I appreciate the honesty. It’s definitely been part of my mindset that more is better to a certain extent. I’ll be following that program to the T.
The only modification I’ve considered is switching out the leg press. I haven’t done leg press at all in a couple of years as I used to have a sore right hip and the leg press would aggravate that. I think I’ll try it and see if it still bothers my hip and if it’s good I’ll keep it in. If I do sub it out, do you have any recommendations?
I’m hounding you so much about it because I did the same thing when I was younger. I thought ‘hey, I’m young, I can work harder than the people this program was written for. I’ll just add a few things here and there…’. I can tell you that, as someone who’s been at this for 15 years, if I were to pick up a new program right now, I would follow it to the letter. If I employ a coach, zero deviations from his recommendations. I’m trying to get you to that mindset without you having to go through all the trial and error I did.
So that being said, injuries are a different matter. If you have to avoid something for that reason, then that’s what you have to do.
My question, then, is: what do you mean by ‘a sore right hip’? Is there a traumatic injury involved here? An overuse injury? Is it still something you can feel? Surgery? Rehab? I can’t help you with exercise substitution if I don’t know what you can do.
I appreciate that. While I’m a little young and dumb I like to think I’m humble enough to heed advice from those who are clearly more experienced and knowledgeable than me. I lurked these forums for quite a while and it was the wealth of knowledge here that got me to eventually sign up.
I’m pretty sure it’s an impingement. My junior year in college I had a wicked concussion that had me sitting on my ass for almost a full year.
Like I said I haven’t done leg press in a while so it might be fine but even squats can bother me if I’ve been kinda sedentary for a few days (my job can have me sitting quite a bit sometimes). I’m just a little weary of the leg press.
gotcha.
in that case, i would give it a try rather than ruling it out straight out of the gate. Hip hinging is a basic human movement that you should be able to do pain-free. If you can’t, you should be working towards that. If you have to use really light weights on the leg press, so be it. You have all the time in the world. I’d say the same thing about squats. Maybe do bodyweight squats regularly, and see if your body can tolerate the work.
I’m thinking it won’t be a real problem as it’s not an issue with other exercises and only bothers me with squats if I haven’t been stretching my hip flexors and abductors. I find the leg press puts me in a greater flexed position. I’m just trying to prepare for that I guess.
If I need to sub it out, would the hack squat machine be a good idea or is that too similar to a barbell squat? My gym has the horizontal leg press machine too (pretty sure that’s not the actual name) which doesn’t seem like it would put you in as much flexion.
i think either of those substitutions would be fine if they can be done pain-free. The horizontal leg press would be closer to the same.