got another meal of chicken thighs (skin on) and some quinoa in before I went back for my back session.
back
wide grip pullup 25x10 BWx8. got high enough on the last rep, going up next week.
neutral grip 55x10. same here, going up next week.
close grip 45x7 1. >_< paused too long at the bottom and couldn’t get up. did one more and called it. probably should’ve rested a bit longer too.
wide BWx8
neutral 35x9
close 25x7
lat pulldown 6
165x10 x7 x8. got a nice stretch at the top on these. fairly strict, no lower back cheat, just enough for the bar to clear my chin. going down the stack next week.
150x8
135x8
bb row 6 . and this is where it gets depressing. I emphasized chest out and lower back arched here and stopped when I felt like my form wasn’t gonna be perfect. my back thanked me for not being a hero tonight.
95x10 x8 x8. will go up to 105 next week.
db row 6 . same as above. if I felt that my thoracic and lumbar spine weren’t at full extension, I resetted my posture.
60x10 x10 x10. ummm 65 next week I guess.
HS low row. threw these in to get some more work done.
115x10
90x13
straight arm rope pulldown/low row supersets 10
80/110x15. did two drop sets. emphasized the stretch. down the stack next week.
breakfast was 5 whole eggs 3 whites some quinoa 2 bananas and a handful or so of sauteed sweet peppers.
shoulders/traps
seated db ohp 6
60x10^ x5 x4. last rep ofc was a tough one but it went up with much less grind than I thought. 65’s next week.
50x9
40x10
seated bb ohp 6
125x9 x5 x4. I was VERY surprised I got 9 reps up. my ass did come off the seat on the last rep, but I push through my toes so that my back is glued to the seat back. I doubt I got much assistance from that. either way I think I should be able to move up to 135 in 2-3 weeks.
115x6
105x5.5. ummm tris said no way halfway up so I called it.
db lateral raise 10
30x15 x10 x9. form felt almost perfect… no bouncing, veeeery little back cheat and arms parallel to the ground at the top. one more week before I move up.
25x13
20x21. lol looked super diesel and brolic with sweat pouring down my face here.
rear delt cable reverse flye
17.5x13 x8 x7
15x10
12.5x12
bb shrug
205x10^ x8 x7. was a bit tentative warming up but I was able to keep my weight on my heels and maintain full extension at the thoracic and lumbar spine. had to stop when I felt my hips going back to clear my right nut at the bottom, thus shifting the weight forward.
195x7.
185x7. there has GOT to be a way to get my nuts out of the bar path. a wider stance maybe?
db shrug
100x9 x7 x7
90x8
80x8
calf machine shrug 15
210x15^ x10 x9. going down the stack next week.
195x10
180x10
drop sets
pw meal was baked salmon and white rice. note: week old white rice is dry as fuaaaarrkkkk.
got a meal of baked salmon and quinoa in before squats.
ofc when I get to the gym, there’s a million fucking people and there’s a guy SRC’ing in the cage. to be fair, he was also doing ab work from straps (writing letters with his legs) and I’ve seen him squat and pull three plates a side for reps so whatever. but then as I’m setting up the hooks and check the height of the safeties with my squat depth some tool sneaks up and grabs the clips as I bottom out my squat. wtffffff but fuck it I’ll just squat without clips. and it turned out badly.
bb squat
125x10
115x10
105x10
after not squatting for two months, it felt weird, period. I felt my weight on the balls of my feet a lot.
right groin was not liking this one bit. it was going “wtf are you doing???” between every set.
because there were no clips, I didn’t want to rocket up and possibly shake the weights loose.
I need a LOT more practice.
hack squat
180x8
160x8
140x8
leg extensions 10
70x15
60x10
standing calf raise 6
135x11 x8 x8
120x8
105x9
seated calf raise 10
90x10 x8
what a disappointing workout. but I suppose that’s inevitable coming back from injury.
pw meal was baked salmon and white rice. I am fucking SICK of salmon right now.
I would really recommend learning how to properly squat. I know i’m not an expert and there’s definitely more experienced people here, but i know if the weight is always on the balls of you’re feet chances are you aren’t squatting properly. Watch the elitefts series on squatting, and i would recommend from experience box squatting (Properly) to get the technique down.
