Have people been doing a lot of front squats? Have you been lifting heavy with them?
Jenni Puputti is indeed an excellent instructor and coach.
I’ve done that excellent exercise quite little; sometimes it was included when I was under Markku Tikka’s coaching. I’m not good at it by any means, but I haven’t done it very much either.
My own measurements were there earlier. My set weight in front squats is currently 100, I do 3x8. I’ve had a couple of ACL surgeries, so I’m quite careful with my legs.
Edit. And I can go all the way down, so mobility is good👌
Bench press videos are nice to watch, but I’m not very enthusiastic about bench press in my own workouts, even though I’m trying to improve my bench press.
It’s awesome when people lift heavy weights with great technique relative to their own body weight.
I’d take the fitness of this 61-year-old guy. Although he’s almost certainly had some advantages (a “butter eye in his oatmeal”), along with a brother + creatine, and something else… well, doctor’s help. Anyway, great shape, considering what he was like when he was younger.
Speaking of Jeff Bezos, have you had body composition measurements taken? Some are, of course, a bit poor if you’re interested in accurate results, but some devices are even quite accurate, at least for an average person. What kind of results have you gotten? I could post my own data once I find it somewhere.
I used to go annually, but then when I also took a caliper measurement, I stopped. The caliper measurement showed about 4% lower fat. This is just my experience, and InBody at least gives an indication, and maybe I just had a crappy measuring device?
With calipers, you need a quite experienced measurer for the results to be consistent. With Inbody, it would again be good to standardize the conditions when taking measurements: at what time, when last trained, and how much one has eaten/drunk before the measurements.
For me, those measurements (calipers vs. Inbody) went hand in hand, though the measurer was a very experienced PT.
I don’t go for any measurements anymore, as my workouts are whatever I have time and ability for, when I am healthy. Since December 10th, I’ve only been healthy for a week; now I’ve also had a week of bronchitis, maybe in a week I’ll dare to go to the gym carefully
I’ve gotten pretty similar results with a basic impedance meter and calipers. And when I look in the mirror, it feels like those measurements were at least directionally correct in my case.
There are many measurement methods, and especially different kinds of meters nowadays. Then there are these more accurate measurement methods, but they probably aren’t that easy to test out (?).
There’s a lot of talk about these online, but what I’ve understood is that especially if you’re a really big guy in very lean condition, that’s when meters and other methods are most prone to error.
For example, I’ve never been at seven percent body fat or less. I do have experience with relatively high body fat percentages, but I didn’t check what my body fat percentage was then
EDIT:
The channel is interesting for those interested in bodybuilding and strength training topics.
Interesting podcast, they talked about basic things, nothing special per se, but it was nice to listen to.
The podcast doesn’t necessarily directly cover maximum strength or bodybuilding topics, but there’s probably something for everyone here.
Keijocast’s guest is Jyväskylä-based Personal Trainer, author, and entrepreneur Timo Haikarainen. In this episode, we aim to condense all the essentials about diet, weight management, the mental aspect, and weight training into a few hours, utilizing Timo’s solid professional expertise and years of experience.
Training yesterday didn’t just bring good feelings. At the village gym, some man dressed in tight technical leggings and an equally tight technical long-sleeved shirt reserved both the deadlift and squat racks and alternately did deadlifts and standing overhead presses in the squat rack. And I probably wasn’t the only one who was annoyed.
Incredible bench press results in the video below. In that federation, as far as I know, they test quite thoroughly. Nykänen’s lifts particularly impressed me.
Highlights selected from the competitions, about a 7-minute video.
The toughest doping-tested bench pressers of 2025 were gathered under the same roof at Littoinen multi-purpose hall. Sunday’s video was compiled from material I managed to film alongside assisting. The video probably would have been a bit better, but unfortunately, new rules prevented filming in the warm-up area. Hopefully, this matter will be clarified in the future.
Joni Tajakka and Anton Nykänen performed the most memorable lifts.
I set a goal of a 400 kg total (squat, deadlift, bench press) for 2025. It should be challenging enough, but still possible. My starting level is nothing special; my current maxes are probably around 110kg, 150kg, 75kg.
