Sorry it took so long to reply.
You are breathing out on every single rep. There’s no way I can keep a strong core doing that. I hold my breath for as many reps as possible. Once I run out of breath, I can only get 1 more rep in.
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I thought that was what you were pressing. I’m obviously still not ready for the metric system.
There is a couple things I would suggest to try and see if it does help in any way.
Bracing has to be about full body tension, not only about breathing. I would suggest widening your stance to shoulder width, if not slightly wider. What this does is set up a wider base. Squeeze your glutes hard!
I’m with @dagill2 in that your pelvic tilt seems excessive. Or in other terms: Your back looks over arched. When you brace, don’t just focus on what happens with your belly (where the air goes) but ALL PARTS of the mid section. You need to create tightness all around. Actually try to push your belly button in after getting your big breath and push your mid section out in all other directions. When doing that, poke around your mid section (including your back) - everything should be rock solid. Try to basically “compress” yourself.
A belt could help to learn that. I know that one is controversial, but I don’t see anything wrong with trying out a belt and see if it helps you understand the concept better.
Mobility was mentioned some posts up:
It’s not the best but I don’t see it being the critical factor here. Try stretching out your lats and hip flexors a bit plus do some scapular depression.
Furthermore I suggest doing 90/90 breathing skills to understand the breathing behind the bracing better as well as doing some dead bugs.
Edit: @FlatsFarmer already beat me to it, haha.
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Good stuff guys. I like the parts about posterior tilting the hips to help keep the spine neutral, pulling the belly button in, stretching the hip flexors and depressing the shoulder blade. It’s kinda getting off the program but 1 arm presses in the half kneeling position make it easy to focus on all that stuff.
Holding your breath sounds hard, so that probably makes it good.
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Just wanted to say that got me pretty pissed off, so today I cleaned 60 kg (132 lb) and was able to press it three (and a half) times. So thank you for that buddy.
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I tried doing that, and it was hard to even keep it for 2-3 reps without feeling extremely dizzy and having to breathe out. I’ll have to practice quite a bit.
I agree, and I noticed a really long time ago that my posture in general resembles that of someone with anterior pelvic tilt. That’s also pretty annoying because it makes me look like I have a belly even during the times I’m really lean. So yeah, my posture isn’t perfect to begin with, let alone under load.
I tried focusing on keeping my abs tight, and bracing hard in general. I found that to become harder as the set went on, I eventually lost tightness and had to consciously brace again. That’s probably doable as the weight isn’t very heavy, otherwise it mighta been a problem.
My lower back felt better, but I felt really weird keeping that position. My back simply naturally wants to arch and it feel like I “sit” back into a natural position when I let it extend like that. I suspect it’ll be hard to fix this natural habit.
Sorry dude.
Or you’re welcome, I guess.
Glad to see you progressing either way.
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That means it’s working, haha. Keep pushing through. Takes a while to get good at it. Payoff is worth it.
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Practise makes perfect man. Everything that’s new feels odd because you are comparing it to the default. Just try to be aware of it and if you have to brace again in a set, that is fine. Good in fact because it means you are focused and noticed that you lost your brace.
Exactly. It’s hard to establish a new standard position and it might very well be your hip anatomy that dictates your posture to an extent. I’m not gonna be the guy who tells you to do 30 minutes of mobility and blackroll work a day and then that issue gonna go away like it never was there in the first place.
You now are aware of the situation and can take steps towards bettering your posture.
Definitely listen to @flatsfarmer. I like his suggestion for the half kneeling ohp very much. I used to prescribe that to a lot of clients who wanted to learn how to overhead press safely.
Another good exercise for your arsenal would be the Z-Press. If you overextend to much in that setup, you will simply fall over 
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If you have questions about the exercises or stretches that I and others suggested, just ask away.
In my experience, it’s even more difficult when cleaning the weight vs. taking it out of the rack. Still suck at dealing with those stars haha.
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So, next week I’ll get back into the gym, and in three weeks I’ll begin John Meadows’ Project Colossus training program. That’ll be my welc’ back into the weight room. I’ll be starting from a lean base so I can hope to put on some muscle, on top of gaining back whatever I lost during this period of dieting and severely sub-optimal training.
A few observations about the program, after taking a look at the whole thing:
First of all, I’ll be running the “not focused on leg” version, which allows for two push workouts.
I don’t have anything to say about frequency, volume, and intensity or progression and intensity techniques; my observations are merely about some of the exercise choices.
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I have noticed a lot of changes, every from week to week, in exercise selection. For example, for the push workouts, you see some switching between decline pressing, incline, and flat bench press as the main exercise between the weeks. I was thinking about keeping flat bench press throughout the duration of the whole program as my main bench variation (you still have decline and incline db presses as “pump” exercises). Two reasons: first of all, the incline and decline benches at my gym suck. The angle is extremely exaggerated. I can make do for db presses by putting a plate under a bench, but as for the ones inside a rack, I’m out of luck. Second of all, I’d like to gain some confidence back with pressing: I wasn’t particularly strong at it before the lockdown, and I surely lost some proficiency. Maybe doing the movement more often can be beneficial
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I see spidercrawls used as a shoulder exercise often in push “pump” days. I’m a little perplexed by it? I’d like to really hammer my delts, and I thought maybe subbing them for more lateral raises could be good. Has anybody actually tried spidercrawls for building shoulders?
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I’m not sure I can find a way to do proper rack pulls. The rack I have at my gym has a set height too high (above knee level), so I guess my best option is to deadlift with the barbell on top of two piled plates.
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I will probably be doing regular chins instead of banded chins initially. I’ll see how many regular ones I can get in, and go from there.
