First day back in almost two weeks. Covid the Second caught me right at the start of my weekend off and I had to lock up for a week.
Kicked off with back squats. 3 or 4 sets at 155 lbs for 4 to 5 reps. They moved ok. Still focusing on hitting it deep and trying to work through my tight hips while keeping my back as erect as possible. Slow going but I feel like my overall squat form has improved a bit? Maybe? It's hard to tell when you workout alone.
Edit: dropped the bar with the same 155 lbs and did stiff leg deadlifts right after but I did them off the bottom rack (right at shin height) instead of off the floor. It only added about 2 or 3 inches of height but I felt like I activated my hamstrings and, more importantly, my glutes way more which is odd. I think it might be because pulling from the rack gave me a quick beat to really refocus those muscles and brace up for the pull whereas stopping just short of the ground had more constant tension it was also much harder to maintain that mind-muscle connection throught the majority of the set.
So going forward I may do the rack pulls with a heavier load for strength and then use off the ground pulls at a lighter weight but higher rep range as a mix. This is mostly hypertrophy focused so I'm not trying to max out my stiff legged deadlift (are those the same as Romanian deadlifts?) but it does feel good to get a solid 6 to 8 heavier pulls in from time to time.
Oh cool a random shooting pain in my right shoulder/trap two reps into first set of incline dumbbell presses.
Wonder what that could be?
Try varying the angle you make with your torso to your elbow. I try to keep my elbows in to about 45 degrees to my torso and that gives me more stretch and a more...full? press.
If I swing my elbow out to 90 degrees it is the kind of pain you describe.
Yeah just switch it up. I make a change every eight weeks. I use the exrx website and just click on the muscle group I wanna target and do something different.
Well I hit new PRs on overhead pressing and deadlifting today.
But yeah I think I’ve solidified the idea that I need a bit of a change/break. I’ve been feeling more out of it lately; which could also be outside stuff and it’s been hard to get 3 sessions a week for about a month with summer stuff going on too.
That could be a good idea. When I was hitting a wall of OHP I was supplementing it Arnold presses and I feel like that directly helped me push it further.
I am not a particular fan of dumbbell rows myself. Barbell rows feel more effective to a degree but not like, a lot more.
I fuckin love chest supported T-bar rows. The handles give you some variation to swap out your focus from your rear delts and traps to your middle back. The bench under your chest makes sure the only thing moving the weight is your back.
Honestly, I feel like my mid back, delts and traps respond better to cable and machine exercises. They seem to like higher rep ranges and less weight so cable based movements let me focus on really nailing the specific muscle group with constant tension.
I'm very excited right now. My wife has been very supportive of my working out, to include equipment purchases, time spent, and space required. But now that's she's been following some folks on Instagram for me (I don't really have social media, so she watches them for me) she's got her interest piqued by strongman and a somewhat local competition. I've told her that there's no way she or I would be ready to compete by the time the comp happens, but she's into starting so that she can eventually compete.
I've got programs and experience for the basic lifts, but has anyone seen and can recommend a beginner strongman program? I'm gonna buy Barbell Medicine's Strongman template, and Brian Alsruhe's just released Every Day Carry program looks like a lot of fun for me. But I'm looking for specifically strongman intro stuff.
Also, just got my first axle bar and some Spud Inc swing straps, so now I can do yoke work and smash my ankles at the same time! Looking forward to the first time one of my kids jumps on one side while I'm carrying.
Strongman training looks fun but I already clearly have an equipment “issue”, so I’m trying to avoid falling down that particular hole.
I decided to do a one month caloric surplus, minicut, then do my standard 12 week surplus. I traded having abs for my beach vacation for another month of gains because I’m almost 40 and nobody cares what I look like without a shirt on anymore.
ChadBot rewarded me with six sets of eight on SSB. Love you, too, robo bro.
Strongman training looks fun but I already clearly have an equipment “issue”, so I’m trying to avoid falling down that particular hole.
I decided to do a one month caloric surplus, minicut, then do my standard 12 week surplus. I traded having abs for my beach vacation for another month of gains because I’m almost 40 and nobody cares what I look like without a shirt on anymore.
ChadBot rewarded me with six sets of eight on SSB. Love you, too, robo bro.
Someone said on the Homegym subreddit, and I've started asking myself this as well when I want something new, "Is this a piece that does something that can't be approximated by what I already have, or am I adding to a collection?"
Having that "collector" vs "user" mindset introspection has saved my wallet a few times already.
I think I’ve been pretty good about only buying stuff that lets me do things I couldn’t before (except for when I upgraded my plates). But for strongman, there’s sandbags, logs, an axle, a yoke, a sled, a loadable stone, a loadable circus dumbbell. The last two are probably not needed, but I don’t think I could approximate any of that list.
On the other side of things, I was too focused on using the barbell for everything after buying it and plates cause they were so expensive. Now I realize I was ignoring really great dumbbell exercises as a result.
