“Brent how did you taper for your meet?”

See the post from Friday. That is to say, there was no taper.

“Brent what will your training be like for the week after the meet? Are you going to rest?”

Nah, I high-bar squat 410lbs x 4 for a PR after tacking-and-stretching my suprapatellar pouch today before work.

“Wait Brent when was your meet again?”

Yesterday wish i cared.

I super setted the warm-up sets for the squat with my warm-up sets for my press and worked up to 175lbs x 3, 3, 1. The last set was a single probably because I had started warming up for my weighted ring-dips, I worked up to +95lbs x 2.

Can I be real for a second guys?

If you’re asking me for mob advice – honestly? Honestly? Honestly? I’m not a PT. You’re asking some guy – who, in case you haven’t fucking noticed, is prone to suicidal ideation – about your shoulder or your knee that hurts. And honestly? Honestly? Honestly? – if you haven’t been mobbing already, and you come here asking me, “Hey man what mobs should I do for this and this problem?” You’re doing it fucking wrong. You can check out the site yourself, you can try out the stretches/soft tissue work he talks about, and you can do your own test/re-test. If it feels better, great, you just found your next project. If it doesn’t make a difference, that’s fine, go look for another one. This shit is gonna make you a better athlete. Don’t be a fucking yuppie rolling your t-spine on a PVC pipe every day and doing some bullshit shoulder dislocation and expect for your shit to get better. Fix yourself – and if you’re not broken, work on making yourself better. If you’re playing gasso-brako or you’re having to struggle to get into position, that’s just more shit preventing you from hitting your PRs. So make a better decision. Get a lacrosse ball. Rub it on yourself. Make yourself hurt. Become a better person for it. If some fucking garbage athlete Korean-American piece of shit can do it, you can too.

If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a few days and you STILL have not gone to mobilitywod and looked for things to do, you’re making a terrible decision. I’m probably still gonna answer questions because I like to think we are all friends here and I wanna help my friends, but honestly? Honestly? Honestly? I’m not telling you anything Kelly Starrett hasn’t talked about on mobilitywod.

dave writes:

We need a “She strokes me to hardness” T-shirt.

Agree. It needs to be classy, though, not pornographic. If there’s anything overtly sexual on the t-shirt it should be for the purpose of arousing emotion (mostly the feeling of loss), not erections.

Matt writes:

Can a x-ray detect patellar tendonitis? I am having the symptoms, sore to the touch and can not front squat/clean/snatch because of it. I am able to squat after foam rolling and band stretching without any issues but it will be sore/tender the next day. Any good mobs you can recommend? I’ll send you a starbucks giftcard for your time.

[spoiler effect=”simple”]Is the area warm to the touch? Does it feel like inflamed tissue i.e. a little swelling in addition to the soreness? You probably want to ice that 3+ times a day, 5-10mins on. I’m assuming this isn’t an acute injury and was gradual onset, but we want to think about cooling that stuff down and getting some capillary dilation in the area to help with the inflammation. Get some dixie cups, fill them with water, put it in the freezer. When they’re frozen, take one out, peel some of the cup back and rub it on the affected area for some pinpoint icing. You want to see erythema, you want this for 5-10 minutes, then you want to warm back up for 10-20, repeat this process a few times a day.

How’s your o3:o6 ratio? Do you take fish oil? If not, are you eating Paleo? If you’re not thinking about EPA/DHA intake from fish oil – those are the essential fatty acids that provide the effects that everyone talks about with fish oil (among them reducing inflammation through bringing your o3:o6 ratio back into balance) – then this is a good time to start. Gradual onset of an inflamed tendon? EPA/DHA is gonna help you.

If you’re taking ibuprofen or really any NSAID, cut that shit out now. Use ice to control inflammation. COX-2 inhibition is not going to help your recovery process. It’s also not going to help you in general as an athlete.

When you think about mobbing, don’t just think about the affected area. Especially if it was gradual onset, there’s something about the way you move that made your patellar tendon pissed, so you want to think about improving your movement. So while yes, you’d want to look at the obvious like supra-patellar tack-and-stretch, you also want to think about improving your bottom position squat, snatch, and clean – do you do any hip flexion + external rotation? Have you sat on a lacrosse ball and rolled out your high-hammies and glutes? Doing these things translates to a better bottom position with improved function of your glutes/external rotators and more external rotation of the knees/hips which translates to less stress on the patellar tendon since your shins should be more vertical throughout the movement. Once the inflammation’s calmed down you’d want to look into couch stretch to free up the anterior structures of your hip. You may also want to see if you’ve got shitty dorsiflexion in your ankles and do some tack-and-stretch on your gastrocs (the gastrocs also function as flexors of the knee so if they’re gnarly they can affect how your squat feels, and shitty ankle mobility can fuck your bottom position squat).

If you have a problem area, you always want to look up and down stream the affected area.

Here’s a link for hot knees. You can search the site for the rest, really if you haven’t been mobbing then now is a good time to search for shit like “hip external rotation,” “glutes,” etc.

So homework #1: if it’s hot, ice it. If you’re not taking fish oil (i.e. more than 200mg/300mg of EPA/DHA like you’d get in the Walmart brand) and you’re not eating Paleo, start taking fish oil.

Homework #2: supra-patellar tack-and-stretch.

Homework #3: pick sitting on a lacrosse ball and rolling out your glutes/high hamstrings, hip flexion + external rotation, high gastroc tack-and-stretch, basically any lower body mob. If it hurts to do, and you feel improvement when you test/re-test, keep doing it on a regular basis. Find other shit that improves when you test/re-test after doing it, and do those things.

Report your results in a week. Let’s get to work. /throws chalk against board[/spoiler]

lambchop writes:

Have you considered briefly lifting in a shitty commercial chain gym? It could be a nice visceral pick-you-up when you’re the strongest person somewhere, even if you’re smart enough to realize you’re just the big fish a weak, terrible cohort.

I did this for a few years. It fucking blew. This is a real stupid idea. One of the things I hate about myself was that I ever got big fish in a little pond syndrome when I first started lifting. I feel and perform a lot better training in a gym where half the guys are drugged and deadlift 600lbs+. If you’re happy with where you are, you get complacent. Being unhappy drives change. As living organisms we weren’t meant to be happy. We were meant to face adversity, hate our lives, but give enough of a shit to find a way to survive.

willey writes:

Damnit, I had a feeling you were going to tell me to switch to high bar. I used to exclusively high bar until last summer, and fell in love with low bar once I switched.
I also know from the comments on 70B that you love high bar a lot…hm…I’ll thinks about it

Oh god I was just joking dude. Look man – you can’t just change how you squat just because some fucking dude with a shitty blog says high-bar squats are cooler. If you like low-bar better then keep it up, get jacked. But really I dunno take a lacrosse ball to your pec minors, do this one for shoulder extension/internal rotation (you don’t necessarily need to load it with a stone or a superfriend on your chest though it may be more effective). Also, look above at my rant – if you’re not mobbing on your own already, and you’re asking me, some fucking guy YOU HAVEN’T MET on the internet about mobbing shit, you’re making a poor decision.