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I don’t have access to some of the things prescribed in the program, such as hack squats or some bands, so I’ll have to make substitutions for those as well.
Overall, I feel like I can follow this program pretty well, and the changes I listed shouldn’t screw it up. If I have other thoughts I’ll post them later, for the time being I think everything else looks good.
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Probably nothing wrong with it. I’d maybe have two “main” variations so you can keep with his progression. If I remember right (and I’m not looking at it), you progress on incline for 3 weeks and then decline. Incline tends to be his main press, and it’s been friendly to me. If you have a power rack someone won’t murder you for doing these in, it’s an option. If you just prefer flat, it’s in the spirit of the program and it’s your goals you’re meeting!
I absolutely recommend trying them. There’s a good amount of shoulder work anyway, especially if you do two push days, and these keep your shoulders healthy with the pressing. When you get strong enough to really keep your hands wide and move slow up and down the wall, I think you’ll respect these as shoulder builders.
I run into this too. I typically still use the rack, and then stand on a step or plates to get the height where I want it. Sounds like it will anger your gym owner less too.
Yeah, same. I will say it’s a slightly different feeling doing the banded chins, but it’s just too ridiculous.
Totally normal to not have it all. Bands are easy to just skip, for the most part. For hacks, leg presses and smith squats are easy subs.
I think you’ll like it! Are you doing two pull workouts a week too, or sticking with 4 days?
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I’ve done that, its doable, but really, really awkward. Depending on the type of plates, might be easier to raise yourself than to lower the bar.
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Unsolicited opinion so ignore as much as you like:
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I think either focus on improving your bench or following the program as is and focusing on size. John obviously knows what he is doing and you’ll get stronger anyway from the extra muscle you will build. After that, a few weeks of bench practice will have you beyond where you were.
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Again, I’d just trust John and do spider crawls. If he thought lateral raises would be better he would have put them there instead surely? However they might look really weird in a commercial gym (don’t know what they are I’m just thinking crawl) which would probably be reason enough for me to skip them.
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Ive seen on his YouTube videos that John prefers banded chins because he can get a better contraction and can focus on TuT and control etc. I think give them a try before regular ones.
Anyway, looking forward to reading about how you get on. Good luck!
Deal. I’ll give them a try. Just need to see if the one and only band I have is suitable for those.
I did try this in the past. It was extremely awkward though. The feeling of not having my feet in the ground felt like I was deadlifting up in the air. I guess I don’t have other options though, save for doing a regular deadlift which is probably not what’s intended in the program.
Yes, I’ll be doing two pull workouts as well, for a couple of reasons:
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I didn’t consider not doing them because the program only gives 5-day options, so I felt it’d be too big a change from the original
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I’ll have plenty of time during summer, and one good use of that time is training. I have been training 4 days a week for a year basically, so why not change it up anyway?
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the program calls for a lot of food. At my weight, following John’s guidelines I should be eating around 3.5k calories a day. Unfortunately, I know from (plenty of) past experience that I’ll get fat on that amount. So I guess training more is the obvious answer to the issue (aside from maybe starting at 3k calories), and my body will have something to do with that fuel if I train it more often.
You have a point. However, John repeatedly mentioned in the program that incline and decline bench should be done at a very slight angle, and the benches I have at my gym are at a way too high or low angle. In that regard, maybe a flat bench is closer to what he meant for the program than the benches I do have. I could also try with an adjustable bench and a power rack, although it’s a little annoying to set up (I have to drag the bench across the gym f every time).
I’ll give them a try, if it’s not too much of a pain to set them up. Actually, I’ll give them a try tomorrow at home.
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I think you’re good to go. The goal of the deadlifts is to really pack your lats and not as much leg action - whatever is comfortable for you.
For what it’s worth, I use the regular incline because I can’t be bothered to go set up in a rack either. I don’t think it’s going to kill you to do that or flat, but incline seems to take a little less of a toll on me and it hits my shoulder. I think you’re good either way though.
Good on you for hitting all 5 days! Go with what you can get away with on calories. I know I can’t come close to the recommendations he puts out there or I’ll explode. I think he’s giving out some best-case stuff there, or maybe speaking to a crowd playing on a different field. I try to go with his thoughts directionally, like carbs around workouts and protein minimums, but I can’t do those total calories.
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That’s interesting. I have observed pretty much the opposite of that. Flat bench is the only I’m the most comfortable with, and as the angle moves up the movement starts to feel a little “wrong.” It’s probably a matter of getting used to it though, if I really want to get good at incline pressing I think I can, with practice.
I think my problem is that I can totally meet those numbers and exceed them! Whenever I set my mind on “eating big,” I do. The problem is that, when I enter that mindset, I also become a little lazy with my diet. I eat more junk, and pretty much just have what I want. That nets me a lot of calories for sure, but every time I did it, in the end the fat gain ended up outweighing the benefits.
I guess what I need to focus on is eating lots of food, while also keeping that “strict” mindset necessary to prevent it from turning into a get-fat feast. In other words, I need to be disciplined like I am when dieting down, just with a lot more calories.
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I think we mean the same thing, but I didn’t say it as well. I can absolutely do those calories (in a meal), but I can’t not gain 30#
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couldn’t have said it better. LOL
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I tried banded chins today for the first time and I gotta admit that the difference was like night and day!
With a band, you can literally just focus on driving your elbows towards your sides and not think about anything else: abs, legs, whatever makes you work hard to stay stable.
I guess part of that is what makes chins a complete exercise for the upper body, but when I embark on this program I’ll train 100% like a bodybuilder for its duration, so I need to see chins as a back builder only, and the feeling I got is that adding a band makes them a much better back builder.
I’m thrilled for my new discovery!
I guess I’ll have to give spidercrawls a shot as well now…
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