March to the Gym
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Yes, welcome @monica182 and @Cadori !
Great job on the OHP, I'm still working to get to that level (don't get me started on my weak shoulders and being stuck on the same weight for months grumble grumble).1 -
I'm having some trouble advancing on barbell rows. At one weight, my back does not get tired out after multiple reps, so I go up to the next weight. But then, my arms are doing more work so they tire out first, and I can't feel my back doing much work. What can I do about this?0
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I'm having some trouble advancing on barbell rows. At one weight, my back does not get tired out after multiple reps, so I go up to the next weight. But then, my arms are doing more work so they tire out first, and I can't feel my back doing much work. What can I do about this?
Easiest way to help would be to see a video of you doing the rows. So if you can do that, I'll be able to give you feedback for sure.
Otherwise, the general issue with rows is people tend to grip the bar too hard and too narrow. Try a finger over grip, without the thumb, about where your fingers lend if you put your thumbs on the bar at shoulder width and extend them.
Then, the trick is in the way you initiate the pull: think about bringing your armpits to face back behind you, shoulder blades squeezed and down (some people like to cue scaps into your back pocket). Your shoulders should not be shrugged/hiked up. Then pull your elbows up as opposed to the bar/hands, pause when the bar is about touching your chest and try to keep the shoulder blades tucked on the way down instead of releasing the whole system. You may still want to reset at the bottom of the rep in order to ingrain that motor pattern, as it will be useful for chin-ups, and also most pushing exercises as well!
I'd say, try this out with a lighter weight than you are used to and take your time with the reps. It takes a bit to learn to engage the lats properly, and retracting the scaps every rep is not as easy as it sounds, but once you've got the hang of it, you'll like rows more.
Oh, and having a stable base also helps. Engage your glutes and don't lock your knees, and spread the floor with your feet.0 -
One more lame-ish workout accomplished. Shoulder is still being weird with anything overhead, so it was a frustrating bunch of crap, but hopefully it'll go away soon and I can get back to my usual routine. Random annoying joint weirdness is annoying!
Bench: 3x8 @ 82
Seated row: 4x5 @ 90
Shoulder press with DBs: Made an *kitten* of myself with these, since I failed most of the sets I tried. Eventually ground out a couple sets of 10 with 20 lb dumbbells, in bits and pieces. No idea wtf is going on with my shoulders and overhead work but apparently it ain't happening right now.
Assisted pullups with wide grip: 5/4/3 @ -80 Still just not feeling very strong, and much less strong in this position than in the neutral grip assisted chin ups. At least my cycle started (sorry, TMI) so the hormone shift should happen soon, and I can try again when I'm back to normal.
@hanlonsk stop beating up your feet!0 -
Thanks @krokador - I think my hands may well be too close together, because I think I can get a feel for what you are saying - pull elbows up, tuck shoulder blades. I will have to stick with the lighter weight to get the right feel for it. Agreed on engaging the glutes - I have to tighten the hell out of my glutes and hams to keep myself in the right bent-over position and not tip forward.1
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^^^ there's also seal rows, if you feel up to all the fiddling and futzing around to set up for 5x5 sets of them. i've only bothered a couple of times, but they are very good for taking all the compensatory muscles out of the game and leaving you with nothing to do but pour it all into your lats.
mr t says that he's never had a female client who said she could feel her lats working, even when they quite clearly were. odd fact.0 -
I rarely feel my lats.... on the rare occasion I have, its the next day.
I’m taking this deload week a little too seriously. Yesterday I just skipped the gym entirely. Today I got put thru the paces at pt, was gimpy, I technically showed up to the gym, watched some folks take a go at 315 lb deadlifts hoping the gimpy would pass.... and it didn’t, so left. So, I am arguing that 5 minutes stair climber, 10 minutes running, and multiple jump circuity things count as a conditioning day, and I will just move on to squat day tomorrow.... providing I go tomorrow ...oops.0 -
I had that problem feeling the lats to a certain degree, too. But it was even worse for me with the pecs. Had to learn to squeeze 'em on their own before I could feel them on the proper exercises. Lats will come on a lot easier when your shoulders are depressed (and if you look at anyone doing rows for the first time, they usually are not, as we are shoulder forwards people for the most part), and the rib cage expanded (think about making yourself look wider, I guess?) Hold that and do a rowing motion, just sitting there with no weight at all, you'll feel the lats
Best way to learn to activate the chest I've found was holding a ball with my arms extended in front of me, and pushing into it from both sides.
