Good work Ogre, your path is very much the same as mine, keep up the great work and remember it is definitly not a race. I can see your potential, I expect all your numbers will go up by 100#'s maybe more in the next year. Stay healthy , no injuries.
Nice lift!
thx for the praise, guys, and back at you both.
Mother and brother/niece in town for a few days, I guess its nice they come in during a deload week, so don’t have to worry about the gym much. I will go in a couple times this week at least, do some squat work, and try out the new GHR, if nothing else.
Ahh must be nice having a GHR!
We’ll see how nice it is after I get on it a bit. Never attempted them on anything before. Was almost to the point of trying the pulldown stations we have at the gym here, but would have had to had my knees together, and been careful not to lose balance to go off the side.
Since I have seen a few folks trying the wall squats on their logs, I tried em some. Difficult to get the hang of, without falling backwards. I wonder how much this really will relate to doing them with weight on the back, since the weight will throw the balance a little off. But if anything does carry-over, maybe it might help me keep the knees out wide, better.
I used the chair molding as a gauge, when my chin hit it, I am about at parallel. Here are a few reps, and it actually will tire you out a bit, the balance part makes it more intense than regular ones.
Oh, and the SpongeBob basketball thing in the background is there to keep the niece from trying to go up the stairs, heh.
[u]Tues, 3/22[/u]
Deload week, mother, and brother and niece at the house, went out to work on some squat form and try out sumo deads as well.
Sumo DL - set up my stuff on squat rack, grabbed a 10 lb plate and started loosening up my shoulders, and some clueless guy goes to the rack my stuff was in and started doing hang cleans with 30 lbs, and was very shaky with it. I decided to let him do it, and did sumo’s before squats. Also used a hook grip on these.
135x5,5
225x5,5,5
225x5 - side view:
225x5 - back view: - not the best view to critique, obviously, heh. looks like the hips fly up way early everytime, because they are in your face, but they don’t, will not do this view again, will do from front if want an alternate view. Wanted a diff one than side, just because was my 1st time trying them, and wanted to see what it looked like.
Squats -
barx20,10
135x10
225x5,5,5,5 - these are the 1st 2 sets, camera died on me after. Did pretty good with knees not coming in til last couple. Was same on the rest of the sets, kept the knees wide pretty well til the last 1 or 2 of every other set I did. A pretty good day, I think. I bet i can go back to 5/3/1 with squat the cycle after the one I am about to start, just from concentrating on my knees.
185x10,5,5
135x10,10
woot!-- 100 total… hehe, I am counting the squats with only a bar, I was worn the F out.
BG/GG
w/u-150x10/150x10
(305x10/305x10) x3
GHR!!! - arms crossed on chest
Woot!, 1st time trying this thing out, loved it… got hard as hell the last few on each set, otherwise, was easier than I thought it would be. Will get a vid of it next time I use it, would have today, but batteries in camera were gone.
bwx10,10,10
Air Humping
30x10
60x10
90x10 - will go higher next time, by this time, butt and hams were tight and sore, so stopped here
Ab Rollouts - from knees
bwx15,10,10
I suspect I won’t be able to walk because of the ham/butt DOMS the next few days, but plan on trying to go in once more this week to do some upper body work, then start my next cycle of 5/3/1 next week.
Forgot my chucks, but wasn’t going too high on weight, so didn’t worry about going back to get them. This was the first time I tried the hook grip, it definitely works Very well, [u]I was holding the bar mostly on the smooth, and had no grip issues at all!.[/u] It;s nuts how well that works. Only issue is, my thumbs felt dislocated after I was done, but feel good now.
Also, my shins got a workout on the sumo’s:
hehe, I would post a pic, but only know how to post a vid. How do you post a pic?
Ogre I hook grip on my Dl’s ,Power Cleans,Farmer walks you get used to the numb thumb. I do that til the grip fails then switch to wraps for the remaining sets or high rep sets so that grip doesn’t become a issue in limiting the workout.
O U C H ! that did leave a mark!
Heh, Wendler shared this on facebook, kinda funny. He does look good for an old guy, but its kinda dumb.
For a first-time attempt at sumo, you look damn good. A really nice tight back! Looks like you’re a natural with this stance. Your squats look good too in terms of form and depth. The knee cave you experience on your last few reps is just something you’ll have to keep working on.
Regarding grip, why the double overhand? I used DO to warm up and then switch to mixed for any serious weight. I’d say that’s a better solution than going the straps route.
Hey Snap, and thx for the input, I think i will work 1 more month on the knee caving, and then just start another cycle of 5/3/1 on squats, and just stop my set once I get more than a little twitch or bobble in the knees. I can live with a 1-2 inch cave with wide knees, but seeing the 6-8 inch cave I have had before on heavy stuff, is a bit much.
I had always read that working double overhand was good ‘grip work’, since its harder to maintain than mixed, so I always go with DO as much as possible. When I did the 315’s and 365’s last week, I did go with mixed grip, since I was going light on chalk(fitness center), and don’t like straps at all. The hook grip was just something I wanted to try, since I was using a fairly light weight, and my thumbs could take it.
On the sumo’s, they did feel comfortable to me, and it was really, the very first time I ever tried with hands inside feet. I will definitely start my next 5/3/1 cycle this week with a sumo style, the weight felt very easy, will just stick with same light-ish weight I would use conventional, since it was pretty easy last cycle.
[u]Thurs, 3/24[/u]
AM weight= 231.5
Upper body, deload week, am sore as hell from the glute/ham, stuff the other day. Did a mash up of bench and press day stuff.
Bench
barx12,95x10,135x10,185x5
205x5,5,5 - some easy sets just to get a little work in on offweek.
WG Lat PD
85x8
145x8
160x8
145x8
Dips - put some weight on them, in homage to Joe.
bwx5
bw+45x5
bw+70x5,5
bwx15
Face Pull - seated- cable/rope
55x10
70x15,15,12
HS Iso Front MP
1ppsx8
2ppsx5,4,4
DB Row
45x10
80x20,15 - had to ‘sweet talk’ the last 2-3 in each set
Shoulder, External Rotation
10x12
20x12,12
Vids from 3/24
Bench 205x5, set 2
On set 1, I had towel across low rack spot, so couldn’t see me very well, heh.
Was looking down to see if my knees were below my hips, hehe, so I could see if Dave Tate was correct about not being able to push your hips off the bench if they are placed so. He’s not correct, I could lift my hips by driving with my legs, but it was harder. Also, with the leg drive, I was very close to sliding up the bench. I take it thats why the PL’ers chalk their trap area up on bench.
Dips, bw&70x5
Wanted to see what I could do here, been a while since put weight on my dips. I will probably start doing this more during my 5/3/1 cycles.
good job on the dips bro…I wish I could still do them.
Nice job on the lifts. Looking forward to following your progress.
thx guys.
Looking forward to getting back at it this week, starting next 5/3/1 cycle, except for squat rehab, of course. I am really looking forward to DL day, to start really working on the Sumo’s. I felt them more in the trap/upper back area than i have ever felt heavier conventional dl’s before.
4th part of “So you think You Can Squat” is out.
Nice work, Ogre. I so hate deloads. Kind of a necessary evil.
Good luck with the sumos. I tried them a couple of times. My hips are still recovering…lol.