Squat weights are looking like they’re improving, nice job man. Do you find things like jump squats help?
[quote]G1579 wrote:
Squat weights are looking like they’re improving, nice job man. Do you find things like jump squats help?[/quote]
Thanks man! Squat is going up better than everything else as usual. lol
I do think the jump squats and plyo pushups (I do those before upper body days) help a lot, but more so for me. I’m extremely nonexplosive. I’ve mentioned this before, but in high school I had a sub-5 minute mile time with like a 5.5 40 yard dash lol. So explosive stuff ‘wakes up’ my CNS I guess. Before jump Squats, the speed between my 185,225, and 315 Squat were pretty similar. After warming-up with jump squats, 225-275 moves like a feather.
But like I said, it speaks to a very specific weakness of mine. lol
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
[quote]G1579 wrote:
Squat weights are looking like they’re improving, nice job man. Do you find things like jump squats help?[/quote]
Thanks man! Squat is going up better than everything else as usual. lol
I do think the jump squats and plyo pushups (I do those before upper body days) help a lot, but more so for me. I’m extremely nonexplosive. I’ve mentioned this before, but in high school I had a sub-5 minute mile time with like a 5.5 40 yard dash lol. So explosive stuff ‘wakes up’ my CNS I guess. Before jump Squats, the speed between my 185,225, and 315 Squat were pretty similar. After warming-up with jump squats, 225-275 moves like a feather.
But like I said, it speaks to a very specific weakness of mine. lol[/quote]
Interesting. I am definitely not explosive either, maybe it’s something I should think about doing.
[quote]G1579 wrote:
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
[quote]G1579 wrote:
Squat weights are looking like they’re improving, nice job man. Do you find things like jump squats help?[/quote]
Thanks man! Squat is going up better than everything else as usual. lol
I do think the jump squats and plyo pushups (I do those before upper body days) help a lot, but more so for me. I’m extremely nonexplosive. I’ve mentioned this before, but in high school I had a sub-5 minute mile time with like a 5.5 40 yard dash lol. So explosive stuff ‘wakes up’ my CNS I guess. Before jump Squats, the speed between my 185,225, and 315 Squat were pretty similar. After warming-up with jump squats, 225-275 moves like a feather.
But like I said, it speaks to a very specific weakness of mine. lol[/quote]
Interesting. I am definitely not explosive either, maybe it’s something I should think about doing.
[/quote]
If you’re interested, this is the form I try to emulate.
On a related note:
[quote]LoRez wrote:
On a related note:
Wow that’s genuinely reassuring lol. Thanks for giving me a clue I’m on the right path lol
Ughhhh so today blows.
I got off work lastnight at 10 pm, and had to be back in at 6am. It kind of sucked, but no biggie. However, I think I’m getting sick. Runny nose, feel weak, looking pale. Coughing and sneezing. And I’m just so tired. Now I should have been an adult and taken the day off, but I was stubborn.
On the plan today was 225 for 5 sets of 3, but during warm-ups I could tell it was going to be bad. I was drenched in sweat before even getting to 185. While I am usually sweating, this was a ‘out of breath’ sweaty, like I was already worn out. However, I’m an idiot, still tried 225, for 3 sets of grindy 2s and 3s, and just moved on to some pump shit.
So I’m calling an audible, and going to have a cheat day. I have a broscience method of illness prevention, and it’s basically when I start feeling like this, I just eat myself into oblivion. Usually makes me feel better, and the theory is just that i need to give my body the energy to help heal itself. I used to try and ‘fast’ when I felt shitty, but that never helped lol. Also, from the new job, I’ve lost roughly 3-3.5 lbs this week, and I’m drinking water like a fiend, so it’s not just all water weight.
So yeah, I’m going to eat my face off tonight, maybe tomorrow too. It’s not really surprising this happened, I basically have what Big Beyond Belief calls ‘ramp flu’, where you ramp up volume and kind of hit a wall. Add some new stressors from work + caloric deficit and this is something I should have seen coming. So yeah, the plan is to take the next 2 days off, and retry this workout again Friday.
