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  #141  
Old 11-21-2007, 11:09 PM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Light Day today

Had yet another tough workout, I backed off the weight on squats a bit,hoping to allow a little extra recovery as Im starting to feel beat up, been going 10 weeks now I think.I also wanted to work on Erics suggestions a bit.Missed on press again, this time was worse, I did 3x5 and then 3.Thats 1 less rep on the 4th set than last week.GAY.I stopped there on press.I missed a rep on deadlifts too.Like I said Im feeling a little tired.I should have smoked those deadlifts.

Light Day 21/11/07
Squat 2x5 75kg (easy as)
Press 3x5,3 40kg
Deadlift 1x4 127.5kg (shoulda had 5!)

Vids on squats will be a while I had to replace my PC cos the old one crashed hard!!

Cheers Guys
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  #142  
Old 11-22-2007, 05:03 AM
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iron_worker iron_worker is offline
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Have you done a full deload yet? It might be about that time if you haven't. I know its helping me get past a few sticking points and let my body recover. I was starting to accumulate alot of hurt. lol

As for your press, I know how that is. It seems the smallest little thing will affect it. If I'm a little tired I seem to be able to push through squats with mostly the same results but my press will suffer horribly.

Keep up the good work.
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  #143  
Old 11-23-2007, 12:23 AM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Gday IW

Havent done a deload in a bit.Ive only been going 10 weeks and I think I can make a few changes and keep progressing, time will tell tho!

Completely agree with ya on press, its a toughie for sure, my bench behaves similiarly.Thanks for stoppin by mate.
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  #144  
Old 11-23-2007, 12:32 AM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Performance day today

Ended up being ok I guess, hit a PR on squats but only got 2 reps,I may have got a third but didnt want to end up with the bar over my toes.I am really feeling the squats in the glutes now thanks Eric I only hit 2 reps on bench again, but thats not surprising considering monday.Finally got my chin reps (all 5) YAY!!!

Performance Day 23/11/07
Squat 1x2 107.5kg (PR)
Bench 1x2 83.5kg
Chin 1x5 BW+17.5kg (Rep PR)

I have also been reading up on a bit of Westside Barbell info, and the DE method.I also re-read PP and Rip advocates using speed sets on Fridays.Seems like it might be a good way to get some explosive volume in and give the body a bit of a break from all the heavy pounding.Might help break through the bench sticking point.Thoughts fellas??
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  #145  
Old 11-26-2007, 12:49 AM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Hi guys

Stress day today, heavy as shit,squats were ok, not great.didnt get 5x5, I got 5 on first set and then lost count on the 2nd set and only did 4, I stuck with 4s until I hit 25 reps cos I didnt want any shitty fatigued reps to end up over my toes.I was smashed after squats.Bench was strong funny thing happened, I missed 1 rep on the 4th set and then nailed all 5 on the last set, weird I must have come loose on the 4th set or just not rested enough between sets? Nailed 3x5 on chins no probs.

Stress Day 26/11/07
Squat 1x5,4,4,4,4,3,1 95kg (I made sure I got 25 dammit!!)
Bench 3x5,4,5,3 73.5kg (Lost my head on the last set and did 3 instaed of a single oops!)
Chin 3x5 BW+11kg

Fuck Im spent
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  #146  
Old 11-28-2007, 12:48 AM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Light Day today

I lowered the weight again for squats, I was still sore from monday and I figured it doesnt matter too much cos its a recovery day.I tried getting the bar a bit lower on my back tonight, I think its crept upwards again and its what is causing me some form problems. I really focused on getting the hips back and trying to keep the glutes tight.Felt great.I nailed 5x5 on press, fucking stoked with that,I did my old 4rm for 5x5 awesome.I nailed all 5 reps on deadlifts too, getting close to a new 5rm there I think.

Light Day 28/11/07
Squat 2x5 70kg
Press 5x5 40kg (huge Vol PR)
Deadlift 1x5 127.5kg

Good day felt good.
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  #147  
Old 11-28-2007, 01:22 AM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Heres those light squats for anyone interested

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  #148  
Old 11-28-2007, 07:29 AM
EricT EricT is offline
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Well I'm glad you're getting the glutes into into it more but did you notice that your back is rounding out more now? Pretty much you begin losing your arch before you even break parallel and it's you barely break parallel and it's gone. The point of the glute thing was an exercise to do without weight to learn recruitment of the glutes WHILE working on getting deeper without losing the arch. It was all tied together. I'm not sure if you did the exercise as I described or if you tried to take on the ideas with actual heavy squats. If you did the latter that's bound to make things worse.

