- If your olympic squatting- front squatting is nearly identical formwise
- Front squat is all about if you can hold it or not. No grip. No go. Regardless of stance.
NOT Squats. Not today, nor yesterday. (But, tomorrow ;-))
I was feeling restless yesterday though, so I ended up doing overhead db presses with the handles for 100 reps (in smaller sets), and 100 lateral raises nonstop with a half pound or something like that. (I literally used two bottles of bitters that were the same size…) Decent pump of shoulders, triceps and upper traps. Shoulder tendons weren’t feeling so great this time though.
Today…
Moderate Incline Touch-n-Go Bench from High Pins (4) – hahaha at how long that name is
Ramp
45, 95, 115, 125, 135, 145, 155 x 3
160, 165, 170, 175 x 1
180 x 0, 0
Volume, 70%+
125, 127.5, 130, 132.5, 135, 137.5, 140, 142.5, 145, 147.5, 150, 152.5, 155, 157.5, 160, 162.5, 165, 167.5, 170 x 3 (7.5lb PR, was 162.5)
Speed/Form, 50% (slow down, fast up)
87.5 x 2 x 5
–
My right elbow was hurting to lock stuff out. Really pretty bad today, so I gave up on ramping 2s and just went to singles. I may have to actually start doing something about this, since this has held back my pressing and my curls. It’s been like this my whole life (from elbow surgery when I was 18 months), but maybe it’s “fixable”? We’ll see.
It got significantly better when I got up there with the volume work, but still not great.
Might have done more volume work, but was running out of time. Had to get to a meeting. Was surprised at the 170x3, honestly. Especially since I was trying to finish quickly and leave. I might have been able to eek out another set or two.
It seems it takes awhile for my nervous system to “turn on”. It’s a little weird to be able to do 3 reps at 97%. In fact, it probably means my “real” training max is somewhere between 182 and 188.
These were really short rests all around. I think my longest rest was maybe 2 minutes, but most were probably closer to 45 seconds. Just long enough to add plates and get back underneath it.
–
92 reps total.
73 above 70%.
49 above 80%.
22 above 90%.
[quote]barbedwired wrote:
- If your olympic squatting- front squatting is nearly identical formwise
- Front squat is all about if you can hold it or not. No grip. No go. Regardless of stance.[/quote]
Yeah. That’s my understanding too.
It’s the upper back part, and the stability for overhead pressing that I’m actually more interested in.
If there’s carryover to the deadlift, getting it off the floor faster or something, that’d be cool too.
For the elbow problem, have you tried changing hand position and elbow position?
[quote]nkklllll wrote:
For the elbow problem, have you tried changing hand position and elbow position?[/quote]
Yeah. It’s almost like it’s nerve related. It just happens at a specific elbow position.
When my elbow is 95-97% extended and I’m trying to curl, I simply can’t bend my arm to bring it back up, even though the weight is well within what I can handle. Hammer curls work a little better. Shortening the ROM works a little better. But extending all the way at the bottom, I usually can’t get the weight back past that point without body english.
Likewise, it seems to be about the same position when I’m pressing. In the case of pressing, it gets a little better if I do a good job warming up the area, but still not great.
Doesn’t seem to be at all related to hand positioning or elbow or shoulder positioning… simply a matter of sustaining a load a particular amount of elbow extension.
I should probably talk to a sports-medicine doctor / try out voodoo bands / talk to a masseur / talk to a chiropractor.
Played with the Olympic Press a bit, later.
This is my one day to do whatever upperbody work I want, so, I’m taking advantage of it.
Hit a default PR of 115 x 1.
I’m trying to learn a proper double-layback olympic press. The timing seems pretty tricky. Drive hips forward to bend the back, then straighten up while pressing upwards, which propels the bar upward past the sticking point, then backbend again to a high-incline position and press from there until lockout (at which point you’ll be upright).
I guess this is one of the old York Barbell guys. I haven’t watched these, just glanced through the first a bit. But might as well share. (I’ll watch them all later.)
After watching those videos, I decided to go for 120. Yeah, definitely could do that once I threw in the pop off the chest using the traps. Such a completely different movement.
I’m also noticing how “weak” my core seems. Both the lower back and abs are used to drive and support the bar. Which means I working on these should be great for me.
However, there’s not really any room for them in this next training cycle.
[quote]ishinator wrote:
[quote]LoRez wrote:
[quote]ishinator wrote:
I’m interested in seeing how Nemesis works for you. I’m currently doing the JTS program (currently in 5s) with an additional front squat day.
I’ve been considering Horton’s stuff after I’m done with this.[/quote]
I’m pretty interested too. He’s certainly hyped it up, but I haven’t seen much for logs.
I’m not familiar with the JTS program. How is it set up?[/quote]
It’s kind of like a convoluted 531. You have a month of 10s, 8s, 5s, 3s with percentages based on your training max.
So 5x10 first week, 3x10 second, max set of 10 third, deload 4th. The rest of the months essentially follows that pattern.
The 5x10 is death.
[/quote]
I can imagine.
How have you liked it? How long have you been running it?
