[quote]JoeGood wrote:
I would kill for that back arch. Literally.[/quote]
Her daughter got her flexibility from her mom.
EDIT: LOVE the new avi 
[quote]JoeGood wrote:
I would kill for that back arch. Literally.[/quote]
I’m shooting for a neutral spine. Funny that it looks like an arch. I’m trying to tuck my hips under rather than arch and stick my ass out. Ahh, well.
[quote]UpScale wrote:
Her daughter got her flexibility from her mom.
[/quote]
Speaking of my daughter, she told me this morning that I was too old to wear my hair in ponytails. After school, she told me I had a long hair growing from my upper lip. She sure knows how to build up my confidence.
you do have a great arch-
and the new avi looks great
pulls looked good to me.
when you walk are your feet pointed out like a duck?
a good sign that your hips are very tight
Yea pulls looked good to me but you know what you want, not me. The arch, wanted or not is nice. Keep doin’ what you do.
love the new Avi!
much creative potential I see.
Play on depth, on color and a hot PL. What’s not to like?
Regarding new avatar. Damn…someones rocking the gun show.
Today I experimented with foot placement in the bench. I really like “gripping” the bench with my thighs, since they’re plentiful and strong and I can keep my ass glued to the bench this way. I also feel tremendously stable when tight, tight in the lower body like this. But I’m having trouble keeping my right foot flat when I engage my thighs. And that’s a problem since my fed requires flat and immobile feet during the lift. Could be remedied with the proper shoes, perhaps?
Worked up to 8 x 2 with inconsequential weight (trying different foot positions on each set) supersetted with paused bentover barbell rows with the same weight.
Then 20 reps with just the bar. Kind of push presses in the flat bench position.
After that, I did a circuit of overhead cable rope tricep extensions, full ROM HLRs (still only sets of 6), and straight bar cable bicep curls.
I foam rolled my psoas region and hips and back, as Pete suggested. Not feeling too bad today. Hopefully I’ll be in top form come Monday for squat day.
Today was squat day. Pretty much sucked. My hip flexors still hurt, which is interferring with my squat fun.
Squat
5/55
5/70
4/90
3/115
2/125
1/146 wraps
Was supposed to do 3 reps at 146. Wrapped because I was feeling weak and in pain even though that was cheating in my book. Failed on the second rep anyway despite the knee wraps. I think my squat has dropped a bit because I’m not squatting enough. Simple fix.
Then I just pissed around doing RDLs and sumo pulls with random weights and reps. Videod my sumo from the side at 135 lb and realized I’m totally lifting my hips as G1 pointed out to me. Even at that paltry weight I cannot keep my hips down.
Switched to conventional.
5/135
3/155
1/175 belt
1/190
1/205
Feeling a little low about how easily I lose strength. It’s just my body type. I’m not remotely a mesomorph and have to fight tooth and nail to hold on to any strength gains/musculature. Kinda sucks.
It’s amazing how much the success or failure of my training affects my general mood.
After my squat failure last night, I was noticing all the women in the gym who have such great physiques for PLing (shorter and thicker than I). Felt so jealous.
Decided I’m done sumoing. My hips are so chewed up from just a month or so of training this stance. And I can’t even pull with super low weights without my hips rising. I may return to a hybrid pull position with a narrow stance and elbows braced on the inside of my knees. I was pulling quite successfully that way before I realized how wrong and ugly it was. But I had no hip or back pain and was pulling a fair amount of weight. Or maybe I’ll just take some time off from the lift altogether.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
It’s amazing how much the success or failure of my training affects my general mood.
After my squat failure last night, I was noticing all the women in the gym who have such great physiques for PLing (shorter and thicker than I). Felt so jealous.
Decided I’m done sumoing. My hips are so chewed up from just a month or so of training this stance. And I can’t even pull with super low weights without my hips rising. I may return to a hybrid pull position with a narrow stance and elbows braced on the inside of my knees. I was pulling quite successfully that way before I realized how wrong and ugly it was. But I had no hip or back pain and was pulling a fair amount of weight. Or maybe I’ll just take some time off from the lift altogether.[/quote]
I am right there with you. Jennifer dreads the days where my lifting isn’t where I feel it should be. Pretty much downs me until the next day, if not the next workout.
As to the sumo, conventional, hybrid thingy…no opinion (don’t know enough to have one), other than…if it works for you, do it.
^^^^^^ I get really pissy when I have a bad day. Gotta talk my self out of the doldrums when that happens. Even when it is happening I know how ridiculous I am being.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
Feeling a little low about how easily I lose strength. It’s just my body type. I’m not remotely a mesomorph and have to fight tooth and nail to hold on to any strength gains/musculature. Kinda sucks.
[/quote]
Sorry you’re feeling down (again!)
I could quote some lame cliches about marathons and sprints or some such bullshit, but I know it wouldn’t help. I only get over a bad w/o by having a good one.
As far as the ectomorphic bit goes, would you consider a specific hypertrophy cycle after your next meet with a calorie surplus to try and pack on some muscle? I’m sure you could gain some muscle.
I know you say you don’t get strong on high reps, but it might be a worthwhile sacrifice in the long run to lose a bit of strength now to gain a bit of extra muscle and you’ve got lots of leeway in your weight class haven’t you?
And just think how strong you could get with all that new muscle.
[quote]
I was pulling quite successfully that way before I realized how wrong and ugly it was. But I had no hip or back pain and was pulling a fair amount of weight. Or maybe I’ll just take some time off from the lift altogether.[/quote]
That’s the perfectionist in you. You see your form as less than perfect and have the desire to change everything up when you should just be making little changes to your form to get better. You were doing great at conventional and I never really saw anything too terribly bad with it. I would get back into it if for no other reason than to prove to yourself that you can.
I’m with you on the strength loss as mine goes away quite quickly too.
james
ok, snap out of it.
I’m starting to see this perfectionist persona also, as James stated. Not a bad thing, but has a tendency to beat oneself up too much.
I agree sumo beats up the hips, when I started using my single ply suit, straps down for both wide squatting and sumo pulls, my hips were fine, but raw and wide…even rolling and stretching didn’t really help.
Probably my last day on the Gillingham bench program as I think I’m going to back the weight down on all my main lifts and de-emphasize them for a bit. As such, I did a lot of accessory work today, which was fun.
First: flat bench a-la Gilly
Worked up to a single at 105 in a loose shirt and then dropped to 3/5/92.
Finished with 20 reps with the bare bar in push press fashion.
Wide-grip seated row, bentover rear delt machine, tricep kickback, DB row elbow out, incline DB bench, kneeling face pulls, standing external rotation, tricep pushups.
Been scared to do those tricep pushups. But they went great. Also the incline DB presses. They went okay but I’m at very, very light weight because I still have some instability.
The Colorado state meet is in 11 weeks. Not sure if I will do it or not.
I concur with FB’s perspective. Or train like G1 for a while, you can become the Superwoman to his Superman.
It’s agreed, we’re all neurotics who fall apart, kicking and screaming, when we don’t keep going up every single workout. It’s not logical, but if we didn’t have that drive, we wouldn’t be where we are.
Only one solution, get back up on the horse.
Its cause you’re good at it and want to get better.
the best is having an awesome PR and shit fail in the same session.
its all YAY then aw- man.
Uh, oh! No more sumo? Sorry to read about your hips. Funny, I followed you into the land of sumo thinking it would help strengthen my weak hips.
I’m still getting used to the volativity of strength levels and the difference btw strength training and skill training. It annoys me that I can’t always do what I have done before.
If the Colorado meet is close, do it.
meet training might be just the ticket to help break you out of the doldrums.