Squats, pulls, and curls

Wednesday 02.1.2008

Strenght day

A1 Good mornings
1x3 187
7x3 198

Dunno if I'm happy about this; it's the first time I've ever done GMs this heavy. I usually use a pretty narrow grip here, but today I tried a wider one and it was actually easier.. so I'll be going with that from now on.

B1 PL bench press
By "PL" I mean simulating a PL comp, where you have to keep the bar on your chest for a moment before benching up, so no touch and go.

2x3 187
5x3 181.5
1x2 181.5

Either by bench press hasn't improved a lot, or doing that pause at the bottom really lowers the ammount you can lift. I've kinda never tried this before, so I don't know.

C1 Elbows flared bent over BB row
1x8 88
3x8 110
1xX 110 (I lost count, and just continued until I was fatigued)

For some reason I've heard people frown upon elbows flared (when I say elbows flared I don't necessarily mean elbows stictly straight out from the body, but almost, I pull to my chest) row variations and everyone seems to be recommending pulling the bar to the middle or lower abs. I kinda think this is pull and think I have developed an imbalance with not doing enough elbows flared stuff. When you pull low you'll use more lats, and I can now pull way more if I pull low than I can if I pull high. I never feel it in between my shoulderblades except when I do elbows flared stuff, I'll be doing more of this now to correct this imbalance.


D1 Bulgarian squat
2x10 26.4

Dang these were hard, my quads were burning like crazy. I was expecting to do a lot more weight here, but I haven't trained these in ages so I guess I'm not conditioned towards that exercise anymore. My quad endurance suck, I start noticing the lactate acid almost instantly, this is really weird as it's just my quads...

E1 Knee ab rollout
1x6 22
1x5 22 (crappy ROM)
1x4 22 (good ROM)

22 lbs on an EZ curl bar, the more weight, the harder it is to roll back, trust me :p

E2 L lat raise with ext rotation
1x8 17.6
2x7 15.4

PWO: The usual


Videos of one of the GM and Bench sets will follow
 
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GM form vid:


Bench press form vid:


Am I holding the bar at my chest long enough for it to simulate what happens in a PL comp? or is it longer?
 
Ok. On the Good Mornings you are looking "up" or kinking your neck back. "Looking up" can put a lot of unneeded stress on your neck.

Think about it this way.

Keep your chin down and pull your head back like you are trying to make your neck look big.

For the bench press everything looks decent. I will look over the video again when I have more time.

It will look a lot better when you have gained 15 inches or so on your torso. :D

doing that pause at the bottom really lowers the ammount you can lift
Click to expand...

It is like anything else, you have to get used to the pause. The type of strength used at the bottom on a paused bench press is different than with a touch and go bench press.

On the pause you need much more starting strength from a stop, without using the rebound you get on a touch and go.

On the touch and go bench press you take advantage of the direction change and can get more strength off the bottom.

Both are good to have.
 
I think your GM form looks great, I didn't know looking up put more stress on your neck though, I'll have to look out for that myself
 
so basically, keep the neck in line with the rest of the spine? That even rhymes :D

On the GMs I notice that my tibias also lean back, I don't know if they should be vertically off the floor instead of contributing to the pushing out of the hip?
And I really feel like my BP form is coming alone, I no longer take the bar to my nipples like so many do. Taking it further down really helps engage those lats.
 
Friday 04.1.2008

Power Day

A1 Hang power snatch
1x3 121
1x3 132
1x3 137.5
1x2+1F 143 (failed the 3d rep here, but I think it was more due to bad form than anything else)
4x3 132

I'm not happy with this, a month or so ago I did power snatches from floor and did tripples of 143lbs. Granted hang stuff is harder, but my power doesn't seem to improve. A coupple of workouts ago this was also the case for power cleans, I don't really know what I'm doing wrong, maybe all these movements I train don't carry over, should I start training a selected few again and cut the variety down? Or maybe I'm just doomed with no techniqual guidance, because if the OL pulls stops improving, there's no reason beating a dead horse, I'll just find something else to do and not waste time. But I'll see how it pans out, I've got to try a few more things first.

B1 Speed bench w. pause
7x3 110

B2 Bent over DB row
1x12 33
1x12 33
1x6 44
2x9 44

I tried some different ways of doing the rows on some of the sets.

C1 Leg press
1xX 220
1x12 264
2x12 330

C2 Incline side plank
had my elbows on a bench instead of the floor

40sec x BW
40sec x BW
30sec x BW

C3 Side lying ext rotation

1x6 13.2
1x7 13.2
1x6 13.2

PWO The usual
 
Wow kark, nice vids. I know what you mean by keeping the elbows in while benching now ;) thats helped, i need to get my bench form perfect.
 
I don't think my bench form is perfect BTW, I need to use more leg drive.. I never quite got that thing down..
 
Ya like Georgen said, keep your head down on the GM. Basically if you are looking straight when standing, your head should follow the body.
 
I don't really know what I'm doing wrong, maybe all these movements I train don't carry over, should I start training a selected few again and cut the variety down?
Click to expand...

