november when you didn't lift? isn't life much better now?
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monday i FINALLY moved up to the bar and 45lbs on the OHP. i actually found it to be a much easier transition than i thought it would be going from the 2 20lb dumbbells to the bar. will stick with the bar for another session on saturday to make sure my form is kosher but it felt good and my traps definitely appreciated the shrug at the top of the lift. by 'appreciated' i mean hated, but in a good way.
after some groin pain in my squats (aggravation of an injury that will never fully go away) i reexamined form and realized i'd slowly been allowing my stance to widen, brought my feet back into shoulder width and i feel much better about it now. ready to move up to 100lbs today i think. ack! my original goal was to squat 100 by xmas, then moved it up to thanksgiving, and now it looks like it will be today. i don't know why i get so nervous just about 5lb increments on squats.
deadlift monday was 140lbs, just because i wanted to see how silly the 2.5's looked next to the 45's. @amyinthetardis1231 i use the hex bar for deadlifts and i've liked it so far. i may try with the olympic one day, but i feel secure in the hex for now.
today sticking with benching at 65lbs, i have a really hard time hitting all my 5x5 reps with these. i've also been considering narrowing the grip to give some action to my triceps. @canadianlbs thoughts? anyone else have bench grip anecdotes or advice?
rows are at 85lbs today. no matter what, i can't make these feel natural. they are hard as *kitten* for a few sessions at whatever weight they are, then all of a sudden they feel too easy. i never get the moment where it all clicks.
i'm still getting a lot of DOMS from squats every session, or maybe the combo of squatting at night then running the next morning and stiffness. who knows. anyway, i kind of liked this long form post instead of just listing the lifts and weights.
thanks
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Jessi, thanks for the shoutout. I'll play around with trying both bars and see what I like best, but if it doesn't make a huge difference either way, I'm not worried about it.
Does anyone do front squats? I went over squats with my trainer again today, and we did both back and front squats. Back squats are easier, but put a lot of pressure on my wrists, where I have pain and mobility issues when I have to push them back at all. Front squats were a little more challenging, and I already have bruises coming up on the front of my shoulders from the bar (55 lb bar, I believe). Is there any way to alleviate the bruising from the bar on the front of my shoulders, or is just a matter of picking my pain? If it's the latter, I'll stick with front squats because I need to be able to pick my toddler up and I can't do that when my wrist gets inflamed.0 -
jessiferrrb wrote: »today sticking with benching at 65lbs, i have a really hard time hitting all my 5x5 reps with these. i've also been considering narrowing the grip to give some action to my triceps. @canadianlbs thoughts? anyone else have bench grip anecdotes or advice?
um. so, all i can really tell you about bench is the various ways that i've made various kinds of mistake. my 'groove' feeling is very hit-and-miss with them. i just found this though. our old friend mark rippetoe doing a bench tutorial that i havne't seen yet. i picked it up at the point where afaik he stops reminiscing and starts to teach.
haven't watched it yet, but i was looking for something else from him that i do remember liking a lot. the stuff that he says about bench in starting strength always seemed very straightfoward and lucid to me, so i assume he hasn't taken on one of his strange belief-quirks since then.i kind of liked this long form post instead of just listing the lifts and weights.
rows suck. until they work and then suddenly you decide you love them . . . and then they go back to sucking again. it's really hard to find a challenge level that is just right. i've actually stopped counting them as a 'full' lift because trainer day, and it's just more convenient for me to rotate them with chins/pullups as my assistance work for the back and lats. so fwiw under that protocol i do them with assistance rep scheme: 3x8-12, with weight i can handle. as opposed to 5x5 at weight i'm pushing my limits on. 1 -
yay! i did 1's week and i really like how the last workout went.
press 50/55/60. i was strong the whole time and i got FOUR on my final, 'top' set. mr t was extremely impressed.
deadlift 125/145/160 and i threw on his little 3/4 pound collars just to be able to say i pwnd it. i went for four on that one as well, and lost count. so my fourth-to-make-sure might actually have been number five.