As hard as my upper body was to learn to contract different parts, though, I've always been able to get by quads firing just sitting there. I always found it facinating as a kid that I could make my knees move... without moving xD0 -
Cardio today, 10 mins walk, 30 mins jog. Have changed my goals to only lose 1lb per week from this point on to try and maximize my strength and try to reduce any muscle loss. I could do less cardio, (averaging 30-40 mins most days) but going from morbidly obese to now being able to jog for 30 minutes straight I really don’t want to lose the fitness level I have built up. Internal struggles!
Have lost 27kgs so far but still have 16 to go so feeling a bit apprehensive slowing the weight loss down. Also still have 800 calories to eat after dinner... didn’t plan too well today with the extra calories. Going away on the weekend so thinking I might bank some of the extras for then. And maybe some ice cream tonight2 -
&*(%?(%?%(? I busted my shin up doing box jumps. Again. Darn you crossfit open >_<
So, well, today I worked up to a single power snatch @90lbs + 2 box jumps @20' (progression was 65x3, 75x2, 80x1, 85x1, 90x1 so I got in 5 sets of 2)
then I was gonna do an 8 min amrap at 75% of my weight, adding 1 jump per round to see how well I handled fatigue. The breaking point, apparently, was on my first jump on the round of 8, at 6:45 or so.
That basically ended the workout for me.
Guess who's going to be doing step-ups when the ox jumps come up in the open? This gal!
URGH!
I'm frustrated.
I was doing well. Pacing myself. Resetting properly. My body just had a half second of stupid and my left leg didn't quite follow and I clipped my toes on the box.
Sometimes I wonder if I don't have some kind of medical condition where I have random, momentary losses of coordination. I'm such a clumsy gal. I tend to bit my lip/cheeks/tongue a lot just randomly when speaking sometimes. What if it's not cuz I'm a clutz and not paying attention? What if I'm not at fault for all these Krashes I've experienced so far?
What if it's something I can't fix and prevents me from doing the things I love down the line?
*Angst*1 -
RDL - 7/7/5 @ 90 pounds
Overhead press - 3x8 @ 40 pounds
Lat pulldown - 3x8 @ 80 pounds
Lunges - 3x162 -
Sometimes I wonder if I don't have some kind of medical condition where I have random, momentary losses of coordination. I'm such a clumsy gal. I tend to bit my lip/cheeks/tongue a lot just randomly when speaking sometimes.
I choke on my own spit. Just sitting there. When it happens at work, cue several people asking if I'm OK. Fine...just too dumb to live apparently.2 -
I choke on my own spit. Just sitting there.
LOL! well, obviously. i mean, there are so many more-important things to think about . . . like chocolate. and getting the perfect deadlift.
i'm not doing very much body-wise. not even keeping up with the rehab this week, because life. but saying hi to the new people and daydreaming about how if i get a new job/different hours i will just pay someone else to magically fix every fibre of me and make me normal again.
i moved a new dryer into my dad's basement and brought the old one out last weekend, and then i dug up his back yard and we collaborated on murdering a small holly tree in the front and yanking it out by its roots. so i've been feeling it.
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canadianlbs wrote: »^^^ there's also seal rows, if you feel up to all the fiddling and futzing around to set up for 5x5 sets of them. i've only bothered a couple of times, but they are very good for taking all the compensatory muscles out of the game and leaving you with nothing to do but pour it all into your lats.
Hmmm, I should try those as well. I don't have problems on activating my lats on lat pulldowns, but on barbell rows I don't feel it between the shoulder blades if I lift more weight. Will go with everyone's suggestions.
Ow @krokador ! but you have been doing amazing. Don't know what to say on those lapses. I have balance problems myself at times - it all started when my left knee started acting up every so often on going downstairs. It made me afraid to go downstairs without railings because I thought the knee would suddenly hurt. Now I panic if there is no railing and the stairs aren't wide enough and I think I'm going to trip and fall going down without a railing. Talk about embarrassing. And forget box jumps, I think I am going to fall over after landing on the box.
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&*(%?(%?%(? I busted my shin up doing box jumps. Again. Darn you crossfit open >_<
So, well, today I worked up to a single power snatch @90lbs + 2 box jumps @20' (progression was 65x3, 75x2, 80x1, 85x1, 90x1 so I got in 5 sets of 2)
then I was gonna do an 8 min amrap at 75% of my weight, adding 1 jump per round to see how well I handled fatigue. The breaking point, apparently, was on my first jump on the round of 8, at 6:45 or so.
That basically ended the workout for me.
Guess who's going to be doing step-ups when the ox jumps come up in the open? This gal!
URGH!
I'm frustrated.
I was doing well. Pacing myself. Resetting properly. My body just had a half second of stupid and my left leg didn't quite follow and I clipped my toes on the box.
