november when you didn't lift? isn't life much better now?
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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 -
Last night workout
Squats 5x5 @99lbs
Ohp [email protected] time at this weight and felt ok.
Deadlift 1x5 121lbs. First time at this weight too!
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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