Please someone stop me from waking up tomorrow, convincing myself I feel 100%, and lifting. I do that every time. The line between dedicated and stubborn is quite thin…
Fasting has been shown to hlep the immune system 
but i have no idea if this would help in this situation
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
[quote]G1579 wrote:
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
[quote]G1579 wrote:
Squat weights are looking like they’re improving, nice job man. Do you find things like jump squats help?[/quote]
Thanks man! Squat is going up better than everything else as usual. lol
I do think the jump squats and plyo pushups (I do those before upper body days) help a lot, but more so for me. I’m extremely nonexplosive. I’ve mentioned this before, but in high school I had a sub-5 minute mile time with like a 5.5 40 yard dash lol. So explosive stuff ‘wakes up’ my CNS I guess. Before jump Squats, the speed between my 185,225, and 315 Squat were pretty similar. After warming-up with jump squats, 225-275 moves like a feather.
But like I said, it speaks to a very specific weakness of mine. lol[/quote]
Interesting. I am definitely not explosive either, maybe it’s something I should think about doing.
[/quote]
If you’re interested, this is the form I try to emulate.
Ehhh I dunno that just looks like a one way ticket to snap city if your form breaks down at all, which it looks like it easily could. I obviously would not go near that heavy but still I’m not sure about it.
G1579: Yeah I thought that too. Obviously this guy DOES jump squats so he thinks they are safe, but he has another video explaining why this style is ‘safer’.
I personally used to think the same thing about them being ‘dangerous’. But honestly I feel like if the quarter squat position with 135 lbs on my back fucks my shit up, I’m just being sloppy. I reset after every rep, btw. So it’s pretty controlled. If you’d like I’ll get videos next time, because seeing me do them with 135 vs him with 315 are probably pretty different.
Id say especially for your purposes its got to be a risk vs reward ratio…
Ie. if you dont think jump squats yield a very high reward but feel dangerous for you then they might be worth switching out for something that is more rewarding towards your goals with less risk
If that makes sense…
Hence the reason why most bodybuilders as they get closer to a contest start cutting out all the heavy compounds because the risk of getting hurt is too high when they put in all that effort into dieting down and just need to compete at that point
[quote]PlainPat wrote:
Id say especially for your purposes its got to be a risk vs reward ratio…
Ie. if you dont think jump squats yield a very high reward but feel dangerous for you then they might be worth switching out for something that is more rewarding towards your goals with less risk
If that makes sense…
Hence the reason why most bodybuilders as they get closer to a contest start cutting out all the heavy compounds because the risk of getting hurt is too high when they put in all that effort into dieting down and just need to compete at that point[/quote]
Yeah I just don’t think they are ‘risky’ really. At least not the way I do them. lol
So I still feel pretty crappy. Yesterday in an 8 hour eating window I ended up eating:
6 whole eggs
6 egg whites
An entire pizza
Gallon of OJ
Half a pitcher of sweet tea
8 donuts
5 scoops of protein lol
Not Chobbsian ‘trying to get 10000 kcal’, but enough to make me feel better this morning, and I still lost a pound of BW lololol. So I’m taking it easy. I have work tomorrow, than will try and redeem myself Friday.
Also, should be getting in a workout with Tnations’ Benching Messiah HeavyTriple next week. So that’s cool.
I’m going to go ahead and bitch for a bit. so skip this if you don’t want to read it, I’ll understand.
Todays workout sucked too. Like 3-4 weeks ago I hit 225 for 5, and today 205 for 5 was hard on Bench. This is getting so frustrating. I feel I just randomly hit a wall, and despite giving my all, my results don’t show it. I was feeling run down from 6x a week lifting, tooks people’s advice and went to 4x a week, and it seems like I’ve regressed. I mean there are some outside factors:
- Went from just ‘college’ stress to actual legitimate responsibility as a manager
- Been a bit sick this week
- Gf is moving away to Lexington next week. It’s not that far away but 2 years ago I had another long term GF that did the same and we ended up splitting up a month into it, so that’s weighing on my mind
- I have been in a deficit/dieting/losing weight for a while now
But all those things shouldn’t explain a 20 lbs difference in my Bench. It honestly gets me frustrated enough that I sometimes don’t want to lift lol. I just feel like I run myself into the ground all the time no matter the program. This could easily be a coincidence, and I just had 2 bad workouts (I felt great last week). But right now I’m pissed about it and I’m just wanting to bitch
Maybe you should either 1) start eating again, or 2) stop expecting to maintain strength while on a deficit, especially on a lift that’s so sensitive to bodyweight.