Also if you’re groin is giving you trouble, dealt with this myself quite a bit myself, foam roll and do mobility work before your lower body workouts as well as stretching to loosen up the muscles. I’ve recently had success setting up a box that is slightly below or just about parallel in terms of my squat depth, then squatting to it. Make sure you’re using your glutes properly as well.
I was air squatting at home and looking at myself in a mirror from the side (mhmm great way to self-critique) and I noticed that I lost my arch as I got to parallel and damn near rounded. then I remembered watching a rippetoe squat mechanics video and him saying something about pushing the hips up and that back angle wasn’t always going to be straight up, just that the bar path should be straight, but not to turn the movement into a good morning.
iirc the elitefts series teaches more of a wide stance which is no bueno for my right hip joint (femur feels like it’s going to pop out) but I think I’ll watch everything a LOT before my next squat day and pop off a lot of air squats.
next session I will also squat early in the day so I don’t get bum rushed by the after work crowd, and stretch more.
…also, taking a video with my phone should work really well.
[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
I was air squatting at home and looking at myself in a mirror from the side (mhmm great way to self-critique) and I noticed that I lost my arch as I got to parallel and damn near rounded. then I remembered watching a rippetoe squat mechanics video and him saying something about pushing the hips up and that back angle wasn’t always going to be straight up, just that the bar path should be straight, but not to turn the movement into a good morning.
iirc the elitefts series teaches more of a wide stance which is no bueno for my right hip joint (femur feels like it’s going to pop out) but I think I’ll watch everything a LOT before my next squat day and pop off a lot of air squats.
next session I will also squat early in the day so I don’t get bum rushed by the after work crowd, and stretch more.
…also, taking a video with my phone should work really well.[/quote]
Squatting without a weight at home looking in the mirror is different than squatting in the gym with the bar for obvious reasons… Once again if you throw up a video i’m sure a lot of experienced people would have no problem critiquing you.
Things are looking better. Now you just gotta stick with it.
You have nothing to complain about as far as bodybuilding progress goes unless you have gone at least 3 months without missing a single meal or protein quota, and without missing a single workout, in my opinion (I only made mediocre-to-no progress for a couple years until I caught onto this fact)
Beyond that my typical advice is to just make sure you’re gaining a few pounds every month, and adding at least 10lbs to your basic lifts every month.
thanks for the pointers, mr. popular. if I had continued along my previous path, I’m sure I would’ve had surgery by now instead of healing and progressing.
I got to the gym about two hours earlier than usual to ensure that I would have plenty of space for the videos. worked like a charm. I took videos of both my squat and deadlift but I’ll only post the last video I took for each movement. I felt that at that point I’d done all I could to diagnose and correct technique flaws by myself. vids will come a little bit later if I get a chance to go back to my apt. I think my squat turned out much better than I thought it would, but my deadlift was worse (could not keep chest up/out and shoulders back on the descent, also possibly not getting my ass low enough on the pull).
I only did some triples to try and correct form for each movement. exercise selection for hams/back/deadlift day will probably go like this:
deadlift. not sure if I should continue to work in the 6-10 rep range but I don’t see a reason not to since I’m not focused on strength. so one all-out set would be followed by two lighter sets.
good morning. also not sure but I am thinking same scheme as with deadlift. I chose GM over stiff-leg deadlift because I think my erectors are relatively weaker than my hams, as shown by my inability to keep chest out/shoulders back on deadlift.
lying leg curls. one all-out set of 10-15 reps, possibly two more sets at the same weight to failure then two lighter sets. if I feel like I need more work, I might do burnouts on a seated curl or maybe do stiff-leg deads instead. I’ll figure it out as I go.
I hadn’t planned on doing arms until later but I still felt fresh so what the heck. I blew $10 on a shake at the juice bar since I hasn’t planned ahead to bring an extra helping of protein powder and Gatorade. lol the Korean lady behind the counter thought she didn’t hear me right when I asked for five scoops of whey (10g each).
arms
dips. didnt bring my chain belt so I just held db’s between my legs for the extra adductor work, lawl.
