BTW, I’m 15, and 135lbs if that matters for anything. My sets leading up to 235x1 was barx8 135x6 175x5 195x5 215x3 225x1
I am not going to repeat the good points that have already been made. The thing that jumps out a me is that you jump strait from warming up with the bar to 135 and then to around 75% on your third warm up. I don’t think by the time you get to your max weight your body is primed for a max effort lift. In my opinion you need to warm up better on the front end of your squat workout rather than just jumping into it. A for effort but remember no one hits PR’s when they’re not in the gym. Good luck with your recovery.
BTW, I’m 15, and 135lbs if that matters for anything. My sets leading up to 235x1 was barx8 135x6 175x5 195x5 215x3 225x1
I am not going to repeat the good points that have already been made. The thing that jumps out a me is that you jump strait from warming up with the bar to 135 and then to around 75% on your third warm up. I don’t think by the time you get to your max weight your body is primed for a max effort lift. In my opinion you need to warm up better on the front end of your squat workout rather than just jumping into it. A for effort but remember no one hits PR’s when they’re not in the gym. Good luck with your recovery.[/quote]
What would a better warm-up be, when it comes to ramping weight?
[quote]KBCThird wrote:
until we see the vid, we can only speculate as to the form thing.[/quote]
In the same vein, what is your warmup currently like? I’m wondering if you perhaps jumped to your heavy working set too soon[/quote]
Yes, im aware that it would help a lot more to get a video but that will not come for a month or two unfortunately but once my groin gets better i will video my bench squat and dead for a form check on all three.
as a general guideline, try 5-10 minutes of light cardio to get the blood moving and body temp up, then some dynamic warmups, leg swings and stuff like that. after that, i like to do squat the bar for 3x20 ish, and then move up by increments of 10% while decreasing the reps. i’m guilty of skipping my cardio beginning almost all the time, but i dont move off of 45 lb squats until i feel good n ready. find what works for you, there are a bunch of articles about this, both here and on elitefts.
parsley, it’s unlikely the weak link is the adductors (groin) themselves. most often, groin pulls are a result of the adductors being overactive and compensating for a weak link elsewhere.
without knowing exactly what the issue is or seeing a video of you squat, it’s difficult to make specific recommendations but as a general guide if the adductors are over-active:
foam roll the adductors before and after every session
warm up as described above: 5-10 mins light cv and plenty of dynamic mobility work
stretch your lats
stretch your hip flexors in the warm up, between sets, and after your workout
Warm up is very important and it looks like you are ramping the weights up appropriately.
How long between squat sessions do you take, or between squat and other leg sessions. If I squat or deadlift before I’ve full recovered from the last squat session, I always pull my groin. I do squat wide, so recovery is very important to me.
Chronic/reoccuring groin pulls may lead into osteoitis pubis or sports hernias. What’s the likelihood? I don’t think anyone knows, but there is a relationship.
Figure I might toss my $.02 in on this as well. I definitely feel your pain on this. Back in dec I popped something in my groin on my 2nd squat at a meet in double ply gear, then first big session back after the meet/exams/christmas tore my adductor in the same spot as before. Wound up with a beautiful softball size black bruise in the hip crease next to my junk. only advice i can offer you at this point is
Ice and rest it. minimum of one month before you start any sort of squat training, especially if you squat wide and raw.
once you get back into training, go light, take it easy. Any strange pain, stop.
start some gentle stretching, gradually increase as time goes by without pain. The cossak lunges they showed above are great for that.
This may sound gay, but whatever. You know those leg toner things you see at like wal-mart, where you put it between your thighs and try and bring them together against the resistance of the spring? My parents had one lying around and I can definitely say that allowed me to get back squatting much faster than after previous groin injuries. the tension is light enough that it shouldnt aggravate it further, but again use common sense.
Thats basically what I used and I was back to pretty much normal in about 6-8 weeks (tore it back in late december and I’m pretty pain free right now). Granted I’m a multi-ply gear whore, so that allowed me to squat heavier quicker afterwards, but without that you should definitely slow it down a bit.
