In that case I suspect he may, despite good intentions, not know what the hell he’s talking about.
Your hips don’t start at squat depth, but should be low enough to create a ton of tension that lets you lever the bat off the floor. Because keeping your shoulders behind the bar is so important in sumo, especially in the first half of the pull; and because higher hips make this much harder to do you generally will find it better to err on the side of caution in relation to hip height.
Or, I may have misunderstood. But, it’s probably a combination of both. He says my hips should be lower than in conventional, but not as low as I was getting. As I remember, there needs to be tension in my hamstrings, more than I am comfortable with, but not so much that my lower back rounds, which is what happens to me in conventional. I think Rip talked about there being a war between the hamstrings and the erector spinae at setup, something like that.
I’ll get it sorted.
Hamstrings huh? You may be onto something. I usually only start to feel them once the bar is moving. Before it’s all hips and inner groin.
I’m going to go back to the book and find this - I’m afraid I am mis-remembering it and I certainly don’t want to be responsible for getting you sidetracked!
07-20-2016
C3W1D3 BP
5@45, 5@85 (WU)
5@120
5@135
10@155 (Capped) RPE 8
8@135 (Should have been 120 FSL)
2x8@120
Incline BP 1x10@95, 3X10@85, 1x10@75 - These got difficult fast so I had to work down in weight.
Kroc Rows 5x11@40, BPA’s 5x20, PecDeck 5x10@70, Shrugs 5x20@55ea., TPD’s 5x12@45, Curls 5x11@55
Took yesterday off and slept a lot! Wasn’t sure how my workout would go, meant to just do BP and two assistance exercises but I felt good so I just kept going.
Slight shoulder and elbow pain on the BP, nothing to worry about…I think.
Possibly that was about conventional DL.
I’m sure it was, but it’s been explained to me, possibly in error, that Sumo is essentially the same lift with your legs farther apart, still a hinge movement initiated and activated by the posterior chain…but I’m just talking out my ass right now.
I’ll be digging into this, more later.
I paid my money, going to Pull Camp this Sunday!!
Definitely. It is a hinge, it is posterior chain dominated, but how the posterior chain accomplishes the hinge is very different.
So I re-read SSBT last night. He is speaking about conventional primarily, but he talks about the war between the hamstrings and the lower back at set up and that the lower back has to win. He talks about the hips being too low at address and that when the bar breaks the floor, it all looks the same regardless of set up, that it has to get to that position.
The idea is that if your hips are too low, you are behind the bar and cannot lift it vertically - you have to re-position with your scapulae directly over the bar. In Sumo, your back can be more vertical with your scapulae directly over the bar because of the wider stance. I suppose the more vertical back shifts some of the weight from the lumbar to the legs?
Anyway, food for thought.
07-21-2016
C3W1D4 Squats
5@45, 5@85, 5@135
5@170
5@195
10@195 RPE 9 (Capped at 10, lol - see below)
3X5@155 Paused Squats
BP 3x5@120 Paused RPE 6
Leg Press 3x10@135, Leg Curls 5x10@70
Hardest part of today’s workout was getting my shit together. I rode my bike to the gym and realized I had forgotten my keys, so I rode back home and got them, and then turned around and rode back to the gym. I was worried about having ridden nine miles before working out, but it wasn’t an issue.
Here’s 5@195
After watching the video I realized some of those reps might have been a little high, so I tried to get lower on my next set at 220.
So, I said I capped the AMRAP at 10, but I’m not sure if I would have been able to squeeze another rep out if I tried.
I was going to try to do paused squats at FSL weight but I chickened out and did them at 155 instead. I’ll go up to FSL weight next time. I love these. I get way low and just feel the stretch, and I have to drive my hips to get it moving. Hoping this helps with technique.
I squatted facing a different direction today - away from the mirror. With the mirror I felt like I couldn’t pick a good focus point and that I was too conscious of form, so I faced away today and it felt better. I could concentrate more on moving the weight and not worry about how red my face is and whether or not I’m going to pop a vein.
OHP tomorrow, off Saturday, Pull camp on Sunday. Good times.
Squat style looked smooth! Nice work.
That’s conventional in a nutshell. Sumo requires your shoulders to be behind the bar because you’re lifting it backwards, not straight up. The bar path is vertical but your aim is to pull it backwards while pushing your feet apart and the floor away.
That being said, that’s also how I pull coventional, but that’s a personal preference.
07-23-2016
C3W2D1 - OHP
5@45 (WU)
3@95
3@110
6@125 RPE 9
5x5@95 FSL
BPA’s 5x20, CGBP 5x10@95, Lat PD’s 5x11@100, FP’s 5x12@40, Curls 5x12@55, Tri PD’s 5x12@45
Took yesterday off instead of lifting - was pretty sore and gassed from squat day, I suspect the pause squats are the culprit.
Had a twinge of pain in my pesky elbow again during my AMRAP set. Probably could have gotten more but was afraid of hurting it worse. It was present, but not debilitating in the FSL’s, CGBP, and TPD’s.
Pull camp tomorrow, woohoo!
I’ll be interested to hear how you found pull camp.
7-24-2016
C3W2D2
Okay, not exactly D2, but it was pull camp!
DL
5@95, 5@115, 5@135, 5@185, 5@225, 5@205
PC’s
3@75, 3@95, 3@105, 3@115, 3@115
It was great fun. The camp was held at Crossfit Solace on E. 32nd in Manhattan, which is an awesome facility. I have never seen so much new/high quality equipment. They had more bumper plates, barbells, squat racks - It was like a porn store for weightlifters.
