Yeah, I’ll probably do that too. Something like 2x25 top-half reps and 2x25 bottom-half reps.
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25/10/2021
AEROBIC INTERVALS
0645hr start
1°C, partly cloudy and windy
Running
- 1.5km warm-up
- 5x3 min/3 min; hard run/easy jog
- 1.5km cool-down
Not much to say. 3 minutes of hard running is… hard. It’s getting easier to sustain a high pace, though, so that’s good.
Notes:
- Had to drop the core work today, as I forgot my wife was working an earlier shift. Not the end of the world.
- The adversity experiment is going well enough, I’d say. Pushing myself hard first thing in the morning is getting easier, and reframing my mind during the workouts is transferring over into life, I think. Living spartan, thinking stoically, along with uncomfortable physical exertion, seems to be a good combo.
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25/10/2021
W1 D1
2230hr start
Snatch balance
- 2x5 @ 120
- 1x5 @ 130
Found my snatch weakness: overhead strength/stability. These were hard as shit. Know what I need to work on now.
Hang P. Clean
- 2x5 @ 150
- 1x5 @ 160
First set was a little shaky, so I wanted to make sure it was a form thing and not a strength thing. Second set was smooth and strong, so I decided to bump the weight on set 3.
B. Squat (high bar)
- 4x10 @ 250
Tweaked my fucking back in the same spot on the third set; I think it’s my QL or psoas, because I can feel it right at the top of my glutes and behind my illiac spine, but it’s deep enough that I can’t get at it to massage it. Guess I’m back on a steady diet of anti-inflammatories, heat and stretching. There was a sudden hard tension, release, then ache. And I knew my hips were a little screwy, because I kept messing around with stance width. I either need to drop the weight far more when doing high bar – because both times this has happened it’s been when high bar squatting – or stick to low bar and front squats. Never had any back issues with either of those movements.
45° hypers
- 2x12 @ 50
- 1x11 @ 50
- 1x10 @ 50
Clutching a DB to my chest. Back felt a little better after doing these. Hypers aren’t part of the program layout, but I’ve seen too many strong dudes recommend them, and I’ll just eat a little more to make up for the extra work. 2 days weighted, 1 day unweighted. Gimme that posterior chain stability.
Bench
- worked up to 160x10
- 2x10 @ 145
There’s two main set protocols in this program: 3x10 and 4x10. There’s very little guidance as to how to operate them, aside from “the powerlifts are done for a repetition max”, so on the 3x10 days I figure I’ll do a topset of 10, followed by 2 backoff sets at -10%. The 4x10 days will be just 4 sets at the -10% backoff.
Push press
- 120x10
- 130x10
High rep push presses suck. That is all.
Notes:
- I need to 1) remind myself that this first week should be used as a break-in week, and thus 2) not go peddle-to-the-metal right away. The squat injury could’ve been avoided if I wasn’t being a dingus.
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They’re such an under appreciated exercise.
Wish I had a hyper bench in my gym.
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They always fade in and out of my training, but I think I need to just make them a mainstay.
I got mine off Amazon for about $100. It ain’t pretty or top-tier quality, but it does what it needs to. Highly recommend picking one up.
What brand?
Most of the Amazon ones are only rated for 300 lbs, which scares me. I don’t know how they calculate that number but I’m pretty tall so I’m applying a lot of torque on that leg pad. I’d be worried about doing them weighted.
Mine was from a company called “Sunny Health & Fitness”. It’s rated for 250lbs officially, but I’m 5’8” and about 200lbs, and have used more than only 50lbs extra, with no issues.
If you were to spend a bit extra, you could get one of the Marcy ones, which will be almost assuredly better quality.
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Hey man, sorry to hear about the back (or hip). That stuff is no fun.
Sometimes my tight QL will knot up and pull on my hip flexors, so my psoas is stretched and painful, but the problem is in the back, not the front. At 3:10 in this video AthleanX shows how to massage/release the QL with something hard like a lacrosse ball. When my shit is tight and I do this I can feel all kinds of popping and cracking as I move my leg, and I know the QL was the problem.
Other times messing with QL does nothing and I know it’s psoas. At 2:45 Kelly Starrett shows how to mash up the psoas with a lacrosse ball and something heavy to be to the deep tissue.
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Thanks for the videos! You’re always such a wealth of information. I honestly don’t know if it’s precisely my QL or psoas, I just know it’s deeeeeep and hurts when I twist down, as if reaching my right hand to my left foot.
It’s also hard to get to, because of my anatomy; my illiac crest and bottom of my rib cage are ridiculously close together. Like almost no space between them.
2 Likes
Also, in other news:
I made a thing!
I can make all the excuses I want, but the truth is I just hate pullups and chins. No clue why, I just do. This program calls for lat pulldowns, but I’m not strong enough to hit the required 4x10 with chins, so I decided to just make my own ghetto pulldown. Tested it out and it works pretty good! All made for about $50, and now I can do pulldowns and pressdowns.
10 Likes
Home made equipment is the bees knees man. What program are you doing now?
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It’s a supertotal program, out of an old Iron Mind magazine I found online years ago. I’m adding hyperextensions and a pump day to it, though.
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In my opinion, the best way to stave off low back issues is a very steady diet of single-leg work. My personal favourite has become front-rack or zercher front-foot elevated split squats
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The bane of my existence. But, essential. I’ll probably do a 6-week rotation of rear-foot then front-foot split squats.
The other thing I’m frequently missing is side-to-side core exercises, like side bends or pallof presses.
I figure making back extensions, hanging-leg raises, side bends or rotations and single-leg work absolute mainstays should keep my hips and core happy and healthy. Thoughts?