feeling good. the deadlifts were heavy even in the mid set. and then they were heavier still when i did the first 160 rep. normally i would have been discouraged or a little daunted, but i think because i did all that hypertrophy on monday, my mindset has changed. i just felt too due to be able to do this to take 'heavy' for an answer from it. so i thought 'well, if it felt heavy then you were not tight enough so get tighter first.' and i think five was all i had, but i also got that feeling like it would have gotten easier and easier if i had kept up with it, instead of getting harder.
so i'm really happy with this cycle. everything's up, i feel solid, especially for getting those extra reps in the top weight of the entire cycle. and tomorrow i'll hypertrophy my squats and bench if everything's feeling okay. and then it's deload.2 -
Went to gym yesterday but was home late and had work this morning early (not scheduled that early but was asked the previous shift if I could go in earlier than set) so I didn't post things afterwards. Trying to type now but it's taking me longer to type because cat thinks she needs to be in my lap.
Lifting went okay and I did upper body except minor thing. Not sure what caused the issue but for the last three days my left elbow has been causing me problems. It's not sharp but there is dull pain on a regular basis. Not lifting per se as they happen at random depending on how my arm is held and such. Quite a nuisance as the left is my good arm and not supposed to be giving pain. Had the minor aches when lifting too, push press, but hasn't been bad at all.
band pulls - 3x10
push press - 2x8 @ 45, 3x6 @ 65 and 1x6 @ 70 with straps (trying it out)
cable bicep curls - 3x8 @ 35
tricep pushdown - 3x10 @ 35
clean - 3x8 @ 50
20 minute jog on treadmill
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amyinthetardis1231 wrote: »Does anyone do front squats?
i'm, um, doing them right now, as far as i know. i'll find out tomorrow, i guess. i'm so hit-and-miss with squats in general, sigh.
with the wrist problem on back squats . . . i should ask if you're doing high bar or low bar, although i don't think i could even set up for high bar so my thoughts may be of limited use if you're different. afaik your hands aren't really meant to actively support or control the bar, in lowbar. they're just there to 'trap' it against your shoulders, if that makes sense.
my first thought is that you can widen your grip if that's what it takes to keep your wrists straight. so long as you remember to keep your upper back 'tight' it's just as good. accommodating your own body's needs is more important than meeting some specification for width.
second thought is that an open grip is fine if that works better for you [maybe not for high bar, idk?]. i take a grip on the bar like i'm giong to bench or press, but once i duck under i release my thumbs and just hold it with the heel/blade of my hand. the way my hands are shaped, wrapping my thumbs forces my wrists and forearms into an angle that i don't like and can't get comfortable with.
and finally, for squats in general: i have to keep re-learning this one myself. but messed-up mobility for me and the squats almost always turns out to equal tight pectoral muscles. pec major and minor can both mess me up, in slightly different ways. so maybe check that out? a lacrosse ball and a wall can be a pretty powerful combination where your pecs are concerned. and if your trainer hasn't shown you how to do broomstick 'dislocates' take a look at that too. first part of warmup for me is a lot of dislocates and i kind of linger at the points in that rom where i'm tight.
for front squats, idk if the bruises are typical? i think i've had it worst when i was using the crossed-arms 'california' grip because your arms are internally rotated, which is against the line of force of the bar itself. so you can't really get as braced or fight back against the weight in the way that you can when you do the traditional grip. but idk if that grip will be feasible for you, since it also puts a pretty good bend in your wrists.
dk if any of that helps. if you squat high-bar, maybe someone else has some thoughts because i'm not even sure what the mechanical necessities are around that.0 -
amyinthetardis1231 wrote: »Jessi, thanks for the shoutout. I'll play around with trying both bars and see what I like best, but if it doesn't make a huge difference either way, I'm not worried about it.
Does anyone do front squats? I went over squats with my trainer again today, and we did both back and front squats. Back squats are easier, but put a lot of pressure on my wrists, where I have pain and mobility issues when I have to push them back at all. Front squats were a little more challenging, and I already have bruises coming up on the front of my shoulders from the bar (55 lb bar, I believe). Is there any way to alleviate the bruising from the bar on the front of my shoulders, or is just a matter of picking my pain? If it's the latter, I'll stick with front squats because I need to be able to pick my toddler up and I can't do that when my wrist gets inflamed.
