Q&A – 37

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PR Friday 
Post your training updates and PRs to the comments IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YA.

Weekly Challenge
The challenge from two weeks ago was “Curl 40kg or 90 pounds for as many reps as possible at the end of one of your training sessions next week.” I did 15 and filmed it in case you goons were to get all aggro.

Next Week’s Challenge: Do a max set of push-ups at the end of each training session. Perform the reps without stopping (so no resting in the plank position). Wait 20 seconds and do a second max set without ceasing movement. Record your reps and post them in next week’s PR Friday post.

Week In Review
It was a short week due to travelling back from USAPL Raw Nationals. You can see meet recaps for the lifters in Part 1 and Part 2, followed by the lessons learned. The goal as a lifter or a coach is to always get better, so analysis and discussion is important.

Here is the awesome collage video AC made of the meet. Thanks to Elliot Rowe for doing a lot of the filming.

Q&A (Incoming)

Justin,

First off I’d like to say thanks for everything you do with your 70sbig.com webpage. You and your webpage were largely responsible for getting me involved with powerlifting and attending my first meet about a year ago.

 

I’ve recently been struggling with a snapping hip in my right hip, and just overall hip tightness/pain in the outside of both of my hips. The snapping hip occurs when I move from a toes pointing forward position to a toes pointing outward position. After digging around on your webpage for a bit, I think I may be pointing my toes out too much during my squat in order to compensate for a lack of mobility.

 

Unfortunately, my job requires me to be at a desk for several hours a day, which I’m sure isn’t helping anything. I’ve been doing several hip stretches at least once a day for a few weeks now with no significant improvement on the snapping hip or the general exterior hip pain.

 

Just for clarification, I do low bar squat with a stance ~6″ wider than shoulder width, and I do sumo style deadlifts with my toes pointed pretty far out as well.

I’d like to get your thoughts/suggestions on how to alleviate my snapping hip and exterior hip tightness/pain, and improve my mobility so I can move my toes to a more forward pointing position

 

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sean C.

 

For your reference, I’ve included a video of my squat and a few pictures of my squat and deadlift. By the way, I’ll be investing in some lifting shoes.

 

Dear Sean,

These questions are on the borderline with how much I can help. I have some PT friends that will add their two cents in the comments if they have time. In the mean time, I’d be curious to know if you are just having pain, or the actual “snapping hip” type pain where you feel a tendon roll over one of the femur’s trochanter (depending on whether it’s lateral or medial). You have two considerations: a) treat the symptoms of the existing pain and b) address the problems that are causing this to begin with (which are probably mobility and mechanical in nature).

You note that you sit a lot at work. Immediately I think of hip flexor tightness and dysfunction (this would include the psoas, which would be a part of the medial hip snapping stuff). Then you provide the video of your wide stance squat, the kind that is going to put plenty of stress on the hips, and I’m not surprised you’re having an issue. If I were coaching you, I would bitch at you about your shoe choice (we’ll ignore it for now), but I’d bring your stance in and teach you how to squat with more efficient mechanics. You’re going to improve the effectiveness of the hip external rotation and distribute force application across your thigh better when you do. It’s likely that you’ll be weaker in this new position since you have been training the old and wide way for a while. I’d tell you to suck it up, because what you have been doing got you into this current predicament.

As for your deadlift, I’d go ahead and have you pull conventional, at least temporarily. I’d assume you feel the hip pain during the sumo, but pull conventionally for a few months so that you can treat the symptoms. You can go back to sumo down the road, and the conventional work will only augment or compliment your sumo strength.

As for rehabbing the area, that’s almost out of my forte. Apparently the bursa sacs can get irritated with this hip snapping stuff, so I would do things to reduce inflammation as well as work on opening your chronically tight hip flexors. If you feel pulling — in a bad way — on the afflicted area when hitting the hip flexor stretches, avoid them for a day or so. Use movement to heal. Don’t be afraid of isolation exercises and body weight squats (with the new, narrow stance). Point your toes at 20 to 30 degrees and put your heels at shoulder width. If the pain is bad, this could take a month or two to start going away. I’d also try wrapping an ace bandage around your proximal hip (meaning it would be right up by your nut sack) and doing squat reps while wrapped. Be diligent with rehab work, and yes, I’d still ice it after the cessation of activity. Let us know how it goes.

