Adarq.org

Date: 03/10/2017
Soreness: back - little pain above my tail and little my upper back
BW: 61.9kg

Condition: it was ok until I saw my video of the half squats, which after I had lost some motivation but still finished it off. I also brought the wrong shoes  I usually take my trainers and train in them but this time I wore the shoes I wear when I go out, which you will see from the video, it's quite stiff.

Warm up
   10 min walk
   mobility and activation drills

Workout
   Jump Squats @30kg 3 x 5
   Half Squats @100kg x 3, @150kg 3 x 7
      - since I get comfortable with the weght in a week every session I go deep until I feel my body cannot go any lower without it failing and going all the way down to the pin lol.
   Calf Raises @120kg x 5, 150kg 3 x 20
        - these can be painful for the bone that sticks out behind my neck either the bar is pressing on it or above it.
   Progressive depth pin squats 1 x pin 9, 1 x pin 11, 0 x pin 13
   RDL's 100kg x 3, 150kg x 2 x 7,6
         - I use tissue to help with the grip, but these tissues can come loose and unroll and drop the bar, so I can always feel when that happens, so this time the tissue ripped and I had to quickly place it on the pin. ordered some weightlifting straps.
        - also I don't feel tension in my hamstring or glutes when I do these for some reason. I can feel it more on my back. Maybe it's too easy for my hamstring but too hard for my back.

Note: also utilized the power plate for vibration massaging my back.

Cool down
   stretch overall legs
   10 min walk back

Comment:
The half squats felt differently then they appeared on the video, I felt I went down slowly and quite deep to half squat position but looking at the video I don't seem to go down that deep and descend quite fast for some reason. So my morale was low after viewing that but still moved on but after looking at it again, i'm sure if I continue with this weight I can get deeper. But not going to go as deep as the progressive depth squats.

My coach said that what adarq stated for the progressive depth is a good idea and will incorporate it.

EDIT:
Here is the video

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rl5um44gDQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rl5um44gDQ</a>

Criticize away? Please don't be too harsh 

good thing you posted vid of your current squat style.. should have posted some vid alot sooner

those are definitely quarters, not half squats. So, quarters are fine at certain stages, but the way you're performing them seems like you should be lightening the load alot and hitting a true half. It also looks like you need to get more air in you before you descend.

Cool thing about what your coach said. IMHO, it looks like you have really stiff ankles & calves, which is one of the main reasons for your form, that's not really a bad thing necessarily .. though, you may benefit from some light mobility/stretching of the calves before you squat, after a solid warmup of course.

You're basically performing quarters how I would do them if I was incorporating them into a "peaking phase" of vert training, after going hard as F on half squats, but you're also using less hip than I would use. For example, look at 1:00 in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WT32JUUwd8

It's a bit more hip than you're using .. still some knees going forward but, much more hip.

So IMHO, lighten the load alot and work on hitting true halves for a while.. the good thing is, if you improve your half, your quarters will fly up .. so don't worry about getting weaker or anything.

Plus you mainly sprint, need a bit more hip in your squatting. If all you did was jump, that squat form you are doing would probably be a bit more acceptable.

Also, record more videos.. Maybe you just had some bad sets, who knows. But the feedback provided by a video of yourself, is gold.

Just my 2 cents.

peace!!!

beautiful shot.

MOAR MIRIN.

 

also, how the F do some people do 20+ (1+ sec paused) dead hang? lmao. who knows maybe you'll get there eventually, seems really hard to me. would be sick if you got to 15 dead hang. For me, arms/lats just die out & don't recover. Imagine i'd need to add weighted variations to really try and bump that up, because i guess it's just taking too much strength to knock out each rep, even though they feel light/smooth initially.

pc!

CRAZY dreams lately, very vivid/intense.

last 3 nights from most recent:
1. was at a motorcycle shop trying to buy a dirtbike, choice between yamaha or honda CR.. never bought anything, was just trying to wheel and deal .. odd.
2. attacked by bees, going nuts trying to fight them off then used a high powered hose to wreck them.
3. just all kinds of nutty shit..

RATM'ish

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asP2BHnyUTo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asP2BHnyUTo</a>

Quote from: adarqui on October 02, 2017, 12:16:00 pm

Quote from: fast does lie on October 02, 2017, 10:12:59 am

^I would love to squat everyday. In fact I do squat everyday, sometimes just a few reps to some light reps, and other days the heavier.

I think I could squat heavier if I gulped big breath of air in my diaphram on the discension, but I don't do it because I view that as cheating. I actually exhale most the time before discension....

what.. exhale while descending? using air to increase IAP, cheating?

this convo would probably be best in your journal but, that's nuts. kill such thoughts with fire, and do what the best/elites do. absolutely none of them do what you just described. i'm 100% certain kingfish WOULD NOT prescribe exhaling while descending in a squat.

insane.