I’m currently doing the texas method so it would be a heavy and high volume squat day followed by a low weight recovery day and then a high intensity low volume day. I was doing tuesday/thursday/saturday. I would take a 1-2 minute break between sets usually, sometimes more.
I will definitely be adding in cossack lunges and im thinking glute weakness may be a problem, and i do have small glutes so i will work on that. If anyone else is looking to add in their $.02 you are more than welcome to i appreciate all the advice im getting from more experienced lifters than myself.
In a few weeks i will start some gentle stretching and increase it gradually, also i will be taking maybe a month break from squatting after this heals and doing some glute work and a lot of stretching and hoepfully i’ll be good to go. Also i will take a video for a form check sometime in the future when i am squatting again.
[quote]parsley wrote: I’m currently doing the texas method so it would be a heavy and high volume squat day followed by a low weight recovery day and then a high intensity low volume day. I was doing tuesday/thursday/saturday. I would take a 1-2 minute break between sets usually, sometimes more.
I will definitely be adding in cossack lunges and im thinking glute weakness may be a problem, and i do have small glutes so i will work on that. If anyone else is looking to add in their $.02 you are more than welcome to i appreciate all the advice im getting from more experienced lifters than myself.
In a few weeks i will start some gentle stretching and increase it gradually, also i will be taking maybe a month break from squatting after this heals and doing some glute work and a lot of stretching and hoepfully i’ll be good to go. Also i will take a video for a form check sometime in the future when i am squatting again.[/quote]
I am familiar with the Texas Intermediate Method. I hate to sound really intrusive, but I really do think you need more time to recover between squat sessions.
Not to take anything away from chrisarmes recommendation, but if you didn’t bruise you might be better off doing the Starr Rehab. Its far more aggressive, but might be a better way to rehab a minor strain over a full black and blue tear.
For Starr rehab, rest for 3 or 4 days, then go in and do a couple sets of 25 w/ just the bar, then add weight every single day for 10 days, and keep doing sets of 25. Then add weight and decrement your squat. I just did it for a high hamstring strain and was back to at least 90% by end of week 3.
Rest longer between your sets for strength work, at least 4 minutes, too.
[quote]theuofh wrote:
Not to take anything away from chrisarmes recommendation, but if you didn’t bruise you might be better off doing the Starr Rehab. Its far more aggressive, but might be a better way to rehab a minor strain over a full black and blue tear.
For Starr rehab, rest for 3 or 4 days, then go in and do a couple sets of 25 w/ just the bar, then add weight every single day for 10 days, and keep doing sets of 25. Then add weight and decrement your squat. I just did it for a high hamstring strain and was back to at least 90% by end of week 3.
Rest longer between your sets for strength work, at least 4 minutes, too.
[/quote]
That sounds pretty interesting, but i think before i do any squatting im going to wait a bit and let this heal up. I want to be a bit cautious with this and make sure i do everything right so i can prevent another one. Thanks for the comment though maybe in the future i will try that out. I think I will soon go to the gym and do upper body work and maybe ill throw in a set of squats with the bar or something.
First, do you have safety equipment that will let you fail safely if you get in over your head, or are you pulling something because you cant get rid of the weight safely? If you don’t have a proper rack or something, you need to stop shooting for 1RM PRs, and just shoot for 3RM or 5RM PRs.
Once it heals, why not do 3 to 6 months of higher rep/lighter loads. Whatever is weak, it needs time to get stronger. You are set back more by a groin pull than you ever would be by having slightly less strength growth for a few months. And, the only way to be 100% sure of hitting the weak spot, is to do reps of the same thing that is causing the problem. Just do them at a safe weight.
So, you said you do “barx8 135x6 175x5 195x5 215x3 225x1”. Well how about trying
Warmup (whether barx10, 135x6, or some other warmup)
120 x 20 (Trust me, this will burn more than your high weight workouts)
135 x 20
150 x 20 (Or to failure… 2 or 3 sets of this)
If you ever feel the sensation of your groin muscle beginning to fail, even at light weights, just put the bar down and strech out. Then do another exercise, drink some protein, and call it good.
