6x6 during your period? Hardcore!
Lol don’t worry, next time you can say it. I mean, think of the rewards when they learn “Oh shit, this chick is dangerous”.
Then they’ll never ask to work in again. One less person to bother you in the future.
Assertiveness FTW! Seriously. And I’m really proud of you for sticking with the RSR. I knew that you would learn to love squats!
I am loving squats, now. They are surely taking it out of me, though. Basically collpased after the 6x6. Lots of sleeping. Lots of eating. Took yesterday off. Koing had a few words to me over on the Oly Forum about training too often… Seems this program is designed as squat specialization where you WILL put 105% on your squat max but you can’t really expect to do much of anything else while you are doing it. Even light snatches are feeling very heavy and slow. CNS fried, basically. So… Mobility focus and skwats and abs (apparently that really helps you get through the second half of the program.
TRAINING:
Usual warm-up. Forgot to do lunges - I’ll do them as mobility drills this weekend (if I get to the gym at all).
Snatch (15-20kg). Mobility drills, basically.
Skwat: 6x2 (the light base workout, basically). Felt fine. Not as easy as I thought they might start to feel.
I’m exactly half way through.
In the first half the base alternated with more volume (6x3, 6x4, 6x5, 6x6)
In the second half the base alternates with heavier weights at less volume. The volume goes right down and the weights go right up, basically.
I also did:
GHR (stick assist) 5x5
and
Standing one arm dumbell press 1x5 each arm with 10kg
alternated with
2x5 push-ups
was going to do 5 sets of the them but bailed after hitting failure on the third set.
ABS:
20kg 60sec x3.
Really seriously might take this weekend off… Or definitely only light mobility.
Want to complete the RSR without any failed reps.
I loved watching the Front squat vid, the camera angle was good, watching how tight it is on your neck…
lol on the gettin your space thing, you tell em
I imagined your gym encounter happening with all of those adorable Australian accents…I think someone could cuss me out with that accent and I’d end up asking them out for coffee. I’m sure it doesn’t have that effect on you tho, so good for you to stick to your guns.
Sounds like a break this weekend is in order-can’t fight the body because it always seems to win. That Bitch. Oh and I love that you love squats now!
Alexus: Good stuff in here. You already love squats?! I’m so jealous. And look at the squats loving you right back–making you all bold and assertive in the gym.
Man you are working hard. Hard work always makes me very impatient with anyone in the gym who gets in my way! I think you are right on with taking the weekend off! You will be stronger for it.
[quote]alexus wrote:
I am loving squats, now. They are surely taking it out of me, though. Basically collpased after the 6x6. Lots of sleeping. Lots of eating. Took yesterday off. Koing had a few words to me over on the Oly Forum about training too often… Seems this program is designed as squat specialization where you WILL put 105% on your squat max but you can’t really expect to do much of anything else while you are doing it. Even light snatches are feeling very heavy and slow. CNS fried, basically. So… Mobility focus and skwats and abs (apparently that really helps you get through the second half of the program.
Skwat: 6x2 (the light base workout, basically). Felt fine. Not as easy as I thought they might start to feel.
Want to complete the RSR without any failed reps. [/quote]
Even though it was meant to be done in addition to one’s normal lifting, for most (non elite) people that’s impossible. I started doing snatches beforehand, but by the second half of the program I dropped them and was just happy to have completed the squats.
After doing 6 x 6 on the same weight you’d think the 6 x 2 would become easy, but strangely they don’t. I can rememeber saying I would start doing them as ‘speed’ reps. Wishful thinking!. At the end, due to the cumulative fatigue, they became quite a workout in themselves for me.
That’s the attitude!!
Great work Alexus. Keep it up. Don’t worry about the lack of snatching, once you recover from the RSR your PR will shoot up anyway because of your new massive squat.
lol @ Lula! HAHAH!
Lex, you’re killing it, girlie! LOVE it! And love the positivity. Exactly what FarmerBrett says (i’m so agreeable with you Brett), don’t worry about the snatching, concentrate on the squats - all that hard work will pay in dividends.