The two facilitators were Mike Wolfe of Wolfe Strength, and Brent Carter, who teaches at Focus PTI in Manhattan. They were both very knowledgeable and pretty friendly guys. They did about an hour of lecture on strength training, and then we went to the platform and were walked through the deadlift one at a time.
There were nine of us, so we split into two groups and worked with one coach. We all had plenty of time for instruction, and worked our way up through the weights. I had planned on doing my top set at 265 but Brent told me I was losing my tightness in my upper back at 225 and had me back down to 205. Of course, this was very disappointing to me, but explains why I got hurt. So I just had to ask, I mean, my one rep squat max is 275 so why the sucky DL? It must be technique, right?
Well, no, I’m just weak. Then, I thought about it, and it makes sense - in the past thirty five years, I haven’t really worked on picking up heavy things. I mean, I ride a bike, did other leg exercises, which explains the squat number, but I have never worked on picking shit up, which explains why I suck at it. So, back to 205, focus on keeping my upper back tight so I don’t get rounded and get hurt again, and start up on linear progression again.
When then went into PC’s - first with a volunteer and a walk through, then split into groups again and working up through the weight in turns with a coach. They break the movements down into several steps and teach the lifts incrementally, so it all becomes pretty clear. I did much better cleaning and have decided to use Power Cleans as a warm up on DL days. I also think I am going to dead lift twice a week either by adding them in as an assistance on squat days or just adding another day to the cycle - not sure how to do it yet, but I feel like I need to do this to get it more in line with my squat numbers.
After PC’s, there was a brief talk on programming and then Q & A. We ran over a little, so it was about 5 1/2 hours total.
Good stuff. I really enjoyed it.
07-26-2016
C3W2D3 - BP
10@45, 5@95
3@130
3@150
10@170 RPE 9
3X5@120 Paused (FSL)
Incline BP 5x10@75, Krocs 5x12@40, BPA’s 5x20, FP’s 5x13@40, Curls 2x13, 1x12, 1x11, 1x10 - all at 55, Shrugs 5x15@60, TPD’s 5x13@45, PD 5x11@70
It would appear that I have gotten a bit out of control with my assistance exercises so I am going to review and cut some out. Squats tomorrow, going to do Deadz as an assistance after. I typically do extensions and leg curls as well but I need to do some core work too.
After squats, I’m going to take two days off, at least. I’m flying to the West coast late Thursday, arriving early Friday AM, so hopefully I’ll be ready to lift Saturday. I have two gyms scoped out, hopefully the first one will work.
I’ve decided I need to start taking recovery days rather than lifting four straight, one off, four straight. I’ve been fighting the tendonitis in my elbows, and AC pain in my shoulders, and I think taking days off will help. So I’m actually going to run the program as written. I was debating whether to take a deload at the end of this cycle, but was planning to wait until the end of my fourth cycle - kind of hoping the days off will let me skip the deload this cycle.
Speaking of tendonitis, one of the guys at pulling camp gave me a few suggestions, but my wife suggested I try her electric stim machine - it’s a cheap battery operated thing, but I gave it a shot and felt pretty good today so I am going to try it for a few days before OHP day in California - I’m hoping it works because the other two options aren’t that appealing.
Good session today, pretty much pain free.
TL;DR take the deload, try not to train more than two days straight.
7-27-2016
C3W2D4 - Squatz
5@45, 5@95, 5@135
3@180
3@210
5@240 RPE 9
3x5@180 (FSL) RPE 8
BPA’s 5x20, DL 5X5@135, PRESS 5X10@135, LEG CURLS 5X11@70
Worked out around 5:30 PM, didn’t have a lot of pop in my legs. I probably could have gotten at least one more rep on my AMRAP set, but I’m a little freaked out to fail on squats. I worked on speed as well, slowed down the descent significantly, and worked on getting past parallel, but not ATG which I learned at Pulling camp isn’t desirable, something about taking the glutes and hams out of the exercise. Need to follow up on this.
Got my reps, added DL’s to work on technique, so, good session. Off to California tomorrow, won’t lift again until Saturday. Woohoo, two days off…if late night cross country travel actually counts as a day off.
07-31-2016
C3W3D1 – OHP
5@45, 3@95
5@105
3@115
5@130
1@145 JS
1@155 JS (PR I believe)
3x6@105 (FSL)
BPA’s 5x20, CGBP 5x11@95, Fat Man PU’s 4x10, Curls 5x10@55
Travel took a little more of a toll on me than I planned so I took a third day off. Our flight was delayed four hours and when we got to Oakland at 3:00 AM the rental car was closed. We had to wait until 6:00 AM to get the car, then hour drive and set up the cabin, blah blah blah.
Rode the bike into town, found Santa Cruz Strength – total metal head gym. Barbells, racks, Airdyne’s, and a bunch of strongman stuff – no machines, no dumbbells, which is why I subbed in fat man pull-ups instead of lat pull downs.
Elbow twinged a little on AMRAP set so I almost gave up on Jokers – actually had set the bar up for FSL – but I gave myself a little pep talk and hit what I think was a PR – watch the vid, might have had a little push in there.
I do Press 2.0 with the bump, which might have turned into a push press – whatev, I was glad I ground it out.
Good workout, beach for sun now, yippee.
I have competed there a few times. Clay is a cool dude, even if his yoke ruptured my ACL. He is holding a contest in Oct, if you are looking for something fun to watch and are back in the area.