Sometimes I wonder if I don't have some kind of medical condition where I have random, momentary losses of coordination. I'm such a clumsy gal. I tend to bit my lip/cheeks/tongue a lot just randomly when speaking sometimes. What if it's not cuz I'm a clutz and not paying attention? What if I'm not at fault for all these Krashes I've experienced so far?
What if it's something I can't fix and prevents me from doing the things I love down the line?
*Angst*
I think when you push yourself really hard you’re bound to have co ordination issues at some point just from the fatigue. That’s why I’m sticking to steady state cardio for now, I would love to do all this bad *kitten* stuff I see all the really fit people doing in the gym but I just know I would hurt myself! Well done for pushing yourself to your limits. Just stay safe so you can keep pushing those boundaries.
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Once again, good thing it’s a deload week.
Squats
5x45
5x60
5x70
Leg press
3x10 @ 100
Hip thrusts
3x10 @ 35
There was also lunges in there, but ummmi skipped those, those just seemed like a really bad idea still.
Good thing it was short. I spent the rest of the night speaking to the calm and rational people in my life. I applied for a job rashly, spontaneously, and last minute thinking, based on the fact government moves slowly, I would have some time think it through a bit, and to pull my application if I wanted to. Yeah, 24 hours after the thing closes, they ask for an interview...0 -
Well, after thursday morning's demolishin contest, I was a bit wary of going in and doing 18.3. Because jump rope. and impact on my leg with the bruise is quite uncomfortable. But I slapped on my shin guards and it actually wasn't too bad, even though, as expected, I didn't get very far.
First attempts, I got my 2nd set of 100 jumps done at 2:06, then tried to get a pull-up by kipping and moving my grip around for about 3 minutes. It looked a bit like this:
So I moved on and decided to finish the workout with jumping pull-ups. Made it through the 2nd set of 20 bar overhead squat before the cap. Obviously would've gotten a better score if I hadn't wasted 3 mins trying to do something that wasn't meant to be, but eh.
I wasn't happy with my original cut-off time, though. I tripped on the rope, which slowed me down a lot. So I rested a bit and went back and dropped my time to 1:48. BOOM!
Then did 5 min AMRAPs sections (everything is 3 reps):
A) 2kb hang cleans @30 + RDLs + pike press with feet on 12' box -> 6 rounds and 3 rdls I believe
bear crawl x15ft, 2kb bent over row @30lbs, kb goblet drop lunge (/leg) -> 4 rounds and 1 lunge / leg
C) assisted strict pull-ups, assisted ring dips, 2DB front squat @ 20lbs (should've stuck with the 30s, this was too easy) -> 4 rounds? maybe 5?
3 min AMRAP -> burpee broad jumps = 18
Yup, a mere 18. I was just trashed. Better workout tomorrow xD
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I’m behind on reporting apparently.
Friday
5x circuit of
20 wall balls 8 lb ball,
45 sec plank
10 push-ups
10 hanging knee raises
Saturday
Deloaded deadlifts
5x85
5x105
5x125
Bent over rows
3x10 @ 60
Straight leg deadlifts
3x12 @ 75
Facepulls
3x20 @ 70
Today
5x repeat of
20 kB swings @ 35
Down and back trap bar farmers carries @ 175
5x10-15 rope crunches @ 1500 -
DST screwed up my sleep and like, where,d that 1 hour go? it's almost 5 PM and I haven't done anything today
I did make it to the gym, barely. xD
Bench 95x10, 95x11, 95x10, 115x2/2/2 (20 seconds between doubles. The last rep was a sloooow grind!)
Pendlay Rows 85x12, 90x12, 90x11, 110x2/2/2 (same as the bench)
I wasn't feeling any hardcore conditionning and almost headed home there, but I found a speed/power session in my notebook I hadn't done, so I did that xD
emotm x6 + 1 min rest between setups
1A) 2KB squat Clean (2x30lbs)
1B) Hand release push-up + small jump at the top 7/6/7
2A) 1 arm Kb snatch 3/arm (40lbs)
2B) 20' box power step-up x3/leg (bw on first round, 30lbs goblet hold last 2)
3A) 2KB push press x6 (30lbs)
3B) assisted strict pull-ups x5
3 min AMRAP (or 3 minute trying not to die, really)
-3 burpee to target
- 6 hanging knee raises
Got 4 + 3 burpees. I think. I lost count, to be honest. I had a hard time even just unglueing my chest off the floor. My chest/shoulders/forearm are sore from the jumping pull-ups yesterday. Legs are fine, though. I will enjoy a rest day tomorrow (there is no way I'm getting myself up at what is essentially 4AM to my body on a monday, anyway).1