Change goals or no?

vorgas

A bit of background: My goals are to do 315 lb squats before I leave home at the end of this month. I'm about 30 lbs shy. After that I was going to cut weight down to 205 (about 15 lbs) and try to do an Iron Man by the end of the summer.

Yesterday while lifting I kinda hurt my abs so it prompted some research. I found out there's a few things I've been doing wrong with the squat. None of it was a big deal until I was lifting heavy.

Now I have a choice. The best thing to do is to deload and focus on correcting the things that are wrong. But if I do that, then my goal of a 315 lb squat before I go on rotation isn't gonna happen.

That means I either give up my squat goal or my iron man goal for this year.

I could try very hard to correct my technique and still progress, but there is some danger there. I've been lifting for about 8 or 9 months, so I'm not a total stranger to it. It's just small things like not extending hips first, gripping with thumbs under the bar, etc. But changing grip is a pretty big deal.

I'm hoping maybe somebody can offer up some thoughts I haven't had yet, because honestly I'm torn. I've got pretty thick skin, so whatever you have to say, I'm willing to consider.

Thanks.

SoViLicious

Putting this on my news feed so my FL can see it and hopefully offer some input.

SoViLicious

Just curious what does the Ironman entail?

heybales

A bit of background: My goals are to do 315 lb squats before I leave home at the end of this month. I'm about 30 lbs shy. After that I was going to cut weight down to 205 (about 15 lbs) and try to do an Iron Man by the end of the summer.

Yesterday while lifting I kinda hurt my abs so it prompted some research. I found out there's a few things I've been doing wrong with the squat. None of it was a big deal until I was lifting heavy.

Now I have a choice. The best thing to do is to deload and focus on correcting the things that are wrong. But if I do that, then my goal of a 315 lb squat before I go on rotation isn't gonna happen.

That means I either give up my squat goal or my iron man goal for this year.

I could try very hard to correct my technique and still progress, but there is some danger there. I've been lifting for about 8 or 9 months, so I'm not a total stranger to it. It's just small things like not extending hips first, gripping with thumbs under the bar, etc. But changing grip is a pretty big deal.

I'm hoping maybe somebody can offer up some thoughts I haven't had yet, because honestly I'm torn. I've got pretty thick skin, so whatever you have to say, I'm willing to consider.

Thanks.

The squat will help in the Ironman a tad, though strength and the endurance required are a bit opposite. But it won't take long to make that muscle aerobically fit and burning fat well.
Though, end of summer, like August, 3 months?
Wow, that's tight schedule if you are just starting out the endurance stuff.

You been doing the 3 things already on your recovery days as cardio? I'd finish up your squat goal first.
Keep cardio to 60 min max, and keep it in the Active Recovery HR zone so you don't kill your lifting repairs, or make you tired for the next day.
Besides, that HR zone is badly called the fat-burning zone, and that's exactly what you need for endurance anyway, so it'll be great training right now.
If the lifting is different stuff on different days, select wisely the days for doing the jogging, biking, swimming.

I'll bet you find that when the form is correct, you'll pop right back up there in weight. You watched some of the videos of people getting corrected on their squats by pro's? They hit new max's right then that day, and could have kept going if not for weak supplemental muscles.
From your description, that probably won't be your issue.
Just do your warmup sets and nail that form, more reps the better CNS memory is imprinted.

If you have some days with no squat, do a light 95 lb bar for some reps anyway.
Do it on the recovery day. That's light enough for you to not be an additional load on muscles on rest day.

That's what I think.

Got a program for the Ironman training?
I did Half last year with very little specific training, except dropping the lifting so I had more time.

vorgas

Thanks for the reply.

I'm really in pretty good cardiovascular shape. I've done a half Iron Man already and plowed through 8000 calories in one day on more than one occasion. I recently cut out all heavy cardio to focus strictly on muscle gain.

My actual Iron Man deadline is based on when it's too cold to get in the ocean and go for a swim. I'm in NE Fla, so that's pretty easily into Sep.

I didn't really notice people going right back to maxes on the instructional videos. Didn't notice them not doing it either Wasn't really paying attention. Certainly encouraging to think they did.

I hadn't thought about doing super light on non lift days. I do squats 3x a week. You're right, putting in some light bar reps on days off to help nail the form should work out ok. I think I can skip progression for 2 sessions and still make the 315 lb goal before the 28th.

Maybe hitting both goals is still doable

heybales

Just in case some other tips, but this is where just changing as we was doing it led to going over previous max.

http://train.elitefts.com/instructional/so-you-think-you-can-squat-parts-1-5/