Hard Work

Training Over 35 Lifter
81

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I was actually the first person to see your vids when they loaded, but I chickened out and didn’t comment because I didn’t want to be the bad guy, but I realised that was the wrong attitude to have because if everyone did that you wouldn’t get any help.

[/quote]
It’s all about getting better and documenting the journey, right? As long as the feedback is constructive and not personally hurtful, I say there’s no harm in speaking the truth.

And this is a great group of people for that. Venture outta this forum or the PW forum and it can be the absolute dregs of society.

82

Well. At least people are reading my blog, I’ll give it that.

Git, Brett, I’m going to box squat till the cows come home. I’ve got a broom at home and the gym has a broomstick, that’ll be my starting point.

Brasil, my knees are fine and only very slight back soreness from deadlifts. That’s no excuse though for a sissy form. I’ve tried front squats before and they seemed to drive me way down, but haven’t done them recently and don’t know how I look doing them.

Snapper, I’ve noticed about the other forums. That’s why I’m posting here, to get away from the rudeness.

No one’s a villian. If I’m touchy about criticism, it’s only because I’ve fought a lifetime of being physically inferior to others. I’m lifting and posting here because I want to associate with other strong people. I’m determined to make myself a strong person.

Enough Dr Phil. Here’s my deadlifts for today:
135 x 8
185 x 6 parallel grip on this, it worked!
235 x 5
275 x 2
275 x 2 one more than last week
205 x 5

machine bicep
55 x 15
85 x 6 not enough rest
85 x 10
85 x 9

hypers - following advice on main page and doing slowly, slight ROM
x16 x15 x15

pulldowns
80 x 15
110 x 10
110 x 9
110 x 10

cable rows
70 x 15
90 x 13
120 x 7
120 x 7

went up on the assistance exercises. another guy, half my age, worked in for deads and did same rows & pulldowns. I’m pleased to say I kept up with him.

83

I would doubt very much if an average 54 year old non-lifter could Dead Lift 275lbs.

So are you physically inferior? You certainly are not inferior, not in terms of strength in the biggest strength exercise there is, certainly not when compared to your peer group.

84

[quote]cavalier wrote:
If I’m touchy about criticism, it’s only because I’ve fought a lifetime of being physically inferior to others.
[/quote]

Don’t be so tough on yourself. You’re 54 and still hitting the weights hard and consistently.

That gets my immediate respect, for what it’s worth.

85

As someone who’s avatar is a character from ‘Revenge of the Nerds’, I think I am adequately qualified to tell you that being mentally superior is better than being physically superior, but as they have said, you definitely aren’t physically inferior to about every 54 yr old guy I know.

86

Brasil, Brett, Ogre - all of you are right, of course. For 54, I’m doing OK. In some ways, better than OK. Just saw the doc today and my condition is tip top.

When I say physically inferior, I mean my memories of my boyhood. I didn’t want to go all Oprah on you folks, and didn’t mean to fish for compliments, but truth is the toughest battle is inside me. Let me give a few examples:

basketball in grade school. didn’t have the strength to get the ball in the basket. heave as hard as possible, the ball floats up and barely touches the rim.

boy scout hike. all the boys out-walked me. I strained, I pushed, yet everyone else just disappeared around the bend.

phys ed. could barely do the warm up calisthenics. strained, grunted, shook, gasped, could barely do the movements. these were the warm ups.

college. tucked a textbook and notebook under the arm, walked to the next class. small campus. by the time I got to the classroom my arm was literally cramping from the effort.

You get the idea. I had the physique of a pool cue - literally.

Add to that all the bad advice I got for weightlifting which gave me zero gains for years. In short, frustration has been my biggest enemy.

I don’t like writing this because it feels like self-pity, and I’d rather feel accomplishments. You all deserved an explanation. You’ve given me respect, and that’s exactly what I wanted, not pity. That’s why I’ve spent years pushing the iron.

Now let’s get those squats up.

87

[quote]cavalier wrote:
but truth is the toughest battle is inside me.
[/quote]
It usually is.

