TangoDown's Vanilla HST Run

Horrid workout today.

Anyway, tested narrow leg press for a 4-5RM

Did some leg extension afterwards. Dunno what I'll do with this.
 
Thinkin' about trying to turn doubles into triples @ the same % and see if I can't build up some work capacity, and singles into doubles.

I'll see how next week goes as I felt real weak in yesterday's session. I want to get at least 10 singles at 350lb before I try this (best was 8).

I'd aim for 4-5 x 3 @ current 85% weight and 5-6 x 2 @ current 90% weight. Do that for a few weeks and see if I can't pull 405lb sometime in November.
 
Leg Press machine broken. Thanks Obama. Because it was, I decided to try some back squat. Haven't squatted in months and months so worked my way up slowly to 225lb and 225lb x 5 felt pretty easy and I'd expect it to feel even easier when I'd get used to squatting again. Still have some problems with weight transfer on my way up but it's better when I really sit back into it (low bar).

Conflicted on if I should throw it in as an assistance exercise considering the lack of a power rack. Anyway, then did 2 sets of 10 with quad extension. Still don't know if I should even keep these. Right now the plan is to do my heavy sumo deads on Tues and Fri followed by clustered narrow leg press from 12-15 reps. Sundays is wide stance leg press triples at 80%. I'm all ears for some suggestions here.

Tried some chinups and though I got Belt + 65lb x 3, which means I should see that number shoot up a bit when I'd get used to them, the thickness of the bar makes it hard to hold onto and I don't like the feeling I'm getting in my bicep tendon when I do them. I honestly don't know why my gym went with such a fat bar, but barely anybody uses the pullup bar so they're never going to change it.
 
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Thicker bar is such a gift. Your forearm size and grip strength will improve significantly thanks to it. It should also prevent forearm splints and too much load on the wrist.
 
Lol god no. It's an internet meme. Dude I live in San Francisco; it's essentially impossible to be Republican here.
 
Jester said:
Thicker bar is such a gift. Your forearm size and grip strength will improve significantly thanks to it. It should also prevent forearm splints and too much load on the wrist.
Click to expand...

Seriously? It feels like fuckhell on my biceps. But I defer to you, my lord. I'll A/B the pullups and shins and cluster both and see how chins progress. I'm guessing after some neuroadaptation I should be at least getting a set of 5 with 70lb.

Clustered narrow leg press after heavy sumo deads Tues and Fri. Wide stance leg press 80% triples 4x3 Sun. Should I bother with back squat if I don't want to go heavy enough to absolutely need a power rack? I suppose doing doubles at 85% shouldn't get me close to failure unless I rock onto my toes and go face first into the ground and quadriplegia.
 
Why do you ask?

I was thinking doubles of low-bar squat on Sundays and clustered narrow leg press after sumo DL on Tues and Fri due to time constraints, though I don't know if it's worth it to squat only once a week.
 
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I don't find squatting is particularly helpful to the deadlift, although specific variants are. Someone like Blaha would disagree point blank with that assertion though.

Good Mornings are extremely effective for hamstrings and hip (glutes) strength and hypertrophy IMO.
 
My posterior chain has always been stronger than my quads which is why I feel I have no trouble once I break off the ground in a sumo DL. I have genetically large calves and glutes. Quad strength and hypertrophy was always lack-luster, and though improved with weight training, could use some work. I remember seeing a physio way back when I was 18 (and not weight lifting) for a very minor meniscal tear (lucky on the posterior-lateral end so near blood supply and healed on its own) and he had me do the leg press and leg extension machines to compare strength of my pc to my ac and I could leg press more than average but my quad extension was way below average.

Low bar squat puts a bit more emphasis into the pc than a high bar squat would anyway so I don't see any issues with it, especially when I'm already doing a sumo deadlift. I'm just wondering if there's any point in squatting if I'm only going to be doing it once a week.
 
I have a feeling that conventional would suit you better if based on that description. Quads are key to sumo deadlift, it's basically a wide-stance squat.
 
My levers are such that a conventional deadlift puts my torso almost horizontal to the ground before the pull even if I'm completely on my heels before the pull, making things difficult. My sumo deadlift boasts a torso angle less vertical than most, probably bringing in more PC toward the bottom, though I still think my quads are the weak point. But I'm almost at or at 4 plates at this point so I'd like to keep sumo the primary movement for now. I can work conven. in light/moderate or on Sundays if you feel the difference is going to be huge. Theoretically, could be, considering my back strength.

Regardless, it's the quad/glute/ham imbalance isn't THAT dramatic now relative to when I was 18 and not weight training seriously. I just know that my pc is still stronger.

So back to my question; do you think there's any point in squatting if I'm only going to do it once per week?
 
Biggest mentionable today was a fairly easy 4x3 330lb on sumo deadlift. Like I said, I'm gonna take a couple of weeks to try to turn my 90% into my 85% and my 85% into my 80%. So Friday will be 6x2 350lb. If that goes well I'll move up 5lb.

