Maple Syrup Strength (littlesleeper)

Training Training Logs
2351

Third world squat is great. Sometimes knee pain on the lateral side is the result of a problem at the hip. Watch for any signs of imbalances in hip movement. The third world squat should also help with any mobility issues at the hip.

The spot you described is very close to where the IT band inserts. IT band tightness could be the culprit. Maybe try some foam rolling before squats to find out for sure. Any time I have knee pain in that area it seems to be due to that. Stretching and foam rolling does the trick for me.

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2352

Iā€™ve never used anything other than a belt and straps when lifting. What do knee and elbow sleeves do and which ones are reputable?

Iā€™ve only had three joint surgeries so far so Iā€™m sure my knees and elbows are great and require no thought as I continue to lift and age.

2353

I canā€™t speak of helping in terms of injury, but about 6 months ago I started incorporating sleeves into my squat work after having some knee pain. I ran the base meso of smolov and (shock) my knees started to give me some issues. Walking up stairs even hurt. I think i had a bit of tendinitis combined with not so great form. But shortly after wearing sleeves and really starting to look at form adjustments has helped me tremendously. Recently I tried to do some back down sets sleeveless and my knees were pretty tender again. Im not sure if its the sleeves or not? It does make me feel better though wearing them, for sure.

Edit* - I use SBD sleeves

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2354

I saw that @flipcollar uses one on his cranky knee and believes in it.

Is it a warmth kind of thing or compression? Or both? Also, are we talking about the type of sleeves that improve performance due to how tight they are?

2355

The compression and warmth both help me. I feel ā€œsafeā€ so to speak wearing them. I know some use sleeves at the correct size in training, but one size smaller for meets. I believe I get maybe at best 5-10 pounds out of mine.

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2356

Just warmth for me. I donā€™t get anything out of mine. They really arenā€™t that tight though.

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2357

Iā€™m with Chris. I know some people get super tight sleeves, but if youā€™re gonna wear them for full gym sessions, that makes little sense to me, I donā€™t want to restrict bloodflow, I want to increase it. So for me, itā€™s all about warmth. The sleeves make everything feel better. Theyā€™re made of neoprene, so they hold in A LOT of heat. Basically, your knees will sweat lol. I actually wear neoprene shorts as well for all competitions, most of my strongman training, and sometimes for deadlifting and squatting to keep my hips warm. One of the biggest benefits of both the shorts and sleeves is that, while you arenā€™t actively lifting, like between sets resting or whatever, your joints stay warm, they donā€™t tighten up as they would otherwise. Thatā€™s a huge deal when competing. At a competition, Iā€™ll get almost no opportunity to warm up for events, and I have to be ready at a moments notice, basically, to perform. Iā€™ll do a minute of activity, then maybe another minute of activity an hour late, lol. Constant warmth is essential.

Also, my knees always feel better after sessions if I wore the sleeves. Good all around.

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2358

No she isnā€™t currently wearing sleeves, but I do, so funny that it never came to mind.

Yes, Iā€™m hoping that this at least helps a bit!

Iā€™ve had her do some foam rolling a couple times and boy was she in pain, so it would likely be good to get her to do this more frequently.

Yep, some of my quick PL workouts my knees are the only thing sweating!..well and maybe my feet.

Thanks guys, Iā€™ll try to employ a few additional things to see if we can escape as much knee pain as possible.

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2359

So we have had 4 showings so far and all have said the same thing: They didnā€™t like the layout of the house.
Admittedly, it is a little awkward as you can only enter the backyard (deck) from the master bedroom or the garage. Most people would like to have deck access off the kitchen for BBQing, which makes sense.
When we moved in the only deck access was from the master bedroom, so we tore it down and rebuilt it around the house so that it comes off the back of the garage making it much better for entertaining (not having people stroll through your bedroom to the back deck).
No big deal, we have 3 more showings today and I am heading off to Halifax with my wifeā€™s family for the long weekend. There is still plenty of interest and market is hot right now, so Iā€™m still optimistic at this point. So we will be driving to my mother-in-laws this evening right after work so I got my workout in yesterday on my scheduled rest day.
I was feeling a little beat up, so the rest day would have been welcome, but I would have missed it completely if I left it to today. Lower back and left hip are a little achy, but I have a few days of lower body rest until Saturday for deads.

BP&PP
SQUATS
45 x 5
135 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
315 x 5
315 x 5
315 x 5
315 x 5
315 x 5

Kept my 315lb sets to 5ā€™s to be a mini-deload workout. Since I was feeling a little achy I didnā€™t want to dig myself into a hole. Iā€™d rather bring my game to the heavier workouts and save a little on the lighter ones.

BB Reverse Lunges
185 x 12
185 x 12
185 x 12
185 x 12

PJR Pullovers
50lb x 12, 12, 12, 12

Ab Wheel Rollouts
15, 15, 15, 15

Good little workout. We didnā€™t have showings this evening so I was able to actually do some assistance. A friend of ours had us over for dinner; salmon, rice, asparagus and salad. Delicious.

4 days out of town eating out, so we will see how that goes. Iā€™ve already started looking for gyms in the area to get my 2 workouts in and looks promising. Hotel has a pool, so Iā€™ll get in a few swims as well. Looking forward to this mini vacation.

I have been becoming more and more of a fan of Stan Efferding, and I think Iā€™m going to buy into his Vertical Diet. Iā€™ll give that a run for awhile once I return from this trip. Also, in April or May I plan on doing a water cut trial run so I know how much weight I can easily/comfortably drop with a basic water cut strategy.

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2360

Selling your house-blah!!! I would be horrified to be a fly on the wall when strangers are walking through your home! Hope it sells soon!
Looking forward to your water cut! I donā€™t think I did it right during my fitness compā€¦
Enjoy Halifax, always wanted to go there!