 

Justin-

Hope all is well. Spent some time watching Olympic lifting over the last two weeks, noticed how incredibly fat some of those guys are…. beyond that I noticed how incredibly good so many of the lifters are at standing up for the bottom of the hole when it seems like there is no chance they will. Do you have any tips for practicing that pop at the bottom? I find that on heavy squats my ascent involves saying a prayer and hoping my diaper holds up.

Thanks

Roy

 

Dear Roy,

Yeah, it’s interesting how some lifters can be quite lean while other lifters carry a bit of body fat. As for their ability to recover out of the hole, well, that’s what they do every day. Remember that their max squat, front squat, or clean is going to be greater than their best snatch or clean and jerk (some folks will get near their max clean or front squat on the platform). Continue getting stronger and do the Olympic lifts, and you too will get to a point where your average snatch or clean will be easier to recover from.

If you’re high bar squatting, once a week you could “bottom out” your squats where you’ll lower down as far as your mobility allows (i.e. don’t collapse your back or hips). If you have decent mobility, you should be able to touch your hamstrings to your calves. Note that you should use less weight in this lift at first, but it will get you familiar with “bottoming out” a squat, which is common in heavier snatches or cleans. I’d still squat to regular depth throughout the rest of the week. This lift could even be done as back off work when you squat. Overall, just get strong in the back/front squat, snatch, and clean, and you’ll recover better.

 

Hey Justin,
On again off again reader of the blog.  37 y/o 5’11 225ish.  Lifting steadily since I was 14.  Moved away from boring gym routines several years back and got a bit into crossfit.  Had fun on my own with it but never had the cash to join.  I like the intensity it offered and I like how it made me feel like I was working out again rather then spending a half hour isolating my outer delts or whatever the hell I used to do.  Lately a mix of metacon workouts and 5×5 work days.  Just maintaining.
A few years back I noticed I had some nagging pain in my hip that wasn’t getting better.  Trouble touching my toe, couldn’t run anymore, trouble squatting.  Real flexibility issues.  Finally get to a doctor and it turns out its pretty bad arthritis.  As in, I need a new hip.  Still going to the gym and lifting because I will have all new hardware in the winter so I may as well get the most usage out of the old one while I can.  Just can’t do certain lifts because it hurts too much.
So my question for you is, what do you recommend I do and don’t do with the new hip?  The surgeon, when I asked jokingly said I could do anything but 500lb deep squats. Have you worked with anyone that’s had a replacement?  Or maybe there are some older lifters out there that have been through it.  Would love to hear your thoughts, as I haven’t found many real answers from a doctor or form google searching.
Thanks in advance.  And feel free to post this question to the blog if you wan’t but I don’t know that it applies to too many readers.
-Matt
Dear Matt,
Ehhhh. I guess the first thing is if it were me, I’d want to make pretty damn sure I needed this new hip. But it sounds like you’re pulling that trigger. I knew a guy that had two full knee replacements and trained on it for a while. Joint replacements are very good these days, but I’m not sure how to go about training on them. Without consulting friends who are smarter than me, I’d say just start with very light activity and progress into it, and ensure that your mechanics are absolutely solid. If your mechanics waver, I wouldn’t increase the load. I’d be hesitant to have ballistic loading at first and would slowly progress into that. I would use squats and deadlifts, but I wouldn’t worry about going heavy in them. Use them for what they are: great, compound movements that have a positive effect on metabolism, lean body mass, and strength. I’ll see if any PT friends want to share their thoughts.

Justin,

In the last month or two, I have had some recurring pain in two places that won’t seem to stay away no matter what I do. One is on my left hip, I guess in the hip flexor area, it hurts most when coming up from squatting, or standing up from sitting in a chair. Also the side of that hip and butt (sciatic?) is tender, so maybe some expressed pain from the hip flexor. I have done the wall stretch to try and loosen it, but it doesn’t seem to go away. I have also sat on an LAX ball to try and loosen the sciatic area, I’ve done foam roller on the quads but that isn’t particularly sore.