I went for awhile without dumbbells. Getting Powerblocks was a revelation, but a pair of loadable handles from Titan are pretty cheap and use the plates you already have.
There's basically two sides to strongman training, getting really strong and implement specific training. Most people are going to have to focus on the first one at home because buying a log and a yoke and some atlas stones isn't really practical, although you should live your best gym life and far be it from me to discourage gym purchases. The biggest things to work on are the deadlift, your grip, and your endurance under load, and from what I saw in the video Brian's EDC program would do good things for you there. If @Kakodaimonos ever sees this he can give you better tips than I can.
I think I’ve been pretty good about only buying stuff that lets me do things I couldn’t before (except for when I upgraded my plates). But for strongman, there’s sandbags, logs, an axle, a yoke, a sled, a loadable stone, a loadable circus dumbbell. The last two are probably not needed, but I don’t think I could approximate any of that list.
Yeah, strongman is another deep rabbit hole. I'm hoping I can satisfactorily combine the axle and yoke by using the swing straps and loading plates rather than having a dedicated yoke. Same with the sandbags and a stone. Obviously the stone will have a very different feel from even the tightest packed sandbag, but at least picking a heavy, round-ish object off the ground and tossing it over my barbell will get me close enough to stone work to avoid "needing" stones.
I do still really want a log, though that is currently on the "collector" side of things until I get more space.
I went for awhile without dumbbells. Getting Powerblocks was a revelation, but a pair of loadable handles from Titan are pretty cheap and use the plates you already have.
Y'know, I've been looking around for something to use once my 10-50 Powerblocks aren't enough. Those look like a darn good option.
I did have an incident with my plate loaded dumbbells on Sunday when I was doing rows but quick feet saved me. I haven’t looked too closely if it was an equipment failure on the collar or user error.
Sandbags are decent substitute for stones but there are some differences. An axle bar is going to be cool no matter what for presses/deads/rows. Farmer Carry handles can make a great substitute for trap deads if you’re willing to go that route.
The yoke is probably sufficiently solved with the spud straps, although if you didn’t have it I would say heavily loaded marches/walkouts with a straight bar wouldn’t be a bad substitute in the rack.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Well I am all over the place performance wise at the moment. Plateaued finger strength, pullup strength is up then down then up then down... I dunno if it's my own weight, but I've gone from doing 5 reps at 33kgs added weight to failing at 5 reps at 28kgs added weight, in like a month
Probably tired, a bit overtrained, and just in need of pulling back a bit, restarting a progressive increase block and getting that consistency in
Brian Shaw built a car loaded leg press for the Shaw Classic in a few weeks and I might actually buy that livestream, it's a legit lineup and a dope bunch of events.
Brian Shaw built a car loaded leg press for the Shaw Classic in a few weeks and I might actually buy that livestream, it's a legit lineup and a dope bunch of events.
The lineups have always been legit, but the streams have always been complete trash. They have always cheaped out on production/streaming so your odds of getting a good product on the day are not good if you go by history.
Brian Shaw built a car loaded leg press for the Shaw Classic in a few weeks and I might actually buy that livestream, it's a legit lineup and a dope bunch of events.
The lineups have always been legit, but the streams have always been complete trash. They have always cheaped out on production/streaming so your odds of getting a good product on the day are not good if you go by history.
Yeah I know but if it's $10 or under I'll probably do it to support the event and then complain loudly if it sucks so that hopefully they do a better one next year.
Gonna try to re-hit my working max for squats from 2017 today, excited to make numbers continue to go up
I hit it! Got a fist bump from the guy in the rack next to me for my troubles.
In the interest of being able to sleep better I have finally cracked and bought blackout curtains. My window faces east and the light crept in through the blinds about 2 hours earlier than I was planning on waking up. I also bought ear plugs, so if the tension rod i used to hang that thing falls I will be none the wiser (til about 6am)
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Just realized the American Pro this past weekend was only 40 minutes from where I live. Whoops.
Seeing Dan Grigsby pull 1,074 would have been neat. And John Haack…being John Haack.
There was a lot of good lifting at that meet, it would have been cool to be there. You could have seen that epic misload for Penson (squatted 925lbs, tried to go for a fourth but they accidentally put an extra 40kgs or something on the bar and he got stapled), rumor was he went a little nuts after that whole thing.
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Kicked off with back squats. 3 or 4 sets at 155 lbs for 4 to 5 reps. They moved ok. Still focusing on hitting it deep and trying to work through my tight hips while keeping my back as erect as possible. Slow going but I feel like my overall squat form has improved a bit? Maybe? It's hard to tell when you workout alone.
Edit: dropped the bar with the same 155 lbs and did stiff leg deadlifts right after but I did them off the bottom rack (right at shin height) instead of off the floor. It only added about 2 or 3 inches of height but I felt like I activated my hamstrings and, more importantly, my glutes way more which is odd. I think it might be because pulling from the rack gave me a quick beat to really refocus those muscles and brace up for the pull whereas stopping just short of the ground had more constant tension it was also much harder to maintain that mind-muscle connection throught the majority of the set.
