Simo - The Red Shoe Diaries (Part 2)

Almost no carry over for me. Sadly.

In this regard, though I appreciate the tag, Iā€™m SO out of my element there. My ability to recruit my body into the press is always lackluster because I donā€™t prioritize that compared to a strict press.

But in that regard, learn from my mistakes. If you want to get good at maxing out overhead, train that skill.

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Haha I think you and I may be the opposite ends of this particular spectrum, mate.

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Yeah? You feel training the skill isnā€™t important?

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No no I meant us as athletes/ our practical experience. Like if strict press vs. Press with legs was a spectrum, youā€™ be the manifestation of thr strict press and Iā€™d be at the other end of the spectrum.

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Ah. Just differing priorities is all. If my goal WAS to put the most weight overhead possible, I know how Iā€™d go about doing it. Just never has been a goal.

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My Overhead Press probably isnā€™t in the same league as many people who have answered, but I find that it continues to progress well. I think having a nice variety of pressing work and Deltoid specific work is definitely helpful. I only hit the movement once a month currently, which maybe isnā€™t the answer if I were trying to advance it as quickly as possible, but itā€™s working. I do incorporate a lot of lateral raises, bent over flys, seated dumbbell press, seated behind the neck press throughout the month as well and it seems like each of these movements feed each other. Bigger, stronger shoulders definitely help to move the press upwards. I also find that Fat Gripz seem to help me press a little more.

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Logs like this remind me of why i stuck around on this site for so long. Itā€™s so much more inspiring than some roided out 20 year old on Instagram. I need to spend more time here.

On the OHP thing, iā€™ve never been great at pressing, but my experience has been very similar to the strong boys above. Pressing as much as possible with as much variation as is necessary to keep my shoulders healthy is the most helpful thing.

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I appreciate the candor here but given your wealth of knowledge on how to get stronger anywhere I still think you get to play in the sandbox.

This seems like a re-occurring theme along with increased frequency / volume.

I guess it seems obvious really, To get good at something you need to do that thing, and you need to do it often. Pretty sure I tell my kids that every week.

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Good point, getting bigger muscles pretty much always helps.

So now I have

Practice
Technique
Frequency / volume
and Hypertophy

This is going to make a great cake.

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You are so right. There are so many great people that hang here with a massive amount of knowledge. By simply asking the question we get some great advice but also we get good conversation. Quality

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Not sure Missy Eliot is where I would go for overhead advice

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Wednesday 31 July - deload

Deadlift - frame / trap bar 33kg bar
153 x 5 x 3 sets
Legs were pretty sore tonight so these felt heavy, but they werenā€™t hard. really feel these in the quads.

Axle clean once n press
60 x 5
70 x 5 - ok
70 x 5 - last one was slow
70 x 5 - better than the last set.
All reps were strict, whole core and lower back were working.

Axle bent over row
70 x 7 x 3 sets
Did these hang paused at the bottom with an explosive pull. Bit like a pendlay row but without putting it down. Easy fast reps

Pull ups
3 sets
6 good reps per set

Preacher curls
Enough to get a pump. Light weight focus on full stretch at the bottom and only coming up to peak contraction.
These hurt. In a good way

Great deaload session.

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OK so after reading all your posts and talking with @wiseman83 we have put together a new training block starting next week. This will be focused more on pressing, with squat and deadlift taking a slight reduction.

Block is 3 days a week, weights ramping over 3 weeks with a 4th week deload.

Monday will be a deadlift and press day which will include strict press from the rack and incline dumbell bench. Going to stick with frame (trap bar) deadlift and use touch n go reps.

Wednesday will be Squat and bench press (I couldnā€™t just drop it completely) with back accessory work

Friday will focus on push press with dumbbell shoulder press as supplemental work.
For the push press I will utilize the paused reps that @Koestrizer talked about as part of the warm up.

Going to use AMRAP sets for the last set of the main movements (deadlift, press and push press) to determine how much weight to progress the next week.

Will still have the Tuesday conditioning day and will try to add in some more light conditioning on Thursday. Saturday will still be strongman stuff like sadbag and log (if my shoulders arenā€™t too trashed).

Oh and @throwawayfitness @SvenG damn 6 post rule !!!

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I love your sadbag work.

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Friday 2 August - deload

SSB squat
Bar x 10
60 x 5
90 x 5 x 3 sets

Legs really sore. Glad it was a deload.

Close grip bench press - should call these closer grip bench, hands about 2-3 inches each side closer than my normal bench.
Bar x 10
60 x 5
90 x 7 x 3 sets
Just pumping up baby.

Reverse hypers
25 x 12 x 3 sets
Starting to get more used to these. Rent deff donā€™t hurt the lower back as much.

Lat pull downs - wide handles
65 x 12 x 3 sets
Solid reps. Good pump

Tricep push down
32 x 3 sets. 15, 12, 10

And that is the deload week done. Now itā€™s onto the new press block. Shoulder gainz here we come.

Now I am going to have to really up the Intensity. Looks like my 220 bag is about to become 250. :muscle::grinning:

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Simo has a secret stash of chocolate covered kangaroo bites that he keeps in his sadbag.

So when heā€™s feeling sad, he eats them.

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Those sound pretty tasty

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Had to scroll back in my log to see what I was doing back at my strongest.

Looks like it was a fair amount of volume: 4-7 working sets each workout with 2 push/upper days per week, 1 overhead and 1 incline pressing. Overhead was lowish reps for push pressing, 2-5 reps, and sets of 5-8 on incline.

Not a big fan of strict pressing but I do like z presses for mobility, they really get my upper back going. Currently doing a lot of overhead work because my shoulder wonā€™t let me flat press and itā€™s very iffy on incline depending on the day so Iā€™d say consistency of the movement is a big factor for me being decent at it.

Also went through a period of heavy waiters walks for 50-100ft which I think helped a lot with the comfort of having something heavier than bodyweight overhead

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No pressure or anything, but my expectations here are extremely high.

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