Ask Powerlifter - Gents and gals of all goals welcome

DO NOT add more if things don't work, if anything take something out!!!

It depends on the purpose of your barbel row, pedlay rows are a favourite of mine.

Dear Powerlifter,

I have my diet pretty much sorted now (RFU), ordered some whey protein from myprotein and I hope I am ready to start properly.

I have two questions.

1.) Can you point me to a complete beginners' routine?

To elaborate on this somewhat clumsily:

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but my overall strength is pretty bad, especially my arms (I can feel the strain the next day if I have to bring relatively heavy grocery shopping home). My arms tend to shake quite violently when I lift something heavy. I'd rather not embarass myself and put myself off the gym, so would it be alright to start off quite small, and if so what weight would you recommend?

2.) Would I look like a **** if I wore lifting gloves?

Reason: Sweaty Hands

Many thanks for your help!

ever think that at some point in the future you'll hang up your strongman/powerlifting shoes and try your hand at a bodybuilding show?

I wanna see a ripped to shreds Matt lol

Look up starting strength

Screw gloves, buy some chalk

Just got a few questions to ask in general...
im 18, 6ft0 and 160lbs. I dont know my bodyfat % but its probably around 10% (not defined but visible abs). Ive put on around 1st in the past 6months from stronglifts, and ive just started this westside routine (http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=459321). Is that worth doing?
ive got quite a lot stronger on stronglifts so far, but not put on much mass. My back has got a lot wider and my pecs are more developed, but my legs and arms are still skinny even though ive been doing loads of squats and pullups.
Also, are my 1RM any good?
Squat - 110kg ATG (but on a smith machine, we have no squat rack :/)
Deadlift - 100kg ish (also on a smith machine, more like a romanian deadlift/ rack pull) i dont know why this is lower than my squat, i think my grip might fail before i can lift the weight, dont have straps so i dont know.
Bench press - 2 30kg dumbells (pretty crap i know)

do you have any tips, i proper cant gain mass on my legs. I used to do 3 squat session a week on stronglifts but i also cycle everywhere at a fast speed and do long distance running and karate (deep stances, kicks etc.) so could i have been overtraining them? I am now doing 1 leg session a week so would this help.
and do you have just any tips in general?
thanks in advance

Just got a few questions to ask in general...
im 18, 6ft0 and 160lbs. I dont know my bodyfat % but its probably around 10% (not defined but visible abs). Ive put on around 1st in the past 6months from stronglifts, and ive just started this westside routine (http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=459321). Is that worth doing?
ive got quite a lot stronger on stronglifts so far, but not put on much mass. My back has got a lot wider and my pecs are more developed, but my legs and arms are still skinny even though ive been doing loads of squats and pullups.
Also, are my 1RM any good?
Squat - 110kg ATG (but on a smith machine, we have no squat rack :/)
Deadlift - 100kg ish (also on a smith machine, more like a romanian deadlift/ rack pull) i dont know why this is lower than my squat, i think my grip might fail before i can lift the weight, dont have straps so i dont know.
Bench press - 2 30kg dumbells (pretty crap i know)

do you have any tips, i proper cant gain mass on my legs. I used to do 3 squat session a week on stronglifts but i also cycle everywhere at a fast speed and do long distance running and karate (deep stances, kicks etc.) so could i have been overtraining them? I am now doing 1 leg session a week so would this help.
and do you have just any tips in general?
thanks in advance

Smith machines are the devil, and theyare also alot of your problem - top bodybuilders use them sometimes to refine the quads not build mass on them.

Change your gym, proper squats and milk

ive looked at two other gyms, and they both have smith machines :/. Also, i started off doing them with a barbell that was just lying around and having my gym partner help me power clean it, ive only been doing smith squats for the past 3 weeks, but then the bar bent and they took it off us so now we have only the smith machine. I am eating a lot and drinking a lot of milk (6-8pints a day plus 200g bag of peanuts plus normal meals). Should i give up on the smith squats and do one leg dumbell squats (but the dumbbells only go up to 34kg)

What area are you in?

Even crappy fitness first gyms have squat racks in them - are you sure the other gyms had no power cage, squat stands etc?

southport, near liverpool in the north west, i have mates who go to the other two gyms and ive looked on the websites and stuff and theres no squat racks :/. One of them has a barbell but i dont know how much weight they would let you put on it. The gym i go to is proper awful though, its just loads of massive guys curling ridiculously low amounts, i think ive seen 3 people do squats since i started, and none of them went anywhere near ATG, they were way above parallel. Im going to be going to uni in september i think though, and i reckon they must have a decent gym there

southport, near liverpool in the north west, i have mates who go to the other two gyms and ive looked on the websites and stuff and theres no squat racks :/. One of them has a barbell but i dont know how much weight they would let you put on it. The gym i go to is proper awful though, its just loads of massive guys curling ridiculously low amounts, i think ive seen 3 people do squats since i started, and none of them went anywhere near ATG, they were way above parallel. Im going to be going to uni in september i think though, and i reckon they must have a decent gym there

southport, near liverpool in the north west, i have mates who go to the other two gyms and ive looked on the websites and stuff and theres no squat racks :/. One of them has a barbell but i dont know how much weight they would let you put on it. The gym i go to is proper awful though, its just loads of massive guys curling ridiculously low amounts, i think ive seen 3 people do squats since i started, and none of them went anywhere near ATG, they were way above parallel. Im going to be going to uni in september i think though, and i reckon they must have a decent gym there

I pay £20 a month direct debit. Would be £25 per month if I paid cash.

I train at New Attitude, Southport. It's primarily used by men, though there are a few women regulars. Most people who train there are into physique rather than strength. It's a good gym. Only thing I'd change about it is getting a 2nd flat bench and bumper plates.

I would drop more than thatm its still 91%,drop to around 70kg and work your way slowly back up over around 6 weeks.

Don't rush these things

Thanks for the help.

However, I was thinking, would it be more beneficial to deload on the bench press or try and change it up to, say, incline bench or whatever?

Just been reading a little more on Westside Barbell methods and the benefits of changing it up. I've slightly adapted the routine I'm on so it's a little more like a Max Effort day for bench-press and squats.

However, I've always been a bit worried about changing these exercises around. Just because I felt I may get better at incline press but then my bench press would go down because I wasn't doing it. But from what I've read it's good to change it around. What are your thoughts on this?

I've been doing the westside routine did 60x5 in the first week, 65x5 in week 2, 70x5 and 75x3 in week 3

and then switched to incline as it says change the max effort every 2-3 weeks and did
65x5 and 70x3 in week 4 then week 5 did 70x5 and 75x3

at this point everything was going far better than i could have hoped, then switched back to flat bench today and struggled with 75x5 and 77.5x3. So basically it seemed to f*** me up changing it but maybe that was from a lack of sleep and food in the last few days

makes me wonder why i botherd changing, still if you've been doing flat bench for a long time it might work better for you to change it up

I've been doing the westside routine did 60x5 in the first week, 65x5 in week 2, 70x5 and 75x3 in week 3

and then switched to incline as it says change the max effort every 2-3 weeks and did
65x5 and 70x3 in week 4 then week 5 did 70x5 and 75x3

at this point everything was going far better than i could have hoped, then switched back to flat bench today and struggled with 75x5 and 77.5x3. So basically it seemed to f*** me up changing it but maybe that was from a lack of sleep and food in the last few days

makes me wonder why i botherd changing, still if you've been doing flat bench for a long time it might work better for you to change it up