 

Also, my right ankle was swollen for a few weeks, I think I tweaked it trying to do a more toes forward squat stance because there were times I could feel a tendon(?) sliding over a surface. I finished a workout about a month ago with some 50M sprints and that is when the swelling started. It is not swollen anymore, but my ankle is pretty sore when squatting to where I don’t have much drive out of the bottom. I have been doing some compression band stuff with it, but it is on the outside bottom of the ankle bone, not a high ankle sprain area. I also noticed recently that my mid-calf is pretty tight and have been trying to do LAX ball work on that or general release.

 

I went to a chiro who just quickly took me through some stuff with the ankle, iced it and put the TENS unit on it. I asked him about the hip and he did a test and said my hips were out of alignment. But he didn’t offer much more than that.

 

Frustrating as hell, I feel like I should stop squatting in order to let it repair, but I don’t want to lose strength. I am ok on lighter weights, but anything close to my work sets is bad enough that I don’t feel like continuing in the movements. Should I keep working on Mobility for those two areas and just stick to lighter squats. Or drop squats altogether doing some RDLs and Leg Press in the interim.

Thanks for your help.

Craig

 

Dear Craig,

Holy SHIT are you guys asking a bunch of complicated questions today. This question doesn’t provide complete information to be extremely specific and I’ll also see if the PT friends want to take a stab at it.

First off, I’d think your ankle got sore from the sprints, not the squatting toe angle. If you weren’t adapted to full speed pounding (and if you tweaked it), then that’s why the ankle swelled up. Why the hell didn’t the chiro adjust your hips when he said they were out of alignment? Isn’t that his fucking job? That pisses me off a little bit, though there may be circumstances I’m not privy to.

Secondly, everyone should keep in mind that toes forward squatting is dependent on good mobility. I don’t know if you actually tweaked your ankle because of this, but I’ve heard of several people tweaking something (though it’s usually in the knee) as a result of trying toes forward. When you make changes in your stance, do them incrementally over time. 

Third, your ankle/calf itself. “Outside bottom of ankle bone” is vauge — is this your lateral malleolus? Your peroneal tendons will pass right under the lateral malleolus, so you could probably start working on them with soft tissue work. They are on the outside of your lower leg. If you work on them, it could release tension under the malleolus. You can also work on your foot arches with a lacrosse ball, especially near the peroneal tendons and anterior (right in front of) the calcaneus (heel bone). I like the idea of wrapping the ankle with physio tape and doing plantar flexion, dorsi flexion, inversion, eversion, and just ankle circles. Don’t do it longer than 2 minutes and try to have it closer to 1 minute. Go ahead and do foot drills and band rehab. Yes, I’d still ice after the cessation of rehab.

Fourth, your hip. It sounds like you have scar tissue on your hip flexor and your lateral hip is tight. I don’t know if it’s sciatic related because if it was, I’d expect some referred pain down the nerve. I also don’t know that mashing on it randomly is going to help. I really can’t help with this as much because the location is vague and you haven’t given me any movements that cause pain. I would need more information, but generally speaking, I’d have some sort of soft tissue work (pin pointed massage), followed by stretching (if applicable), followed by movement (as rehab), followed by one bout of icing.

I’m still talking with people about the whole “icing issue”, and I’m sure that they will have some better input than me. Just remember that if you want specific help, you have to get specific with where the pain is, when and how does it hurt, and how long it has done so. More information is much better than none.

 

134 thoughts on “Q&A – 37”

      • hip flexors should be fine, I think, I stretch them regularly (using the Sumo Squat Stretch and the Hip Flexor Stretch from “Fit” mostly and related mwods), the only thing I really do for the psoas is the Side Quadriceps Stretch (again from Fit). I would say I do ok there, (I get my heels into contact with my butt quite easily)
        Can you/anyone recommend any other psoas stretches I should be doing?

