Q&A – 9

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Happy PR Friday. Let’s get down to biznezz.

ngalfano13 Says:

quick question for Justin and anyone else: i have been training for about 2 months now, and my press has just stalled at 125 for about a week now. i can’t seem to get it. i am 18 years old, 155lb power clean, 205 squat, 170 bench. can anyone tell me why this is?

Dear ngalfano13,

Short answer: I’d have to see your program. Let’s assume you’re taking care of recovery (nutrition/protein, sleep, etc.). Are you doing a linear progression? How long have you been training? I’d have to assume it isn’t terribly long. Keep toiling away with 3×5 for at least a couple more months and I’d almost guarantee your lifts, including the press, will go up. If not, then switch to a 3×3 set up for a few weeks and return to the 3×5. If you weren’t doing a 3×5 to begin with, then learn what a linear progression is. Also, adamwathan said this in the comments, which is true: “A 125 press is actually pretty good when you are only benching 170. It’ll go up as you get bigger and stronger at everything else.”


LargeRobert Says:

Why do the Oly lifters (eg Julia Rohde, Maria de la Peuente) make it a point to yell “Heh!” right before they bend down to grab the bar? I assume it’s some requirement by the judges…

Dear LargeRobert,

Is your name referencing King Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm?

The girls do it as a psyche up. Having a routine in “event sports” (or hitting in baseball, free throws in basketball) is standard for World and Olympic competitors. The routine is often combined with imagery in which the athlete images a successful lift, or perhaps a portion of the lift to cue. You’ll see this with high level athletes. An example is Pisarenko standing in front of his bar before he goes. Sport psychologists can teach that kind of thing, but I bet the Euro coaches teach it regardless of whether they were formally taught or not.

Also, from a psychology perspective, females aren’t aggressive as males. The shout may be a way to heighten arousal (from a psychology perspective, pervert) in order to stimulate the system as part of their routine or mental prep. I talked a little bit about routines in this post, but I’ve been meaning to do another post (I studied sport psychology briefly in grad school).

tiny Says:

Justin,
What are your thoughts on ketogenic diets? I have been reading up on your protein intake ideas, and contrasting them to ideas about ketosis. I really have no opinion, but I’m working on a chemistry paper on ketosis, and your thoughts intrigued me.

Dear tiny,

I’m not a fan of ketogenic diets, or diets that have a weird, inconsistent feeding. Diets like that aren’t conducive to being strong, powerful, and fast. I’d have to check the chemistry/physiology, but I would rather eat quality food throughout every day to support muscle growth and recovery (being anabolic). More importantly, it’s a giant pain in the ass, and few people will ever fully commit to doing it. Diet is behavior driven, and I’m not going to support something that is a pain in the ass. High quality food diets (Paleo) are much more simple. Eat well and the food takes care of you. You can even tweak the macros to support your training style (since training will dictate the optimum macro requirement). I love this article that Gant wrote about food.

My homie Mark Marotta asks on the Facebook fan page:

1. Once someone can do a mob to it’s full range of motion for a reasonable amount of time how do they further progress mobility?
And
2. What are the female equivalents of Todds, Gordons and Melvins?

Dear my son,

That first question is an excellent fucking question. As I learn more from Kelly Starrett’s MobilityWOD, I see how to diagnose and treat different mobility issues. In my opinion, the key to improving function and mobility after the basic ROM stretches is joint approximation. Joint approximation consists of using bands to shift the joint. It can pull the head of the humerus or femur anterior, posterior, or laterally. You can then you implements or the ground to approximate the joint in two direction. For example, lying on your back with a dumbbell or kettlebell in your hand (arm extended vertically) will drive the head of the humerus in the back, or posterior aspect, of the glenoid fossa (the socket of the “ball and socket joint”). Then, when you have the band around the proximal humerus applying lateral tension, you have pushed the femur back into it’s joint while pulling it out from the side. Then you externally rotate the shoulder. That is what Brent calls “The best shoulder mob ever”, and it’s great at improving overhead positioning. In this case it’s a perfect example of joint approximation in two directions.

Joint approximation can be more simple. It can pull the femur forward when in a lunge or in a couch stretch. Joints can also be approximated longitudinally, or down the line. This recent mob had longitudinal approximation at the knee, and you can do the same thing at the elbow. As soon as I finish this fucking book and update the site, I’m going to do more posts on mobility because improving it is a game changer.

As for your second question, “Sally” and “Nancy” could be some, but those are usually used for guys that are acting like a Nancy. I’ll have to think on this one.

Adam Wathan asks on the Facebook fan page,

Form check for the Q&A? I know the angle isn’t the recommended one but knees out isn’t my big problem, back angle and bar path however is. This is my best set of squats formwise in recent memory, still light (225) though. Have always shot my hips back way too far and good morning’d my squats instead of squatting them so this is my attempt to squat down instead of backwards.