[quote]cavalier wrote:

Now let’s get those squats up.
[/quote]
No! Get those squats DOWN to depth!

I totally understand the weakling feeling. I hate the idea of being weak. I had two grandmothers who spent their last decade at about 100 lb. and couldn’t hardly carry a gallon of milk. I don’t wanna be there.

Carry on.

88

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
Now let’s get those squats up.
[/quote]
No! Get those squats DOWN to depth!
[/quote]
Well, you know what I mean.

And weightlifting’s supposed to be tougher for gals than guys, so I can only imagine all the dedication you’ve had to put into it. I think it safe to say you can certainly carry a few gallons of milk now.

Even Bulldog says he feels like a fragile flower. I guess it’s a virtue being so neurotic, it keeps us driving forward.

Bench today. I forget which thread, someone mentioned tightening as the bar lowers like coiling a spring. Focused on it and what do you know, it works.
45 x 15
100 x 8
115 x 6
125 x 5
135 x 3
145 x 2 didn’t even use a spotter, felt so certain
95 x10

rope pulldowns
60 x 15
100 x 10
110 x 6 stronger!
110 x 6
110 x 6 my god, I can’t stop
110 x 6

pec dec
40 x 15
70 x 12
85 x 9
85 x 9 can’t believe I’m gaining like this
85 x 8
85 x 7

cg bench
45 x 12
65 x 10
75 x 8
75 x 8

89

ah, welcome to that most unique of trevails, achieving depth.

12" box will probably be too short for you. a parallel box for me is 15", and I have a HUGE ass. Coincidentally, when I sit on the toilet I am perfectly parallel. I know. weird that I checked. Moving on.

play around with this in the mirror. Use a bunch of telephone books on top of something until you can see from the side that your hip crease is at or below the top of your knee. Once you have the height set, use the box until your body remembers how to hit parallel. You might want to use a broomstick or something of negligable weight to reinforce the upper body position/tightness because you will need that as well.

Another strategy with the box. build up a box using a bench and some phone books to build up to the height that you are descending to now. Squat many times to make sure you feel it. Remove a phone book, and squat to your now lower box. Don;t use weight until you get to depth. It might take a week or two per phone book, but probably not.

A lot of people have some ankle mobility challenges as well. At least in the early stages, you should shim up your heels by about an inch. Don’t use a 2x4, it puts you too high in my opinion. get a pc of 1"x whatever lumber, and put your heels on it. 10" plates are about the right size.

Remember that your body is not balanced on top of your hips, your body is slung between your hips. So when you squat, visualize squatting between your hips. This helped me more than anything else.

tear shit up.

90

[quote]mjnewland wrote:

Remember that your body is not balanced on top of your hips, your body is slung between your hips. So when you squat, visualize squatting between your hips. This helped me more than anything else.

tear shit up.[/quote]

I like that visual, body slung between your hips. I think the videos I have watched of women squatting deep make it easier to see, than men, as they can to stick their butts back easier than we do, and you can really see them lowering their upper body down between their knees. That’s kind of how I try to see myself when squatting down.

91

OK, folks, I get the idea. “This is the Squat Police. We have you surrounded. Throw out the leg blaster and no one gets hurt.”

Did a lot of box squats today with broomstick. Really felt it in legs, not back or butt. The stool is about 15 in high:

I got down to parallel, will need something smaller to go lower. Got lots of boxes, no problem.

Then went to gym and did rest of workout:

leg ext
5.5 x 15
7 x 11
9 x 10
11 x 8
11 x 8 bit stronger

leg curl
5 x 15
7 x 11
9 x 6
9 x 6
9 x 6
9 x 6 getting there

seat calf (plate loading)
45 x 16
70 x 11
90 x 11
100 x 7
100 x 7
100 x 7 always been strong on calf, no idea why

leg press
145 x 15
175 x 12
205 x 10
235 x 8

Will do more broomstick squats in the next week.

