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I wouldn't bother training calves. You'd get more benefit just spending that time playing basketball or even just dribbling at home if you don't have access to a court. Once you start running again your calves will also get a bit of a workout.

Thanks, i agree with you on dedicated calf training. Here are the potential benefits of doing heavy barbell raises -

1. Get used to having a supramax weight on the back
2. might help with core stability by challenging the whole body to stay rigid while supporting a heavy weight
3. CNS training effect, PAP
4. preparatory work for one day when I do heavy ass (180kg+) quarter squats
5. strengthens dorsiflexion which is important for stability and control in deep ATG squatting

but the problem is, if i dont really believe in something, i wont do it. i mean i might do it once or twice, for me do it regularly i really need to believe lol and i'm not sure i do right now

i agree with you that when playing basketball regurlarly and running i'll be working them pretty good. wish i was but i really need to get my squat goals out of the way, i'm sick of waiting

Once you start sprinting more than 1x/week you won't want to do too much extra calf work. Sprinting is a great exercise for calves, especially lower calf where it attaches to the achilles.

Thanks for the advice on calfs, my esteemed sprinter friends Will keep that in mind. I'm itching to start sprinting again, i probably miss it more than anything else, even basketball which I don't really enjoy right now. More and more i'm attracted to solitary sports like weightlifting and sprinting, at least that way you don't have to be constantly disappointed and let down by other ppl, it's frustrating when you try your best to spark some interest and people just habitually don't come thru despite their assurances.

I just wanted to make a note in the thread that good news and bad news  -- i'm not as fat as I thought. i can pinch my waist and grab a small-to-medium amount of fat today. Which suggests to me i'm probably over-estimating my bodyfat because i'm usually bloated or whatever. Not say i'm not fat, but I might not be in the 15kg overfat range I thought I would be. Actually I dont know where my bodyfat is right now, it may be mid 20s or more, but I feel as though it could be as low as high teens. Anyway this is neitehr here or there, just a passing observation. It's actually depressing to me because i want a double FS more than anything else, and if i'm lean at 80kg (say) then I need another 10kg on my FS than I initially planned. Still, even if i get a 150kg FS @ lean 80kg that's better than what I started off with, 120kg FS @ not-very-lean 75kg.

With what numbers do you come up using this?

http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/#bodyfat

19%. But I put zero faith in these things, I am a special snowflake, all these measures and estimates (including skinfolds, dexa etc) don't WORK for me.

BW: 194.5

Blah. I love how I tried to lose weight actively thru september and failed, struggling to string together even a pair of days of compliance. And in october when i'm actively trying to maintain my bodyweight, i'm finding myself naturally eating clean and at a deficit this whole week. So i'm dropping bodyweight even though I don't want to, and ideally i would have liked to get a 140kg FS @ 90kg which is better than 140kg @ 88kg which is where i'm headed The reason I want 140kg @ 90kg rather than 140kg @ 88 is because it's i'm stronger when squatting the same weight + 3kg of extra bodyweight! It gives me a better chance of getting 150kg @ 75kg.

Abs feel less sore and painful today than yesterday. Hopefully they'll be fully recovered tomorrow, would like a strong workout to end the weak.

 

Because legs have to support that extra bodyweight. Athletically/relatively speaking it's worse, but for the purposes of getting stronger, it's better to be a 200kg fatty squatting 200kg than a lean 100kg one, because the 200kg fatty's legs are moving 200kg bw + 200kg bw.

Put another way, if I squat 140kg @ 90kg, then drop 3kg of bodyfat, i can now squat 143kg @ 87kg by maintaining the same load on my legs. But if i'm only squatting 140kg @ 87kg, then i've gotten weaker than I was at 90kg.

Nah that logic doesn't work out. Imagine how much more potential the guy at 100kg has. If the 100kg dude bulked up to 150kg and the 200kg fatty lost 50kg down to 150 the lean 100kg dude would be miles stronger than the fatty. Same as the guy squatting the same absolute weight at a lighter bodyweight is stronger than the heavier guy lifting the same absolute weight.

Quote from: entropy on October 10, 2013, 09:21:27 am

Because legs have to support that extra bodyweight. Athletically/relatively speaking it's worse, but for the purposes of getting stronger, it's better to be a 200kg fatty squatting 200kg than a lean 100kg one, because the 200kg fatty's legs are moving 200kg bw + 200kg bw.

Put another way, if I squat 140kg @ 90kg, then drop 3kg of bodyfat, i can now squat 143kg @ 87kg by maintaining the same load on my legs. But if i'm only squatting 140kg @ 87kg, then i've gotten weaker than I was at 90kg.

Nah that logic doesn't work out. Imagine how much more potential the guy at 100kg has. If the 100kg dude bulked up to 150kg and the 200kg fatty lost 50kg down to 150 the lean 100kg dude would be miles stronger than the fatty.

 That's true and goes along with what i've said! That's relative strength, yes, but not absolute strength. So bulking is about gaining absolute strength (bodyweight + bar-weight) to a maximum amount. And cutting is about gaining relative strength (bar-weight/bodyweight). You have to see strength in the right context. While i'm gaining absolute strength, it's preferable to lift the most amount of total weight (bodyweight + bar-weight). So in that context i'm strongest when that total is largest at my heaviest.

For an athlete, being as light as possible, while moving as much bar weight as possible is the right context of strength. When acquiring strength or gaining/bulking, your lifts go up but so does your bodyweight. If you gain 15kg like I did, that's a significant amount of weight borne by the legs. Now if I maintain my end of bulk bar weight and shed those extra 15kg, i'm now much weaker than i was at the end of the bulk. I'm not interested in just plain relative strength, i'm interested in maximising my absolute strength which means using extra bodyweight to make up that total.