My SBD’s were getting a little long in the tooth and I saw that the Inzer Ergo Pros were available on Amazon, so I said why the heck not and snagged a pair.
I can absolutely recommend them as the most fucking painful way to remove all the hair from my legs. Jesus. These things are tight as hell. TBD on how good they are for my squats. They’re definitely the most heavy duty sleeves I’ve worn.
250 pounds for two sets of four on the barbell bench today. I'm only 25 pounds from my 275 pound goal I set like, years ago. Ideally 275 for working sets not necessarily ORM.
I've been seeing tiny strength gains lately. God I hope I can keep it up and not blow anything out again.
Edit: the downside is my overall conditioning has tanked.
I was gonna do a 5 minute circuit of box jumps at the end of the workout with 20 seconds of jumps and then 10 seconds of rest and I made it roughly 2 minutes before I had a stitch in my side.
I'm gonna have to add in some HIIT or something on my off days I think.
Dangit. Planted my back foot weird doing a split jerk and had to awkwardly bail the bar forward. Managed to get out of the way from the bar fine, but jumped backwards and hyperextended my knee when I landed. It's not too bad but it's going to be real stiff and sensitive for a week or so, going to have to take it easy
It's taking me longer to recover between sessions lately and it's a little frustrating, I might have to start doing yoga on my off days or something just to keep from freezing up.
I've started strict pressing recently as some shoulder work that externally rotates them rather than internally rotates like the bench and weighted pulls
getting back into it is weird. like things are hard but it's all weights i've done before so it's almost like mental game to push through that is supercharged because "I've been here before" or something.
I think I may need to get eyes on my squats soon though. I basically am having to foamroll my left IT band every time during my warmup or else it hurts and pulls very tight and I have no idea if it's how I'm squatting, unrelated body things, or what.
I squatted in heels for the first time (VersaLift heel inserts in my regular shoes, to be exact). I always brushed off stuff about ankle mobility, but holy crap, I am now a believer. My glutes were like rocket ships. Definitely recommend the VersaLifts, too, since they’re pretty cheap.
Just pulled 3x4x275 on the traditional deadlift. The last rep I pulled 5 like I was supposed to after I strapped up and took a second between each rep to kind of reset and focus on my breathing because I was getting the vapors. I really need to start paying attention to my hydration levels and stuff before a deadlift day so I stop feeling so woozy.
But the good news is I was able to pretty decently move 275 on my traditional which has so far really lagged behind my sumo deadlift.
No lower back issues thus far, felt like I had pretty good hip hinging and kept my glutes and hamstrings really tight and activated through the drive.
First, yeah, what Gork said, what does better mean? Also it's hard to do power cleans without a decent bit of space around you and plates you can drop and a place to safely drop them, which makes them hard for a lot of people to do, where the barrier to entry for a deadlift is a lot lower.
Also also deadlifts teach you to brace properly and how not to hurt yourself when you're picking something up off of the ground and picking stuff up is a life skill IMO so if you're talking about practical carry-over I'm taking deadlifts all day.
Yeah, I understand the desire to focus on exercises that feel more specialized to certain things but I think a better mindset would be to take you're foundational strength moves like squats and deadlifts and better modify those, be that with the amount of weight, reps or frequency to fit what you want and what you want out of your body.
There's a reason why squats and deadlifts are the undisputed king of multijoint movements and are a huge contributor to overall strength.
What I heard from a few people is just that the injury risk and CNS fatigue of the deadlift was just too high and that power cleans will develop strength similarly but without the same injury and CNS concerns.
I deadlift, personally, but I do kinda see the argument.
Eh, I don't fully buy into the argument that certain moves are "safer". I've pulled muscles on a Smith Machine. You can fuck yourself right up with bicep curls if you don't know what you're doing or ego lift without the form and experience to back it up.
It's just that the deadlift and heavy squats normally blow out the lower back (see: me) when they go sideways and those are very painful and take longer to recover from than a lot of other injuries. Hell, I developed extremely severe, extremely painful tendonitis in my left wrist that tooks months to heal when I was regularly doing hang cleans in my routine.
I would love to know what @Dead Legend thinks about power clean vs. deadlift, but from where I'm sitting they are very different movements that are going to build very different kinds of strength and muscle. The clean is explosive and doesn't have an eccentric portion at all (if you drop it), it's going to do different things for you than a deadlift is.
