Some Exercise Suggestions...

S

_Simon_

Active Member
Heya guys, gonna start a new cycle soon, just wondering a few things if I could pick your brains...

As in other threads I've mentioned my pelvic condition which is still an ongoing process of healing, so squats, deadlifts, RDLs are out of the question.

So a few ponderings..

-Was wondering what exercises I could actually use in a HST cycle to train quads and hamstrings that isn't going to heavily stress the core/abdominals/pelvis? I don't have access to a leg press. I do have a leg extensions and leg curl at home. Obviously not great for heavier loads in 5s, but possibly could run a HST cycle with higher rep phases? (20s, 15s, 10s? Or maybe 10s is too heavy for that.. 25s, 20s, 15s?)

-Also can't do any overhead pressing at the moment (too much tightness in the shoulders/upper traps too so the physio advised I lay off those for a bit), so what would you guys recommend for medial delt work that doesn't involve the upper traps?

I was thinking just DB lateral raises (which may have to use similar rep phases as the above exercises), and just making sure to not go above parallel when the upper traps start to kick in more..

So I'm thinking maybe:

Bench press

might try BB Rows and see how they go

DB lateral raises

Leg ext

Leg curl (I'd be keen to even try lighter RDLs, but probably 15 rep max is the most.. bit hard to set up a cycle with that unless it's pretty high reps the whole time...)

Wide grip machine rows (for rear delts etc, trying to incorporate more pulling movements into routine)

Just whatever in bis/tris


Would love to throw a little myoreps in there but not for every session

Really appreciate any thoughts, thanks heaps :)
 
_Simon_ said:
Heya guys, gonna start a new cycle soon, just wondering a few things if I could pick your brains...

As in other threads I've mentioned my pelvic condition which is still an ongoing process of healing, so squats, deadlifts, RDLs are out of the question.

So a few ponderings..

-Was wondering what exercises I could actually use in a HST cycle to train quads and hamstrings that isn't going to heavily stress the core/abdominals/pelvis? I don't have access to a leg press. I do have a leg extensions and leg curl at home. Obviously not great for heavier loads in 5s, but possibly could run a HST cycle with higher rep phases? (20s, 15s, 10s? Or maybe 10s is too heavy for that.. 25s, 20s, 15s?)

-Also can't do any overhead pressing at the moment (too much tightness in the shoulders/upper traps too so the physio advised I lay off those for a bit), so what would you guys recommend for medial delt work that doesn't involve the upper traps?

I was thinking just DB lateral raises (which may have to use similar rep phases as the above exercises), and just making sure to not go above parallel when the upper traps start to kick in more..

So I'm thinking maybe:

Bench press

might try BB Rows and see how they go

DB lateral raises

Leg ext

Leg curl (I'd be keen to even try lighter RDLs, but probably 15 rep max is the most.. bit hard to set up a cycle with that unless it's pretty high reps the whole time...)

Wide grip machine rows (for rear delts etc, trying to incorporate more pulling movements into routine)

Just whatever in bis/tris


Would love to throw a little myoreps in there but not for every session

Really appreciate any thoughts, thanks heaps :)
Click to expand...

Quads - Can you do walking lunges or will that stress your pelvis

Hams - Do you have access to a Glute Ham Raise Machine?
 
mickc1965 said:
Quads - Can you do walking lunges or will that stress your pelvis

Hams - Do you have access to a Glute Ham Raise Machine?
Click to expand...
Hmm walking lunges I fear might need too much stability potentially.. heavily weighted ones that is. Bodyweight is fine, but anything that puts a fair load through the body whilst it moves is not best for me (even chinups and dips I have to be careful). It's hard limiting exercises to mostly all body-supported ones... But I'll keep it in mind, as it does keep the body more upright and core not as engaged as squats. Even stationary weight lunges one leg at a time I could try.. cool that's great..

And I don't have access to a glute ham raise machine, but I can simulate it a little with my bench. That's a great suggestion actually and I never thought of that, thanks Mick :).

I was actually aiming to work the glutes/hams more, have been getting some tweaky knee pain of late so thought I might work on strengthening the glutes/hams more to get them bearing more load through the day
 
Split squats for thighs and hips. Start with bodyweight and slowly add resistance.
 
Lateral raises heavily stress the upper trapezius. EMG testing for the upper traps is practically off the charts! If you can do laterals, then your traps are not a problem.
Your body works synergistically together. There is practically no way to work your deltoids without engaging the traps!
 
Thanks Sci :), yeah I ended up trying swiss ball to the wall hack squats with a barbell (back leaning against the ball the whole time), and seemed to work ok without too much stress, but split squats I'll keep in mind.