92

[quote]cavalier wrote:
OK, folks, I get the idea. “This is the Squat Police. We have you surrounded. Throw out the leg blaster and no one gets hurt.”

Did a lot of box squats today with broomstick. Really felt it in legs, not back or butt. The stool is about 15 in high:

I got down to parallel, will need something smaller to go lower. Got lots of boxes, no problem.

Then went to gym and did rest of workout:

leg ext
5.5 x 15
7 x 11
9 x 10
11 x 8
11 x 8 bit stronger

leg curl
5 x 15
7 x 11
9 x 6
9 x 6
9 x 6
9 x 6 getting there

seat calf (plate loading)
45 x 16
70 x 11
90 x 11
100 x 7
100 x 7
100 x 7 always been strong on calf, no idea why

leg press
145 x 15
175 x 12
205 x 10
235 x 8

Will do more broomstick squats in the next week.

[/quote]

squats3 - YouTube?

Use just the link part, not the embed code, fixed it for you.

The part about feeling it in the legs… I think it’s easier to get into a real good butt-out position, the heavier the weight is. Using a broomstick would make it hard for me to balance as easy in that kind of position.

93

[quote]Ogre21793 wrote:
The part about feeling it in the legs… I think it’s easier to get into a real good butt-out position, the heavier the weight is. Using a broomstick would make it hard for me to balance as easy in that kind of position.
[/quote]

True, but I’m determined to get depth on this thing. If I put on too much weight too quickly, I’ll lapse back to the old habit.

94

Thanks for the vid. Here’s my feedback. Initiate your squat by breaking at the hips and sticking your ass waaayyy back. Locking your knees at the top after each rep will allow you to do each subsequent rep successfully that way. Your depth is way better already. Just to that bench. That’s gotta make you feel good!

95

Snap here is the person to help with getting your depth down. She’s helped me a lot with depth and squats in general.

96

I switched the stool with a box 12 in high and squatting to that. Feels even better. Will take some vids.

Oh, yes, my singlet arrived. diabolical looking thing. I think the hardest part of the meet won’t be the lifting but wearing strange stuff. Must be part of a master plan to tear up my shins. Which is why I always deadlift in sweatpants.

97

Massive improvements already. That vid proves you do have the flexibility and ability to get parallel you’ve just been cutting yourself short for some reason.

I love the way you are taking the suggestions on board and working hard at them. Lots of people ask for advice but very few actually follow it.

Way to go.

98

[quote]cavalier wrote:
I think the hardest part of the meet won’t be the lifting but wearing strange stuff. Must be part of a master plan to tear up my shins. Which is why I always deadlift in sweatpants.[/quote]

Train in the singlet a time or two. You won’t even notice it after a bit. Most feds require kneesocks for the DL for precisely the reason you cite: blood on the bar has to be dealt with in specific ways. It’s just easier to make everyone wear kneesocks.

99

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
I think the hardest part of the meet won’t be the lifting but wearing strange stuff. Must be part of a master plan to tear up my shins. Which is why I always deadlift in sweatpants.[/quote]

Train in the singlet a time or two. You won’t even notice it after a bit. Most feds require kneesocks for the DL for precisely the reason you cite: blood on the bar has to be dealt with in specific ways. It’s just easier to make everyone wear kneesocks.
[/quote]

x2

You will feel rediculous in it but just remember that at teh meet no one will even notice because they are thinking about their lifts.

100

[quote]JoeGood wrote:

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]cavalier wrote:
I think the hardest part of the meet won’t be the lifting but wearing strange stuff. Must be part of a master plan to tear up my shins. Which is why I always deadlift in sweatpants.[/quote]

Train in the singlet a time or two. You won’t even notice it after a bit. Most feds require kneesocks for the DL for precisely the reason you cite: blood on the bar has to be dealt with in specific ways. It’s just easier to make everyone wear kneesocks.
[/quote]

x2

You will feel rediculous in it but just remember that at teh meet no one will even notice because they are thinking about their lifts.[/quote]

or about how silly they look 8*)