Squats - 3 x 2 @ 85%
Stretching at the bottom
45, 95, 135, 155, 175, 185, 205 x 2
230 x 3 x 2
These didn’t suck. They felt pretty good. Two days without squatting and I missed it. 85 was enough intensity to feel like I actually did something.
–
I actually did another olympic press with 120 when I got out there before doing the squats.
120 feels relatively light to do it this way.
–
Those videos are actually a really big deal. The first coaching of a true olympic press I’ve ever seen on video, and he teaches all the innovations developed over the years… stuff that I’d only read about, but never actually seen coached… and not just coached by anyone, but coached by an international-level olympic coach. All the stuff I’d read about that Charles Smith wrote, his analysis of the press and of all the foreign competitors, seeing it in action, wow.
I’m kind of blown away.
So, I’ve mentioned that my traps grow like crazy. Even going so far as to call them “oversized”.
This… is pretty normal for me. Usually when I take a picture, I pose to make them not look quite so prominent, but this is “normal”. Narrow clavicles, long arms = crazy traps.
Also, I have monkey arms. I’d need 22" arms to make them look “normal” I think.
why don’t you deadlift like twice and try pulling 500 in a couple weeks lol
Nice. Ya traps dominate here… my arms plateaued on curls ect… so I quit them .closegrip bench for tris took me from 16 to 17… chins n rows took me to 18… everyones diff.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
[quote]ishinator wrote:
[quote]LoRez wrote:
[quote]ishinator wrote:
I’m interested in seeing how Nemesis works for you. I’m currently doing the JTS program (currently in 5s) with an additional front squat day.
I’ve been considering Horton’s stuff after I’m done with this.[/quote]
I’m pretty interested too. He’s certainly hyped it up, but I haven’t seen much for logs.
I’m not familiar with the JTS program. How is it set up?[/quote]
It’s kind of like a convoluted 531. You have a month of 10s, 8s, 5s, 3s with percentages based on your training max.
So 5x10 first week, 3x10 second, max set of 10 third, deload 4th. The rest of the months essentially follows that pattern.
The 5x10 is death.
[/quote]
I can imagine.
How have you liked it? How long have you been running it?[/quote]
I’ve never really done more than sets of 4 so the 10s and 8s were new and exciting. The volume definitely put some size on my legs.
This is my first time running it and I have my 2nd 5s workout coming up. I’ll be done with this in April and I’m going to try something different for a while.
i dont agree with paul carter on a lot of things but those 100 rep sets ( i dont believe in them for actually BUILDING anything) are magic for injuries. I came up with the same explanation without reading anything that pulling the blood into the area must allow more nutrients to reach the injured spot allowing it to heal much faster than normal times
Uploaded on Dec 23, 2009
1005 front squat lockout.
I thought you might get some modivation from these, since your playing around with some partials yourself, and Jamie lewis is a pretty strong fucker, seems to like them as well, enjoy 
100 nonstop reps of very-light lateral raises earlier today. Attempting to heal my shoulders and stuff.
140x1 Olympic Press. It was still sitting on my rack, and when I opened the garage, I was determined to do it, so I did it. 91% bodyweight.
So…
Squats
45, 95 x 2
135 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 3
215 x 1
235 x 1
270 x 1 (PR)
280 x 1 (PR)
285 x 1 (PR)
290 x 0
And I’m done for the night.
I’d say that was a successful month.
Squats went from 235 to 285.
Temperature was 13 degrees, Feels Like ™ 4 degrees. I drove in from out of town last night 3.5 hours away, got in at 4:15AM. Only got a few hours of sleep. Somewhat less than ideal conditions.
Dude. Awesome on the PR.
Thanks. And Jake, that was pretty impressive, those front squat lockouts.
–
So, 285 is good, but not good enough. I want at least 2x bodyweight before I really take my primary focus off squats.
At this point, I’m not ready to introduce front squats into the mix. Couple reasons, 1 is I’m trying to improve my back squat, 2 is my shoulders really aren’t up to handling the rack position with the elbows up. If the elbows are mostly down (like, my Press starting position), it’s fine, but my RCs aren’t healed yet… but healing quickly.
Based on this… the plan for March:
M: Squat, Bench
T: Squat, Row, Pullups
W: Squat, Bench
R: Squat, Row, Pullups
F: Squat, Bench (this becomes Deadlift, Bench if I’m gone for the weekend.)
S: Deadlift, Pullups
S: Off / Free Day
Squat is Olympic. Deadlift is conventional. Bench is moderate incline from high pins (still limited ROM because of shoulders).
Nemesis for squats, bench, deadlifts. Rows are for volume. I’ll still do 100rep laterals and 100rep db presses. Alternate daily probably. TRX facepull/rows daily once I get it hooked back up.
Olympic Press work may go after bench. I’m not going to try too hard on these right now. This might be just technique work, it might be assistance volume. Going to leave it open.
Short term goals: 2x BW Squat. Fix my shoulders. 1.5x BW Bench. In that order of priority.
Love reading the progress on the squat, keep busting ass and doing the program.
Awesome progress LoRez