The snatch and clean are a little different than most lifts because they are more technique driven. If you really want to get good at those you need to do them once a week or more. (If you are "specializing on them")

To see progress make sure that you are doing a snatch or clean movement each week. Always do one from the floor and one from the hang. Train high pulls, power shrugs both off the floor and from the hang each week as well.

Variety works a little different if you are going to be training the Olympic lifts.

Hope that helps.
 
okay, I only have one power day.. how do you suggest fitting all that in?

1 clean or snatch movement
1 high pull/pwr shrug/etc

doing one of them from hang and one from floor?
If I keep doing like 30 total reps on each of them, my ol pull volume would doubble, should I reduce volume on each of the movements, or just keep it the same? (doing 8x3, bunch of singles, doubbles, etc, etc, like I've been doing up until now only with one more movement every power training session), I guess I could handle that, I could just take away the assistance exercise for the PC that I usually do.
 
The first question is, how important are the Olympic lifts to you??? Are they going to get you where you want to go??? Or are other exercises going to better fit your goals???

To answer your last post, let the volume double.

I could just take away the assistance exercise for the PC that I usually do.
Click to expand...

Don't do that.
 
I'm not looking to compete in the oly lifts or anything like that. You know, I'm just training to improve in the gym, and I think the oly pulls are fun.
I basically want to get big strong and athletic.
 
I also keep my head looking up when I do gm's...I don't feel that much stress when I do them and I feel that it helps me keep my back arched.
 
I basically want to get big strong and athletic.
Click to expand...

In that case don't get too hung up on a couple of lifts. You can work them in on other days if you really want to. A snatch or clean can be used as a warm-up before heavy deadlifts or other pulls. (high pulls / power shrugs)

The JK might be something you can use for your cardio kind of thing as well as helping get you better at the Olympic lifts.

A 2 birds with 1 stone sort of thing.

I also keep my head looking up when I do gm's...I don't feel that much stress when I do them and I feel that it helps me keep my back arched.
Click to expand...

If you keep your chin down and your spine in proper alignment you will be even tighter holding the bar and in better position to keel your back arched.

I know a lot of people do and like the look up thing, it is not the route to go. Once you get used to the chin down head back thing you will wonder why you were looking up for so long. :D

Everything is a lot tighter this way.
 
I think I'll try doing 2 oly pulls every power workout, hopefuly it won't get too tough, I'm already pretty close to the limit my muscles can recover before the next workout, but then again, I notice more muscle soreness and stuff like that from non explosive things than explosive things, probably because explosive is more CNS than just muscles.

I'm really excited to see if my body will be able to take this, and how intense and heavy I can go on that cardio day without interfering with other stuff. It's gonna be fun to see.

You're suppose to do all the reps for one of the exercises before moving on to the next in the complex, right?
Thanks for the link! Was a very good read!
 
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You're suppose to do all the reps for one of the exercises before moving on to the next in the complex, right?
Click to expand...

You do all the reps for each exercise, without putting the bar down. Rest short, then start the next complex.
 
if I'm feeling up for it tomorrow, I'm gonna do a cardio session thing then. Can't wait to start experimenting with this stuff!
 
Monday 07.12.2008

I'm currently using day.month.year, Americans, for some reason, seem to use month.day.year (am I correct) is it confusing when I use the Norwegian way? Because I could change if you guys think I'm in some kind of alternate dimension or something..

Work day

A1 Front squats
1x10 88
1x12 110
1x12 121
1x12 115.5 (Hip flexor starting to feel tight here)

Much better than last time I front squatted. The important thing is to keep my knees out, and kinda focus on keeping my weight more towards the outside of my foot to let my body fall "in between" my legs.

B1 45 degree incline DB bench
1x12 52.8
1x10 52.8
1x10 48.4

C1 Diagonal pulldown
grab one cable in each hand (don't cross them) sit down on your knees and pull the cables in and down to your body.

2x10 46.2
2x10 53.9

D1 DB swings

3x12 74.8

2 more kgs and I'll be on the last weight DB in the gym. After that I think I'll take a rope through a coupple of plates and use that. Anyone ever tried that? At a weakling gym you have just got to be creative.. (what kind of gym only has DBs up to 36kg (about 77lbs) anyway?

D2 Hanging leg raises

3x10 BW
A bit dodgy ROM on the last reps on the last set.
I'm starting to feel these better in my abs, which is good since it means my hip flexors are no longer running the show.

E1 Rear delt raise
Prone incline bench:
1x8 8.8

I didn't like the incline part, so I tried bent over supporting my head on a bench instead, which hit the rear delts more

3x8 8.8

At the end of each session I want to do some specific ab and rotator cuff/rear delt work.

PWO: The usual

Things I've missed about the gym back here:
Normal opening hours.

Things I haven't missed:
the people, specially the "Bench Bandits"
the un-hardcoreness


At the PLer gym back home people actually talked, if you came in and there were people there, they'd say "hello" and they'd chat a bit in between sets, no matter how strong they are or weak you are. It's kinda cool to walk in and have the strongest woman (in PLing) in Norway talking to you like nothing.

I actually learned something from the people there this christmas. When I was doing power snatches a guy informed me that I was doing them on powerlifting bars. There's not a big difference, they are a bit ticker, more "ruggid" as there's more grip on them. Next time I know and I'll take a weightlifting bar.
 
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