Author Topic: chasing athleticism  (Read 924163 times)

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LanceSTS

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Re: w7d1
« Reply #150 on: August 06, 2012, 05:00:19 pm »
+1
Training
FS 2x3x100 (PR)
BS 3x6x90
BP 3x6x75
pushups 2x10
cable rowz 2x10

Bodyweight: 84kg

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

I'm halfway to my front squat goal now - another 20kg left til i'm using 1.5*BW for triples on front squats with my ideal bodyweight of 80kg.

I felt very weak today after the warmup with 100kg for a double on backsquats felt kinda heavy, but i forced myself to go ahead and front squat a PR after the backsquat warmups anyway. Feels good man. On a good day I would smoked it with perfect form, but today I was just happy to get my reps in. I think I have a couple more weeks of adding 5kg/week - and then i'll switch to 2.5kg/week. If i'm ambitious i'll hit 110kg by the end of August.

I owe a big one to Lance. I wouldn't have thought to break at the knees first on backsquats - it was the last thing i would have tried unless he had asked me to. So today I tried it even though i was skeptical. But im happy to say it has solved my good morning problem once for all. Even towards the end of the set with fatigue setting in, when I would have gotten folded over out of the bottom, it didn't happen, my positions were good even on the limit reps. I'm so blown away what a difference it makes.

Afterwards I analysed the video carefully, breaking at the knees first on backsquats (and fronts too for that matter) means my knee position is further forward; this SOMEHOW preserves my back angle out of the bottom of the hole, improving my positions at the bottom all the way to the top. It's genius. It takes an experienced person to make a suggestion like that and i'm very grateful to have received the wisdom. Thank you so much Lance :D



 Glad that helped man, those front squats looked great too!@!  :highfive:
Relax.

Raptor

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #151 on: August 06, 2012, 05:01:29 pm »
0
I will never understand, in my lifetime, how it's possible for people to keep their elbows forward like that in that position.

entropy

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #152 on: August 08, 2012, 01:11:28 am »
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We have very similar squat issues, forward lean due to long limbs etc. I use the knee break too , it has helped me a lot, although i have a long way to go yet.
But the main reason i am posting is the front squat. That 100x3 is very tight! Drastically improving form while hitting 3RM PRs is no joke!
:highfive:

It will be interesting to see how I go with form issues once the backsquat weights get heavy again. I'm hoping the new knee break movement will serve me well but it remains to see what happens. The thing i'm really excited about though is finally building some leg strength from my recent front squatting. The LBBS for me was mostly a hip/glute/lower back exercise and for the first time it seems i'm building leg strength. I feel it during the exercise and later in my sore legs. That's all new. I measured my thighs recently and I saw a 0.5" improvement since the last time. And that's while trying not to gain weight of course because i've been "cutting". Adding another 20kg to my FS will do wonders for my leg strength :)

Glad that helped man, those front squats looked great too!@!  :highfive:

I'm hoping to have even nicer front squats on friday when i'm nice and fresh unlike Mondays. Thanks!

I will never understand, in my lifetime, how it's possible for people to keep their elbows forward like that in that position.

lol .. before I started doing them, i was a bit afraid of failing front squats. With back ones you can just ride the bar down and it's easy. Failing a front squat seems scarier, I dont wanna break my bar dropping it on the pins,  but thankfully i haven't failed yet.


My bodyweight goal for the month - want to reach 180 lb

I'm getting a bit frustrated with weight loss. I've been on the wagon for 2 days now and it's not showing up on the scale. Hoping to break under 83kg by Monday - another 5 days to go and about 0.9kg to lose.  Have decided that I will break 180 pounds by the end of the month by being super strict for the remainder of the month. I want to see my abs mid sept  and quoting walt in breaking bad, having  "a chocolate cake with chocolate icing".
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

entropy

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w7d2
« Reply #153 on: August 08, 2012, 10:05:16 am »
0
Training
BS 3x6x92.5
OHP 3x5x52.5
CURLZ 3x8x35

Short and sweet, BW:83.9kg.

Battle with squat form ever present. Think I figured out a few things though which I'll try on friday.
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

LBSS

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #154 on: August 08, 2012, 11:09:16 am »
0
two days is nothing, be patient. fat loss just seems to happen that way sometimes. see lyle's article, "of whooshes and squishy fat": http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html.
Muscles are nonsensical they have nothing to do with this bullshit.

- Avishek

https://www.savannahstate.edu/cost/nrotc/documents/Inform2010-thearmstrongworkout_Enclosure15_5-2-10.pdf

black lives matter

entropy

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #155 on: August 10, 2012, 01:26:51 pm »
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two days is nothing, be patient. fat loss just seems to happen that way sometimes. see lyle's article, "of whooshes and squishy fat": http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html.

4 days complainant now.. still pretty much the same bw lol .. i'm def in a calorik deficit cos i'm hungry often ..



but when I get that woosh i'll be happy :)
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

entropy

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w7d3
« Reply #156 on: August 10, 2012, 01:44:01 pm »
0
Training
SQ 2x115
FS 2,3,3x102 (PR)
SQ 3x6x95
BP 2x6x77.5,1x5x77.5 (CG), 3x5x62.5 (Wide grip)
RDL 3x120 (PR), 8x95 (PR)
~20 dead hang chins

Exhausted. I finally got around to fixing my floor problem. My floor tiles are uneven and sloped, and this makes it hard to squat properly. So today I spent like 3 hours trying to fix that. I got some concrete slabs and laid them out. I dunno how I spent so much time on this but I wasn't sure how to solve it - so just walked around looking at stuff I could use. Decided against wood cos it would get damaged. Anyway tomorrow I gotta level the slabs but I just squatted on them today even tho they wobble atm.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHk19vySbw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHk19vySbw</a>

The new floor is so much better already but it changes the pin heights and things. I fucked up my first set of front squats cos the pins were too high (i had try to adjust them prior but it still needed to be one hole lower). Caught my 3rd rep on the pins and failed it. Sucked. So I did one more set to make up for it, and form was kind of iffy today anyway. I think the 2-3 hours I spent on my feet mighta contributed to that.