I was thinking of starting to hit the gym soon by doing Wendler’s 5/3/1 (deadlift, squat, bench press, overhead press) training three times a week, simply because it’s clearly progressive and easily deloaded, for example, for summer.
By the way, was there talk about a running group here at some point?
That Wendler program is praised by many and easy to implement.
Other exercise hobbies besides just gym stuff have been discussed here, and the thread isn’t very active, so I guess we can talk about running matters here too. Many here also seem to do something else besides the gym, e.g., some aerobic activity, etc.
Just, I’ve been focused on reading about others’ experiences, rather than writing. From Pakkotoisto, I found an amazing 131-page Wendler discussion spanning over a decade.
Next, I’d be interested in running experiences; for now, I run myself at a low heart rate, and perhaps in a month, I could start doing some intervals.
Wendler is a 4-day split program and the intensity is sustainable. There aren’t a huge number of repetitions, as there is one main lift and a few accessory exercises per workout.
I don’t know your background at all, so I’ll give general advice. A major change in your gym program and, for example, starting interval training in running at the same time significantly increases the risk of injury. Both types of training put a considerable strain on the body. If interval running doesn’t strain you, then what is the purpose of doing it? I personally like intervals because they push me hard, and I easily find myself doing too much of them relative to my recovery capacity. I think that if you train with any goals in mind, it’s worth periodizing your training into blocks according to basic endurance, strength, and speed characteristics. It’s easy to get your body bogged down when combining basic endurance and strength development at the same time. This is heavily influenced by the person’s starting level. I also feel that changing workouts every 8-12 weeks brings nice variety. During that time, you can easily notice the development of the characteristic you’re focusing on, and that boosts self-esteem.
The running conditions have been quite bad lately due to slipperiness, so I’ve been doing more muscle strength training. Practically, 2-3 times/week strength and 1-2 times/week aerobic (ball games and running). This has been going on for 12 weeks, and my mind is starting to get tired of indoor training. During the next 12-week period, I aim to increase the amount of aerobic exercise and will have to reduce the intensity of strength training; otherwise, my legs will be stiff, and running, for example, won’t feel relaxed at all. The idea is to get impact on my legs during running so that in the spring, my legs can handle more kilometers, as that has been a challenge in previous years. I will do the strength training in the coming weeks with longer sets and exercise circuits to get my heart rate up for a couple of minutes. When spring comes, my body will then be ready for interval runs. Hopefully, there will be enough running weather without studs in the coming weeks. The biggest challenge for me is increasing the amount of basic endurance training. Less than 4 hours a week is still perfectly fine, but long and easy runs, for example, already challenge me on a mental level.
For my part, the so-called basics are in order, but in recent years, my fitness routine has been a bit patchy. That’s why it’s probably good to get some cautionary comments, so I don’t get too carried away.
Now, since roughly the beginning of November, I’ve slowly increased my weekly kilometers to 20+ (3 times/week), and some kind of intervals are appealing simply because running fast is more fun than progressing slowly, and increasing the feeling of exertion would also feel nice. In Zone 2, the progress/exertion somehow doesn’t “feel” fast enough. On the other hand, it’s lucky that it’s so slippery now, so I won’t rush into things!
I have over 20 years of experience going to the gym; lately, that too has been patchy. Soon I’ll complete the third four-week cycle of my current program, and I feel like doing mainly big lifts, which is why I’m switching to Wendler. What mainly makes me wonder about that (after reading experiences) is whether it also progresses too slowly at first. On the other hand, with accessory exercises, you can modify the exertion a lot.
I haven’t really come up with any precise goals, better general fitness now, of course. Maybe in 2026 I could try to aim for beating my personal best in a half-marathon, but not this summer yet. This year, perhaps maintaining regular exercise throughout the summer, even if significantly lightened. It’s nicer to continue in the autumn when everyday life begins.
How do you set goals for yourselves? Is it a running time for a certain distance/weight lifted, or a “process goal”?