I’m going to start by playing basketball tomorrow night!
I don’t know what to do with myself. Back when I first started training (and growing), I didn’t squat. My high school weights teacher didn’t even program it. We maxed on trap bar deads, hang power clean, and bench. We added squats my senior year but I just flat hated them.
My brother is the one who set up my training for my summer of gains. I finished 11th grade at 204ish pounds and started 12th grade at 220-222. To do that, I trained six days a week with a bro split - Chest/tris, back/ shoulders/bis, and legs. I don’t really recall much of the leg days other than devil’s squats - using a Smith, put your feet 6" apart and walk them out so that you’re leaning into the bar at a 60 degree angle, then do 6 reps. It smokes the quads. That’s really the only exercise that left an impression. I’m pretty sure I just did leg extensions, curls, and leg press for the rest.
In college, more of the same. Our college strength coach had us do leg press, curls, and extensions (lots of partial reps, too). If we squatted then it was 3 hole squats - place the safety bars 3 holes below the bar’s racked position and do sets of 20. Basically 1/4 squats.
All that to say that I built a decent body that performed well without squatting until 2007. I did an internship at the US Olympic Training Center and you bet your ass I started squatting.
I’ve never been any good at squats, but I keep trying to do them. I see two options - go back to physical therapy and have them assess my form and hips and try to figure it out… or just stop squatting.
If you don’t need to squat, and it hurts to squat, plus you don’t want to squat, would it not make sense to just stop squatting? There’s a million other ways to train your legs.
I know, but I keep trying to force squats into the program. I think part of it is that my body is telling me what to do instead of the other way around.
Stop squatting, dude. Deadlifts are cooler and I imagine a little more “applicable to real life situations” or something. You don’t even want to add much more muscle to your legs at the expense of your upper body and if you don’t care about your squat’s weight then I think those two reasons are good enough to stop.
It’s hard to let go of an exercise or training method when you’ve had some good results, and lots of articles and people here and in the gym are outspoken proponents. I’m in the same boat with squats - sometimes they’re beneficial, sometimes they wreck my hip.
I’m pretty sure @trainforpain recently said (more succinctly and eloquently) your past training abilities no longer exist. What we each have is our current body, abilities, and limitations.
With that as a principle, you can assess whether you want to squat and all it entails or you want to cut out that complication and adapt your training to fill the hole created by not squatting.
This is so true though! We can know all the right things intellectually, and still have an attachment. I think that’s some of the benefit of this community, we can all jump on here and help folks see when they’re finding excuses vs it’s time to move on.
In this case, I think we all are saying it’s likely time to move on
This is another reason I keep doing squats! My choices at home are to keep fighting a lift that hates me or do double/triple the reps with single leg work.
I’ll try to listen to all the obvious answers. This conversion reminded me that reverse lunges on the Smith used to be one of my main movements. I have a Smith in my rack that needs used. I guess I found a good solution.
I’ve seen that done in the gym but never tried it. I also built that belt squat apparatus but it seems like it’s only going to work with lighter weights and higher reps. That one set I did yesterday sucked bad enough that I chose to run those “sprints” instead of doing another set. I hadn’t planned that initially, but thought “If I go run then that’ll finish off my legs.”
OHP
30 x 10
80 x 5
95 x 5
110 x 5
125 x 5
70 x 10 x 6 (miscounted sets)
SEATED LAT DB RAISE
25 x14+4+4+4+4+4+4 (myo)
JM PRESS
100 x 17, 10+3+3+2 (myo)
OH EXTENSION
Band x 12
Band x 12 + 12 partials
NOTES
Probably should done another exercise. The aim is to do a heavy, moderate, and light exercise. I counted the 5/3/1 sets as “heavy” and the BBB sets as moderate. The 5/3/1 sets weren’t really enough to count as heavy so I need to add something else to this.
The BBB sets were with 50% of my TM and were pretty easy. That’s a good start. My 50% weight will be slightly higher next cycle when I officially start the BBB Challenge. I’m sure 70% in the third cycle is going to be tough. I’ll also do those on alternate days so bench with OHP and vice versa.
JM Press might just fix my elbow pain…or make it worse. I think my issue is actually caused by sleeping on my arm with it bent underneath me. The end range of motion on the JM press puts me in that position under load. If @flappinit 's theory is correct then working this ROM should make things better.
I honestly don’t know much about JM presses - mechanically the concentric looks like it’s placing a lot of torque on the elbow, but mostly it’s just not an exercise I have experience with to recommend it.
I would definitely recommend getting some deep knee flexion, tibialis, and hip flexor training in before basketball though!
Just wanted to throw in some unsolicited input on this. A long while back, I remember seeing Alwyn Cosgrove (great trainer) quoting Gray Cook (great functional movement specialist): “Train the squat for mobility and train the deadlift for strength”.
Something about building strength/power in the posterior chain with DL variations and building hip mobility via squat variations being the sweet spot for lower body strength and joint health. If that means shooting for ATG front squats with 225 and pulling 600, cool.
The Smith reverse lunges I used to do were basically a single leg squat with a little help from the rear leg. Making it an open chain movement really opens up the hips and eliminates all the junk I’ve been battling.
Ankle braces and I might even wear my knee sleeves to help hold me together. Bout to start my warm up now.
I didn’t wear them, but I ordered the 5mm version for the future. My contribution in basketball is strength and power which equates to the garbage stuff - crashing the boards and jumping over people. That results in a lot of midair body contact and that’s where the injuries happen. My knee injuries might have been prevented by a brace or sleeve that helped my kneecap stay in place.
Ow. I really need to keep playing ball so I can get everything back in shape. My back muscles are angry. My feet and anterior tibialis are tender. And my legs are recked. It’s a good day for a rest day.
Also, I technically completed three days of running in four days so it’s been a good week.
