re: Daily Strength Check-In

It comes down to this....I thought I was getting "tight" during my squat setup, but I found through a little experimentation/alteration of my hand setup that I could get way tighter(with less effort and pain) and it produced this effect, making the loaded bar feel significantly lighter.

Long explanation:
My grip width on the squat used to be as wide as possible. I don't know how it got this way, I just feel like I have stiff shoulders and reaching behind me in any way has always been difficult. I was literally curling my pinkies up to keep them from getting smashed in the j-cups on my rack. I don't wrap my thumbs around the bar when I squat, and with that wide grip the bar was laying diagonally across my hand.(Draw an imaginary line from the base of your pinkie to that meatball muscle underneath your thumb).

I was putting a lot of pressure forward into the bar with my hands because I was trying to pull my elbows up towards the ceiling as hard as I could manage, this was what I was doing to create tightness and a hard shelf with my upper back to put the bar on.

This all became a problem due to progressively worsening medial epicondylitis(Golfer's Elbow) on the right, because my setup sucked. The pain was probably making it hard to put the force necessary into the bar to create upper back tightness so over the years I think I've drifted away from good bar position on a nice tight upper back/traps to a bad(too low) bar position on a less-tight upper back/traps.

My adjustments have been to narrow my grip about 1.25 inches on each side(that's working for now, but I'll keep adjusting my grip width inward as needed and my flexibility allows), raise the bar up on my back so it's higher, and stop trying to lift my elbows up higher(towards the ceiling). My thumbs are now on the rings and the bar is laying fairly straight across the lower half of my palm, right about at the thumb joint. I focus on squeezing my shoulder blades together as tight as I'm able to and bunching all that "between-shoulder-blades meat" up and together and that is the tightness I've been missing. Now my focus with my elbows is "pull them together towards my spine but not up". With the bar resting on top of that packed meat between my shoulder blades the bar may as well be sitting on a rock. There is no smoosh at all back there... I can tell. I had to adjust the j-hooks on the rack to a higher position. Anyway, all of that made the loaded bar at 405lb feel like a feather.

Now, if yer already getting really tight with your setup, and the bar is in the right place for you, I guess you won't experience this. But if you aren't, or if like me, your setup just drifted away from being good to being sub-optimal, then maybe you can make a few adjustments and maybe the weights will feel lighter for you too.

The elbows is my main focus. I use that same cue, elbows in back pockets, for deads, but it works for either. I just have to unlearn the "high elbows" habit. Doing face pulls with a band is helping me get used to pulling my shoulders back hard, it's amazing how much of a difference it's made. I was expecting to have to fight with my own body for weeks over this.

Today-jelly legs edition:

I deviated from my program to do a friend’s leg day. Good god, I hit things I didn’t know I had.

Prone hamstring curls-4x15 50

Rfess (weighed slow superset with body weight fast)-4x15

Squats-12x95, 12x135, 3x6 205, 3x225

Leg extension-15x110, 15x115, 15x120, 15x125

Forearm circuit

quote:

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Press?

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Yes

Today-working out with friends takes a very long time edition.

Bench-warmup then 185x5, 205x3, 230x3, 235x2, 245x1, 135x15

SS Bench-255x1, 265x1, 275x1, 225x4

Preacher curl-3x8 85, 95, 105

Overhead Tricep Ext-3x8 75, 85, 95

Rope Curls-3x8 90, 100, 110

Rope Tricep extension-3x8 90, 100, 110

Tricep, bicep rope circuit x2

Arm Blast Curls 2x8 75, 1x14 75

Today-last post for a while edition.

I have to rehab this hamstring since it just keeps twanging.

Body weight RFESS to warm up for squats. 2x10 per side.

Squat 5x185, 5x205, 3x225, 3x275 (hamstring pop, but finished the set), dropped all the way down to 135 for 20 reps.

Leg Ext 3x8 115, 125, 135

Leg Press 3x8 385, 475, 565

Standing BB Calf Raises 3x8 135

Split squat circuit x2

Going to go back to the Rippler for 12 weeks with decreased 2rms to work out these injuries.

Max week at my CF gym. Hit 375 on squat, 280 on bench and we have deadlift on Friday. Stronger than I’ve ever been but not saying much, I neglected my shite for over a decade lol

After about 6 weeks of steadily progressing in weight I've decided it's time to take a deload week as soon as I finish this week's sessions. I've also got to prepare for 1-RM testing starting on 1/29, so I may do a deload/primer over the next 2 weeks.

I'm still dealing with elbow pain, but it's better after fixing my setup with the squat. Press & bench press & deadlift are going great lately.

This was last night.

1. Press
200lb x 5
200lb x 5
200lb x 10 (AMRAP)

2. SQUAT!
420lb x 5
420lb x 5
420lb x 9 (AMRAP)