  3. Personal life has been a mess, so I haven’t trained in two weeks. Was going to get back on the wagon today but I just had (literally five minutes ago) a very unpleasant interaction with my university over the phone and now I’m too pissed off to train safely or effectively. Maybe I can get in tomorrow and still be good for Monday.

    I’m definitely planning on doing that meet in November, pending confirmation that it’s a full powerlifting meet and open to first time USAPL lifters (there’s a chance it’s a push/pull meet only, and I can’t be bothered to enter if it is).

  5. Squat: 315 x 3
    DL: 315 x 3 on the minute for 10 minutes
    Full clean: smoothest rep I’ve ever hit at 225. Tried for a PR at 245 but couldn’t quite get under it.

  6. Bench pressed 275 for 3×5 for the first time in a while. Also overhead pressed 3×5 with 165.

    Now if my squat wasn’t such a shitshow, we’d be goin’ somewhere.

  7. PRs:
    Squatted 335×5 high bar on my 1+ set of 5/3/1. I think that’s the most weight I’ve ever had on my back for a high bar squat.
    Elbow injury has healed so I’m back to pressing, benching, and pullups again. Huge reset on weights, but PR for being back to it after 4 months off.

    Friend’s PR:
    Albie with Operation Amerithon (http://operationamerithon.com/) is less than 100 miles from finishing his run across the US. If you’re in the DC area, check out his finale party on August 18.

  8. Press: 250 x 1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNJSg8doVj0

    Tiny knee kick, not happy about that but it’s definitely no push press, gonna redo this one soon enough. Heaviest workset in the last 3 months was 175.

    Squat: 500 x 1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GObJUHxYcM

    Heaviest workset in last 3 months was 365. I squatted 474 at a meet in December and haven’t squatted more than 455×1 since (by choice, just haven’t bothered to go heavier), and that was in early May. Big believer in training with submaximal weights here, seems I’m setting PRs all over the place without ever lifting more than 80% in training.

  9. I smoked my ankle up at the trailer on Wednesday, I’ve been using MWOD’s new MCE vs RICE to rehab it. Swelling is going down, but I didn’t have the ROM to squat this week. Thoughts on this no icing policy?

    Link to MWOD article: http://goo.gl/MMIVv

    Bench 235# 3×3
    Deadlift 315# 3×3

    90# curls: I hit 7 reps then got kicked out of the squat rack.

    • The no icing thing will be addressed next week. I’m talking to various people about it. My pre-emptive thought would be to not avoid icing, but do it after all of the movement-based rehab you should be doing anyway.

      There are a lot of unanswered questions on the topic. Too many to just say “don’t ice”.

  10. Went 5 weeks of training without a deload, when I normally find myself going 4 weeks on, one off. I regret not checking that and being more on top of it.

    So, I guess a training PR of a sort?

  11. First time I’ve posted on a PR Friday. I’m a pathetic weakling, but from where I was less than a year ago I’ll take it.
    Squats: 3 x 5 x 235lbs
    Press: 3 x 5 x 135lbs
    Bench: 2 x 5 x 200 (didn’t attempt the 3rd set because my lower bicep started killing me….again)
    DL: 1 x 5 x 245lbs (backed of a little because I hadn’t dl’d in a few weeks)
    Clean: didn’t clean this week (insert wife joke here)

    Is the bicep pain most likely tendinitis? I’ve been working on my form and it only bothers me on bench now. It had been bothering me a little on DL because, I think, I was getting careless with my arms and not keeping them locked out. Any tips for benching?

    It may also worth noting that my arms are the size of a broom handle. Even when I was a curling in the squat rack fool my arms refused to grow.

      • I do squat low bar. I think that’s where it originated, but I’ve been watching my form much more closely lately and it hasn’t bothered me while squatting lately. The last few times benching it’s killed me though. I’ve been thinking of switching to high bar (or at least alternating) so maybe I’ll do that and take some time off from benching.

        • Typically pain in that area is due to low bar grip (as Adam pointed out). Even if your technique is good, there still can be force applied that you don’t feel until you bench.

          Are you un-racking the bar by yourself on bench, or do you have a handoff? Mike recently hurt his distal biceps unracking it by himself.

