Anyone else find it hard not to pay attention to others?

Yeah, I know this is like the 3rd or 4th topic I've made in a row yadayadayada

But really, does anyone else find it really, REALLY difficult to not pay attention to what others are doing in the gym/training facility you go to/etc.? I know I shouldn't care and should just go on with doing my own thing, but I can't help but look at someone lighter and/or shorter than me who bench presses 300 for reps and then assume he could do a full planche/planche pushups, or that because he's a curl monkey and can curl more than his own bodyweight his bicep tendon(s) are already well-conditioned enough for such a feat, and here I am doing planche leans, feeling like a chump :? Also, I've seen person do half-assed pullups with over 100 lbs (with said shoulder problems), and he was still able to do one arm pullups; which again, makes me feel like my full-range work is useless.

My words aren't meant to offend anyone or anything, that's just how I feel.

First, benches don't work scapula protraction because the bench holds the scapula in a good enough position. No scapula protraction means no planche. Most curls don't hit the brachialis. Brachialis is what protects the elbow in the lockout. Poliquin blogs about the brachialis all the time if you want to read up on it.

One arm pull ups are(in my opinion) seriously super cool, so that guy is either knowledgeable or gifted. He might be doing partial range because he's weak link training(focusing on the weakest bit of ROM, like the transition in the Mup for example) or just because it lets him use bigger weights and look super cool in the gym. Why not ask him(nicely :wink: )?

Your full range work could be deemed useless if you have a huge weak link, but chances are it isn't and it will stop you developing one .

Worrying is too catabolic. Be happy and enjoy your training. Doesn't matter how good you are compared to everyone else. Just how good you are compared to yourself yesterday.

Happiness is anabolic!

Animalonfire said:

First, benches don't work scapula protraction because the bench holds the scapula in a good enough position. No scapula protraction means no planche. Most curls don't hit the brachialis. Brachialis is what protects the elbow in the lockout. Poliquin blogs about the brachialis all the time if you want to read up on it.

One arm pull ups are(in my opinion) seriously super cool, so that guy is either knowledgeable or gifted. He might be doing partial range because he's weak link training(focusing on the weakest bit of ROM, like the transition in the Mup for example) or just because it lets him use bigger weights and look super cool in the gym. Why not ask him(nicely :wink: )?

Your full range work could be deemed useless if you have a huge weak link, but chances are it isn't and it will stop you developing one .

Please don't give the guy more credit than he deserves. This is also the same guy who does standing external (or is that internal in this case?) rotations standing with a dumbell, thinking he's "strengthening" the rotator cuff, even though what he's doing isn't rotator-oriented at all. And during the conversation likes to point out how it's "the only lightweight stuff I do", even though he's never done them up to this point, and probably has no idea how a shoulder works at all, and how his tight anterior posture is what's causing the inflammation. And when I finally asked him how he built up to it and got good at weighted pullups overall, he just told me "uhhhhh... I don't know man I'd say just keep doing pullups and hope for the best". But then again, this was in high school, where people don't care about helping others reach their goals as long as other people acknowledge their accomplishments over yours.

And as for one arm pulls, I have to agree that, yes, they are pretty cool-looking. One thing I'm sick of, though, is when people see somebody do it and then treat them like it's "godly". To be honest, my reason for thinking like this is because I believe anyone has the potential to do them; it's just that 90% of the earth's population can't do a pullup to begin with, and even a small percent of the people who can already do so have little interest in accomplishing the move. Funny thing is, he could only do them in the same half-assed range of motion he did the weighted pulls with.

First off, a one arm pull or chin is f-ing impressive. It is hard, and while pretty much everyone should be able to work up to them it takes a ton of commitment over a long period of time for nearly everyone to get there.

You may not mean to come off this way, but it looks like you have a bit of an inferiority complex. Nothing wrong with that, but if so at least recognize it and work on it.

I think everyone pays attention to what is going on around them, but you need to be paying much more attention to what is or is not working for you.

You may already have the perfect workout but if your nutrition sucks or isn't getting you what you need when you need it you will not get good results.

As for planche lockout, if it crosses the elbow joint it is involved. That includes every single wrist and forearm flexor and forearm extensor. Seriously, every single one except for maybe 1 or 2. That is a lot of small muscles, and if you aren't strengthening those you won't be able to planche without building up injuries.

If you aren't getting what you want, you need to evaluate what you are doing both with the workout and with nutrition. Chances are nearly 100% that one of those is way off, whether you realize it or not.

I never said one arm pulls weren't impressive, all I'm saying is that you of all people should understand how demotivating it is to watch somebody spend 2-3 years half-assing something, and they still end up achieving difficult feats such as the former. Not to say he guy probably didn't have alot of overuse injuries, but then again you never truly know these things without asking the person.

And like you said, yes, I'd have to agree that I have a confidence problem, mostly because of the way I grew up; always being the weird kid who nobody wanted to be around, and never being very strong to begin with. Skip forward a couple of years later when I'm a little stronger and more capable, and I'm trying to do things like front levers and planches hoping to impress others and get respect, but instead get myself injured and get held back for awhile. This came from a mix of trying to progress too quickly, and always trying to push one rep maxes hoping to improve but never seeing progress.

I'm not asking for sympathy or pity, I'm just being honest. And yes, I have to agree that my training was/is unbalanced, which is why I'm just now getting back into the groove of things and being smart by working my way back up slowly despite how much I and I'm sure pretty much everyone else hates it.