Check out Alan Thralls video on how to squat on YouTube. Your wrists shouldn't be bent & your thumbs should be outside the bar-not wrapped around it. His pointer is to imagine you are trying to bend the bar around your back.
I don't love front squats but I do them. I'm actually doing PHUL, not StrongLifts now.0 -
hypertrophy/formkeeper day. bench press and squats, both 5x10@50 pounds.
i did the front squats as well. not as happy with form on any of them as i was the last time, but i think i kept it all decent enough that it will hopefully count towards the muscles i'm actually trying to benefit by doing all this.
and a kid - a male, muscly kid - scuttled over between my fs sets and asked me to help him get his fs form right. he couldn't rack the bar on his delts at all, so i ended up just showing him lat and tricep stretches to help him with getting his elbows free to come up. but still i was very very offensively proud of myself being good enough at that part at least, to be shoulder-tapped and interrupted like that.
obeyed my own something-that-grew-on-a-plant rule afterwards and walked there and back, so pretty satisfied with myself atm.0 -
*raises hand*
I do front squats too. However, I get more pain in my hand/wrist from front squats than either high bar or low bar. My right hand has some issues so it gets achy on a regular basis as I work retail so even just picking up a big bottle of water can cause discomfort at times. I get some redness from the bar but haven't bruised from doing front or back squats, though I haven't gotten above 100 yet on the front ones. I like all of the variations when it comes to squats. I need to do some squatting tomorrow.0 -
Thank you all for the feedback about squats! For front ones I had my arms crossed in front, which I guess would be the California grip? I think some of the bruising is from letting the bar roll too far down my upper arms in that position. I can't do the other grip in front because I can't bend my wrists back at all.
I did back squats the other day when I went, and managed to keep my wrists straighter, which felt better. I also used kinesio tape to support the worse wrist. To keep them straight, I feel like I have to rotate my arms forward a bit, lifting my elbows so my forearms are almost parallel to the floor, if that makes sense. Is this problematic? I think it would be much easier if u didn't wrap my thumbs around the bar, which a couple people mentioned. I'll try that next time. I also had a very wide grip, or at least it felt wide to me. I'm not sure if it was a high or low bar position, but I think it was low. Hard to tell without someone to look or take a pic from the side.
In every joint in my body except the wrists, I have much more difficulty with hypermobility than tightness, so it's unfamiliar ground to deal with this kind of issue. My last trainer session is this week, and I plan to have him show me bench press. Do you think that will cause issues with my wrists, or should they not be bending back in a bench press? Thanks again for all the responses, they are very helpful. I'm looking forward to going back to the gym on Monday!1 -
actually, i think straight wrists are the ideal for all the lifts that i've heard about. when you let the bar roll into the palm of your hand, you end up with this triange thing going on: bar-wrist-elbow. and your wrist becomes the 'hinge' of that triangle, which is a lot of strain it wouldn't even need to be taking if you can keep your wrists straight. when the bar sits more in the heel of your hand the arm bones are directly underneath it, so it's 'compressive' force which your joints are more built to deal with. off-angles gives you more 'shear' force which tends to be harder on them.amyinthetardis1231 wrote: »To keep them straight, I feel like I have to rotate my arms forward a bit, lifting my elbows so my forearms are almost parallel to the floor, if that makes sense. Is this problematic?
i do have an issue of my own where elbows-up can mean i kind of roll my whole ribcage forwards to make space, which is really not good and usually another sign of me and tight pecs. but it's hard to picture how it might look for somebody else. you could post a clip in the 'form check' thread if you're able to record one - side view is best.
for front squats you actually can do a 'frankenstein grip', if you feel like it. arms just dead-straight ahead. i've never tried it although i keep meaning to, as there can't be a better way to keep myself honest about how upright i am.
this clip won't help you much if you are squatting high bar, but at least if you watch it you'll probably figure out which one you're doing. and if you're low-bar, well, you'll have a little more information to think about.
