Trust me when you get under a heavy yoke you would rather do a heavy triple on deadlifts haha:
Yeah, Form is very important for me, The better your form the more efficient the lift e.g leg drive in push press
Indeed! Practicing good technique on your lighter work will lead to better motor pattern on your heavy lifts.
Yeah I guess so.
imo, this doesn’t cover good form for a general population. good form is lifting and benefiting from it, not necessarily lifting efficiently, however for a competing strongman it makes sense.
but if your form is better you benefit from it more?
yes
problem is to know how much you benefit and if there is a component in the form that has not yet showed how it affects negatively after some time of misuse, e.g. tendonitis.
if one focus on external measurable qualities such as volume, density, reps and load one might actually progress for a while but with the caveat that form slips just as much and one ends up being overall weak maybe save for a few lifts one refuse to accept not to “progress” on.
i’ve been there. several times. fucked up my elbows from wanting to progress on pull ups, fucked up my shoulders in pressing (bench and oh-press), my lower back and my hands from dead lift and my hip sockets from squatting. and just recently i had a minor tweak in my abs. for me personally,. i say it’s enough i don’t want to fuck up again, i got to learn how to benefit from training and not get fucked up from training.
imo there is a big difference in lifting with good form and bad form. however, even for the keen eye the difference might be subtle. you got to feel it. one should be like floating on the muscles and not hanging on the joints while executing a move.
i don’t think it’s possible to be a competitive strongman with this mindset, a competitive strongman must focus on external qualities, at least the immediate time before and during a competition. competitive strongmen also get injured, it’s part of the deal imo.
/br bonoboschimp
indeed! Nobody escapes injury, if one doesn’t wish to be injured better choose a different sport. Actually i can’t think of any sport, where at a high level nobody gets injured
Todays training
Deload week
Deadlift activation
3x3 50,55,60 banded deads
cluster deads
3 reps, rest 10 seconds,2 reps, 1 rep
100,110-,120kg
romanian deadlifts:
100,120,140kg x3
i really loves these, really decompresses my back/stretches my whole posterior chain and i feel great after. nice easy workout.
tuesdays training, deload week
banded speed push press 3x3 30kg, technique was really good
wave loading squats
80 x5, rest 30 secs 85x3 rest 30 seconds 90x2
squats feel like shit as usual, i hate back squats, everything from my form to mobility is shit. i keep trying different things but nothing works so far, if i have to il start doing an hour of mobility each day. im sick of this bullshit!!!
glute ham raise
4x5 banded, hamstring/knee area kept cracking and popping. didnt feel good (tightness i think) again stupid lower body tightness and shit mobility!
facepulls 4x15
these were shit too
piece of shit useless session
How can you have bad mobility for back squats but have the mobility to front squat correctly?
I definitely think this is possible. For instance, I’ve personally found that my hip mobility is a limiting factor in depth in the back squat but not depth in the front squat
Also @duketheslaya when you were talking about the heavy partials, I know the Chinese olympic weightlifting team does a lot of front rack holds with enormous amounts of weight (much more than they could ever front squat or clean). There’s gotta be something to it if those crazy motherfuckers are doing it lol
this is what really annoys me, front squats feel great compared to back squats. i think front squats are easier on mobility or something? i tripled 140kg on front squats last week, my 1rm would be at 150+ so i should be able to back squat 180 yet i barely hit 150kg for a triple last week. 150 feels light on the back so my mobility/ form is affecting quality of the lift
hmmm
@muskratlifts Heavy partials are good fun. in my opinion really depends on the lifter and there neurological profile. Type 1s respond better to heavy partials than the other types (They respond well to higher %, low volume. to describe them i would say INTENSITY also novel seekers ). someone like a type 2b who needs to feel the muscles working (mind muscle connection) basically there nervous system is not designed for heavy lifting, they will burn out fast from Higher%, especially extremely heavy loads like heavy partials. they also work very well for a neurotype 2a but not for long, type 2a need variation. i wouldn’t recommend heavy partials for a type 3 either, type 3’s overproduce cortisol when under stress so really heavy weights cause anxiety and they can’t recover from it, heavy partials will burn them out + they are all about feeling technically efficient. you will find that Olympic lifters would typically (not all of them) be neurotype 1- with type b being the most common, neurotype 1b are The explosive athletes who move “aggressively”, you’ll see some olympic lifters who arent as explosive are the type 1a’s, which what they lack in explosiveness make up for in power and “low-gear, grinding strength.”
That is true- I can go much deeper on the front squat than the back squat too.
It could be that the mobility in the hip is easier to manage with the front squat because of where the load is positioned relative to your hips; I’m sure an Olympic lifter or someone more versed in mobility can help us with this.
But the front squat requires a lot of upper body mobility too; a lot more than the back squat.
What exactly is your problem with the back squat? Have you asked your coach about it?
just doesnt feel right in my hip flexors or glutes area, and my left knee always pops but not on front squats. also form isn’t good.
i usually mention that squats feel like crap but that isn’t directly asking, so i guess i’ll see what he says
i’ll second @muskratlifts on this one and throw in ankle mobility too. my limiting factors on the front squat are ankle and upper back mobility.
usually i spend 30 min warming up with mobility and light weight squatting before i have the mobility to perform heavy lifting. but, i’m old.
It might be worth your time investing in some dedicated powerlifting/olympic-style coaching for the back squat. Given your front squat strength there’s no reason to think you couldn’t be back squatting four plates with some technique tweaks.
I’m in the same boat as you, btw - front squats always feel pretty natural even at near-max weights but my back squats always feel like crap.
Duke whilst I agree that mobility or technique may be an issue. Have you considered the fact that you may just have not practised enough or paid this excessive the attention it needs. I seem to recall from reading your log for some time now that you haven’t done a large volume or continued programmed progression in this excessive (if I missed it and you have then ignore me !! )
If you do strongman, is squatting that important?
I don’t imagine a low-bar back squat specifically would be considered mandatory in a strongman training program since you rarely have to do them in competition, but it would seem just plain wrong to not have some form of squat in a strength training setup.
Laurence Shahlei is a huge advocate of high-bar back squats in training both as a deadlift supplement and for carryover into stones/loading. Chase Karnes programs front squats for similar reasons. Brian Shaw and (pre-bodybuilding) Terry Hollands seem to do SSB pin/box squats fairly often, at least according to their social media.
Practicing the skill of back squatting would be a whole lot better time investment. Non-spesific stretching (so anything apart from squatting really) will do jack shit to your back squat technique.
Front squats have always felt natural for me as well. Low bar back squat - not so much. Have you tried high bar squats or something in between?
i agree, i should be squatting 4 plates :(, in regards to the coaching, my coach is proficient in the olympic lifts (130kg snatch and 170 clean and jerk) and has a 280kg back squat. ive only been back squatting for 2 months so its a work in progress, they really piss me off!
yeah, iv’e only been back squatting for 2 months, it’s really frustrating but i guess it makes sense that it sucks after only 2 months.
a common event around here is axle squat for reps
also, i wouldn’t know if back squat is that beneficial, i know it definitely carries over to yoke though. i think front squats are superior for strongman but i haven’t been back squatting that long to tell the benefits.
i’ve been doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbozu0DPcYI multiple times a day (squat mobility) and hasn’t really done anything for me. i know i have alot of lower body tightness in my hips, glutes, hamstrings and calves all the time that i foam roll which seems to just never disappear, my hip flexors are particularly bad. also i struggle with the bar and positioning my elbows down for high bar.
yeah i squat high bar