Also, secondary question, but you might be able to answer: what role do the quads actually play in athletic movement? The glutes and hamstrings seem, at least to me, to be the overall powerhouses in leg power, especially when it comes to sprinting and other explosive movements. Are the quads more of a decelerating muscle group?
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27/10/2021
MOBILITY
0645hr start
Yoga
- 26 min, spinal focus
Took this reeeeally easy because of my back. It did help things, though.
Notes:
- Back is feeling better overall. I spent a lot of time yesterday just easing through different bending and twisting movements, as well as smashing it with a lacrosse ball, so now it doesn’t feel painful, just stiff and tight. Thanks again @FlatsFarmer for the videos!
4 Likes
No problem! I’m glad you got something out of them.
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Would you consider swapping the two? Because of the way they position your centre of mass relative to the working leg, they have slightly different effects on the system other than just “muscle activity”. Front foot elevated (FFE) split squats generally bias your body weight behind the working leg, unless you perform them knees-over-toes style. This makes them “early stance” dominant when compared to the regular gait cycle. Rear foot elevated (RFE) split squats bias your body weight over the working leg. This makes them “mid stance” dominant. Early stance is associated with an eccentric yielding state of the working side of the body. It promotes improvements in force acceptance, hip flexion and hip rotation. In contrast, mid stance is associated with a more concentric, overcoming state of the working side of the body. It promotes high levels of force production and relatively greater restriction in range of motion (although that’s not to say RFE split squats will make you the tin man). Thus, post-injury, I believe it is a good idea to use FFE split squats first as they “set up” the RFE split squats to be more effective.
Although core strength is no panacea, this is definitely a good strategy. Lately I’ve been a big fan of spinal strength+mobility by training at end ranges. I’d consider doing your side bends with a deeeeep stretch for this reason. I believe it creates a far more resilient torso. Also, athletes who exhibit greater trunk lateral flexion in change of direction tasks are more effective, so training deep lateral flexion may have benefits from a performance standpoint too.
Quads have a huge role to play, and I feel have been typically underappreciated (although that is starting to change). As a heuristic, the lower your centre of mass is to the ground, the more important strong quadriceps are. So, quads are particularly important for acceleration, deceleration, change of direction (especially sharp cuts greater than 90 degrees) and knee-dominant jumping*. From an injury management standpoint, strong quads are associated with lower rates of non-contact meniscus, MCL and ACL injuries, as well as much lower rate and severity of patellar tendinopathy and patellofemoral pain.
When it comes to change of direction and deceleration, you are correct in thinking that eccentric quad strength is most important, particularly from an injury-mitigation standpoint. However, concentric quad strength is still very important for acceleration and knee-dominant jumping.
*Knee dominant jumping: Jumpers usually exhibit one of two strategies, knee-dominant or hip-dominant. Knee dominant jumping is slow but powerful. It is associated with longer GCTs and slower RFD, but higher peak forces. It is more muscular in nature. Knee jumpers typically jump off two feet, and do not get big improvements in their jump height from a run-up. Shaq and Zion Williamson are your archetypal knee jumpers. Hip dominant jumping is fast and elastic. It is associated with shorter GCTs and higher RFS, but lower peak forces. It is more fascial in nature. Hip jumpers typically jump off one foot and get big improvements in jump height from their run-up. Michael Jordan and Ja Morant are archetypical hip jumpers.
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As usual buddy, above and beyond.
Absolutely, especially for the post-injury reasons. What about adding step-ups into that also? FFESS, RFESS (done Bulgarian-style, with only a 4-6” step), then step-ups? 4 week cycles for each. Or should step-ups come at the very beginning?
Luckily, this has always been my strategy, because many, many throws while grappling have taught me that it’s better to be strong in an end-range, especially with regards to rotation.
All good things to know. Glad I’ve continued squatting through my career.
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Are these step-ups the super controlled top-leg only style, or the more powerful push-off style? Both have a place.
The more controlled, true single-leg step ups would fit best between FFE and RFE split squats. They bias eccentric control in midstance (a great quality for COD performance, actually), but produce lower power outputs. The more propulsive type of step-up would fit best after RFE, as they still train midstance, but create much higher power outputs.
Good to know, grapplers are built different.
1 Like
27/10/2021
W1 D2
2215hr start
Hang P. Snatch
- 2x6 @ 120
- 1x6 @ 130
Good, strong, snappy.
B. Squat
- 270x10 topset
- 2x10 @ 245
Definitely had a few reps left in the tank at that weight, but with my back being touchy I absolutely didn’t wanna push it on the first week. This was low bar, shoulder width stance, which felt so so SO much more stable. When I do high bar, I want a more narrow stance, and my hips just shut off, causing my quads to take over (AKA, my knees), and then my back picks up the slack. This was a beautiful concert of hips and legs working together. Daddy Malarky Rippedtoad would be proud.
45° hypers
- 2x12 @ 50
- 1x11 @ “
- 1x10 @ “
Bueno.
Bench
- 4x10 @ 145
Behold: my poverty bench. My bench is terrible. Luckily for the first 1/4 to 1/2 of this program, I’m benching 3 days a week. Should help.
DB flye
- 2x10 @ 30
- 1x6+3+1 @ 30
- 45 sec chest stretch
Program calls for a cambered bench press, but I don’t have one. DB bench would be a similar ROM, but I wanted to hit my chest more. Might swap to DB bench, we’ll see.
CG lat pulldown
- 1x10 @ 50
- 3x10 @ 50
- 45 sec lat stretch
Finally – FINALLY – I have felt my lats working. Praise the Iron Gods! Gonna need to lube the shit out of the pulley though, because it 1) got really squeaky and 2) heated up significantly. Gonna buy a wider attachment and a rope attachment in the future. So happy with this.
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