Dear Adam,

I could clean most of this up in a couple minutes in person. Your toes are probably pointed out a little too far, but I can’t know for sure. But two main things: 1) the timing if funky and 2) you’re fucking talking during the set.

1. Timing? Huh? That’s just a concise way to say that you’re sticking your ass back before you start. Imagine if I had 500 pounds on my back and I stuck my ass back without bending my knees. What would happen to my torso? It would angle forward. Where does the bar go? It moves forward, in front of the middle of the foot. Can you understand why that would make a forward squat? You should, because before you even really start the squat, you’re putting the bar forward.

Remedy cue: “Knees out first”. We need the knees and hips to bend together, but that’s the conceptual, and nobody really does it correct if you think that. Instead, you think “knees out first”. I developed that cue cause when someone is doing the fault that you have, they need to think about bending their knees first (an exaggerated cue fixes an exaggerated fault). When they do, it syncs the knees/hips together. However, the person is thinking “knees FORWARD first” instead of “knees first”, so it dicks up the “knees out thing”. So I had to use “knees out first”, and it works in at least 75% of cases (good cues will work with at least 3/4 of the population, and then the other 1/4 may need additional work because they are silly).

2. You’re fucking talking. It’s not bad that you’re talking, but the fact that you’re talking tells me that you aren’t tight. Dick. It also tells me (although I can see it) that you aren’t pulling your chest up into the chin. You’re also relaxing your torso enough to chat, so you aren’t maintaining the pressure.

Remedy cue: “Chest into chin”. I’ve been meaning to do a post on this, but you should actively be contracting the upper back muscles to pull the chest into your chin from the lift off to the re-rack. IT SHOULD NEVER DROP. You aren’t even doing this contraction, but if you did, you would drop it because you’re Chatty Cathy. Take a big breath before un-racking the barbell and only have small breath resets in between reps. This will maintain tightness and intra-adbominal/thoracic pressure throughout the set. If you’re losing pressure and tightness, then subsequent reps will be affected since you can’t get as tight under a load as you can before un-racking it. Be methodical.

There is one or two more things I could say to clean it up, but these are the most important things to address in the triage. Your stubbed toe is irrelevant if you have a sucking chest wound.

66 thoughts on “Q&A – 9”

  1. No comments??? Where is everyone!!!???

    PRs for this week…

    It was CFFB total day, so I got a couple.

    Power clean 195 x 1 – still lots of work to do here!

    Back squat – 415 x 1

    Bench – 285 x 1

  2. PRs:
    Deadlift: 405 10×1; 330 4×3
    Squat: 365 10×1; 300 3×3
    Bench: 275 10×1; 230 3×3
    OHP: 155 9×1; 135 2×3

    But perhaps most importantly Lady Maslow squatted 135 5×5 after only five weeks of lifting. It wasn’t perfect form but it was close enough. I’m very, very proud of her.

    I completed my 7th week of my Hepburn program. That required going to the gym at 5am yesterday and today so that I could fit the sessions in. Lifting in the morning is much harder in my opinion.

  3. PRs: 265x3x5 squat (deepest yet), cleaned 145 on the minute for 15 minutes. Acquired some rings for doing supine rows to help fix postural shit and unfuck my deadlift. I’m a week and a half in on a PSMF diet and am having good results so far.

    I did paleo-ish keto for awhile and liked it. It did help reduce body fat and the lifts didn’t suffer too much if I got a little simple carbohydrate in before lifting.

  6. @TheMuck

    To answer your question, I am in San Antonio finishing up a week of classroom training. I still managed to get in the gym three times this week and pulled several singles of 500lbs with no chalk on Wednesday. A week without pulling 500lbs+ is like a week without sunshine.

  7. Justin, thanks for checking the video man I appreciate it.

    I should have posted this one on the Facebook page but after some similar “knees first” advice I recorded these sets:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwjAmMi3asc

    If you don’t mind giving it a quick look and letting me know if they’re any better that would be sweet.

    Benched 320 on Monday but that’s it. Meet coming up tomorrow, will report back. Should PR all my lifts.

  8. Took about 2 weeks off the rehab some nastiness in my IT band. My bench had reached the end of its LP, so I figured what the hell, when I go back, might as well transition to a TM set-up.

    Followed Justin’s advice in the E-book and kept things pretty modest in the first week. Add in the effects of the time off, and I ended up putting up some ultra-modest numbers on the 1st intensity day.

    Squat: 300×5
    Press: 155×5
    DL: 315×5

    Lol plenty of room for improvement here.

  9. PRs:
    Deadlift: 215×1.
    Bench: 115 for two triples.

    Was going for a set of five on both of these. It’s fine.

