[quote]csulli wrote:
Lol, well I’ll keep working at it dude. What are you deadlifting these days btw? You’re like 50lbs heavier than me, but have you pulled 600 yet?[/quote]
I actually quit lifting some months ago. Just playing TN’s wannabe tough guy now.[/quote]
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
For the last couple months I have been doing the Smolov base cycle (set rep loading scheme) for 3 compound exercises (variations of the Big 3) at the same time consecutively without a deload. This week I have started my 5th cycle of this. I would think most people would not recommend this approach. Shitload of tough work and perma-soreness but results are pretty nice. Actually makes want to start using the good stuff to see what god-like (strength) gains I could achieve.[/quote]
Oh ho ho, you can’t get one by me that easily! Chia and I trained like that for a while on bench, squat, dead, and overhead. I didn’t really do the Smolov rep/set schemes in any particular order though I just did whichever one I felt like doing that day. Five sets of seven was always my least favorite I think. I also threw in 5x5’s pretty often even though that wasn’t technically one of them.
Let me know if you start pincushioning yourself. I’ll grab some test prop and we’ll go in together lol.
[quote]csulli wrote:
Oh ho ho, you can’t get one by me that easily! Chia and I trained like that for a while on bench, squat, dead, and overhead. I didn’t really do the Smolov rep/set schemes in any particular order though I just did whichever one I felt like doing that day. Five sets of seven was always my least favorite I think. I also threw in 5x5’s pretty often even though that wasn’t technically one of them.
Let me know if you start pincushioning yourself. I’ll grab some test prop and we’ll go in together lol.[/quote]
I actually find that with the right choice of weights all “days” feel rather miserable. Also, I find that Smolov’s ordering of the days has some sense to it.
Will do. Would be cool if you think about. We would create a thread “Csulli VS IS - the Chemical Begins”…
Paused Bench:
45 10x
95 10x
135 5x
185 5x
225 4x
255 3x
275 4x
275 4x
275 4x
275 4x
275 4x
275 4x These were very solid reps all. My bench form is feeling very, very good (it’s the only thing where my form feels good lol). The only other thing I have arguably good form on is atlas stones because of my body’s natural propensity to curl into a ball.
[quote]trivium wrote:
I am starting to believe that some of us just weren’t meant to be flat back deadlifters.
I am struggling hard with it haha.[/quote]
I sure as hell wasn’t. It’s tempting to fully embrace back rounding, but I will make a concerted effort not to for a while at least and see if I can’t build up the necessary isometric strength in my lower back. I actually have a very weak lower back, despite that everyone tells me “oh your lower back is crazy strong!” In reality it’s my mid back that’s strong. The part just above your lower back that is responsible for unrounding your spine.
I feel like I’ve hit a glass ceiling doing that though. I’ve pulled 525/530 in 3 different meets and a handful of other times in the gym, all with a rounded back. I have 100% confidence in my ability to curl up into a ball with 530lbs in my hands and jump up as fast as I can and fully uncurl my spine at the top. That doesn’t even feel like a “true max” that I have to peak for or whatever. I would be comfortable pulling 530 any time, any place. But beyond that it’s like I hit a brick wall. I just can’t unround my back with heavier weight.
Mike Tuchscherer has said some interesting things on round back deadlifting. The thing is I feel like there is only one actual example of an acceptable round back deadlifter, and that’s KK. I’d like to pull like him, but I don’t have the lockout figured out.
Flattening out my back is very difficult for me though. I don’t want to make excuses like I anatomically can’t or something. I mean it’s not like I’ve ever been diagnosed with some kind of scoliosis or whatever lol, but my thoracic spine is noticeably hunched over, and it has always been that way. That’s going to be an even bigger struggle on squats. My chest caves in on squats always. People keep telling me to keep my chest up and my upper back straightened out and my elbows down under the bar and I’m like “My body doesn’t do that.”
Even when I contract my upper back as hard as possible, my scapulae don’t get nearly as close to eachother as most people’s. Doing rows or whatever I reach full contraction in my back muscles well before I actually get my upper back fully squeezed together like you would normally see. I dunno it’s weird.