So going forward I may do the rack pulls with a heavier load for strength and then use off the ground pulls at a lighter weight but higher rep range as a mix. This is mostly hypertrophy focused so I'm not trying to max out my stiff legged deadlift (are those the same as Romanian deadlifts?) but it does feel good to get a solid 6 to 8 heavier pulls in from time to time.
Wonder what that could be?
Try varying the angle you make with your torso to your elbow. I try to keep my elbows in to about 45 degrees to my torso and that gives me more stretch and a more...full? press.
If I swing my elbow out to 90 degrees it is the kind of pain you describe.
But yeah it probably is syphilis.
I’m also feeling a little burned out on just doing these core lifts. Kinda want to just take a week and do some variety things
But yeah I think I’ve solidified the idea that I need a bit of a change/break. I’ve been feeling more out of it lately; which could also be outside stuff and it’s been hard to get 3 sessions a week for about a month with summer stuff going on too.
Personally, I've been really impressed with switching from barbell to dumbbell bench press.
I fuckin love chest supported T-bar rows. The handles give you some variation to swap out your focus from your rear delts and traps to your middle back. The bench under your chest makes sure the only thing moving the weight is your back.
Honestly, I feel like my mid back, delts and traps respond better to cable and machine exercises. They seem to like higher rep ranges and less weight so cable based movements let me focus on really nailing the specific muscle group with constant tension.
I've got programs and experience for the basic lifts, but has anyone seen and can recommend a beginner strongman program? I'm gonna buy Barbell Medicine's Strongman template, and Brian Alsruhe's just released Every Day Carry program looks like a lot of fun for me. But I'm looking for specifically strongman intro stuff.
Also, just got my first axle bar and some Spud Inc swing straps, so now I can do yoke work and smash my ankles at the same time! Looking forward to the first time one of my kids jumps on one side while I'm carrying.
I decided to do a one month caloric surplus, minicut, then do my standard 12 week surplus. I traded having abs for my beach vacation for another month of gains because I’m almost 40 and nobody cares what I look like without a shirt on anymore.
ChadBot rewarded me with six sets of eight on SSB. Love you, too, robo bro.
Someone said on the Homegym subreddit, and I've started asking myself this as well when I want something new, "Is this a piece that does something that can't be approximated by what I already have, or am I adding to a collection?"
Having that "collector" vs "user" mindset introspection has saved my wallet a few times already.
Yeah, strongman is another deep rabbit hole. I'm hoping I can satisfactorily combine the axle and yoke by using the swing straps and loading plates rather than having a dedicated yoke. Same with the sandbags and a stone. Obviously the stone will have a very different feel from even the tightest packed sandbag, but at least picking a heavy, round-ish object off the ground and tossing it over my barbell will get me close enough to stone work to avoid "needing" stones.
I do still really want a log, though that is currently on the "collector" side of things until I get more space.
Y'know, I've been looking around for something to use once my 10-50 Powerblocks aren't enough. Those look like a darn good option.
Sandbags are decent substitute for stones but there are some differences. An axle bar is going to be cool no matter what for presses/deads/rows. Farmer Carry handles can make a great substitute for trap deads if you’re willing to go that route.
The yoke is probably sufficiently solved with the spud straps, although if you didn’t have it I would say heavily loaded marches/walkouts with a straight bar wouldn’t be a bad substitute in the rack.
Probably tired, a bit overtrained, and just in need of pulling back a bit, restarting a progressive increase block and getting that consistency in
Using chalk to give yourself Braveheart face paint adds 50lbs to your squat instantly. It’s science.
and I gotta say, also a big difference!
The lineups have always been legit, but the streams have always been complete trash. They have always cheaped out on production/streaming so your odds of getting a good product on the day are not good if you go by history.
Yeah I know but if it's $10 or under I'll probably do it to support the event and then complain loudly if it sucks so that hopefully they do a better one next year.
Seeing Dan Grigsby pull 1,074 would have been neat. And John Haack…being John Haack.
I'm so close, but I can't get over that breakpoint
Maybe I need to start doing heavy 3s
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Hows your form? Getting a good arch with solid foot and shoulder planting?
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I hit it! Got a fist bump from the guy in the rack next to me for my troubles.
In the interest of being able to sleep better I have finally cracked and bought blackout curtains. My window faces east and the light crept in through the blinds about 2 hours earlier than I was planning on waking up. I also bought ear plugs, so if the tension rod i used to hang that thing falls I will be none the wiser (til about 6am)
Smite: Plutoniumwombat
There was a lot of good lifting at that meet, it would have been cool to be there. You could have seen that epic misload for Penson (squatted 925lbs, tried to go for a fourth but they accidentally put an extra 40kgs or something on the bar and he got stapled), rumor was he went a little nuts after that whole thing.
I think its generally pretty good, I'll take a vid next time I do em
I think that tbh i just need to push my working set weight to 5x5 at 80kgs and the 95kgs will flow from that.