    Question for the ladies, or for the dudes who train the ladies. I just started using a belt for squatting and deadlifting. But I have a really high/small waist and a 70’s Big hips/ass. As soon as I load my hips when setting up for a deadlift, the belt drifts up to the smallest part of my waist. I don’t think the problem is that it’s too loose or too tight — I fiddled around with it quite a lot, and the damned thing just won’t stay in place. How do women with a high waist/hip ratio prevent the belt from drifting upwards?

  10. After last week’s lower body PRs, nothing huge this week. Also fighting off sickness again.

    Press: 140x6PR?
    Bench: 195x7PR

    Upper body programming is finally taking off again. Next week is gonna be shit, due to finals, then traveling. Blah.

  11. squat 410 1 x 5
    Bench 255 1 x 5
    Deadlift 410 1 x 5

    Squat matches a previous PR, Deadlift matches a volume PR but not a total weight PR. I am happy to hit 255 on the bench. I want to push it up a little bit more and give a go for 300 for a rep by end of the year… It’s happening.

  12. C&J: 122.5 kg
    Push Press: 240 lb x 5 x 2 (~110 kg)

    I think I have a bit of discrepancy between my P.Press and my jerk… I’m basically muscling up the jerk without really snapping under the bar. Any helpful tips for getting under the bar on jerks?

  13. I went the American Open, and I got to meet Cori and Ellee. PR for awesomeness.

    Squat PR – 110 kg. About time. And, yes, I fucking low bar squatted and hit this at the AO with everyone staring at me like I was insane.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3m5V0_mFCw

    Press PRs – 1 x 117 lbs and 7 x 95 lbs after that just because I can

    PR for learning how to jerk today. I mean, today was the first day that I think I kind of understood what is supposed to happen with a split jerk. So, that’s exciting. It only took 21 months after it was first explained to me.

  14. Squat 370×3
    Bench 280×3

    I tried pausing a few benches at various weights and it felt good. I’ve never been much of a bench-bouncer, so I don’t think my paused max will be much lower than what I’m doing now. I can’t wait to start doing meets.

  15. PRs for the week:

    – 5×315# Back Squat
    – 216# Jerk (26# PR from spring, first time jerking since- goes to show what lots of pressing does)
    – 5×210# Bench Press

    Did 100 strict pullups (alternating grip) AFAP on Wednesday night as part of a challenge with the guys I train for. Holy shit. Good one to try, it’ll leave you sore for a few days though.

  17. @AdamW

    I’m no Justin, but those looked a lot better.

    If that’s as far “out” as you can get your knees, though, you might benefit from some good ol’ stretching.

    I’ve done a bunch of K Star’s stuff, and it really improved my back angle issues (once I got my form mostly sorted).

    @Kari

    Again, I’m no Justin, but I am fairly tall with a short torso and a high natural waist. Honestly, time was all it took to get used to pulling in a belt. I know that’s a cop out answer, but over time it just started to work, and the placement just sort of happened.

  18. Doh submitted prematurely.

    My girlfriend has a similar build, and she struggled with belt placement at first too. I just sort of clicked after a while.

  20. C&J’ed 260# on Monday for a 15# PR (video below). I know it was a press out, but that’s the most I’ve had overhead so I’m still stoked. I was feeling reckless so I tried 275# after that and hit the clean pretty easily, but the jerk wasn’t really even in the ballpark.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erU8LcXTpug

    Benched 240 for 5×3 tonight. My old 1RM is 255 so this was encouraging.

    Last but not least, in the “Squat 405# before the first born arrives” mission…did 345x3x3 and 330x3x3 for my “volume day” on Wednesday. Tomorrow I’m going for 380×2.

    Justin, has there ever been a post on Glute Ham Raises? What are your thoughts on their utility and programming? If this is in one of the books that I haven’t read yet, just tell me. I did them for the first time after squats on Wednesday night and spend the rest of the evening sitting on bags of ice…thought my hammies were going to rip from the bone!

  22. I got a PR in bench of 220 lbs and a PR in dead lift of 420 lbs which, with my earlier PR squat of 360, brings my combined total to a nice even 1,000 lbs (at a bodyweight of 175). This was my Christmas goal, so now I can just go eat like an asshole and pick up something heavier. I’m not sure if I feel better or worse that this was accomplished without my mustache.

  24. Thanks for the response.

    My username is a reference to my nickname among my college friends, Big Bob. A buddy and I were both named Robert, he was normal-sized and I was large-sized (6’3″ and an astounding 185 lbs back then) so to differientate us, I became known as Big Bob. Kinda sad for my friend since he got stuck with “Little Bob” even though he was just normal-sized. Anyway, since I’m all grown up now 25 years (and 40 lbs) on, I chose the more formal and profoundly more dignified “Large Robert”. I’m sure you’re glad you asked… ;)

    Anyway, thanks for answer. I figured it might be something like a psych-up yell, but seeing two different competitors from two different countries do almost exactly the same thing kinda made me wonder. It’s oddly endearing to see them do that.