I'm gonna spend some time trying to rework my bench form. I feel like I should be putting up a lot more than I do considering bar speed. I've watched guys do 5 rep maxes and their first few reps are always noticeably slower than mine, but I always find myself pinned at the chest when I fail on the next rep rather than fighting the weight up. So I think it's really a matter of stability in the set up and not so much raw strength lacking.

So I'm going to try to focus on heels on the ground, push traps into bench, and most importantly try to hammer scapular retraction. I haven't really done a ton of it as I've focused more on getting a big arch in the lumbar with toes on grounds but I feel like more scapular retraction and driving the feet into the ground so that the skin of my ass is just in contact with the bench works to decrease ROM and improve stability. It's hard because right now I have to be very conscious of the scapula retraction each rep or I lose it. Need to focus more on pulling them together AND down to bring lats into the equation.

So I'll be spending every session with 135lb on the bar trying to get this down and see if it does anything for me. Worse comes to worse I revert back to my current bench form and end out the cycle at a 200lb x 5/205lb x 5 bench which is still 20-25lb higher than where I was in February.
 
Bench (rebuilding form so nothing heavy):
135lb x 5, 135lb x 5, 155lb x 3, 185lb x 3
190 2x3, 135lb x 5

Sumo DL:
135lb x 5, 225lb x 3, 275lb x 2, 320lb x 2
350lb 5x2

Clustered Weighted Chinups:
BW x 5, Belt + 45lb x 3
Belt + 60lb x 3, x 3

Clustered Narrow Leg Press (non-plate loaded):
245lb x 5, 295lb x 5, 335lb x 5
370lb x 4, x 4, x 2
__________________________________

Like I said, trying to rebuild my bench at the moment. Feet on floor, stay on traps with leg drive, shoulder blades squeezed together. Gonna take some time to get used to because I'm trying to be a lot more technical about my form. Played around with foot position and I think I have what I need but it's still hard to really keep the scapulas retracted throughout the set. I find that the rungs on the bench press jet out a bit too far so benching when I'm to unrack with bar over my eyes is pretty hard to do without slamming into the rack. But then again, if I'm too far forward on the bench, I can't effectively contract my shoulder blades.

Deadlift felt pretty good, though the gym manager came in and complained that I deadlifting was destroying his floor. Save for the fact that it isn't because I've been deadlifting there and nothing has happened to the floor. So obviously some old lady or betaboy benching 20lb dumbbells decided to complain about the noise I make. Wouldn't be surprised if deadlift is banned soon since I'm one of the only people that does it with any more than 225lb.

Grip strength was an issue during weighted chins today due to doing DLs and working on bench form beforehand. I really don't like how fat the bar is...

Old lady with horribly disfigured face comes over when I went to grab some water and starts doing cardio on the leg press I was using. Her set was like 3 minutes. Ruined my last cluster.

I hate my fucking gym...o_O
 
It's long past time that you choose a new gym.

Also, you won't re-track your bench arc using weights below 75%. They're not heavy enough to induce the coding you need. For the same reason that you can't improve speed at loads of 50% - not heavy enough to induce a maximal force production.
 
Collectively, the gyms in San Francisco paint a dreadful picture. Mostly overcrowded 24 Hour Fitnesses with hex plates. The rest are either abhorrently expensive (try $100+/month) or don't allow chalk/deadlifting/etc. We also have a few Crossfit gyms which would probably allow me to do whatever I wanted if I asked but are way too expensive. So I'm pretty much fucked.

And okay. Will use 75%+ from now on.
 
Just did 4 singles of chins on my pullup bar at home with 60lb to see if it worked. Tied the chain up to give me some more room when I'm hanging. I think I'm going to do my chins here at home from now on. I'll do my pullups at the gym because my pullup bar has perpendicular handles that come out for hammer-curl style pullups right where I'd put my hands.

My college has a nice weight room but you can only use it if you're signed up for one of the weight lifting classes and only during class time. It worked last year when I was just doing Starting Strength but now my workouts run 2 hours and all the classes are only an hour long I believe.
 
I've been thinking about saving up for a couple months and buying an Olympic barbell and 8 45s. Should run me about $400-$500 unless I go looking on Craigslist/ebay. I have no room in the apartment but I might be able to use them in the building's back yard and store 'em somewhere under a tarp (because we live on the top floor and I'm not carrying 8 45s and a barbell up and down the backstairs every workout). As for smaller plates, I already 2.5lb, 5lb, 10lb, and 25lb plates. I don't think they'll fit on an Olympic bar though.

That way I can deadlift without old people and scrawny San Francisco technies complaining about the noise to me and to gym management.

I'll keep thinking about it. If I do do it, I'd eventually want to buy a bench too so I can give up the gym completely.
 
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