          • I un-rack myself. Unfortunately I don’t have a spotter. I think I may need to scoot up the bench a little more. I think I’ll give high bar squats a try for a little while and then bring back low bar in a couple of weeks.

            I really appreciate everyone’s help.

      • I’m about 215. I definitely need to lose some around the midsection, but haven’t focused on that much. I do feel stronger though when I include some kind of conditioning though. Pulling the kids in the bike trailer was fun before it turned into the summer of never ending heat.

        Good work on your squat and pulling #s. I can’t wait until I get up near 300 for both lifts.

        • Yeah i agree on the conditioning, especially sprints. If i do enough to work hard but not wear myself out i feel great the next couple of days.
          Also, I totally meant to say “weigh,” not “way.” Ha and thanks for the compliment.

    • Don’t call yourself a pathetic weakling, bro. Leave that attitude outside, this is a safe place. Anyway, you’re giving me some numbers to chase.

      • I mostly feel weak about my squat. Back when I restarted lifting (again) I was probably doing 95lbs, so I’ve made a lot of progress. I just feel like if I’m benching 200 I should be squatting a lot more than 235.

      • You guys make me proud in that you are helping pu239’s mindset and accepting him. Seriously, this is one reason why I started this site. It’s not about how strong you are, it’s the fact that you’re working on it.

        Well done everyone. Well fucking done.

  12. Still working back up after a particularly bad back tweak. Triples for snatch and CJ at 70/85kg felt fine. Benched 215 for 4s and squatted 105k for 5s and both felt pretty normal. Hips feel weak still but back feels good. Will train tomorrow with Powell.

    Justin, I’ve been doing the program you gave me and it’s working quite well, thanks.

  13. Hit a OHP PR wednesday with 3x5x120#. Felt really good. I’ve been working on my form and sent AC a video and his feedback was really helpful, so advice PR for AC.
    Other than that, hitting a squat PR today 3x5x285# and gonna pull 320# for 1×5.

  14. Missed 585 at the knees earlier this week, it’s fine.
    Started running Steel’s bench program for the press – hit some easy reps at 180 and singles at 190. Should hit 235 at the end of the 5 weeks if things go according to plan.

  15. Bench PR – 3×5@175# Pecs were nicely sore the day after, so yeah, good stuff.
    I’m happy/sad that I’m going to need a spotter real soon. Summer at my school gym means I’m working out foreveralone.

    On a related note, anyone else reading this go to California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo? There is a good chance my awkwardness is equal to Brent’s, but we can still be friends.

  17. Justin, this could be a really stupid idea for the site, but I’ll throw it out there any way. Any chance of having some kind of milestone section for readers? Some big goals that folks could post videos of hitting and then being added to the list. It’s cool seeing some of the PR videos posted on Fridays, but if there was a section where videos of some major milestones were posted it could be cool for motivation.

  19. So still no PR’s to speak of but I did the curl challenge got ten. Well probably really 8 with two weird looking body swinging half assed curls at the end.

  20. No gym this week, but swole PR.
    I had my wisdom tooth surgically removed in Monday and for 3 days I was like Vito Corleone. Well, worse tbh. Instead for napkins, imagine a lacrosse ball in my mouth.

  21. Push-pressed 150lbsx1. Don’t PP regularly, but it was fun to get a little weight overhead. Also did weighted bridges for the first time, and that rocked my glutes and low back.

  24. At lion country safari I learned that eland milk has twice the fat content and triple the protein content of cow milk… Maybe something interesting to try gomad with. Also learned a 100 lb chimp can throw a 300 lb object with one arm good insipiration for some PRs today. Will post them when I get back

      • Hell yeah imagining I was an alpha male chimp protecting my family made me get jacked up. Squatted 360×5 benched 235×5 deadlifted 405×4. Some trainer came up to me while dlifting and asked me to put pads under the bar so I wouldn’t crack the floor…. Then he had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to use his monster band to assist my pullups when I was clearly able to do weighted pullups. I politely declined. Any ways, Justin what do u think are good sq/bch/d numbers to shoot for to be competitive in the 16-17 yr

  25. All my lifts were pretty much stalling last week, either in technique or in reps. So, this week was a deload/mobility week. I did a lot of shoulder and hip/leg stretches. I did all the lifts I would normally do from the LP, but at about 10-15% less weight. Next week is back to the LP using the weight from this week as a starting point for a reset.

