lot, do people at the advanced level still do these simple exercises?
Power clean looks fun.
Yes, for general strength the only exercises ever needed are squats, presses, dead lifts, bench press, power cleans and chin ups. Maybe add some power snatches there, but I haven't gotten into that myself. Those are the only lifts I actively train and I find that my strength naturally increases on everything else. I'm even training to do muscle ups which I should get right quite soon. I have the strength for it, but the technique still eludes me, lol.
There is just one exception to that rule and that's dead lifts. Given the mechanical nature of this movement, each set is incredibly intense and can become difficult to recover from in a week. Mark Rippetoe advocates separating the movement into three distinct yet overlapping movements in order to increase the strength of the dead lift itself. Having said that, I'll be deadlifting 204kg on Friday and I'm still cruising along without any issues (I do it every Friday and increase the weight by 1kg each time) i.e. You have to be really advanced in order for this to apply.
Joe wrote:Lastly, I am doing more reps than you recommend. And I only take a one minute break. I will probably increase the weight and reduce the reps and rest a bit longer. I do not have anywhere to do chin-ups.
Rest for one minute turns it into an endurance activity. One must rest for a full 8 minutes at least normally so that the muscles can replenish their energy. If you do a set of 5 and then rest for a minute and do another set of 5, the second set is testing your muscle's ability to work without much energy. What you want is to test the muscle's ability to lift the weight while having all the energy it needs. This is also why sets of 5 are needed, because a set of 5 doesn't put much pressure on the energy reserves of the muscle. It is more focused on the ability of the muscle fibers doing the work.
Short rests will work for you initially, but you'll quickly run into problems when you are adding weight each session.
Joe wrote:It seems some people will weigh the amount of carbs and protein they consume ...I will just make sure I am hitting around the right amount.
It depends on your current situation and what you want to achieve really.
Joe wrote:I reduced the reps and increased the weight by a couple kgs, it felt really good. [b]Thanks for the tip. Rather than going through the motions, you feel you are in the zone the whole time. Really good.
Once you learn to recruit the neuromuscular system fully and each set of 5 is the maximum you can do, you start to realize the massive amounts of mental conditioning and focus required.
Joe wrote:I am at 68kg (I could have done a kg more) for bench press and dead lift. Bit less for squat which I have only been doing for two weeks.
17.5kg (not including the dumbbell) for bicep curl ...I cannot do chin-ups.
If you're eating enough, as a man, it shouldn't be hard for you to start being able to do chin ups. Look for progression tutorials online and just go for it. You might surprise yourself.
Joe wrote:I am thinking of saving up for one these, I think it can catch the bar allowing you to do power cleans and there are ones that allow chin-ups too. What do you think?
https://www.hartsport.com.au/products/6-142
It looks like it could do the job fine. There's a chapter on training equipment in the Starting Strength book though. I'd suggest you read that before spending lots of money on equipment.
Ideally I would go for a set up like this though:
http://www.roguefitness.com/rml-390c-power-rackWow, sorry for the long post. Lol.