Squats the story - the Off Topic Thread...

Hanley

Fighting Fit on Camden Street (call to check first)

Most Elvery's have them.

You want straps (to help hold the bar), not wraps (to support your wrists) right?

conzy

Hanley wrote: »

Fighting Fit on Camden Street (call to check first)

Most Elvery's have them.

You want straps (to help hold the bar), not wraps (to support your wrists) right?

Thanks

Yeah I'm struggling to hold a 22.5kg dumbell doing shrugs.

Brian?

conzy wrote: »

Thanks

Yeah I'm struggling to hold a 22.5kg dumbell doing shrugs.

Struggle on. Your grip needs the work. I mean that in the nicest possible way.

That is unless your grip is fried from heavy deadlifts etc. Even still, it's probably better to avoid straps.

papu

Brian? wrote: »

Struggle on. Your grip needs the work. I mean that in the nicest possible way.

That is unless your grip is fried from heavy deadlifts etc. Even still, it's probably better to avoid straps.

I agrees , work on the grip , farmers walks , plate pinching and reverse curls!

Dermighty

I'm getting informed about some all of my bad exercise form, muscular imbalances in my body and stupid **** I'm doing in the gym that i need to correct. A lot of the info here has helped.

Quick question about (barbell) deadlifting and the method of lifting the weight:

1. Lift and lower weight (some drop it from waist height, some lower it to their knees and drop it then.
   
2. Lift, lower, lift, lower smoothly in one continuous movement similar to the first half(ish) of this vid:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKvgoQWkb4

At the moment I lift and lower and lift for the next rep as one continuous movement, with the weight tipping the floor at the end of each rep. This works great. As the weight increases and the reps decrease (example: 150kg for 2-3 reps) it becomes harder to smoothly lower the weight from the mid quadriceps/knee height to the floor. If option 1 is the correct way I obviously need to lower the weight, if option 2 is the way to do it then I can just drop it and regrip/reposition and lift again.

Brian?

Dermighty wrote: »

I'm getting informed about some all of my bad exercise form, muscular imbalances in my body and stupid **** I'm doing in the gym that i need to correct. A lot of the info here has helped.

Quick question about (barbell) deadlifting and the method of lifting the weight:

1. Lift and lower weight (some drop it from waist height, some lower it to their knees and drop it then.
   
2. Lift, lower, lift, lower smoothly in one continuous movement similar to the first half(ish) of this vid:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKvgoQWkb4

At the moment I lift and lower and lift for the next rep as one continuous movement, with the weight tipping the floor at the end of each rep. This works great. As the weight increases and the reps decrease (example: 150kg for 2-3 reps) it becomes harder to smoothly lower the weight from the mid quadriceps/knee height to the floor. If option 1 is the correct way I obviously need to lower the weight, if option 2 is the way to do it then I can just drop it and regrip/reposition and lift again.

Lower the weight slowly.

Put the bar back on the floor between every rep, pause and lift. The pause allows you to reset your start position correctly.

Hanley

Brian? wrote: »

Lower the weight slowly.

Put the bar back on the floor between every rep, pause and lift. The pause allows you to reset your start position correctly.

Yup. Deadlift.

rubadub

Brian? wrote: »

Put the bar back on the floor between every rep, pause and lift. The pause allows you to reset your start position correctly.

Is there any benefit to doing something similar with the likes of chinups? My bar is set to a height where at the bottom of the chinup I can put my feet on the ground, I sometimes stand & relax for a split second and do another rep, without letting go of the bar. (i.e. I am not doing rest-pause sets). I find I can do less reps than if I kept going as normal.

Hanley

rubadub wrote: »

Is there any benefit to doing something similar with the likes of chinups? My bar is set to a height where at the bottom of the chinup I can put my feet on the ground, I sometimes stand & relax for a split second and do another rep, without letting go of the bar. (i.e. I am not doing rest-pause sets). I find I can do less reps than if I kept going as normal.

What kind of "benefit" are you looking for?

Without specifying that and having a very clear idea, there's no way to tell!

Dermighty

Cheers folks.

Next step is mobility and fixing the little aches and pains I have (in particular my left shoulder blade). Mobilitywod is a good resource.

If you had a 4 day split (thinking of reducing it to a three day split) would you do a total body mobility drill before each day or be more specific?

rubadub

Hanley wrote: »

What kind of "benefit" are you looking for?