I know there’s some mental game parts of all of this but god damn I made a minor stance adjustment after some body weight squat tests, then just paid extra attention to the grounding of my feet and not only did I not have any IT pain, but I felt significantly stronger just noticing my feet
The stimulus to fatigue ratio of deadlifts is high, no question. They should be programmed appropriately to manage your fatigue. If you’re doing one rep maxes every week, you’re going to be very fatigued and you probably are going to injure yourself. But any exercise can cause injury if not done correctly or if you don’t take into account your general recovery. Powerlifting has a relatively low injury rate compared to other sports.
For example, today I did a heavy single deadlift followed by three sets of moderate doubles. Then I did some GHDs, some ab work, and that was it. My workload was kept relatively low and I feel great.
I do really like deadlifts at low weights. Pushing heavy singles and sets when I started was all well and good until I got exhausted all the time and my back was not in a good position, because my form sucked. I got to about 155kgs and I don't think I've done a 1 RM since. I don't hugely want to.
These days I am doing them at like 70kgs for knee rehab and its a nice time. I just focus on form and smoothness etc. Ego lifting is the real issue tbh. I was just curious what people thought as I've heard a few people say it independently.
I'll be starting low weight barbell squats this week so that'll be fun. Last time I 1 RMd on the squat I was at what my bench is now roughly, I should probably sort that out lol.
I would love to know what "Dead Legend" thinks about power clean vs. deadlift, but from where I'm sitting they are very different movements that are going to build very different kinds of strength and muscle. The clean is explosive and doesn't have an eccentric portion at all (if you drop it), it's going to do different things for you than a deadlift is.
Two different movements. You’re pulling the bar off the ground but that’s about it. You can move more weight with the deadlift than the clean.
If anything the clean should begin by “squatting” the weight up to achieve the proper positions in the pull where the best I can describe the deadlift is wedging your body into position using the bar as an anchor and then once optimal tension is achieved, hinging at the hips to lift the weight up.
Both are effective at what they do
Edit: I would argue the average person just training for strength would be better served doing deadlifts unless they are being taught how to clean by a competent individual. I will say that I have trained athletes with an emphasis on Olympic lifting and I have trained athletes without doing any Olympic lifting and have achieved similar results as far as max increases, run times, and vertical
Improvements. I love teaching the Olympic lifts but if you really want to make an argument over what’s the best exercise for the average person to move a weight from the floor to their shoulders I would say a sandbag or an atlas stone would be “functional”.
Dead Legend on
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Yesterday I had zero IT band/outer knee pain doing squats. That’s good! Also damn it I just put up with that for way too long for something I could literally fix in a day
Gonna spoiler this because its just me venting more and I know that shit gets old.
I guess I've been struggling with some mild to severe discouragement lately in the gym. My lower back was a little off when I went in to do squats today so I had to be real gentle and careful and slow. Meanwhile, everybody around me was squatting 3 plates a side minimum. And it's like, fuck man I used to be able to do that and here I am, this pretty stout dude, barely squatting 225lbs with a box on a good day. My pride is not taking it well for some reason. Usually I can knuckle down and be like "hey they aren't recovering from an injury" but it's getting me this time.
Like, I went to set up for my second set and the whole rack is at a slight angle to the seam in the floor and I was so in my own head I couldn't tell if my hips and feet were straight in comparison to the bar and I just didn't even take it off the hooks because I knew in my bones if I did that set I would twist in half and die. I just said fuck it and unracked my weights. I feel like such a big soft squishy baby and its been like this for going on 2 years now. I don't know how much of it is actually my body not being able to do this anymore or how much is just like, PTSD from the last 2 times I fuckin broke myself.
The addition of heels and new sleeves seems to be enough of a placebo to reignite my ability to squat because ChadBot added 30lbs to my working sets over the course of a peaking session. Either that, or I really was suffering from ankle mobility issues and worn out sleeves. Either way, I’ll take it.
Weather was finally good enough to take some maces outside on Monday, and let's just say that split second of standing on one leg while getting in the bathtub that evening was problematic.
Some of my lifts are getting back to about where I was before my move. It feels good that it only took a couple of weeks instead of redoing the whole journey to get to where I was. Soon we’ll be pushing new numbers!
The Smashwerx guy is doing a series on shoulder rehab and you don't need any equipment for it besides a box/bench/couch, his stuff's pretty solid and has helped me keep myself relatively limber.
That's apparently a thing that's been going around in the weird fitness instagram circles lately. At least since this Chris Bumstead guy said it and apparently he's the Weight Daddy of the internet I guess so now all the kiddies are saying it too.
I'm an increasingly strong proponent of sumo since it has significantly helped me progress past my back injury that's made conventional deadlifts much harder. There are also strength carry overs that I've felt when I swap back to conventional!