Your back hunching like that is probably a learned posture. It took a long to develop it that way and it’ll take a long time and a lot of effort to unlearn it as well. I would get a foam roller and really stretch your spine out with it a couple times a day. Try to get a really big arch while benching, etc… so that you have the active mobility to comfortably walk around with an extended spine. Pendlay rows with a big, BIG arch will help as well. I used to have the same issues when squatting but now I’m able to keep a big chest all the way up to my 1RM and my deadlift has gone up quite a bit because my lockout is so much stronger with my scapulas back and down.
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
Your back hunching like that is probably a learned posture. It took a long to develop it that way and it’ll take a long time and a lot of effort to unlearn it as well. I would get a foam roller and really stretch your spine out with it a couple times a day. Try to get a really big arch while benching, etc… so that you have the active mobility to comfortably walk around with an extended spine. Pendlay rows with a big, BIG arch will help as well. I used to have the same issues when squatting but now I’m able to keep a big chest all the way up to my 1RM and my deadlift has gone up quite a bit because my lockout is so much stronger with my scapulas back and down.[/quote]
That is very encouraging actually
Looks like I’m jointing the party quite late. I’ve been skimming through your past logs this week, and it’s incredible stuff. Your volume is quite something haha. I’ll be following along!
[quote]Roran wrote:
Looks like I’m jointing the party quite late. I’ve been skimming through your past logs this week, and it’s incredible stuff. Your volume is quite something haha. I’ll be following along![/quote]
Awesome! The more the merrier
Beltless Squat:
45 10x
135 10x
185 5x
225 5x
275 3x
295 5x
295 5x
295 5x
295 5x
295 5x Oh man these felt great! I should have filmed one. Squat form progress came along a lot better than expected. I brought my feet in, but also pointed them forward more. My posture in my whole back stayed pretty darn good throughout these reps, and for being beltless, they felt pretty damn easy.
So I’m taking a different approach to my training for a while. (Go ahead with a bunch of “I told you so’s” infinite_shore lol). I have enough muscle mass and general movement strength to be a lot stronger at the main lifts than I am. What I really need is less focus on programming, less focus on muscles, and less focus on accessory movements and all my focus on simply practicing the main lifts.
I need to log more hours and more reps with the big lifts using acceptable form. My squat and bench form is feeling fine; I’ll get more videos up. So I just need to keep pushing volume and frequency on those and practice as many “perfect” reps as I can. It’s not about the weight, just about practicing doing the movement the exact same way, every single time with the correct form. Deadlift will be a bigger struggle lol, but we’ll see how it goes.
So I’m going to deadlift twice a week with rather low volume since I have a lot of form adjustments to make. Press twice a week using full Smolov volume rep/set schemes. Squat 3x a week using more traditional Sheiko volume levels between 20-25 reps total. And bench 4x a week generally with only about 15-20 total reps.
Ironically even though I just said “focus less on programming” I was bored yesterday, so I did make a great big complicated program for fun. I’ll see how putting up some pics goes.
[quote]csulli wrote:
So I’m taking a different approach to my training for a while. (Go ahead with a bunch of “I told you so’s” infinite_shore lol). I have enough muscle mass and general movement strength to be a lot stronger at the main lifts than I am. What I really need is less focus on programming, less focus on muscles, and less focus on accessory movements and all my focus on simply practicing the main lifts.
I need to log more hours and more reps with the big lifts using acceptable form. My squat and bench form is feeling fine; I’ll get more videos up. So I just need to keep pushing volume and frequency on those and practice as many “perfect” reps as I can. It’s not about the weight, just about practicing doing the movement the exact same way, every single time with the correct form. Deadlift will be a bigger struggle lol, but we’ll see how it goes.
[/quote]
Good stuff. I would also recommend that you START every session with some very basic mobility stuff (hip flexor + glute/piriformis stretch) and then PRACTICE perfect positioning with beltless front squats and/or high bar standing good mornings. Both exercises leave little room for crappy form and hence allow for direct feedback effects if you HIT perfect back/pelvis/abs positions. Play around with different body setups.
Imo, shitty form is seldom a strength but a lack of motor control issue and/or ignorance on how get into that position. As soon as you have figured out how to set your body up, you don’t really need to practice it anymore.
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
PRACTICE perfect positioning
…
Imo, shitty form is seldom a strength but a lack of motor control issue and/or ignorance on how get into that position. As soon as you have figured out how to set your body up, you don’t really need to practice it anymore. [/quote]
This. Case in point, stop doing your asian squats with a hunch back.