I guess I am just saving it for a good time to actually gulp big breath of air before discension. I realized that when I do do that it is so much easier than exhaling.

Quote from: adarqui on October 02, 2017, 12:32:29 pm

Quote from: fast does lie on October 02, 2017, 09:16:31 am

Week of Oct. 2

Notes Another week. No strength gains, and no fat losses. Just more time wasted. For some reason there is some ankle joint issue I have developed (the joint right behind the achilles tendon). It may have to do with having severe flat foot and fallen arch. When I twist it a certain way, there is some pain, but it almost never happens during sprinting and even bball.

I got one of my online friends to use strava, to record his running .. he's trying to get down to 140 lb, he's a professional boxer.

His weight one month ago, his current weight & his last 4 weeks of mileage:
- 159 lb.
- 160 lb.
- 12.3, 35.2, 21.4, 16.5

My weight one month ago, my current weight & my last 4 weeks of mileage:
- 155 lb.
- 146 lb.
- 51.3, 50.6, 58.6, 64.5

The point is.. data doesn't lie. Working out to work out is fine, it shouldn't be looked down upon, so all of those people who just want to hit the gym and get in some work to "stay healthy & fit", that's cool. But, when one has goals like yours, you can't just workout to work out.. If week by week goes by and it's the same "no strength gains, no fat loss" etc, then you should try and perhaps re-evaluate. Focus on literally just one thing (fat loss perhaps) and get it done.

There's absolutely no way to not lose fat if you're putting in the work and eating good. Anyone who struggles with this is simply not putting in the work, or if they are putting in the work, gorging on massive amounts of food ... but it's more often the first case.

Also, sucks about the ankle injury.. try not to mess with it too much though, like over stretching it/messing with your ankle. I actually injured my calcaneal ligament way back, by messing around with my ankle mobility.

peace

Yeah I try to have a purpose on each workout, sometimes just squat for blood flow, flexibility, and/or burn kcal. Sometimes obv for strength gain etc.  Maybe I need to just suck it up and go for the 4x8 heavy day that I've been putting off for such a long time.

The thing is that for me if i start to eat cleaner and less, i sacrifice sleep. i really don't sleep well if i don't eat a lot of calories. as you can see i get good sleep like 9-10 hrs each day on avg. sometimes i might sleep just 2-3 hr but i make up for it with 15 hour sleep days.

appreciate your opinion on things, ie "as to why you do them", but I don't personally think they are legitimate reasons for doing what you do..

for example, "exhaling during descent", absolutely no reason to do it.. not taking a huge gulp of air and holding it is fine if the weights aren't heavy, but when they get HEAVY, it's one of the best ways to protect your spine .. so your reason for "saving it", only makes sense if you are saving it for your heaviest sets. To not utilize this technique during such heavy sets, is a major mistake IMHO. I mean, I didn't do the actual "gulp", but you can see me inhaling like crazy before I get under the bar of a very heavy set. I force the air in to the max. So you don't necessarily need to "gulp", but you do need to get air in you to actually create a stronger base (core) and protect your spine (fuck belts for the most part, they don't teach you how to properly stabilize your spine without the use of a crutch).

then you go on to say, "if i eat clean I sacrifice sleep". Again, it seems like some kind of reason you believe, but it's just not the truth. If you literally starved yourself all day, and then just ate "alot but clean" before sleep, you'd sleep fine. That's an extreme example, but it's an example nonetheless. So to me, the real reason your sleep suffers when you shift towards eating clean, is you're probably making too big a drastic change, or inadequately addressing the timing and/or frequency of meals etc. It's something really simple, trust me.

also fwiw, 9-10 hours can lead to issues.. just like 6-7 hours can. it's very individual so, it's just a word of precaution. Oversleeping is linked to brain disorders, undersleeping is linked to cardiovascular issues. So just be careful you aren't waking up "groggy" etc.

TLDR: be careful justifying some of these things with reasons that really don't hold up.. and by careful I mean, to you personally. Not to the forum or anything. It's easy to fall back on explanations that are really just "excuses".

also note that, many times when I reply to you on stuff like this, it's from a wealth of experience of making similar mistakes.. I've made literally every mistake in the book. So this kind of feedback is just something I see as you potentially making similar mistakes. That's why i'm also glad that you reply, most of the time, without holding these things back from the discussion. I just think, a year or so down the road, you will look back on such posts and go "damn wtf was I thinking? all I had to really do was <...> and now look where i'm at".

peace!!

if you see these, might be worth a try if you're into protein bars etc.. they are actually pretty solid. They are really thin, but actually take a while to eat because of the dates I think. Very filling.

https://www.rxbar.com/shop.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwx8fOBRD7ARIsAPVq-Nml7Wrvp7cmrxSmROdrJtroPv9CSqs57PVBbAO_GJy1jkG__RC9XoQaAkFIEALw_wcB

I just had the seasonal pumpkin spice one and had another one several days ago, lmfao.