You should determine your own weights. I’m hoping you have safety equipment that will let you fail safely if you can’t pul
[quote]humanjhawkins wrote:
First, do you have safety equipment that will let you fail safely if you get in over your head, or are you pulling something because you cant get rid of the weight safely? If you don’t have a proper rack or something, you need to stop shooting for 1RM PRs, and just shoot for 3RM or 5RM PRs.
Once it heals, why not do 3 to 6 months of higher rep/lighter loads. Whatever is weak, it needs time to get stronger. You are set back more by a groin pull than you ever would be by having slightly less strength growth for a few months. And, the only way to be 100% sure of hitting the weak spot, is to do reps of the same thing that is causing the problem. Just do them at a safe weight.
So, you said you do “barx8 135x6 175x5 195x5 215x3 225x1”. Well how about trying
Warmup (whether barx10, 135x6, or some other warmup)
120 x 20 (Trust me, this will burn more than your high weight workouts)
135 x 20
150 x 20 (Or to failure… 2 or 3 sets of this)
If you ever feel the sensation of your groin muscle beginning to fail, even at light weights, just put the bar down and strech out. Then do another exercise, drink some protein, and call it good.
You should determine your own weights. I’m hoping you have safety equipment that will let you fail safely if you can’t pul[/quote]
Yes i do have safety equipment and i was always using a spot. I didn’t pull my groin while bailing out of a weight or getting stuck in the hole or something like that if thats what you’re thinking. Also i’m not sure what you mean i should determine my own weights because i do determine what i am going to go for. If you checked out my log or are familiar with the texas method you’d know that on the high intensity low volume day i regularly switch up going for 3RMs, 2RMs and 1RM so i am not sure what you mean by that. The higher rep work does sound like a good idea and i will do some of that for a bit after. I’ve done widowmakers before so it’s not like i’m completely new to 20-rep squats
[quote]parsley wrote: I’m currently doing the texas method so it would be a heavy and high volume squat day followed by a low weight recovery day and then a high intensity low volume day. I was doing tuesday/thursday/saturday. I would take a 1-2 minute break between sets usually, sometimes more.
I will definitely be adding in cossack lunges and im thinking glute weakness may be a problem, and i do have small glutes so i will work on that. If anyone else is looking to add in their $.02 you are more than welcome to i appreciate all the advice im getting from more experienced lifters than myself.
In a few weeks i will start some gentle stretching and increase it gradually, also i will be taking maybe a month break from squatting after this heals and doing some glute work and a lot of stretching and hoepfully i’ll be good to go. Also i will take a video for a form check sometime in the future when i am squatting again.[/quote]
I am familiar with the Texas Intermediate Method. I hate to sound really intrusive, but I really do think you need more time to recover between squat sessions.[/quote]
Maybe possible, but i am not sore going into my saturday or tuesday workouts. Only thursday but then again that is what the thursday workout is there for
[quote]theuofh wrote:
Not to take anything away from chrisarmes recommendation, but if you didn’t bruise you might be better off doing the Starr Rehab. Its far more aggressive, but might be a better way to rehab a minor strain over a full black and blue tear.
For Starr rehab, rest for 3 or 4 days, then go in and do a couple sets of 25 w/ just the bar, then add weight every single day for 10 days, and keep doing sets of 25. Then add weight and decrement your squat. I just did it for a high hamstring strain and was back to at least 90% by end of week 3.
Rest longer between your sets for strength work, at least 4 minutes, too.
[/quote]
Fair enough, figured if it was milder, he would speed up a bit anyways (besides, im not far off from his age so I know the mentality would likely be “F*uk it im feeling fine, i can do more” anyways Lord knows I was the same coming back from this. Basically took my coach/mentor threatening me with a canvas kneewrap across the back of the head to keep me out of the monolift haha).
Go down to section 8 and do some reading, though I can personally attribute my strong adductors to my sumo-stance in the DL(you can really feel them sometimes), and a wider stance when I squat(REALLY notice it when you go deeper). If one stance keeps injuring you, switch it up to another for a while.
Lord knows I was the same coming back from this. Basically took my coach/mentor threatening me with a canvas kneewrap across the back of the head to keep me out of the monolift haha).