The reason I wonder this is because your squats seem like they may be higher instead of a bit lower and your back rounding problem is worse. So the only result seems to be your glutes being sore and you perceptions of the lifts. Also if you didn't work on flexibility and the hams are tight the problem is bound to percist.

Also you have to work on flexibility of the hams as that is a lot of the problem. This back rounding problem may not cause injury. MAY not. But it will cause you to eventually miss lifts and have a major stall until it is corrected. It looks as if you are being pulled out of your arch pretty much as soon as you begin to descend. The descent may be a little fast so your going to end up exerting more effort trying to decelerate it and descending too quickly is another cause of this. Try doing it in slow motion.
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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.
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  #149  
Old 11-28-2007, 10:13 AM
EricT EricT is offline
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Oh shit, btw, stop looking down! I can't believe I didn't notice that! That's probably leading to a lot of this. I know that you don't look down the whole time but you start out looking down on pretty much every rep then have your gaze travelling upwards. It's almost as if your body is leading your head instead of the other way around. Pick a spot in front of you on the floor about six feet away and keep focused on that the entire time. Don't look upwards or downwards but sorta straight ahead.

At the beginning of the ascent think about driving your shoulders upwards into the bar istead of pushing downwards into the floor. This will not only help with that hip drive and getting out of the hole but will naturally help you keep your back in it's tightly arched position.

Another thing I noticed it you sort of wiggle around at the top getting ready for a rep. Then you stick out you butt all of a sudden and down you go. It almost seems like you aren't starting from a very tight and stable position. It looks like you are tigthening you glutes so that is good. It will of course help force you back into a tight arch. But it also seems as if you exaggerate the arch at the beginning. This does not need to be done. I know many people say to do this but if you already possess good pelvic postioning, meaning a good natural arch then there should be no need to exxagerate it. Hell, if you actually were walking around with an exxagerated lumbar arch that would mean you had some imbalances to deal with! So why the hell would we artificially induce an unnatural and unbalanced position?

Your "natural" arch is fine. Exaggerating it pre-streches your hams so I don't think I need to explain what that does to your range of motion. That time you spend exaggerating your arch would be better spent taking in a big breath into the abdomen and tensing your abs/midsection. Engage the glutes and descend in a controlled fasion.

Besides controlling the descent try prestretching your calves. You can do a sort of dynamic stretch with them which involves a very controlled "bounce" where you work into a greater range of motion in a dynamic but not "ballistic" fashion. The reason I say this is because your toes leave the ground when you descend. I don't really know if it's your calves but it's a shot. I could be the descent being too quick. It could also be your shoes...don't know. But your toes shouldn't be leaving the floor like that. You feet need to remain firmly planted at all times.
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  #150  
Old 11-28-2007, 11:15 PM
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HIThopper HIThopper is offline
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Quote:
Pick a spot in front of you on the floor about six feet away and keep focused on that the entire time. Don't look upwards or downwards but sorta straight ahead.
This is what Im trying to do, the wall is right in front of me so its hard to guess what might be right, Ill look up a tad and maybe dot the wall so I have a fixed reference point.

Quote:
At the beginning of the ascent think about driving your shoulders upwards into the bar istead of pushing downwards into the floor. This will not only help with that hip drive and getting out of the hole but will naturally help you keep your back in it's tightly arched position.
Never heard it explained that way Ill try it .

Quote:
Another thing I noticed it you sort of wiggle around at the top getting ready for a rep. Then you stick out you butt all of a sudden and down you go. It almost seems like you aren't starting from a very tight and stable position. It looks like you are tigthening you glutes so that is good. It will of course help force you back into a tight arch. But it also seems as if you exaggerate the arch at the beginning
Im am wriggling because im trying to get an exagerated arch.You are right it feels weird.I recently started doing that because I saw a westside seminar on squatting and they seemed to stress how important that is.It doesnt feel right so Ill stop it!

Quote:
The reason I say this is because your toes leave the ground when you descend.
Thats because I spent alot of time working on that queue in SS to lift the toes to get the weight on the heels!!! LOL I have trained it into the squat and I cant stop!! I noticed it the other day myself and Im trying to stop, I think its become a part of the lift for me and I know its causing me some trouble.


I cant believe you noticed all that so fast Eric! Thanks for your time mate.I know I need to work on squats still, they have been so hard for me to master.As for the stretching I try to stretch my squatting muscles as much as possible (daily ) but Im open to suggestions on which stretches to do so feel free to reccommend some
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