As far as the rest, go pick up some phophatidyl serine from a GNC to help manage the cortisol. Throw in some l-theanine or GABA if you want from a “stress management/anxiety” standpoint too… that may not do a thing for you, but I’d at least give the PS a shot. Add in some zinc and vitamin c if you’re not already for the “feeling sick” part.
Also, make sure you’re doing what it takes to sleep well; you’ve got a lot of factors that may be keeping you from getting properly rested.
Things will work out. Don’t let it get to you.
Sorry to hear about your motivation issues, I’ve been having some myself. Hope everything gets back on track soon :).
More caffeine
I HATE giving advice these days on this forum, but considering we are somewhat similar leverages wise - and I seem to progress a lot easier with bench than you do - I thought I would chime in regarding bench.
You suck ass at OHP so getting good at that and giving it plenty of volume would probably help your bench. Your bench needs more volume too.
You’re basically only doing 4 sets for each of these movements each time you are training them, which IMO is far too little unless you are ramping up 531 style to a set where you are going balls to the walls.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Maybe you should either 1) start eating again, or 2) stop expecting to maintain strength while on a deficit, especially on a lift that’s so sensitive to bodyweight.[/quote]
In rereading this, I sound like a dick here. That was not the intent by any means.
It sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate right now, some of which is just new to you; change, good or bad, is always stressful and has effects you don’t always expect. All things considered, I think you might be a little hard on yourself given the circumstances.
Readjusting your expectations for the short term might be the best thing to do for now. Just go in, get some quality work in and leave. Distance your emotions from it, and just let things be.
With regards to gf, only thing I can speak to as I suck ass at strength gains and what not. But I swore I’d never do start in a long distance relationship. I may Do it if one is established and we have to move for a bit. But well what happened a year after I said that, I started a relationship in m2 year 4hrs apart. It’s do able. But the biggest condition is trust. You both need the upmost trust in eachother otherwise expect so mnay fights about nothing that it will tear you apart. Second. Think long term. Have a talk with her I know its odd talking about feelings and planning and life and shit but it’s needs to be done to attempt a LDR. Do you both see this going somehwere much much further down the road? Do you both feel the same about eachother? Have you said and both meant the L word?
These are all things to tackle before the distance starts. Make time to talk everyday when apart. As much as possible. Gf and I have not gone 1 day without talking to eachother through the day. Just little texts sometimes long ones from morning I love and miss you to good night I love you or I just made some chicken you’d love. Stupid little things add up 
but have those talks with her if you want to make it happen.
[quote]ryanbCXG wrote:
With regards to gf, only thing I can speak to as I suck ass at strength gains and what not. But I swore I’d never do start in a long distance relationship. I may Do it if one is established and we have to move for a bit. But well what happened a year after I said that, I started a relationship in m2 year 4hrs apart. It’s do able. But the biggest condition is trust. You both need the upmost trust in eachother otherwise expect so mnay fights about nothing that it will tear you apart. Second. Think long term. Have a talk with her I know its odd talking about feelings and planning and life and shit but it’s needs to be done to attempt a LDR. Do you both see this going somehwere much much further down the road? Do you both feel the same about eachother? Have you said and both meant the L word?
These are all things to tackle before the distance starts. Make time to talk everyday when apart. As much as possible. Gf and I have not gone 1 day without talking to eachother through the day. Just little texts sometimes long ones from morning I love and miss you to good night I love you or I just made some chicken you’d love. Stupid little things add up but have those talks with her if you want to make it happen. [/quote]
x2 on all of this
Also know that both people are busy, you and her, but sometimes pop up unexpected. You know how you always make time for lifting and eating and work? Those things are important so you make time for them. If your girl is just as important (if not more because I would consider mine to be more important) then time has to be given for her even if its only an hour.
Drive 3-4x a week 2 hours each way to see my girl (luckily her family loves me and treats me like family because they know we want to and are going to get married once the dust clears a little bit with the school situation so i am able to stay over). Shes the most important thing in my life, and if yours is too I would suggest the same.
WARNING DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ SAPPY SHIT:
If you really love this girl she should be prioritizied. Lifting is fun and all, and work is necessary, but none of us are going to be pros. No one I know personally is going to make a living in strength sports/bodybuilding… But finding a girl you really truly love and settling down and having a family is the most fulfilling and happy thing one can do in life IMO. Wasnt always of this opinion and thought fuck it goals over everything… but came to the realization that the happiness I draw from looking in my girls eyes and seeing true love in them was the happiest I could ever be and no total or amount of money would ever compare