Then came backsquats - oh I forgot to mention, Lance is spot on about my form breakdown, the heavy set of 115 had the exact failure mode Lance predicted - I got GM - letting my lower back power the lift since my legs wouldn't. Hmm. Next week probably go with 112.5kg and try to get THAT with good form and just add reps for the heavy set over the coming weeks. I think 120x3 with GOOD form would be nice as a short term goal.

Backsquats, on the 2nd set, I strained something in my groin. I worked thru it, it's not painful or anything, just has that pulled/strained sensation. Got all 3 sets, my form is good for the first 4 reps, and the 5th was ok but 6th borderline. I guess as fatigue sets in, it starts to resemble the form breakdown I saw in the heaviest set.

Then bench, this changed too with the higher floor. I found it more comfortable esp with my legs higher up now (the floor underneath my feet is not raised). I like it, I could stay tighter that way. But i still couldn't get all 3 sets, the last one only managed a 5. Next time reset 1kg back and take smaller jumps. Maybe 1kg? We'll see.

RDLs, i misread my log and went for 3x117.5, which is what I had done last time. So repeated it with 120x3, this was ok, just my grip strength sucked today and even warmups felt heavy in my hands. The bar kind of rotated in my hand on the 9th rep of the set with 95kg and I put it down.

Oh and I stupidly tried to clean 60kg off the failed front squat but the bar was a bit too high to clean properly, and I managed to fail halfway and then bang it into the pins. Might have bent it badly. I spun it on the pins and it was def wobbling. It's a shitty cheapy bar and quite old now and I have been thinking of replacing it but i'm not going to spend a lot of money on a bar - i'm not a professional athlete or anything so spending $500 on a barbell isn't happening lol. May just get another cheap one and then treat it really gently, for my goals I don't see it getting too much of a beating. I'll use it for squats and presses only.

And yeah the workout was too long, I didn't risk sprinting with my groin strain. next week do RDLs on monday, friday workouts are too long
« Last Edit: August 10, 2012, 02:03:04 pm by entropy »
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

entropy

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #157 on: August 11, 2012, 05:08:16 am »
0
Hmm, woke up with the groin strain sensation still there. Not looking good, have been googling and it seems it takes around 4-6wks to heal a grade I :( Watched all three sets of backsquats and I can't see anything that would have caused the injury. They are actually really nice sets, probably the best form of mine i've seen on video.

 I think the 3 hours on my feet before the workout might have been a reason, maybe I had some fatigue there that make me vulnerable? Dunno.

My other theory is cos my front squats took longer this time (due to the extra set) and I went straight front squats to my backsquat worksets - that I had gotten cold, and I should have warmed up again.

But i've done the sequence of 1. backsquat warmup, 2. front squat warmup, 3.front squat workout then 4. backsquat workout; many times and never had any problem. I usually go thru the fronts pretty quickly tho, this time I had to do an extra set and I took a bit longer rest too. And I guess I have been using a lot of volume too, squatting 3x6 every workout for the last 2 weeks, maybe that caught up with me somehow.

Anyway will see how it feels on monday otherwise i'll prob rest the week
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

Raptor

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #158 on: August 11, 2012, 06:19:10 am »
0
Nah, if you didn't actually feel the injury etc, and there was nothing wrong with and during your squats, I don't see why it would take that long to recover.

LanceSTS

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #159 on: August 11, 2012, 08:24:24 am »
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I agree with raptor. Feel it out though, do some light stretching and myofascial release/massage, dont do anything that hurts it.  It sounds like a very minor strain, shouldnt take too long to heal, definitely not a month.


also, compression pants (hard material) will do wonders for your issue there until its healed.  You can also get a neoprene thigh sleeve and pull it up high on the leg.  Ive done this with a torn sartorius and didnt miss a single squat workout.  Those sleeves can really help a ton.

« Last Edit: August 11, 2012, 08:37:59 am by LanceSTS »
Relax.

entropy

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #160 on: August 11, 2012, 11:23:21 am »
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You guys might be right, seems to be improving as the day goes on. I did try to rest as much as possible which mighta helped. See what happens over the next coupla days. Ive started icing as well, not usually a big fan of icing becos i dont wanna intefere with normal healing but thought to try it.  I will look around the pharmacy for that sleeve too lance, thank u.
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

Raptor

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #161 on: August 11, 2012, 12:29:56 pm »
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not usually a big fan of icing becos i dont wanna intefere with normal healing

That's like saying "I'm not a big fan of training becos I dont wanna intefere with normal body development"

entropy

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #162 on: August 11, 2012, 12:42:33 pm »
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lol tru bro. what if ur family is starving, is it ok to steal a loaf of bread to feed them? and what if they dont like bread, they want cigarettes, thats ok right?  :P im trying to remember this absurd analogy i had running thru my mind earlier today
Goals: Cutting to 6-8% bodyfat

Raptor

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #163 on: August 11, 2012, 12:56:34 pm »
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Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright

Oooook... time for your medication now...

LanceSTS

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Re: chasing athleticism
« Reply #164 on: August 11, 2012, 01:01:29 pm »
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lol tru bro. what if ur family is starving, is it ok to steal a loaf of bread to feed them? and what if they dont like bread, they want cigarettes, thats ok right?  :P im trying to remember this absurd analogy i had running thru my mind earlier today

lmfao
Relax.