Lift, eat, sleep!! You got this girl.
pp - i have started using wrist wraps but had some concerns i was encouraging them to be weak / masking the problem rather than figuring it out and solving it. have since learned that i need to grip the bar different (so it is further up my hand) to put less pressure on my wrist. i’ll work hard on that and try and minimise the wraps.
ironcross - i would have bailed if i’d been cramping / having joint crankiness. fortunately i felt okay, though. so… urm… i’m not that tough 
hi brute
thanks masch.
nikki - yup. i’m gonna work on my ‘crazy eyes’ look.
thanks veggie. really happy to have found the joy with these.
upscale - thanks. it does almost choke me at times. reminds me to keep my elbows up rest it on my delts more. i surely find it gets harder as the weight gets heavier.
lula - haha. i’m a kiwi (NZ) and the aussie accent does not sound cute to me at all! it actually sounds fairly abrasive to my ear! my accent, on the other hand, is very cute, indeed
thanks nadia and sbmart
brett. oh. holy crap. people do this while doing business as usual with their training? i thought i’d do that initially but no can do. my body just can’t do that. yes to cumulative fatigue keeping the 6x2 feeling hard. that is exactly how it is feeling for me. the demoralizing aspect of all this… is that i’m not even expected to see a 2.5kg increase on my squat max out of all this since my squat max is so low 
i saw how you went for more than the 105%, though, and i’m fairly hopeful that i’ll get a bit more out of this, too. i’d be pretty pissed if 6 weeks of focusing on squats didn’t even get me a 2.5kg increase.
seriously, though, squats are feeling much smoother than they ever have (thank you volume) and i’m looking forward to them (though feeling a little sick in anticipating anything aside from the base). feel like a badass doing a proper grown-up program, i think, even though my weights are so piddly…
thanks masch. definately eating and sleeping. don’t feel like i have a choice.
TRAINING.
I tried to take today off but i couldn’t help myself… Didn’t go into the heavy weights room (or the women’s Oly bar would have called to me).
warm-up - lots of rolling etc. things feeling pretty good.
lunge matrix (thanks pp!) hip flexors did not like to start. eventually things came right. should aim to do these once a week for mobility. to make sure i keep it.
chin-ups 5x1 (from low reebok stepper)
glute kickbacks with smith machine.
20kg bar 1x5
25kg 1x5
30kg 1x5
25kg 1x10
20kg 1x15
trying to get some glute burn / pump. not terribly successful…
inverted rows with smith machine.
5th peg 1x5
4th peg 1x5 (last 2 a bit soft)
4th peg - realized it is low enough for me to rest on the ground between reps without letting go of the bar. rest between reps 1x5
low reebok stepper under feet (just to see if i could) 1x4 (then fail). not as hard as i expected…
small gym ball under feet. 2 reps. not as hard as i expected. looks like i’m not all that far away from getting a 1x5 with the hardest variant. hrm.
bridge.
10 no weight
5 with 2.5kg
5 with 10kg
5 with 15kg
10 with 25kg
10 with 40kg. need more weight. can’t figure how to make it manageable to put more than 2 20kg plates on me, though… guess i really do need to figure out barbell hip thrusts… no glute pump / burn
chins 5x1 from reebok step.
20kg planks 60 seconds x3.
done.
i think my compression leggings prevent glute / leg pump by assisting the bloodflow back to the torso. remembering now that a huge part of why i liked my long sleeve compression top was that it seemed to prevent the shoulder / arm pump i’d get from holding the bar in the rack position (when i was self conscious about looking too beastly when i was just starting to learn oly lifting).
i want glute pump
activation feeling really good. chins felt good. rows felt good. yay lats! hope i feel you tomorrow! have a little DOMS in my triceps / pecs from yesterdays push-ups. that makes me happy.
I find it quite easy to activate my glutes in an exercise now - maybe give my glute activation warm-up a try? Mine always get sore from KB swings but also wide-stance box squats.
they are activating - they just aren’t pumping up / getting any DOMS
maybe i’ll try losing the compression pants under my trackies for the next butt workout… and… more volume / reps!!!
i am going to look into different mobility / activation drills for active recovery days. i think the key might be to mix things up to keep things interesting and also to keep this component useful. i do do a lot of mobility work but i suspect at this point it is fairly much ‘same old’ so i’m adapted to it. i suspect tiny variations would surprise me with their difficulty.