i'm not sure who's a good high-bar authority. i think alan thrall squats high bar and pretty much everything he's put on youtube is good. [i'm of the school who believes that he buttwinks in his deep squats, but that's beside the point here
]
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I did back squats again today but stopped trying to wrap my thumbs around the bar--what a difference!! I tried alternating high and low bar positions and I think high bar may feel slightly better. I'm feeling some soreness in my hips from the squats, probably because I'm hypermobile in my hips and have a lot of overstretched ligaments, so I have some weakness in the hip flexor area. Hopefully doing this program will help strengthen and repair what dance ruined for me. Lesson learned: just because you CAN push a middle split past 180 degrees doesn't mean you SHOULD push it that far.
I don't know if I'm really officially doing SL yet because I haven't started bench press, but I wanted to wait until I have a trainer go over my form (should be tomorrow), and to make sure my wrists can take it. Wrapping and keeping them straighter made a world of difference today, so I'm hopeful. My workout today was:
Squats: 2x5 with empty bar to warm up, 5x5 @ 55
OHP 5x5 with empty bar
Deadlifts 2x5 @ 75 lb
Bent over rows 5x5 at 55 (empty 55 lb bar)3 -
todays workout
squats 5x5@99lbs
bench press 5x5@57lbs
rows 5x5@57lbs.0 -
amyinthetardis1231 wrote: »so I'm hopeful.
yay! \o/
i did lift 1 of my deload week: deadlifts at 85/105/120. due to brain fail that's actually heavier than i should have been, but at least it wasn't from lack of mathness. i just forgot that deload is 40/50/60%, so i started at 50 and went up in 10% jumps.
and i did 4x8 pendlay rows for assistance at 65 pounds. light(ish), and it's like 65 is just my go-nowhere-forever weight with the rows. but i really liked how they felt at this weight and i'm still babying my s.i. zone, so i'm perfectly happy with this.
i'm happy because deadlift is my totem lift atm and the 120 for the top set didn't feel much more than nicely comfortable.
walked to the gym with the band on, did 15 cycles of super-conservative walk-55-jog-5-seconds 'running' re-entry on my way home. this is the activity that effed me up for five weeks the last time i tried it, but i have gone so glute-happy for the past month that you never know, maybe this is the magic attempt where it works.0 -
With front squats, I did the cross arms in the beginning but was difficult when the weight got heavier and despite my hand issues, I've been relying on "clean grip" ish. It's on my traps more, near my throat with hands doing only some of the support but so far has been okay though I don't get much above 100 yet.
For today's lifting:
Squat - 2x10 @ 45, 1x8 @ 95, 1x8 @ 135 and 3x5 @ 155
Good Morning - 3x10 @ 75
Curtsy Lunge - 3x8 @ 75
Glute Cable Kickback - 3x8 @ 20
Oh and 20 minute jog.0 -
yesterday's workout was:
squats, low bar: 5x5 @ 100lbs
bench: 5x5 @ 65lbs
rows: 5x5 @ 85lbs
@canadianlbs i feel the exact same way about the rows.
work is getting CRAZY now as we're gearing up for art week miami, and the week itself is just packed, so i'm hoping to get my 3 days of SL in at least and maybe just trash the cardio if something's got to give. there will be a ton of walking between venues and around fairs at any rate.2 -
today wendler deloaded overhead press. 30/35/40, with three circuits of unevenly-loaded suitcase carries at incremental kettlebell weights.
and that's ALL i did. i was so tired i walked down there, put my shoes on, did the carries, took my shoes off and did 2 warmup sets, got told off for being barefoot so put my shoes back on, and did the final two sets. i kept wanting naps every time i wasn't actually doing a set. took me 5 mins or so just to deal with the shoes
i thought it was something like not enough vegetables at first. now that i'm home and it's all over with, i think i'm just coming down with something. i hope so. i can't believe 40 pounds gave me trouble today.0 -
My gym was busier than usual for a weekday late morning, I guess everyone was trying to run off their pumpkin pies. Someone was stalking the squat rack while I was in it, which was distracting. She looked like she spends a lot of time in it, but watching her walk back and forth behind me was a little irksome.