Not sure really, you agreed pausing between deadlifts is advisable, is this solely to allow you "reset your start position". If so why not do the same with chins? I expect most people cannot do it since the bar is not the perfect height.

Personally it forces me to do full reps on the chins, I do not always do full dead hangs and can find my self doing half-assed chins towards the end, chasing rep numbers. Doing a short pause gets over this and any "bouncing" of reps that might go on, i.e. minor kipping type motions. By doing it each rep is more identical to the last, for me anyway. I especially like it doing weighted chins.

Perhaps there is some physiological reason/difference/advantage between the 2 methods, like letting blood flow into muscles between reps or something.

Hanley

Dermighty wrote: »

Cheers folks.

Next step is mobility and fixing the little aches and pains I have (in particular my left shoulder blade). Mobilitywod is a good resource.

If you had a 4 day split (thinking of reducing it to a three day split) would you do a total body mobility drill before each day or be more specific?

1) Hip mobility
2) glute activation
3) thoracic mobility
4) scapular stabilisers activation

Stick 4 exercises in there and do them each day and you're money.

Hanley

rubadub wrote: »

Not sure really, you agreed pausing between deadlifts is advisable, is this solely to allow you "reset your start position". If so why not do the same with chins? I expect most people cannot do it since the bar is not the perfect height.

Yes, firstly because deadlifts are a great test of total body strength and have a pretty bullet proof supporting structure when you do em right (hips, knees, lower back etc should all be relatively "safe" under max/heavy loading)

Secondly, because the hardest part of most deadlifts is holding position off the floor and touch and go reps allow you to cheat this range to an extent, so you're effectively constantly avoiding the hardest range.

With pull ups, I always find the top portion the hardest, so your method wouldn't change that. And the main reason... the GH joint in most is pretty fragile and doesn't deal with destabilisation well. It's very hard to accurately do that multiple times while under stress and load, therefore I don't think it's a good idea to do it for pull up.

Personally it forces me to do full reps on the chins, I do not always do full dead hangs and can find my self doing half-assed chins towards the end, chasing rep numbers. Doing a short pause gets over this and any "bouncing" of reps that might go on, i.e. minor kipping type motions. By doing it each rep is more identical to the last, for me anyway. I especially like it doing weighted chins.

Perhaps there is some physiological reason/difference/advantage between the 2 methods, like letting blood flow into muscles between reps or something.

That's kinda your own problem tho - that's just a case of laziness and strictness. You can correct it without having to resort to deloading/resting!

...but I take your point that it probably makes it more measurable in "real" terms because you start/finish in the same place every time with no margin for cheating.

Dermighty

Hanley wrote: »

1) Hip mobility
2) glute activation
3) thoracic mobility
4) scapular stabilisers activation

Stick 4 exercises in there and do them each day and you're money.

I've chosen:

1. Couch/chair exercise (whatever it's called)
   
2. fire hydrants (know the one?)
   
3. T-spine work on a foam roller (rotational and static)
   
4. wall slides

rubadub

Cheers for that

Hanley wrote: »

You can correct it without having to resort to deloading/resting!

yeah, another trick I have is having my bare feet pointed slightly out in front, held rigid. When I go down I just tip off the ground and go back up, never relaxing.

Dermighty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5zmkW5EO6s

This has made me very, very happy!

Finally my back doesn't ache!

Sangre

Can anyone recommend a sports physio in ranelagh/rathmines area?

I've no injury or niggles but I want them to look at my upper back. My scap function/retraction is very asymmetrical and my motor patterns at this stage in retracting my scaps are probably useless. Not sure if prehab work as I'm doing it is helping or reinforcing it. I'm fairly sure its my left side that is the problem. The issue evidences it sell in overhead pressing: my left scap doesn't retract properly and while press my left shoulder stay forward and takes an uneven amount of weight and fatigues rapidly. Also comes up in squat, bar doesn't sit even on back. I'm sure it affects a number of other movements e.g. press, row.

As I've no injury to speak of looking for a physio with a bit of nuance to help me on right track. Cheers

Sangre

Can anyone recommend a sports physio in ranelagh/rathmines area?

