Project: Squat Dodger/no More Curling Like A Bro/get Ankle Better

[No Crust Racing]

Chin ups!

Man I need a cage.

The current rows I do are with overhand grip so i'm assuming they are less bicep intensive, but i was under the impression that under hand was risky for tears.

Glad i took last night off, shoulder and back feeling decent today.

[jangles]

Chin ups!

Edited March 22, 2013 by jangles

[rev210]

i was under the impression that under hand was risky for tears.

If you do them wrong , yes. Otherwise, done right they are fine.

Think about 'why' you are doing the particualr lift and 'how' you should perform it to acheive the goal. Once you have the lifts right then spend some attention on durations of recovery. Getting diet and recovery days optimised is the zone for increasing the speed of growth.

[No Crust Racing]

Had another stretching sess last night, for back, some I got given back in the day when my left elbow plays up and some rotator cuff stuff, shoulder feeling decent today, back coming along slowly.

I'll see how I tonight but I may exclude some exercises or lower/weight cut some things short as it seems I may need to work on some things before I can forge ahead.

Myo tomorrow also.

[No Crust Racing]

Just looking at that link too, good food for thought on the rows.

I feel like I'm starting from scratch with everything again =\

[No Crust Racing]

Skipped my normal routine tonight, back didn't feel up to it to be honest. Did lots of stretching for the back, some more cuban press and L-Lateral raises plus some other stuff for my left elbow that usually helps it then went for another walk so have covered almost 5k today.

I'll see what the Myo says tomorrow about my back and go from there, if I need to take time off and get everything right then come back to light weights so be it.

I can already feel my shoulder getting stronger/better with those movements, it's just the back that doesn't seem to want to play ball, so I assume some of that is still from the ankle.

Creatine should be here tomorrow also and I'm also trying to cut some sugar/fat out of my diet through better snack choices.

Edited March 25, 2013 by ActionDan

[TTT]

Squats will fix your back.

stop dodging them

[No Crust Racing]

Haha, honestly, I'm not trying to dodge anything, taking time out for me is the last thing I want, but I am trying to be sensible ane get weak areas up to standard first/get injuries/imbalances sorted.

Those cuban presses, I'm doing those at the moment with just empty dumbbells (2kg each hand) and after doing 10 reps I feel it quite noticeable so obviously my strength it that rotator area is shit house.

I'll back weight off on the exercises but get back into those shortly.

As for the squats, I just want a definitive answer on what is up with my lower back before forging ahead, trying to avoid any long term issues now while the weight is light.

I'm also thinking I'll take some vids and post them up, as gay as that is, to have form critiqued by people who have experience with those movements.

Myo this arvo at 3.

[rev210]

Haha, honestly, I'm not trying to dodge anything, taking time out for me is the last thing I want, but I am trying to be sensible ane get weak areas up to standard first/get injuries/imbalances sorted.

Those cuban presses, I'm doing those at the moment with just empty dumbbells (2kg each hand) and after doing 10 reps I feel it quite noticeable so obviously my strength it that rotator area is shit house.

I'll back weight off on the exercises but get back into those shortly.

As for the squats, I just want a definitive answer on what is up with my lower back before forging ahead, trying to avoid any long term issues now while the weight is light.

I'm also thinking I'll take some vids and post them up, as gay as that is, to have form critiqued by people who have experience with those movements.

Myo this arvo at 3.

Don't worry about huge weight with cubans. You will get stronger over time. The rotator muscles are quite small. Just activating them is good, even with light loads. You can see that with rotator weakness how vulnerable you are in pressing movements.

I have done strength cuban press with 25kg dumbells, I used to do more with the barbell back in the day. So you can get strong in the movement. But, even 20kg total is plenty to work for. Being able to do this weight , helped me to bash out the 105kg strict presses with a clean. If I had girly rotators I may not have even cleaned the weight , let alone pressed it.

You must not bench or any pressing during any week where you do cubans with a reasonable load (even if that is not much weight wise) You will have smashed the rotators. Do not rep until failure, go 2 short of it in a set. Fatigue and the little rotators can equal tears.

this is what I call good cuban form for barbell

[rev210]

also scarecrows for advanced once you have cubans in the zone.

start with a stretchy band and then dumbells

[No Crust Racing]

Watched those vids, his shoulders are at different heights in the cuban but otherwise that's more or less what I'm doing (but with dumbbells)

Scarecrow looks good too.

Saw the Myo, she dry needled my shoulder, she said I'v just strained the muscle so rest and stretching is all that's required there. It feels pretty decent today.

She said my back and pelvis is slowly evening up and that the issue comes from putting load through it while my right foot wants to rotate outwards which in turn rotates my pelvis outwards on one side.

Continue stretching it and focus on my gait when walking. She also said she thought my inner glute (glute minor) was weak and gave me a leg raise type movement lying on my side but with heels together, like a clam to activate those muscles.