    I didn’t deload deadlift, did PR with 280×5 today. Been deadlifting once a week for about a month and a half now.

  26. Set all raw, competition PR’s at Raw Nationals last Sunday in Killeen. 507/369/534. Got 9/9 lifts, and, I believe, 27 white lights. My third big meet, and about my fifteenth meet total in five years of competitive lifting. Second time competing raw, sanctioned. First time competing raw, sanctioned 242. So hitting these PR’s at a big meet, after a 10 pound weight cut over 2 weeks, was very meaningful to me.

  27. Thanks for the knowledge bombs you continue to drop every week Justin.

    Have recently been getting a strange kind of hot burning in one thigh when stretching it in trying to open up the hip. Don’t ever feel it squatting or running, only when stretching or lunging.

    Been trying to self educate on it and work out if it is tightness that needs stretching out but found some information that stated it could possibly be a small tear. Have you come across something like this before? Don’t want to make it worse if it shouldn’t be stretched out.

    Typical stretches used are couch stretch, lunge type stretch and lunge with band distraction. Thanks!

  28. PR Squat 465 x 2 (last time I maxed I hit 475 and missed 500 so I think I am pretty close to being able to get 500 because then my highest squat was 435 x 3, if that makes sense)
    Bench PR 275 x 3 (I can’t wait until I hit 300 and can claim to be a fuckin’ man)
    Also a lost BW Goal hit this week. I fell below 225 as of this morning, so that is good news too. The next milestone is 220 by end of the month. I want to end up somewhere in the area of 210-215.
    Started work on trying to get a 1 arm chin and get back to being able to do a muscle up or two but all that jazz is secondary to getting my bench and press where I want it by the end of the year.

  29. Deload PR. Been lifting heavy without a deload for a while before Raw Nationals but left for Florida for two weeks the day after to visit family. Doing a bodybuilding show in November so back to business when I return.

  30. Stupid things coworkers said this week.
    Squats are bad for your knees.
    I dont deadlift. Those are dangerous.
    I only squat in the Smith Machine.
    I don’t think you need to eat that much.
    X mma fighter only eats like one chicken breast a day and he’s jacked.
    T.O. eats Mcdonalds and he’s jacked!
    I don’t want to get too big ( he weighs 165 )
    I want to get bigger but I want to keep my six pack ( he doesn’t have a six pack )
    It’s not cheating if its my bachelor party.
    THE BEST ONE:
    I don’t really want to get married but if it doesn’t work out I figure its easy to get a divorce.

  31. This is a sweet comment section, time to stop taking this community for granted and start posting.

    Squat: 280 3×3 (high bar PR)
    Press: 117.5 3×5 PR
    Clean and Jerk: 145 five singles on the 2 min
    DL: 295×3
    all in lbs

  32. Spent the entire week in medical school orientation. Sitting in chairs for 6+ hours per day, eating shitty (quality) catering food, and increase in stress level? Not the best recipe for performance. After blowing stuff out of the water last week with some great PRs this week felt heavy and slow. I did a sort of “test day” today, worked up to the heaviest single I could on squat, bench, deads with absolutely no grinding.

    Ended up with 365, 215, and 405 respectively. 365 is the heaviest I’ve squatted in three months, and actually felt heavy but fine. 215 nailed the groove and went up smooth, which was nice. I shouldn’t have jumped so high after 405 since I was feeling tired on deads, but since I said no grinding I dropped 455 at the knees. For anyone counting that’s a total of 985 on three lifts, which is a meager 195 pounds less than I totalled in March, albeit under different conditions.

    I’m taking a deload week next week. I haven’t had a true light week on lower body since May due to rebuilding, but I really need one now. I’m also getting my food sorted out, have ten pounds of protein powder on the way, and am gearing up to bring my lunches to school again. Hopefully it should be all uphill from here.