    BTW I bought FIT and it’s an awesome book and everybody should buy it right now.

  25. PR: Deadlift 1RM of 300. Nothing special, but at 157lbs, it felt good.

    Form PR: A friend watched my power cleans, and I cleaned them up decently. Low-hips works for me.

    Failure: Six weeks into Starting Strength & had first misses when squatting 220. Got 5,4,4. Need to be more consistent about eating & get a belt.

  27. Low Bar Squat for the first time in like 4 months (been high barrin’ it) for a SUPER EASY 255, 2×5, 1×8. Low bar is so much better it’s not even funny, just hope my elbows hold up so I don’t have to go back to high bar.

  28. Squat 265# 5×3 (Monday)
    Bench 160# 5×3 (Monday)
    Deadlift 250# 5×1 (Monday)

    The rest of the week was a total wash. Missed last rep of last set at 270 on Wednesday, today got 4 the first set and couldn’t get any the second set. Thinking of chilling out next week and doing a deload when I come back.

  29. SQ PR – 420×1
    BP PR – 255×1

    Lifting Album of the Week: Dance of Death – Iron Maiden (2003). Track Most Likey To Get Stuck In Your Head: No More Lies.

  30. Chicago 70’s Big Lifting Group is having their December meeting tomorrow! 1PM at Conviction Fitness 4430 North Western. Gordons, Melvins, Sallies, and Nancies welcome!:)

    This week was crap for training, because I spent 4 days in Mobile watching lifting and drinking IPAs. It’s fine. Better this way. Because I had the best time ever at the AO!! Met TBone, Ben Claridad, Mie, and Pendlay. Saw impressive lifting. Feeling fired up!!

    Now, I’ve started incorporating curls in my programming in preparation for spectating at the Arnold. yessss

  32. @Terrible

    Thanks. Maybe it will just click; I don’t know. But to be clear: it’s not just that it’s sliding around a little bit. By the time I start the pull, the belt is sitting comfortably right under my chichis. I can’t blame it, really.

  33. Terrible, thanks for looking at the squats man I appreciate it! You’re right I should try and get my knees out harder. Will see how the squats look at the meet tomorrow! Thanks again.

  34. @brent kim,

    I felt reborn tonight doing LB after HB for months. Literally like Jesus was on my shoulders while I squatted. I nearly Hip Drove him right back into Heaven. It was glorious.

  35. @Maslow: I hate lifting in the morning and I mean 10am, not 5am!

    PR Squat: 320×5

    I still don’t understand why Master Stark had to die. In the first season! It pains me.

  40. 310 lb. front squat (20 lb. PR in 8 weeks using 5-3-1).

    Coming back from being sick so no other PRs to speak of, but this one felt great. Going to switch back to high-bar back squats for next cycle now that my hip is feeling better, hoping to hit 400×1 by March.

  41. @oldmansquatting, get ready for lots of disappointments. No one is safe in the books. I just finished the last book and wanted to throw it across the room. I hope I don’t have to wait 5 years to find out what happens.

    PR’d 150lbs 2x for the snatch. Previous 1 rep max was 145.

  42. I’ve been reading for a while, so thought I’d post.

    Squat: 240×3
    Snatch: 105, previous PR was 100 lbs.
    I’ve been reading for a while, and thought I’d post. Love the site.

  46. Today was my meet, so of course I PR’d every fucking lift.

    Squat – 473 (20 pound PR)
    Bench – 330 (10 pound PR)
    Deadlift – 512 (12 pound PR)

    Total – 1305 (214 pound PR since June meet)

    Fucking killed it.

  49. @karibot – Dean at Best Belts is working on getting some 3″ belts made. He currently has only 2.5″ and 4″ belts. I have a 4″ one from him, which I love. But, I am 5’8 and definitely think that a 3″ would be better for me for pulls. Plus, there is only one other girl at my gym who is even close to as tall as I am. I have a bunch of 5’0 – 5’4 girls who could really use a 3″ belt. It may take a while for him to get the 3″ buckles fabricated correctly, but I’ll post here when they are ready.

    @ellee – Now I really want to make it to the Arnold just so that I can see your biceps of steel.

    @NOTaFlamingTrollCLown – Thanks for the love.

  50. Waited til today to post PRs because I had my first powerlifting meet yesterday.
    Unfortunately, I bombed out on bench even though my opener was 20lbs under my max. I still have no idea what happened there.
    But, I ended up squatting 187lbs (and the judges told me I went 4 inches lower than necessary) and pulled a 15lb PR on deadlifts with 231.25lbs
    All at 130lb body weight.

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