Still not doing the full SL program but doing what I can. Both times that I added OHP and pendlay rows I ended up with neck/upper back pain that lasts for a few days, so I'm troubleshooting to see if I can figure out which one is giving me trouble, and I asked my trainer to check my form on them when we meet again next week. So today was a bit light:
Squats 2x5 with empty bar, 5x5 @ 65 lbs
OHP 3x5 @ 50 lbs (insta-fail on that lift, first time trying to raise the weigh from the empty bar)
Deadlifts 2x5 @ 80 lb
I know DL are supposed to be just one set of five but since I'm not doing all the other lifts and I think my DL weight is still on the light side, I do an extra set.2 -
totally in different world after a day on the computer playing mafia. but last day of deload.
bench 45/45/57.5. i made sure i got those last couple pounds on.
squat #meh whatever. darn it . . .0 -
hypertrophy saturday. oy. i've been eating poorly and not keeping up with my water intake, and i felt it. gassed out pretty fast so had to break everything into small sets, but got all the reps done. wasn't even going to try to add squats to this day. i didn't have the energy left to change out of flat shoes
50x100lb deadlifts. i tried 115 because plate-math lazy. was a joke at that weight. went back to 95, meh. 100 pounds is about 55% of my training max for this new cycle and it felt okay. i took them in sets of 5 and i did try to use glutes instead of hamstrings, so i'll see what the bum says about that tomorrow.
50x45lb overhead press. last time i did this two weeks ago it was a breeze. this time, not so much. i did the same sets of five and just chugged through them, but the quick fatigue was still there. could be partly because i tried some specialized presses [bradford?] at t-day yesterday and new parts of me were feeling them.
100 pounds is about 55% of my tm for this cycle's deadlifts, and 45 is 70% of my press. so instead of trying to decide on a percentage progression with this extra workout, i'm just going to keep these weights and work on 'progression' in the sense of endurance. i'm going for the ability to execute these weight for sets of 10 instead of the small chunks that i'm doing now. today sure wasn't the day where much progress was shown on this plan.
but from what i've read, hypertrophy is really about volume when you get down to it. so long sets are seen as 'hypertrophy' lifting just beause it's easier to get more volume that way. should mean that even if i did it as singles, it would still have some kind of effect.
today i moved: 7250 pounds of weight. that's actually like 3.5 tons. whoa.2 -
Yesterday's workout
Squats 5x5@99lbs
Bench 5x5@59lbs
Rows 5x5@57lbs.
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Still avoiding rows for the moment, since I think they're what bothered my neck--lifting my head up too high, maybe? Today's workout was a 10 min walking warmup, then:
Squats 2x5 with empty bar to warm up, then 5x5 at 70 lbs. Felt my legs getting a little tired at that weight, and had to watch out when I leaned too far forward in one rep.
OHP 5x5 at 45 lbs. Think I'll stick at this weight for another workout bc it's still challenging, and maybe bumping straight up to 50 is too much for now.
Deadlift 2x5 @ 85 lbs
Can I vent a little about other people at the gym? I don't usually go to the gym on Sundays because I'm usually working, but I took this week off for the holiday. There were a bunch of younger guys there today, in the late teens/early 20s bracket. Most of the guys there are fine, although several of them seem to have a habit of leaving hundreds of lbs on the deadlift bars and leaving them all over the room. Today, this one kid, maybe 18 or 19, came over while I was doing OHP and started doing DB shrugs in the weight area. Only, with 50 feet of mirror space to stare at himself in, he parked his butt 6" away from the squat rack, right in the line of my bar path. Fortunately I was doing OHP so the bar wasn't loaded, but he seriously had to step back every time I raised the bar, only to pop right back into that spot when I lowered it. I was this close to saying something really snarky but I bit my tongue and figured if he got smacked in the head with a descending bar it would get the message across clearly enough. Lucky for him, he stayed just outside the reach of the bar but it was really annoying.
