rev210

The rotator would have been buggered up from pressing of some kind (external rotation), the Squat has just made the bar press on the inflamation you had.

For starts , I reckon give the hammies some rehab. You need them. Good mornings will help. Make sure you warm them up before things like squats. I reckon your squat issues are around the hip strength and letting the hips work more.To help when you are squatting you want to think about pushing the feet out ,as opposed to down or away. This should be felt in the hips and it's going to help push the knees out actively. The knees out shortens the distance and increases hip leverage but, the hip power has to kick in. I'm no expert but, box squats would probably help you learn that better. Strength wise 5-7 reps a set , 3 max would do and lots of rest between sets. Fix the hammy first .

Ok . So potentially the legs are doing more share than they should. Your width on the squat will effect glute activation and hip motion to some degree. Out of the bottom of the movement you want explosive accelleration generated from all the muscles but, importantly glutes. If you play with feet width , notice the activation of the glutes changing in relation to the width. When learning , what 'feels' best and what 'works' best are sometimes different. If you can take a look at the setup and see if you can noticably increase the glute /hip activation. You will also get much better hip/glute power with a low bar squat. But, start with the way you are doing it. Again. I'd like to point out that going for bigger weight numbers is not how your training is setup. If you are really serious about squatting more then you need to turf it for squats , is my opinion.

Two things for squat . One , don't think the training is geared to strength ( so improvements in strength will be muted). Two , I reckon you need to look at your squat width and make sure the hip motion is right. How wide are the feet? How is the glute activation are you using the glutes actively/focus? How far up do you get the knee bend?

gtr leesh?

Welcome to the forum. Answer these questions to help with guidance; What are you looking for (qualities) in the car and what purpose/s is the car for? Eg. Daily drive . Weekend car. Track use. Need 4 doors because family car etc.... Whats your budget? Whats your experiece like with performance cars Or car ownership in general?

You need to 'quantify' those goals. Numbers. Size measurements . You can go with waist measurement for example. Be realistic. Seeing abs is one thing , however , if you have never seen them before your expectations are based on unknown. This leads to dissapointment. Takes time to get lean, takes time to get fat. Be realistic but, commit to things that can be measured. The subjective puts you in danger of image issues even when you have achieved alot.

You have stuck it out and then some. 12months. job done. You didn't get what you want out of it. It's also worth noting in fairness to Birds that he's not a professional so he's likely to care more about supporting you than his ideas. You might be thinking he'd be dissapointed when he's not (but Birds can answer that one). Diet wise you are doing plenty right. The goals might need re-stating but, if it's a six pack then that's figure comp land. A friend of my wife's has competed nationally and it's something that needs more than e-advice. You need a trainer who has done that before. My wife had a go at the six pack thing with her assistance and managed it but, threw it in quick as the training and diet is misery incarnate.

Hi Leesh. didn't realise it was a year. if I hear you correctly , the goal you have hasn't been reached via the training , so my opinion is do what you like more. Sounds like cardio you enjoy, so you can confidently flick the 'volume training' to do what works for you. Just like to say ,your experience with the cardio training in the past makes you one to give some great advice yourself around that kind of training for people. Abs are difficult for women, yours are still impressive, you have to believe me. To get a six pack ,like womens Figure athletes (ava cowan etc.) the diet is crazy strict. Training looks different to what you are doing now also. If you were after that physique you would need to look at what they look like 'off season' vs comp. plenty of info around on that to get hold of if you wanted to try that out.

ok, goals then. What is size (how big) and how much body fat to lower? from what to what?

Leesh , you have really impressive commitment. You are testing an excersise program. Maybe some of it won't work for you, thats fine if you learn from it. I think it's good to question what you are doing. Have you stopped to do an assesment? How would 'you' describe the sucess of this program so far ,since you have been doing it? Has it delivered on expectations? What are the positives and negatives? How does it compare to what you did before, from your perspective?

Ok that sounds like it's healthy and all good changes for the long term. You body composition will gradually change to reflect what you are now doing. In terms of matching your requirements , it's about how much. So how much rice and how much chicken vs your requirements. Plenty of people do similar to yourself and find changes are small and slow. If you are eating relatively large portions or too small it stalls progress. Have you done a basic portion vs marco check? How lean do you want to be and when are you wanting that to happen by? Building muscle AND dropping significant fat is a challenge: a) Because it's suibjective b) Because the rates and potential are genetic (also see above) c) Because packing on lots of muscle at the same time as dropping body fat is much harder than doing just one of them. Requires more commitment. Rush Fit and Tapout infomercials feature the usual people who built muscle in the gym then did it for cardio. The lean bit they got from the kitchen.

there is no substitute for hard work. But, if your issue is being lean then it's 80% kitchen related.

Overhead press - do you know what you are doing/ how to do them correctly? Are you doing the 'bro' version behind the head? Or the proper version? Squat wise - Keeping your head down? You might be over thinking it. It's probably in there for you to help learn hip use. Lower back shouldn't be the weak point (unless its injured), this isn't deadlift.

assistance movements are smart, I agree with your thinking. Are you doing the shoulder stuff still?

Throw the microtech away and start doing some squats. Squats ..... it IS simpler than you thought .

Birds is talking about pullups , done in the challenge way. Not chin ups . You can always give the challenge a go to see if you have improved. 20 would be impressive , more so if it's 'easy' and you manage even more reps.

Bro curls and isolation work have nothing to do with bigger arms in your case I guarantee. If you want bigger arms you need to put on more mass. Your genetics will dictate most of where that proportion will end up. Compound work with a focus on tricep is going to help. Other parts of the arm, shoulder and back need to develop to support bigger triceps as a balanced system. Your 'light ' bone structure comment has also gone in the bin..... I am confident that is your hang up from your youth and not a comment made by an expert in the field. I think you have made that comment a bit too often for your own good.

The more you practice the hip motion ,you wont need to concentrate as much. You need to keep that in mind for a while but, you are doing more weight now. Give it some time , getting the hips to work powerfully is like anything in terms of practice.

Studies of roid use that show people gaining lean muscle doing nothing . The ones i have seen are all based on skinny slob individuals (normal westerners except choice was for lower end weight people for study). Both before and after roids they are still puny. Low base. People who i have known go on the juice without modification to diet and excersise (same gym same diet) showed gains. But relative to them . In other words they were still weaker than someone who took training serious and diet. I trained with them on occasion and my training gave me a massive advantage. Looking at the two of us (similar genetics) i would have been picked as the juice taker if someone had a choice. Also roids cant change genetics. Others i have known went to them after locking in everything else and the gains were significant but not Ridiculous. It gave a clear edge and speed of devlopment and growth. Roids are illegal mostly because they work. However Athletes are not average punters . Joe blogs not matter what juice he takes even with gym-bro training aint going to get within spitting distance of a clean athlete. Why ; genetics + training and diet.

Genetics and actual size overall are the big factors. In terms of tricep growth . Lying tricep extensions as mentioned recently in gym thread also close grip bench.

Activation of stretch / muscle shortening reflex. Different to swinging a weight with bad form.

it's good. I used to do them. The only thing I really ever bothered with. I did not do standing tricep bro-stensions or tricep pushdowns. Move heavy and win. Triceps don't grow playing with light weights.

Most welcome ,I am really pleased it helped you.

hows the squats going now, better? Looks like the volume is through the roof there on the squats.