Well, I did 135lbs without a problem, but having experience with the soreness thing, I kept the weight there and performed 3 sets of 10 just to break in the unused muscles. I felt the difference when I did some deadlifts afterwards…my groin was shaking with weakness, so I know I’m in for some pain in a day or two. So be it. I figure right now I’ll be starting squats with 185 in sets of 6, and seeing if I can add more in a couple of weeks…hopefully 225lbs total somewhere in my first cycle of MAG10. Doubt I’ll get that much in so soon, but stranger thing can happen.
BTW: My knees did feel like they strectched out a bit on the first set, but the pain was gone by the 3rd set. Y’all were right!
Okay, if the bar isn’t attached to a pair of vertical guide rods permanently then it’s not a smith machine and that’s all good.
The sissy bars are your friend, they only do something if it all goes to hell in a hand basket so it’s not like they’re hurting anything.
I would question the “shaking groin” thing. What do you call your groin? (oh, shut up people) some people refer to the inside of their thighs (their adductors) as their groin, others refer to the crease of the hip as their groin. The latter is correct.
Anyway, if it’s the adductors it’s probably because you’re letting your knees come together while you squat instead of pushing them outward.
If it’s actually your groin then it’s probably a lack of flexibility in the area and some stretching would do you good.
Thanks for the info…it’s the adductors. I’m definitely keeping my knees out. That comes naturally. I think it was just a case of general weakness, in the sense that I havent done a real squat in, oh…NEVER!
Plus, I did a normal round of sets with the leg press, and I definitely don’t feel like a man anymore. Damn, I was thinking I was a little tough-guy with 400+ pound sets on the press easy (cause no one else does more when I’m there), but now I know that’s just like me doing a 160lb squat (body weight + weight lifted). Oooohhh, big deal.
It’s all good. You’ll notice much better results now that you’ve learned to leave the ego at home
Oh, and on the topic of knee angle it depends entirely on foot position you’re using. If your feet are really wide you might be around 100 or 120 degrees when you hit parallel. If you use a narrow standce you might be much closer to 30 degrees when you’re parallel.
couple things. once you get used to the motion of the full squat your weights will jump up again. right now its as if you are learning a totally new exercise. once you get the hang of it your #'s will jump up again. when i first started full squatting i had to drop the ego, once i got used to it i was squatting full what i used to squat 1/4.
secondly, performing front squats realy taught me how to get deep. you might want to try a few sets of them to teach yourself how to get down low.