Ah yeah I know delts can't completely be isolated from traps, but I didn't realise DB lateral raises stressed the traps that much! I actually thought it was once the arms raise above parallel to the ground that the traps really kick in and take over a fair brunt of the work, but wow there ya go. Will have to think what delt exercise I can do that will minimise trap involvement, just to minimise obviously not eliminate completely, cheers mate much appreciated!
 
Just a few ideas;

Quads - Belt squats are a great way to train the legs and quads without worrying about stressing the 'core' to much
Hamstrings - single leg DB, kettle bell or even Bodyweight RDLs are great way to target the hamstrings/glutes and the weight is light enough that it isn't to taxing on the rest of the body
Delts - Leaning lateral raises are another way of being able to use a light weight be really target the delts.
 
Browner said:
Just a few ideas;

Quads - Belt squats are a great way to train the legs and quads without worrying about stressing the 'core' to much
Hamstrings - single leg DB, kettle bell or even Bodyweight RDLs are great way to target the hamstrings/glutes and the weight is light enough that it isn't to taxing on the rest of the body
Delts - Leaning lateral raises are another way of being able to use a light weight be really target the delts.
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Ah thanks mate that's very helpful. I don't own a belt but that may be an idea.. Just not sure if it will stop the pressure occurring from within the pelvic area under heavier loads, but it may actually..

Now THAT'S an idea, single leg RDLs! I never thought of that, I thought it would just be the same as doing standard RDL, but you're right it would half the load and force being put through the body. Awesome, I may switch to that, as I tried BB RDLs yesterday and found it hard to not tighten up the pelvic area. Can just superset each side.
I might apply this to other exercises too maybe if possible... where applicable. That's awesome thanks, I'll incorporate that.

Ah cool I didn't consider leaning DB raises, as in leaning away from something and holding on with your hand?
 
Browner said:
Leaning Lateral Raise; (works really well if you do it on the cable machine rather than DB's)


Belt Squat can also be done on the cable machine


Single leg RDLs are great. can do bodyweight or just 1 db or kettle bell
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdTYgiqlWff/?taken-by=queenbeepower
Click to expand...
That's awesome, appreciate the vids! Am definitely gonna give single leg RDLs a go today, and might stick with seated lateral raises and see how it goes
 
Just trained before, single leg RDLs are awesome haha. Took a bit to get the balance right, but only did 2 sets each side, 12 reps with a 7.5kg plate, and my glutes and hams are trembly haha. Pelvic floor didn't seem to tighten up either.

Don't know how I'll go with heavier weights, but might stick to above 10 reps at this stage, progress where I can rather than strict HST progression. And will switch to a dumbbell next time.
 
So my choices for this cycle ended up being:


Machine chest press (inspired by Sci ;) )

BB Rows (head-supported)

Seated DB lateral raises (not sure about progressing to 5s, although I've seen it in some templates)

Single leg DB RDL (progress where I can)

Wide grip machine rows

Ball supported BB hack squats (will progress much slower here and see how it goes)

Bis+tris will be doing POF (positions of flexion) 2 week phases (contracted, stretch, midrange), for fun and just to see what happens. It's gonna be a similar progression to HST, just change of exercises for each 2 week phase to accommodate increasing loads and also for the particular emphasis.

Also as Blade recommended in the other thread, will do myoreps for the last two workouts of each rep range.
 
_Simon_ said:
So my choices for this cycle ended up being:


Machine chest press (inspired by Sci ;) )

BB Rows (head-supported)

Seated DB lateral raises (not sure about progressing to 5s, although I've seen it in some templates)

Single leg DB RDL (progress where I can)

Wide grip machine rows

Ball supported BB hack squats (will progress much slower here and see how it goes)

Bis+tris will be doing POF (positions of flexion) 2 week phases (contracted, stretch, midrange), for fun and just to see what happens. It's gonna be a similar progression to HST, just change of exercises for each 2 week phase to accommodate increasing loads and also for the particular emphasis.

Also as Blade recommended in the other thread, will do myoreps for the last two workouts of each rep range.
Click to expand...


Am somewhat skeptical of yours physio’s advice (not of your symptoms) re: shoulders. What is the supposed diagnosis/cause?

Re: lower body exercises - try BB step-ups, they are fantastic IMO. I don’t program them or log them because of fatigue reasons, but still throw them in.
 
Jester said:
Am somewhat skeptical of yours physio’s advice (not of your symptoms) re: shoulders. What is the supposed diagnosis/cause?

Re: lower body exercises - try BB step-ups, they are fantastic IMO. I don’t program them or log them because of fatigue reasons, but still throw them in.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah it's not so much shoulder issues, but it was incredibly tight in the upper portion of the traps, so she did some dry needling directly into there, and I believe she suggested to avoid trap dominant movements just while relaxes over next few days/weeks. Even though pelvic tightness is the issue, things have gotten much much better so we did some postural release work (deep massage and dry needling) to teach the whole body to relax in conjunction with the pelvis.