  33. Benched 240 for a paused single. Not a bench record, but I think it’s a paused bench record.

    Really enjoyed the articles on 70’sBig this week. Write-up of Nationals was excellent.

  34. Long time reader of the site, first time posting. I’m currently running a short LP to get back to my previous numbers. Took about a month off for family business and then my Dietetics internship started… Anyway here we go
    Squat 345x5x3
    Bench 200x5x3
    Dead 300x5x1
    Still working out some issues with my lower back gradually rehabbing as I go, I had to reset my deadlift pretty far so that I could be sure the form was good and not going to reaggrivate anything. I think I’m in the same boat as Mike, short torso long femurs, not the greatest DL combo.

    I barely finished the last reps on squat and bench, not sure how much longer I should try and squeeze progress out of this LP before going back to TM. Anyone have thoughts as to when I should make the move back? I don’t want to overreach trying to do LP when I should have already moved on, but I don’t want to miss out on the quicker progress the LP provides.

    That was a rather long first post… soo..

    Big Gulps huh? Welp see ya later.

  35. Decided to finally move my squats over to an intermidieate program after I stalled at 290lb, so I decided to start volume day at 5×5 235lb and intensity day at 280lbx5.

    Had to take a forced 2-week hiatus from my university gym.  During that time , I fucked around with a low carb, high fat, high protein diet which helped me lose some body fat but also costed me some of my strength, it seems. 

    Back to the gym, I did the scheduled 5×5@235lb, which was much, much harder than I expected. I clearly lost strength and conditioning and the next day I felt the sorest I’ve ever felt in my life.  I was so nervous for intensity day I dreamt about it all night on Thursday. Tried 280lb…and I has to dump the weight after the first rep. I’d already done 3×5@280lb a few weeks before and it was hard as fuck, but I did it. So I was feeling pretty discouraged. 

    So on Monday, I decided to go work back to 290lb via LP. Today I did 3×5 250lb and it wasn’t all that bad. 

    In other news, I finally bought a belt (Velcro, Harbinger). I’d put that off for far to long and I’m loving it so far, both on squats and deadlifts (pulled a very easy 1×5 335lb with it on Wednesday and it felt great) :D

    • Hey dude, just a heads up. Two weeks off towards the tail end of an LP will kill your gains. I did my last set at 315x3x5 and took three weeks off to do conditioning stuff. When I came back I couldn’t even do 310 for a single. It’ll come back quick, you just have to stay consistent.

      The diet stuff is true too. It’s hard to support a LP with low carb, simply due to the fact that low carb is almost always low calorie. Good luck!

  36. Got my MRI done for my hip this week. Tried some squatting but my hip really flaresu p with any weight. Surgery for my hip impingement is in a month or so. I’m gonna lose a lot of lower body strength during recovery but it should come back quickly.
    PR this week should have been a triple but I was travelling and had bad recovery. 450×2 on deadlifts.

  37. Squat 345x5x3
    Bench 235×5,5,3
    Deadlift 410×1

    Justin, it’d be cool if you wrote an article about the reverse hyper and how to properly use it.

  38. Just deadlifted 325 x15. I’ll take it. Had some really serious injuries in February. Mt climbing accident. Now i jave a bad knee,hip and back. Keeping the reps higher have allowed me to keep making progress. Going to try heavy sets in a few weeks. Feeling good.

  41. Set a new PR in the snatch today, 2 singles @155#
    20# above my previous best, and a pound or two above my body weight. I think a BW snatch is pretty sweet. Looking forward to more.

  42. Funny to see all the hip pain related questions today. I’ve been dealing with some hip flexor pain over the past few months due to allowing my knees to slide forward in the squat, and I seem to really suck at fixing it. Started some very light pause squats last Monday to see if that will improve my tightness at the bottom. Feels great so far, and I’m getting a much nicer bounce in my non-paused sets. It definitely feels different from my old style of squatting.

