Bracing is working SO well, especially for back-intensive exercises like the dumb bell pull over. Having said that, today I felt the back straining a bit and didn’t want to push things to risk an injury. Any advice on how to work the exercises so that your back gets stronger in them?
Like, for the dumb bell pull overs, My mid back hurt a bit and felt like if I went too hard, it’d just snap or a muscle would get pulled.
My ideal would be to work THAT AREA till it gets stronger. Any advice on how to do that? Keep doing the same exercise but only on a smaller weight maybe? Like 3 sets of the second-last weight?
Other than that, moving up in weights across the board!
A Day
Incline Dumbbells:
10-15-20-25-30-
start at 15 lbs next time
Dips (Counter Weight):
100-90-80-70-60
Start @ 90 next time,
Shrugs Calf-Raise Machine:
50-70-90-110 (NIF, unable to keep back straight when lifting the weight)
The idea of working the weak area to improve the lift is very good. Doing more pullovers with a lighter weight might work, but you would probably be better off doing something that specifically targets that area.
For your mid back, I think generally speaking things like chest supported rows (machine, dumbbell on an incline bench, on a special bench with a barbell, etc) and T-bar rows will all help (if you don’t have a T-bar you can kind of get a similar effect using the close grip row handle with a barbell loaded on one sleeve and the other end in a corner or something). If I had to pick only one, I’d go chest supported dumbbell rows on an incline bench. Plain old barbell rows would probably work quite well too.
Yeah thanks, it’s definitely helping. I’m starting to feel the muscles and how they’re working together too. Mind/body connection I guess. Very cool.
I’ll have to just use the T-bar tho, because chest supported exercises aren’t a good idea with my pectus excavatum condition. I got to see the x-rays. My heart is nestled right against the bone. So I don’t want to put pressure on the heart while exercising.
Definitely go T-bar or standard strict barbell rows then. With the T-bar ideally you’ll have one with two foot rests so you can use the higher one and have the pad on your upper abs.
Hmm. Seems my muscles were getting fatigued rather quickly today. I’d do the second last set easily in some cases but the last set would be a massive struggle. Especially for the buicep curls.
B Day
T-Bar: 25 lbs:
10-10-
Bar Weight Only Next Time
Barbell Rows:
75 squatmachine 10-10-10(last rep not full)-10(last rep not full)-10(Full)
Thank you both for the support, and welcome duketheslaya!
So for some reason I can’t log in to my account on T-Nation using my mobile phone so I didn’t know for sure what day I was on. I guessed C Day and it looks like that was right.
Did some good work today, especially in squats. Bracing/core is key for sure. Makes me wonder if I shouldn’t be doing core exercises. But I digress.
C Day
Squats:
95-145-195-245(5, NIF)
/\ Really proud of this one! Thanks MarkKO for letting me know about bracing, and for helping me realize I had my form right all along months ago.
Leg press:
90-140-230
*90 total next time and better weights. 45lbs, then add 25 each side, then add 45, etc
Lunges (In Steps):
Area in use the whole time. I suppose I could have waited at least a few minutes after my workout just to make sure it wasn’t going to be free soon.
SUPERSET (Did not do the superset as the calf raise machine was being used as I was doing leg extensions. So I did extensions, then afterwards I did Calf raises.):
Calf Raises (25 Reps):
290-310-330-350
Leg Extensions:
20-25-30-35-40
EDIT: Also, my belly seems bloated. I actually don’t think I have much fat there, but it looks like it so I’m thinking bloat. Anyone got any tips on how to get rid of belly bloat or what causes it?
[quote=“MarkKO, post:474, topic:223698, full:true”]
Holy shit, that’s a jump past two plates! Nice. I’m enjoying watching you progress.[/quote]
Thanks!
I’m enjoying it too, thanks for all the advice!
Hmm, mine is always around, which is why I thought it was fat. It’s not so bad today though.
It could definitely be salt since I’ve been drinking a lot of Gatorade, but that’s only because I was getting weird feelings and light headed a few days ago. I reasoned I wasn’t getting enough salt (my diet is pretty sodium free).
Shrugs Calf-Raise Machine:
50- *the pads for this machine were gone so it made doing shrugs impossible. I tried putting some squat foams under the bars but they were too far apart.
