Today’s training:
Slingshot floor press: up to 340x1, concentrating on a controlled eccentric.
5 rounds of:
Rolling tri ext: 80lbs x 10
Pull ups: 10
Plate Raises: 45lbs x 10
4 rounds of:
Reverse flys: 20lbs x12
Lateral raises: 20lbs x12
Tri ext: mini band.
Deadlift day today:
Paused front squats: 295x3
Pin squats: 325x 8,6,8
Conv DL: 405 10x1 EMOM
Sumo DL: 405 10x1 (took 8 mins)
Bw90 degree back ext: 3x15
Bw Reverse Hypers: 2x15
Ab wheel: 5x10
I found a vid on youtube for a DIY reverse hyper/back ext platform that I made yesterday. It’ll be nice to be able to do these at home now (will try to set it up to use bands on the Rev hypers next time)
Finally decided to arrange seeing a doctor abiut my shoulder - hasnt gotten any better over the last couple of months. I dont think its a tear or anything too serious, probably tendonitis or impingement.
Today I tried some bench with different grips to see if it would help (it didn’t) ended up doing 300ish for a couple of singles.
Tried some db flys but these were a no go.
Did some rounds of plate raises, meadows rows and jm press
I’ll need to figure out what I can do on upper days without aggravating my shoulder for the next couple of weeks
Got access to DBs? Flat neutral grip works for me when my shoulders are in bad shape. Start light, say 40lb DBs for sets of 10-20 and work your way up over some weeks. Lay off the barbell.
I have a set of adjustable DB handles that are a bit of a hassle to use but thats a good idea. I’ll give them a try next session, maybe on a slight decline too as that seems a little easier on the shoulder.
What shoulder issues do you have?
I think my issues have been the garden variety tendonitis/impingement/overuse. There’s a specific amount of barbell pressing work my body allows me to do. If I go beyond that threshold, things start inflaming and banging up against each other.
DBs are typically my go to for when things start hurting. Also, I like to give myself a week off barbells once per month during a deload, where I’ll only use DBs.
Should pain sucks!
Squats today:
Back was still a little sore from workout on the weekend so these were a little tougher than I would have liked:
Worked up to 485x1, it was a little grinding but I’m hoping some technique will help with the sricking point - i think staying more upright out the hole will help.
CAT squats: 390 2x2 - also quite slow
3 second Paused squats: 295 3x3
Sit ups: 35lbs 3x10
Reverse lateral raises: 30lbs 3x12
Deload next week then max attempt the following week. I set my training max at the start of the program so that this week would be 485 (my current max) so I’m hoping with a deload to add a bit to the RM when I test.
Upper day:
Tried to find some shoulder friendly exercises for the pressing muscles - DB press was a no go unfortunately.
I have am appointment with the doc tomorrow so hopefully can get some clarity on what the problem is, or at least rule out some stuff.
Ended up doing a circuit of the following for 10 rounds, all sets were sets of 10
Rolling tri ext: 80lbs x10s
Meadows rows: 80lbs x10s
Side lateral raises: 10lbs x10s
Curls: 25lbs x10s
Took 35ish mins in total and was pretty tough all in all.
I saw the doc today about the shoulder and good news is it looks to be bicep tendon inflammation/tendonitis. Ive got a few exercises and stretches to do and recommended resting for a few weeks then working back with lightweights. He also said overhead is worse for this injury than bench so I’ll be giving it up for a while I think. Thinking about it it could be adding OHP back into my workouts last year that could,have contributed to this…
Had a pretty good workout today. Starting to get the hang of using a deadlift bar and sumo is becoming more natural - goal of 1500 total looking somewhat possible by the end of the year.
SSB squats: 350,370,390 for 5s
310 for 11,10,10
Was completely gassed at this point and quads were pretty shaky.
Conventional deadlift: 425 10x1 EMOM
Sumo: 425 10x1 in 7.5 mins
GHR: 5x10 ss with db side raises 20lbs 5x10.
So i think for the time being I need to accept that my comp lift will have to be sumo as it feels so much better on my sciatic nerve.
I’ll keep doing 10x1 conventional followed by 10x1 sumo far as long as I can keep pushing the weight up without any pain, at which point I’ll drop the conventional and see how far I get go with just sumo, then drop the weight down and bring conventilnal back in. I cant see myself doing deadlifts for reps at all for the foreseeable future unfortunately
I did some shoulder friendly upper body stuff yesterday (mainly landmine rows and triceps extensions).