I was going to do one set of things tonight and see how I felt tomorrow, but lower the weights on the squat/DL/row and MP, but maybe I should drop some out of the bench too or are you suggesting I skip all of those things for now and focus more so on the rotator strength for a bit longer before getting back into those movements?

Edited March 26, 2013 by ActionDan

[No Crust Racing]

VIDEOS! - For some reason only some of them are embedding properly and linking as expected - weird, the links all work but are not showing as hyperlinks in my browser and only 2 videos have shown as embedded despite me checking the details.

Each is only 30 or seconds long, awkward positioning for me as I had to try and get enough angle so I wouldn't normally be so close to the carpet edge and would be facing the window where the camera was filming from.

I did a few reps of each exercise I normally do with half or less weight.

Bench was only 65kg, everything else with the ezy bar was only 25kg.

I did this after doing some rotator, back, elbow work.

I did deads 2 ways based on different things I have read, Dead1 is how I would normally attempt them, Dead2 was trying an alternate way, which is more accurate/closer to where it needs to be?

Form tips welcome on everything.

On the squat my ankle was locking funny on the first rep so I adjust. I also over pressed it as it was very light, normally I wouldn't through the weight up so high before lowering to shoulders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK9DzWa0_SE

Bench looks normal to me as in what I think I'd see based on what I feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUp7LyBPyTU

Curls Looks like I waver a bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnlrw0o08Qw

Dead 1This is how I've been doing them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYgejRMjj-A

Dead2 This was another take on some things I've read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNluPM38v-I

Overhead Press - Normally, with heavier weight my lower back over arches and I'm a bit unstable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-AjUBWITBA

Rows - Looks like it feels to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2oRRdtsjM

Dips - I do 3x50 of these with 3.5kg of weights in my pockets normally, so need something harder like full/proper dips on a dip station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSE4VFTr8wA

Edited March 27, 2013 by ActionDan

[TTT]

Squat is ok ish.

Need to work on breathing. Weight seems really light since you can strict reverse curl it up.

EZ barbell for squats and reads when you have a straight bar on the bench seems like an odd choice.

I won't get started on your gloves.

Both sets of reads are wrong for different reasons.

first one has no leg drive and bar travels too far out in front.

Second one had too much knee bend and loses the stiffness in back. And shoulders roll forward.

I seriously think you should get some direct coaching.

[No Crust Racing]

The weight is really light as I'm focusing on getting my shoulder/back/ankle right at the moment, was only 25kg.

EZ bar is more so for convenience, to use the straight bar I have to unrack a bit of weight to walk it off the stand safely and get it into the point of the room where I can do the other motions.

A cage/new bench would solve all of this....

I like gloves, personal choice, 'I know what people say abt grip strength but I will never be strong enough for that to matter, I'm in a professional, shaking hands etc, so I look after them - gloves working on the car also.

The problem with deads for me is not being able to get my knees in a comfortable position and still clear the bar, whether I have long legs or just bad hammy stretch or something I don't know, SLDL feel much more comfortable to me, I might do some of those and video also.

I could grab a bodybuilder mate of mine and get him to go through things with me easily enough.

I will have another go at embedding..... (edit it must only allow 2 embeds per post, as soon as I add the third it just puts plain text).

Curls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnlrw0o08Qw

Dead1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYgejRMjj-A

[No Crust Racing]

Dead 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNluPM38v-I

OH Press

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-AjUBWITBA

[No Crust Racing]

Rows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2oRRdtsjM

Dips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSE4VFTr8wA

[NickR33]

your essentially doing deads from a deficit with plates that size, which is causing you to begin the movement in an almost full squat position, which is why your knees are in the way... leave your hips up higher and just do stiff leg deads for the time being (except when you do them the bar must be touching your legs all the way through each rep, don't let it swing out in front as TTT mentions)

you'd really benefit from getting some proper equipment.... as you say a power rack that you could also do chins and dips from... doing dips like that is next to useless, you'd get more tricep work doing push ups with a narrow hand placement

when you overhead press you want your hands on the bar directly above your shoulders and your elbows... which you might not be able to do with that bar... here's a good vid

buy some decent equipment and start putting some weight on the bar... you can't tell where your weaknesses are until it starts getting heavy

[No Crust Racing]

Cheers Nick,

As mentioned I kept the weight lower for the vids as I'm trying to sort my back/shoulder/ankle. I was doing 45-50kg on those movements but my weak back/secondary muscle groups support the back shoulders didn't deal with it so I'm dialing it back and working on those things.

I've been putting some $$ aside so I might start looking around. I've seen new cages with a few accessories for in the $500 range but I might see what's around locally second hand also.

No comments on Bench/Row/Curls or too light?

[rev210]

No comments on Bench/Row/Curls or too light?

Bench form needs a little work. You need to get the scapular retracted more and the sholders in a better position of rotation. Whats with the towel?

Curls , too fast. squeeze as hard as you can at the top of the rep. Lower with a 2-3 count. Keep your body from moving around.

[rev210]

You need to be able to press like a girl at least.