I've no injury or niggles but I want them to look at my upper back. My scap function/retraction is very asymmetrical and my motor patterns at this stage in retracting my scaps are probably useless. Not sure if prehab work as I'm doing it is helping or reinforcing it. I'm fairly sure its my left side that is the problem. The issue evidences it sell in overhead pressing: my left scap doesn't retract properly and while press my left shoulder stay forward and takes an uneven amount of weight and fatigues rapidly. Also comes up in squat, bar doesn't sit even on back. I'm sure it affects a number of other movements e.g. press, row.

As I've no injury to speak of looking for a physio with a bit of nuance to help me on right track. Cheers

MrPain

Our Arnold, whose arms are heavy,
Vascular be thy veins
Nine sets of lunges, ten reps be done,
To add girth as it is to strengthen.
Give us this day our daily protein, and forgive us our fats,
As we forgive those who eat fat too.
And lead us not into overtraining, nor deliver us pizzas,
For thou art the king of the dumbell, the power clean, and the steroids forever,
Amen.

COH

Sangre wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a sports physio in ranelagh/rathmines area?

I've no injury or niggles but I want them to look at my upper back. My scap function/retraction is very asymmetrical and my motor patterns at this stage in retracting my scaps are probably useless. Not sure if prehab work as I'm doing it is helping or reinforcing it. I'm fairly sure its my left side that is the problem. The issue evidences it sell in overhead pressing: my left scap doesn't retract properly and while press my left shoulder stay forward and takes an uneven amount of weight and fatigues rapidly. Also comes up in squat, bar doesn't sit even on back. I'm sure it affects a number of other movements e.g. press, row.

As I've no injury to speak of looking for a physio with a bit of nuance to help me on right track. Cheers

There's a physio in Raw... she's around Tuesday and Thursdays... her details are at reception

FunkZ

I feel like I'll never ever be able to do pull ups...

Even when I do negatives I seem to fall off the bar as if I've jumped off a wall...

/cries all the way to PI!

Dips however, I'm getting better at them :P

Four dips that is, they're probably partial dips as well.

Sephiroth_dude

Hi
If your knees go past your toes when squatting how do you correct this ?

Thud

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Hi
If your knees go past your toes when squatting how do you correct this ?

get bigger feet or shorter shins

Where did you hear they weren't supposed to go past your toes?

http://tinyurl.com/cgx8sm7

Sephiroth_dude

Thanks for that

I was in the gym last week and guy came over to me and said I shouldn't squat so deep,knees shouldn't go past toes,I've been squatting since late August and I've always gone as deep as I could,so I was just wondering

papu

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Thanks for that

I was in the gym last week and guy came over to me and said I shouldn't squat so deep,knees shouldn't go past toes,I've been squatting since late August and I've always gone as deep as I could,so I was just wondering

Ass to the grass , if the knees come over the toes don't worry it's natural. As long as the chest is up and out , pushing through the heels you'll be good.

Hanley

Feet just outside shoulder width, Heels down, knees over ankles, chest up and a straight lower back at the bottom - doesn't matter a damn what happens with your knee/toe relationship from there

Sephiroth_dude

Thanks lads,if he comes over again I show him this thread

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Hanley wrote: »

Your lower back is naturally curved. Keep that shape while pressing.

Hey Hanley,
Can you elaborate on this a bit more. I watched some Diesel Crew videos where they recommend arching your back, lifting your ass off the bench and putting all your weight on your traps.
The reasoning behind this is, you reduce the rotation in your shoulders and it leads to healthier shoulders when benching.

I'll have a look for the vid again.

Hanley

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

Hey Hanley,
Can you elaborate on this a bit more. I watched some Diesel Crew videos where they recommend arching your back, lifting your ass off the bench and putting all your weight on your traps.
The reasoning behind this is, you reduce the rotation in your shoulders and it leads to healthier shoulders when benching.

I'll have a look for the vid again.

Optimal benching versus 100% "safe" benching are different things.

The "curve" I refer to is the way your back is shaped like an elongated "S". Trying to flatten that out and press it into the bench (ie taking it out of natural alignment) is stupid.

The arch referred to in that diesel crew video should come from your upper back, not your lower. The thoracic vertebrae tolerate flexion and rotation far better than the lumbar ones.

JJayoo

and a straight lower back at the bottom

So you would advise avoiding ATG squatting? Think I'm yet to see someone squat atg without their lower back rounding.