Posts
I can absolutely recommend them as the most fucking painful way to remove all the hair from my legs. Jesus. These things are tight as hell. TBD on how good they are for my squats. They’re definitely the most heavy duty sleeves I’ve worn.
Felt good, baby!
I've been seeing tiny strength gains lately. God I hope I can keep it up and not blow anything out again.
Edit: the downside is my overall conditioning has tanked.
I was gonna do a 5 minute circuit of box jumps at the end of the workout with 20 seconds of jumps and then 10 seconds of rest and I made it roughly 2 minutes before I had a stitch in my side.
I'm gonna have to add in some HIIT or something on my off days I think.
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
But I only see seven...
No jk it’s food poisoning
Ah the fast cut method
They're great. Big fan.
I think I'm going to program next week as a deload. I kinda want to just finish this week out as one.
I think I may need to get eyes on my squats soon though. I basically am having to foamroll my left IT band every time during my warmup or else it hurts and pulls very tight and I have no idea if it's how I'm squatting, unrelated body things, or what.
Halfway through mine. I miss alcohol.
I squatted in heels for the first time (VersaLift heel inserts in my regular shoes, to be exact). I always brushed off stuff about ankle mobility, but holy crap, I am now a believer. My glutes were like rocket ships. Definitely recommend the VersaLifts, too, since they’re pretty cheap.
I've heard a few people these days that power cleans are probably a better choice for anyone who isn't a straight up powerlifter, thoughts?
Regardless, deadlifts are the best and most funnest.
But the good news is I was able to pretty decently move 275 on my traditional which has so far really lagged behind my sumo deadlift.
No lower back issues thus far, felt like I had pretty good hip hinging and kept my glutes and hamstrings really tight and activated through the drive.
Also also deadlifts teach you to brace properly and how not to hurt yourself when you're picking something up off of the ground and picking stuff up is a life skill IMO so if you're talking about practical carry-over I'm taking deadlifts all day.
There's a reason why squats and deadlifts are the undisputed king of multijoint movements and are a huge contributor to overall strength.
I deadlift, personally, but I do kinda see the argument.
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
It's just that the deadlift and heavy squats normally blow out the lower back (see: me) when they go sideways and those are very painful and take longer to recover from than a lot of other injuries. Hell, I developed extremely severe, extremely painful tendonitis in my left wrist that tooks months to heal when I was regularly doing hang cleans in my routine.
For example, today I did a heavy single deadlift followed by three sets of moderate doubles. Then I did some GHDs, some ab work, and that was it. My workload was kept relatively low and I feel great.
These days I am doing them at like 70kgs for knee rehab and its a nice time. I just focus on form and smoothness etc. Ego lifting is the real issue tbh. I was just curious what people thought as I've heard a few people say it independently.
I'll be starting low weight barbell squats this week so that'll be fun. Last time I 1 RMd on the squat I was at what my bench is now roughly, I should probably sort that out lol.
Two different movements. You’re pulling the bar off the ground but that’s about it. You can move more weight with the deadlift than the clean.
If anything the clean should begin by “squatting” the weight up to achieve the proper positions in the pull where the best I can describe the deadlift is wedging your body into position using the bar as an anchor and then once optimal tension is achieved, hinging at the hips to lift the weight up.
Both are effective at what they do
Edit: I would argue the average person just training for strength would be better served doing deadlifts unless they are being taught how to clean by a competent individual. I will say that I have trained athletes with an emphasis on Olympic lifting and I have trained athletes without doing any Olympic lifting and have achieved similar results as far as max increases, run times, and vertical
Improvements. I love teaching the Olympic lifts but if you really want to make an argument over what’s the best exercise for the average person to move a weight from the floor to their shoulders I would say a sandbag or an atlas stone would be “functional”.
Like, I went to set up for my second set and the whole rack is at a slight angle to the seam in the floor and I was so in my own head I couldn't tell if my hips and feet were straight in comparison to the bar and I just didn't even take it off the hooks because I knew in my bones if I did that set I would twist in half and die. I just said fuck it and unracked my weights. I feel like such a big soft squishy baby and its been like this for going on 2 years now. I don't know how much of it is actually my body not being able to do this anymore or how much is just like, PTSD from the last 2 times I fuckin broke myself.
Just tried single leg presses and nope not happening.
That's apparently a thing that's been going around in the weird fitness instagram circles lately. At least since this Chris Bumstead guy said it and apparently he's the Weight Daddy of the internet I guess so now all the kiddies are saying it too.
I'm an increasingly strong proponent of sumo since it has significantly helped me progress past my back injury that's made conventional deadlifts much harder. There are also strength carry overs that I've felt when I swap back to conventional!
Sumo is good!