So I think it was moreso avoid heavy/excessive weighted movements where I'm already far too tight (just wouldn't be beneficial for me), and while shoulders/traps relax to avoid to much stress/tension there, which makes sense.

Ah would love to try BB stepups, I have a feeling they may require more pelvic/core stability and tensing than squats due to the particular movement and more stability requirements... but I'll definitely consider it and may give it a shot to see how it feels anyway, thanks mate
 
_Simon_ said:
Ah yeah it's not so much shoulder issues, but it was incredibly tight in the upper portion of the traps, so she did some dry needling directly into there, and I believe she suggested to avoid trap dominant movements just while relaxes over next few days/weeks. Even though pelvic tightness is the issue, things have gotten much much better so we did some postural release work (deep massage and dry needling) to teach the whole body to relax in conjunction with the pelvis.

So I think it was moreso avoid heavy/excessive weighted movements where I'm already far too tight (just wouldn't be beneficial for me), and while shoulders/traps relax to avoid to much stress/tension there, which makes sense.

Ah would love to try BB stepups, I have a feeling they may require more pelvic/core stability and tensing than squats due to the particular movement and more stability requirements... but I'll definitely consider it and may give it a shot to see how it feels anyway, thanks mate
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It’s actually pretty easy on the core/torso, you would never max out on them for instance.

I’d start with 1x step height, probably with a plate on each side, and go from there. I find the 10-12 rep range does fantastic things for the wheels without bringing in the rest.
 
Jester said:
It’s actually pretty easy on the core/torso, you would never max out on them for instance.

I’d start with 1x step height, probably with a plate on each side, and go from there. I find the 10-12 rep range does fantastic things for the wheels without bringing in the rest.
Click to expand...

Ah awesome, thanks heaps I'll put them on the "safe" list and be sure to try them out. Unsure whether to do alternating legs in the set or all one side first approach, maybe all one side first would require less body movement as I don't need to do any separate stepping, and can keep one foot pretty stationary the whole time..

Appreciate the feedback :)
 
Just an update, finished this cycle last week and I'm stoked with how it went. When I got a bit into the the 5s I ended up splitting it up so that each muscle group still got hit 2-3 times a week, but so that the sessions weren't extravagantly long:

DAY 1-
BACK
REAR DELTS
DELTS ss w/
TRIS

DAY 2-
CHEST
BACK
TRIS ss w/
BIS

DAY 3-
REAR DELTS
CHEST
BIS
DELTS


By the end I could feel that it was risky going heavy and the pelvic muscles weren't a fan (especially after BB Rows I felt it...), and things did tighten up a bit, but am really honing in on and learning where my current limitations are and how to work around them safely.

I managed to extend the 5s for a bit and hit weights I hadn't before, now on a nice 10 day SD.

Am reading the Myoreps ebook currently and am looking to do the 3 day intermediate template next cycle, and make sure to choose safe exercises that I can handle. Still unsure of legwork and how to go about it without having to overstress the core, may stick with leg curls/extension, look at BB stepups, although legs are getting some fair work from martial arts stuff. Knee has been playing up a bit so mainly been rehabbing that.

Very happy with how it all went :)
 
Awesome! :) I also had a higher frequency (full-body) at the beginning and dropped down to a 2x/week (actually 2x in 8-9 days) for the 5s, doing cluster reps and even MaxStim at the very end.
 
Blade said:
Awesome! :) I also had a higher frequency (full-body) at the beginning and dropped down to a 2x/week (actually 2x in 8-9 days) for the 5s, doing cluster reps and even MaxStim at the very end.
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Ah yep cool, yeah I think that's a nice progression and easier to tolerate. Getting into much higher intensities of weight with some volume I find draining. Every first set I did was 5 reps as I wanted to stay at 5RM and pushing that. Subsequent sets I just clustered til I got to 15 reps in total.
 
Ended up having to cut my myoreps cycle short... have had quite bad period of pelvic pain of late and a severe flareup, so really need to tone things down training-wise...

Have lowered frequency to twice a week, doing only 100% pelvis-friendly exercises hehe, and good ol intuitive training (basically, just doing whatever). Eating bigger on training days and less on non training days, but just keeping it casual.

Has been fun so far, experimenting with different exercises, rep-ranges and intensity techniques, but just making sure that I don't overdo things. Just want this to heal once and for all... and it's just not worth it to test the waters at this stage.

Discovering exercises I didn't realise my equipment had the capacity/room to do also!
 
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