    PR’s:
    Deadlift – 445×5

    Another 10 pound PR this week. I don’t know what the hell has my deadlift going up so quickly, but I like it. I’m thinking it’s that I haven’t squatted heavy in a while. This set was the first in a while that felt difficult, and I noticed my left side was coming up faster than my right on all the reps. I think I’m going back to 5 pound jumps now. I think I could pull 500 right now, which was my goal for the year. Now I’m hoping for 550.

    Failed 222.5x5x1 bench last week, which was unexpected, so I just did 220x5x1 today which was pretty easy. I’m going to need to make a plan for bench since it hasn’t been responding very well for a while now.

    • My hip pain issue is not so much the flexors. My right hip is tight, and the ball of the femur is rubbing against the hip socket, and created a cyst or bone spur. I’m switching to high bar squats now to deal with it, but it’s been challenging to say the least. Not being able to squat just plain sucks.

      • I had worked up to LBBS 325×5,330×3 in the spring, this morning I tried to high bar 225 and couldn’t get 5, so I agree with the statement that strength goes away quickly. I DL 365×5 Thursday, by the way, so, well, so there you go.

  45. TRIPLE PR DAY BITCHES!

    Squat: 165kg/364lb x 5
    Bench: 111.25kg/245lb x 5
    Deadlift: 177.5kg/391lb x 5

    Gives me a 1000lb 5RM total too. Also gave the slingshot a ride and banged out a stupid easy 140kg/308lb.

    Feelsgoodman.jpg

  46. Well, I’ve had a pretty awesome two weeks. I didn’t update last week because I was away. I left on Friday, July 27 for Houston and the weightlifting competition at the Junior Olympics. I was helping my coach, Jim Moser, coach the Queen Emma Athletic Club from Maui. We had 7 kids competing, 6 boys and 1 girl. All of the kids made the podium, and there were a lot of PRs. I got some training time in and hit some great snatches as well as an 81 kg power clean PR.

    On Tuesday, July 31, we headed to Danville, CA to train at the Eleiko Olympic Weightlifting Academy with Ivan Abadjiev and Alex Krychev. Tuesday night, I hit the first of many PRs for the week, which was a 66 kg snatch (that happened after I almost took out a $3000 pair of Eleiko squat stands on my first attempt at that weight).

    We trained at Eleiko for the rest of the week, two sessions a day on Wednesday and Thursday, and three sessions on Friday. I had to leave to head home on Saturday, but some of the kids stayed for a few more days. It was truly an amazing trip. The kids were so impressive, and working with Abadjiev and Krychev was great in every way.

    PRs for the last two weeks are:
    67 kg snatch
    64 kg power snatch
    81 kg power clean
    82 kg clean and jerk (PR on the jerk)

    I will say that Friday night at close to 9 pm in Danville, I had 83 kg on the bar for another jerk PR attempt. I managed to hit my chin, which is something I haven’t done in 2 years. I have a nice bruise and two slightly chipped teeth. Not recommended.

    There are some highlights here (my 67 snatch as well as Jaymen snatching 90 kg at 61 kg bodyweight):
    http://youtu.be/gbWry2mYreE

    More videos of the kids are up at http://www.youtube.com/user/PDXweightlifting/videos and http://www.youtube.com/user/gymmoser/videos

  47. My training has been so/so. Got sick and traveled for 2 weeks and it threw off my feng shui.

    Squat 395x5x3 (Working through a reset from 425 due to being sick and weak.)
    Bench 235x5x3 (That was heavy. Makes me sad to be 6’5″ 225 and have 235 be so heavy.)
    Press 140x5x2, 8 (Slight reset. 8 reps on the 3rd set wasn’t terrible, but I’ve never pressed more than 165.)
    Deadlift 405×5 (Haven’t deadlifted in a few weeks and I really noticed it in terms of energy at the end of the workout. Going to take 15lb steps back to 465 and 10lbs per week from there.)
    Chins 30lbsx5x3, 12 body weight (Fun to add weight to chins/pull ups.)

  50. Bounced back after going to Africa for a couple days and have been clean pressing twice a week with one day dedicated to heavy singles. Just a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t even press 185 and yesterday I did it for 3 singles. Feels good.

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