The other one was just odd, not really annoying or in my way. An older woman came in and laid on a mat to do leg lifts. She pulled a book out of her purse and started reading in the middle of the floor whilst doing her leg lifts, and sipped on a peach iced tea while she worked out. If you can concentrate well enough to do both, more power to you--just seemed odd to come to a gym just to do stuff you could do at home. Maybe I'm too judgy.1 -
Made it to the gym after attending a write in for some generic lifting. I need to get consistent again and I have to decide if I can afford the meet that is coming in January, along with the IPF membership.
squats - 2x10 @ 45, 1x8 @ 95, 1x8 @ 135 and with belt 3x5 @ 160
good morning - 3x10 @ 95
deadlift - 1x8 @ 135, 1x5 @ 165 and with belt 3x5 @ 1851 -
It's-a-me, Melllllio! (N64 Mario Bros reference, btw) xD
Hey guys! Long time no lift together! I kinda went MIA there for a while. Life's been kinda crazy, workouts were hard to report, diet fell through the cracksgaping pits of stress. And now I'm back here seeking a little accountability and motivation!
Re: the thread title: I sure rememeber a time where I lifted much more than I am now >_> Arhem.
Bck on the 5x5 boat for a little while here. Had my wife move in with me semi recently, had to take 2 full weeks off, had a hard time getting back to it, and overall I've just been getting worse and weaker since so I figured going back to basics was the way to go.
Workout A yesterday:
Squats @85
Bench @75
Rows @75
added 3 sets of straight arm lat pulldowns (35x15, 45x2x12) and broad jumps x5 to round it off
Workout B today (I was feeling like crap and going through the motions yesterday so it felt like it didn't count? Also, low low weights, weird schedule, eh)
Squats @95 (+ used the bar to do "leg assisted" pull-up negatives x5 each set)
Deads @115 (5 sets of 5 here, volume over weight right now, need to get my groove back with my lower back being a lil tweaky)
OHP @55 (did 1 set @60, could've done them all, but it felt like more effort than all the other exercises so I scaled back a bit more).
I added 300 reps of different core exercises as per the earn your thanksgiving challenge I am trying to finish. So late on that. Missed too many days
I'm hoping to cruise my way back up the weights to at least 145 on squats, 115 on bench, 105 on rows, 185 on deadlift and 75 on OHP, but we'll see how it goes. I need to spend more time recovering and less time stressing out if I want to make this happen for sure!
Can,t wait to catch up with you gals. Feels like it's been forever!2 -
Today's workout
Squats 5x5 @99lbs
OHP 5X5@47lbs
Deadlift 1x5@126lbs.
Wasn't really feeling today's workout,not sure why but the exercises that felt easyish last week felt a lot harder today.i worked out this morning and felt hungry so could've been that .I think I lift better at the end of the day after a days worth of calories ha.it was my first time at 126lbs on Deadlift and that's a few lbs heavier than me so that felt pretty good.0 -
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Back to A this morning.
Squats 45x5, 65x5, 85x5, 95x3
105x5x5 - with hollow hangs from the bar between sets (20-30s)
Bench 45x8, 60x5, 75x5
85x5x5 - hip stretches between sets
Rows 45x8, 60x5, 75x5
85s5s5 - more hip stretches
Took me 1h20 minutes to get through a warm-up (25ish minutes) and this. And i felt like i was only resting about 90s between sets if that
I don't know how that works out, really... where does all the time go?
Rows already feel like I should start slowing down on the increase, but they felt really solid today. Rest is still sort of going through the motions trying to get back into the groove with perfect form-like. I really need to get someconditioning in tomorrow tho! lol1 -
ugh. been playing mafia since last wednesday and my lifting has suffered like crazy from it. eight days hunched in a chair typing furiously at strangers over the internet . . . not a great thing. i did go in today and try squatting, but it was pretty gruesome.
it was a weird situation though. i could not get the form right, so everything was awkward and clumsy and weird. yet at the same time i think this hypertrophy day is working, because i could physically sense how much extra muscle i have. even though i couldn' t 'find' any of it or assemble it right, the sensation of everything-feels-different was there all the way.
i can't tell right now if i'm in totally crap shape, or really great shape 0
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