55x8 x6 x6
35x7
BWx8
EZbar curl
90x9 x6 x6
80x7
70x7
close grip flat bench. both smith machines were taken up or obstructed so I did bb cgb instead. this can only help my flat bb bench, so I’m scrapping the smith variation.
185x8 x5 x4. stalled completely halfway to lockout on the 8th rep.
155x5
135x7
hammer curls
55x8 x5 x5
45x7
35x7
pushdownsÂ
100x14 x7 x6
90x7
80x6
burnoutsss
preacher curl
70x10 x6 x5. cheated the last one.
60x6
50x6
burnoutsss
pw meal was baked salmon, roast chicken, white rice and Gatorade.
here’s the squat. i did a set before this and it looked like my back was rounding horribly but i wasn’t sure, so i backed up for this shot. turns out it was just my badonk.
edit: i think i’ve failed at embedding. so i will try to link to youtube.
quick note: I forgot to drink creatine and citrulline malate after eating as I’d normally do. in about two hours I was RAVENOUS when previously I’d have to will myself to eat and struggle mightily with the next meal.
Good shit man, form looked pretty solid to me. Looks like you really, really control your descent. Now just start working up slowly with the same approach and you’ll be smooth bro.
thanks dude… lol which lift are you referring to though? it was my first time out since the injuries so I really wanted to take it easy. squat felt natural despite lack of practice but deadlift felt off on the negative.
I wasn’t sure what time we’d be back from our plans this weekend, so as far as I’m concerned this workout was a bonus. I didn’t have time for calves but I can do them after chest tomorrow.
squat/quads
bb squat
185x8. my right hip flexor acted up right at the bottom of the 7th rep >_< I took the 8th one slow and called it.
155x6
135x8
half squat. couldn’t get my elbows up high enough nor my hands back enough to make a front squat feel right. after the first set of half squats I forgot that you can hold the bar with arms crossed. I’ll try that next time.
135x8
115x9
95x7
breakfast was 10 eggs (4 whole 6 white), bunch of quinoa and half an Asian pear.
incline bench
195x9 x4 x3. might have been able to grind out the tenth rep. I’ll get it next week.
165x8
145x8
flat bench
215x6. I haven’t flat bb benched in about two years; back then, I was getting crushed by 225 for three reps. I wasted some energy here trying to find a working weight, but I had good control.
205x4
185x5
135 practice reps
cable flyes 10
60x15 x7 x6
50x9
40x13
30 burnouts
did calves after since I didn’t have time yesterday.
standing calf raise
135x12^ x8 x7. I was supposed to move down the stack this week, oops.
120x9
105x8
seated calf raise
90x11 x9 x8. I’ll add in more sets depending on how my calves feel in a few days.
[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
here’s the squat. i did a set before this and it looked like my back was rounding horribly but i wasn’t sure, so i backed up for this shot. turns out it was just my badonk.
edit: i think i’ve failed at embedding. so i will try to link to youtube.
squat
deadlift
cmonnnn youtubes[/quote]
You seem to have real tight form, looks good to me! But I think you need to go a little lower :S or maybe it’s just the angle of the camera, just my 2 cents.
[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
here’s the squat. i did a set before this and it looked like my back was rounding horribly but i wasn’t sure, so i backed up for this shot. turns out it was just my badonk.
edit: i think i’ve failed at embedding. so i will try to link to youtube.
squat
deadlift
cmonnnn youtubes[/quote]
You seem to have real tight form, looks good to me! But I think you need to go a little lower :S or maybe it’s just the angle of the camera, just my 2 cents.
[/quote]
Yeah I second that on depth it might be the angle but you might not be exactly hitting parallel.
my phone was on the floor and angled up. I’ll try to get it on a chair or something next time.
I have an 8-9 year old injury to my right groin from taekwondo which felt more like it was in the hip joint. my more recent injury >2 months ago felt more like it’s in the hip flexor.
I do the stretches in the link below 2-3 times through after doing a bunch of air squats to warm up.
I also do a stretch for my quads/hip flexors where you’re like at the bottom of a lunge, pick up and hold your back foot and then stretch forward.