Today wad a deload on squats. I find if I go too light on squats when i deload the next week going heavy feels especially heavy so given next week is testing week I decided to do 405 for a couple of singles - form seemed off but these moved pretty good.
Followed up with 275 3x3
Abs 3x10.
Lower back is feeling a little beat up so i may move my deadlifts to Friday then squat next week on either Tues or Weds to allow extra rest if needed.
@chris_ottawa D’you mind form checking my squat in the above post, single around 80%. There is also a near max squat a few posts up where you can really see my sticking point.
My hips rise faster than my shoulders out the hole but in not sure if this is an issue or something to just roll with as my posterior chain is stronger
It doesn’t look like a major problem, more like a minor inefficiency. Part of it is most likely due to your posterior chain being a lot stronger than your quads so building up your quads will probably pay off. The other thing is that you have probably been practicing the same movement pattern over and over for a long time so it just seems natural, even on your CAT sets you still let your hips shoot back.
You could try doing paused high bar squats or paused SSB squats, those will force you to use your quads to drive out of the hole. If you are far out from a meet then you could consider more of a hypertrophy focus for a month or two, that could pay off. I have recently been doing Hatfield squats and my quads are bigger than ever. Stuff like leg press or hack squats could be worthwhile as well, technique is not really a limiting factor so it’s a more direct way of targeting you quads if you have those options available.
Thanks for the tips.
The program I’m currently doing has a lot of high bar paused squats (it’s Chad Wesley Smith’s CAT one that I think I actually saw you post somewhere a while back) which I’m really liking for quad work. I think I’m going to run this program again so i’ll give Hatfield squats a go on my deadlift day as i usually do a squat variation then as well.
I remember a while back using Chris Duffin’s cue of slamming my back into the bar (or something like that) helped me out but I can’t seem to get it to work this time… I may also have had a slightly wider stance then too
If you’re going to do Hatfield squats on your deadlift day I would do them after deadlifting, they are harder than you would expect. It wouldn’t hurt to run a hypertrophy block before repeating this program (that’s actually what Chad recommends, alternating hypertrophy and strength block if you aren’t about to peak for a meet) and if you have a particular muscular weakness then that would be the best way to attack it. You could also consider three lower body days per week with less volume per session, that would be the best way to get two heavier squat days in without neglecting the deadlift. So basically a comp. squat day with a little bit of assistance work (paused high bar or SSB squat would be perfect), a deadlift with no squatting, and then a secondary squat day (perfect place to put Hatfield squats, otherwise high bar or similar variation would be fine) with some posterior chain work like RDL, GM, SLDL, whatever. Just put two bench days in between.
The cue I got from Chris Duffin was “stop the train”, imagine that a train is going to slam into you from behind when you hit the hole and push back and up with full force like your life depends on it.
Thats the one I was thinking of.
Yeah, im not planning on competing until Jan 2019 so will do a hypertrophy phase before peaking for that.
I really have to set my training up in a way that doesn’t cause my sciatica to flare up so generally don’t do too many hip hinge exercises, but I’ll see what I can manage in a couple of weeks.
Appreciate the help!
Marisa Inda was having some sciatica issues, she has some videos with Chad Wesley Smith (her coach) talking about that. I never looked into it because I don’t have that problem but you should check it out.
I watched the video she did about her rehab. It was good to see how someone who actually lifts deals with it, although what she did hasnt really helped me out.
Took it easy on squats today to be fresher for testing next week.
Front squats: paused reps up to 295x2, 315x1
Conventional DL: 445 10x1 EMOM
Sumo DL: 445 10x1 8 mins
GHR: 3x10
Sumo is feeling good right now - hoping to be able to keep going with this deadlift format up to 485
So 2 years after my first crack at it and a series of derailing injuries and life events, I FINALLY hit a 500 squat!
It was an almighty grind but I managed to get it.
Ive noticed I have a habit of going a couple of inches deeper on really heavy squats (not sure why) which makes the lift much tougher - will have to try to stop doing this.
Ended up doing quite a few drop sets after this and ended up with a pretty good session:
405: 3x2, 2x3
375: 1x5, 1x4
315: 1x8
245: 5 sec paused rep followed by 4-5 reps.
Did a couple bench workouts either side of the squats and shoulder wasnt happy about - gonna really try hard to give it a month or so of proper rest.
…
The plan is still to try to do a meet next Jan so that gives me about 4 months to work on hypertrophy followed by 3 month strength and peak.
I’m thinking of running CT’s Hepburn layered program for bench and squat then have second upper and lower days with variations and higher volume and a potential 5th day for any weak points I want to work on…