For me, my front squat sucks. There is a 110lb. differential between my Squat and front squat, I don’t know if that is normal or not, but “I” personally feel that the front squat is my worst exercise and my least favorite exercise to do so I am going to do them religiously over the summer.
What is the community doing about their worst exercises? Are you doing something about it or are you going to just ignore that exercise. Seems to me that our worst lifts are the ones that we should push the hardest on.
SSC, so are you neglecting your curls or doing something about it to make them stronger?
You may have been joking in your response, but I am trying to get a serious thread going since the BB forum is turning to complete crap.
My thought is that we all like working our favorite exercises and neglect the ones we don’t like for whatever reason (hard, uncomfortable, awkward, whatever). Many times you can get away pushing on your best lifts, but there are some worst lifts that are way too beneficial to ignore.
I would say that this thread should be directed to not only your worst exercise but your most neglected and how that is going to change.
No, seriously, my curls kind of suck. I never did them because I never liked them. I also have tiny wrists with slight carpel tunnel development so sometimes going heavy can be painful. I don’t use it as an excuse, though, I still tear it up in the weightroom.
And yes, they’ve been blossoming nicely, so I am addressing them.
[quote]Rhino Jockey wrote:
Close-stance squats…my body just cant seem to find the mobility to do them properly so I normally do them with a wider stance. [/quote]
I lurk from time to time over at the BB forum for information. But, you have a problem that I had until two suggestions were presented. I normally squat wider due to my training as a PL’er. But, I do close stance squats as a finisher.
I was told to put some plates on my heel and that helped my mobility and getting down in the hole. Also, I have some olympic weight lifting shoes that put my feet at an angle and I am do get into the whole when doing close stance squats.
[quote]thr_wedge wrote:
For me, my front squat sucks. There is a 110lb. differential between my Squat and front squat, I don’t know if that is normal or not, but “I” personally feel that the front squat is my worst exercise and my least favorite exercise to do so I am going to do them religiously over the summer.
What is the community doing about their worst exercises? Are you doing something about it or are you going to just ignore that exercise. Seems to me that our worst lifts are the ones that we should push the hardest on.[/quote]
To answer your question, there is a difference between the front squat and back squat if you don’t train specifically for a certain sport. Olympic Weightlifters have less of a gap between their Front Squant and Back than others because of how they train. I say don’t worry and keep pressing on.
But to add, my least favorite is Front Squat because of holding all that weight on my shoulders. I have to do them because it has a carryover when I do my conventional deadlifts in training or in competition. So, I will be pushing harder on front squats. Plus, they seem to wear me out faster due to all the stabilizing I have to do and getting in and out of the the hole.
SergeantQ, I have to agree that front squats just wear me out. Basically standing straight up and trying not to drop the weight all contribute to a killer workout.
Flat Bench, I mean in general people talk about things like 3/4/5, but when I got to 4/5 squat/dead my bench was still around 260 I think? It’s slowly playing catchup as work on fixing shoulder issues from years of sports habits, but still my worst for sure. It’s also not very far ahead of my incline, I don’t really know what that means as far as muscle imbalances/issues.
It’s not absolutely awful, but I’m much better at pulling exercises than pressing exercises in general, they feel more natural to me. And with pulling exercises you also have the luxury of not being crushed by the weight if you miss that last rep and there’s no one around Too bad that the general gym rat indication of how good you are is your flat barbell bench 1RM.
Bench press: at least I see I’m not the only one! I recently switched to low-incline DB presses: now I feel my pecs working, instead of the pain coming from shoulder joint…Gotta try the PL set-up Tate showed in his last article.
Or rather, pressing in general. My long arms don’t help, but if you neglect any exercise/body part in general what do you expect?
I am working to get it to a level on par with my other lifts, coming slowly but surely :)[/quote]
I have had more success with the mindset that the thing was lagging in, be it a lift, or cardio, or anything that I have been behind in, will now be my strong point. For me atleast, training to make something the best gets results a lot quicker than training it to be on par with where I am
Lately, my incline and flat DB bench have gotten weaker. All my other lifts are going up. I don’t know what’s up, but I’m upping calories for a while to see how it works.
What am I doing about it. Pressing a shit ton more than I have over the past year, and really focusing on technique. I found when I start to fatigue or get a very challenging weight above me, my form goes down the drain, so I am really trying to focus on that aspect of it right now. I’ve always been a weak presser, but I would sincerly like to change that this summer.
Too bad that the general gym rat indication of how good you are is your flat barbell bench 1RM.