Bradmelon said:

I never said one arm pulls weren't impressive, all I'm saying is that you of all people should understand how demotivating it is to watch somebody spend 2-3 years half-assing something, and they still end up achieving difficult feats such as the former. Not to say he guy probably didn't have alot of overuse injuries, but then again you never truly know these things without asking the person.

And like you said, yes, I'd have to agree that I have a confidence problem, mostly because of the way I grew up; always being the weird kid who nobody wanted to be around, and never being very strong to begin with. Skip forward a couple of years later when I'm a little stronger and more capable, and I'm trying to do things like front levers and planches hoping to impress others and get respect, but instead get myself injured and get held back for awhile. This came from a mix of trying to progress too quickly, and always trying to push one rep maxes hoping to improve but never seeing progress.

I'm not asking for sympathy or pity, I'm just being honest. And yes, I have to agree that my training was/is unbalanced, which is why I'm just now getting back into the groove of things and being smart by working my way back up slowly despite how much I and I'm sure pretty much everyone else hates it.

Don't worry, I didn't start out much different. I was certainly stronger than a lot of people around me for pretty much my whole life, but that came from a childhood of excellent basic training from 7-13 years old. I wasn't very strong when I started out with weights compared to most of the people around me with the exception of deadlifts, which I have always been super strong with.

My best suggestion for your training is to stop pushing maxes, they are meaningless in my experience. Well, not entirely, but chasing them certainly is meaningless and a sure road to injury.

I know what it is like to see people around you excel without seeming to try, I have known a few. My success has come from better than average and more recently nearly excellent training practices, not innate physical talent. I have worked hard for what I have and am proud of it, but while I do enjoy the stares I get when working out that is not the reason I do what I do. I have an innate desire to push my own limits and see what I can accomplish. I get some sort of deep satisfaction out of putting in work and seeing myself grow capable of more. Other people don't matter to me when I am actually working out, and I think that is an important attitude to cultivate. They really don't matter that much period, I do what I do for my own reasons and they have nothing to do with those reasons. I do think that working to cultivate this attitude will help your progress a lot.

All I can say is that if you judge yourself by the people around you it will always be easy to find someone stronger or faster or younger or better looking or richer or smarter or perhaps just better connected. They are all around us, and they do not matter. You matter. When your focus is solely on yourself and what you need to do to properly accomplish a goal then you will have the ability to achieve it.

Think about this: Why does a person deserve respect? I'll tell you why I get respect wherever I am at. I treat people politely, I don't act like I am anything special (nor do I act like I am any less valuable than anyone else), I always try to have something positive to say or contribute, and I celebrate the achievements of those around me instead of putting myself down with them. That sometimes takes a bit of mental re-framing, but it is more than worth the effort. A person who is saying "Hey look, I'm great aren't I?" doesn't get respect from actual adults who are in control of their lives. They get attention, but they are seen as the child that they are, at least in that aspect of their life. Their accomplishments may be respected but their person, their actual persona, is not. Respect is given without conscious thought to those who carry themselves with an inherent sense of value, and it is hard to have that without doing the things that matter. Use your time appropriately, have your priorities in order, and focus on your needs and what you must do or become to fulfill them. That's a lot of work, but it is my absolute best recommendation. Everything worth having comes from that base.

slizzardman said:

As for planche lockout, if it crosses the elbow joint it is involved. That includes every single wrist and forearm flexor and forearm extensor. Seriously, every single one except for maybe 1 or 2. That is a lot of small muscles, and if you aren't strengthening those you won't be able to planche without building up injuries.

Don't want to start a huge debate, I just don't like misrepresenting other people. What Ido actually said(to the best of my recollection) was you can usually recognize if someone has done straight arm work by looking for a big brachialis, because the brachialis protects the elbow in straight arm work. One seminar participant had a brachialis without having done straight arm work but he'd done a bunch of things and was a pretty serious personal trainer. Brachialis is a super common weak link, so it isn't often noticeably big (see all over poliquins site).

I agree, I have seen mine grow dramatically over the past few months as a result of the straight arm ring simulation work, and they weren't terribly small to begin with. They first started getting bigger when I started doing more OAC work. Rope climbs are pretty awesome for this too, and in my opinion are probably a bit more important than the OAC work as they involve all of the hand, wrist and elbow flexors and extensors to an overall greater degree than any other one exercise and does so in a very integrated fashion.

I'm hoping to get back to the one arm work in a couple months, but for now I'm working bodyweight rows until I can make it to a little above horizontal with my feet, and then I'll start working on floor pushups again for one set of five, and build up again from there until I'm close to handstand position again. To be optimistic, I actually wasn't doing too bad when I started taking the one arm work seriously; I trained with a halfway-down belt assist comprised of 6 inch increments for 3 sets of 2 good reps from lockout all the way up, and then down to lockout again.

To be honest, my problems didn't come from that type of training in general, it was because I kept pushing the damn handstand pushups too hard. I did them with back arched, arms flared to sides, and did negatives constantly to try and get them full range. Now, I COULD just barely do ONE really ugly full-range rep, but again quality didn't mean anything to me because I just thought that all that mattered was going up and down, and that my form would improve with time.

Really bad idea at the time; but now I'm feeling pretty good and ready to do what it takes to get back into the swing of things.