2361

Tell me about it! A royal pain in the a$$.

I know, it slightly disturbs my wife that strangers are walking through our house all day.

Me too, thatā€™s kind of why I want to do a trial run. Iā€™ve never tried it before, but I think my body will respond well to a water cut. I fluctuate weight like crazy, so if Iā€™m manipulating it with a purpose I expect the weight loss will be pretty drastic. Fingers crossed, because that means I can keep a little bit of my winter blubber for warmth.

Thank you! Iā€™ve never been either, so hopefully we can find a little time to explore around. Not the perfect time of year, but at least most of the snow is off the ground.

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2362

And this is why I have a rental house now. We sold our first house, but I didnā€™t want to go through it with our second one. I listed it for rent before we moved out. The plan was to put it on the market for sale or rent once we moved and didnā€™t have to worry about showings. I had it rented before we left so someone else has been paying my mortgage for two years now.

The downside is that it sucked me into rentals and Iā€™m currently burying myself in debt trying to get a second one up and running.

You canā€™t overcome this. On our sale we kept saying it looked nice and then we wouldnā€™t hear back. After five plus months on the market our original and preferred realtor moved back to town. We switched back to her and she said that if everyone says it showed well but no one is mentioning the price, then itā€™s the price. We dropped the price and she had us under contract in two weeks! It sucked giving away money but you canā€™t control the market. We still sold it for $1000 more than we paid. Canā€™t call that a profit due to the bank fees and such but better than a huge loss.

As long as theyā€™re complaining about specifics like the layout then youā€™re good with the price. Hopefully this sounds like good news because itā€™s meant to be!

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2363

If we get asking price for it, we will be getting $90,000 more than we paid for it 3.5years ago. Unfortunately, this wonā€™t equate to $90,000 earned as all houses have increased at a similar rate. So the new house will leave us with about $40,000 left, and then we need to slap on a garage asap, weā€™re going big. Hoping that it just comes out to a wash at the end; like a straight-up trade.

Yep, he has also provided feedback from each realtor who went through about the price (since they are more in tune with the market prices than the customers, typically) 3/4 said the price was very competitive, considering others at the same price point that they have been through, and 1 said she felt it was a bit high, but that the market was hot so she probably would have went high as well, lol.

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2364

Iā€™m so jealous!!! Thatā€™s free equity and since youā€™re essentially trading the old house in for a ā€œnewā€ one youā€™re getting free money with which to play. We purchased our rental in late 2013 and itā€™s worth about $3000 more now. If it had appreciated like yours then Iā€™d sell it and decrease our current mortgage.

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2365

Good luck on the sale of the houseā€¦we are currently packing and getting ready to stage our home for short term rentalsā€¦ What a pain. If memory serves me: you arenā€™t moving far? We are going from Oregon to FL, so having to be selective on what we bring. Canā€™t take the fitness gearā€¦ Might be a blessing and a curseā€¦ New rack to replace my shitty craigslist rack? Yes please.

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2366

And you already know what to do so this will be fun to see!!!

Do the buyers know it comes with a gym area? I mean that is my top priority for a buying a house.

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2367

This is pretty close to what I did last year. 40% increase in value in two years. Paid off debt, biught new house, bought new everything else and happily sitting with a nice nest egg of cash. Good work, man!

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2368

Correct, it is just a 15min drive. So we have been taking truck loads of boxes over to my Dadā€™s property into a spare shed for storage (right across the road from our new place). So at least the moving process has already begun, and Iā€™ll just wrangle a bunch of friends together with their trucks and trailers and should take long at all to move.

I told my wife Iā€™m moderately offended that the gym hasnā€™t sold the house, or I at least figured we would have received positive feedback on the gym!

Nice man! Thatā€™s the plan. My wife has already been promised a new furniture set for our main living area. We bought a new bedroom set 2 years ago (2 night tables, headboard and dresser - matching) and that has been the only furniture money was spent on. The rest is hand-me down!

She says she wants ā€œgrown up thingsā€ haha whereas I enjoy living like a University student on a budget. Iā€™m like ā€œthe old, green, plaid, worn-out recliner still works! Why would we replace it??ā€. But I suppose I see her pointā€¦

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2369

Wisdom from Always Sunny in Philadelphia;

Tear down the gym and install a craft studio. A bunch of shelves and a nice elevated work table. Itā€™s definetly not as cool as a gym, but its the High Percentage play, in terms of appeal.

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2370

Still in Halifax (until tomorrow) but managed to find a gym up the road which was amazing. They had an old school separate powerlifting room. A few beat up Texas powerlifting bars and a random mix of kg plates and lb plates. Competition bench presses, homemade deadlift platforms and squat racks. They also had a reverse hyper there that I tried (very briefly for the first time).

Bench
20kg x 10
70kg x 5
100kg x 5
110kg x 5 x 5sets

Used some Rogue calibrated plates for these. First time Iā€™ve ever used them, kinda cool.

Deadlift
135 x 5 C
225 x 5 C
315 x 5 C
365 x 1 C
365 x 1 S
405 x 1 C
405 x 1 S
465 x 1 x 5sets S - All sets using hook grip.
435 x 8 C - Strapped up and pulled an easy 8. I didnā€™t have a belt for any of these deadlifts so I didnā€™t try and go too crazy.

This was some good work though and deadlifts felt strong.

I was waiting for my ride to pick me up from the gym so I jumped on the reverse hyper and did a couple sets of 10 (no added weight). Felt decent. I may go back tomorrow for another workout before my flight home and give it a bit more of a trial. The gym also had a ton of hammer strength equipment so tomorrow might be a bit of a reverse hyper/ bodybuilding day.

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