KB swings always, without fail, give me a sore arse. Might be worth a try?
I read those posts between you and Koing, seems like he gave some very good advice. My coach had to tell me a couple of times to not try to do so as many sets as I want, well him and my wrists were telling me. They just up and refuse to work trying to protect themselves. HA, at least my body has some sense when I don’t. I’m trying to decipher your suggestion about how I hold the bar too, takes a little while to get through my thick skull.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
KB swings always, without fail, give me a sore arse. Might be worth a try?[/quote]
I would like to add back lunges to this list.
I did some on Thursday and I’m still sore, it was worse on Friday.
minimal - yeah. i’m learning that my body refuses to work properly when it is trying to protect itself, too. frustrating. better to work with it, though, i guess, since it is trying to prevent itself getting injured.
with the bar (sorry i’m having trouble explaining it simply) i’m basically holding it down too low in my fingers. so when i roll my wrists back for the catch when the weights get heavy it feels like my wrists are threatening to snap backwards. i need to wrap my fingers around it properly (they are pretty long) so the bar is down in the webbing of the thumb. feels odd. but will save me a wrist injury, i guess. sounds like something different is going on for your wrist.
hmm… kettlebell swings and back lunges… i’m thinking… having enough trouble recovering from what i’m supposed to be doing (don’t even get to cleans because i feel too exhausted half the time) so what am i doing trying to make more work for myself!? masch mentioned 25 reps for her glute circuit. think that is where i’m going wrong. i was thinking of 10 or 15 reps…
hip / lumbar spine feeling a little dodgey today. i don’t think glute kickbacks are very good for me. i think i overextend my leg and perhaps my back, too. should probably not do these…
was going to rest today and squat tomorrow but tomorrow is a public holiday and the reduced gym hours might make it busy. so squat today rest tomorrow.
TRAINING
eva / softball rolling warm-up.
light mobility snatch position work 15 and 20kg.
FRONT SQUAT (want to log my warm-up so i get better at figuring optimality)
15kg 1x5
20kg 1x5 (feeling pretty smooth)
25kg 1x5
30kg 1x3
35kg 1x3
5x5@38.5kg (1kg higher than previous best 5x5 weight)
got through them. defiantly feeling cumulative fatigue… movement is feeling pretty smooth for all the volume, though.
lost tension in the hole 2nd rep of the last set. managed to roar it up, though, heh.
done.
…
Kettlebell swings seconded. Those things rock for hips and glutes and they are metabolically challenging (by which I mean they make me pant). Go with a set of 50 and see how you feel.
Maybe your glutes are just stronger than you think?
Anyways, it always amazes me how glutes are giant muscle group that fatigues so easily. For this reason I like to work them with high reps since I believe that with the glutes, muscle endurance is the name of the game.
And i don’t get an ass pump from floor work, like with my glute circuits and such. That I do purely for vanity. In other words, its not meant to make your ass stronger, its only meant to keep things high and tight, lol - i’m sure there is some crossover of course.
But yeah, for any glute work I always do high reps. For floor work things in the 25 rep ranges, for weighted work like lunges, bulgarian split squats (highly recommend these for glutes and legs!) and all else, 12-15reps. I never do bridges, and I probably should…
And yes! KB swings are definitely great for glutes and will absolutely give you an ass pump!! I normally do 4 sets of 15reps with a challenging weight. What else is really great about KB swings, and great for Oly lifters in particular, is that you MUST snap your hips when you pull through, so you’ll build some good strength there for the 2nd ext. Here’s a good vid and you can do them with a DB too!
Also, after just reading your post - we both know we can’t tackle everything at once. So like you say, you’re working the RSR right now building your squat, you can work on the glute stuff in your next cycle.
I like the idea of doing activation exercises on your off days though, and would definitely keep that if I were you. So don’t worry about the pump, just worry about “activation.” Further down the line you can hit glutes more vigorously.
plus lets face it, all those ATG squats are building you a nice round rump! When xmas rolls around I’m sure your family will all be commenting about how big your ass got! HAHAH!
Nice trainging mama. I’m super impressed with your output!