Dec 6, 2014

FitNotes Workout - Saturday 6 December 2014

 ** Barbell Squat **
- 45.0 lbs x 10 reps
- 95.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 135.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 185.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 225.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 255.0 lbs x 3 reps
- 255.0 lbs x 3 reps
- 205.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 205.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 205.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 205.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 205.0 lbs x 5 reps

** Barbell Bench Press **
- 45.0 lbs x 10 reps
- 95.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 135.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 155.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 155.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 155.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 155.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 155.0 lbs x 5 reps

Spent all week toying with different squat techniques again to try to find a strong position that doesn't run the risk of impingement.  I tried squatting like Candito, but I find that although there are good aspects: it keeps my shins relatively straight, the knees and hips break at the same time, back stays neutral with no pelvic tilt, but it forces the torso angle to actually change as I descend, which makes it difficult for me to keep the bar path straight.  I also tried Jay Nera's technique of setting the upper body in stone and then relaxing the glutes to let the hips drift back before initiating the descent, but I found that I feel less tight doing this and it also leads to some anterior pelvic tilt.  I also watched many other people squat in videos, particularly Alex Kang, and I never understood how he can just knee break and go straight down without the hips being in the way.  Then from some side angles, I saw that it is because the glutes (flexed or not, I don't know) and hips are actually pretty far back to begin with, whereas when I flex my glutes, I also "hip thrust" them so my body is a straight line under the bar.  I tried doing this, with glutes flexed but no hip thrust so they stay farther back, and then going straight up and down, but I had a lot of trouble keeping the bar path straight and vertical.  In the end, I literally came full circle, to the very first low bar squat form I used when I first started barbell squatting, which is Alastair MacNicoll's 2-part squat, involving a very distinct hip break, followed by squatting straight down.  For me, this accomplished a few things.  First, by pushing the hips back like that to start, it keeps the back completely neutral without any concern of pelvic tilt, thus less concern of impingement.  Secondly, This allows me to keep everything tight and flexed, including the glutes, as I push the hips back in 1 piece.  Third, after bracing my core and "setting my body in stone", when I push the hips back, I am inducing all the forward lean I will have for the whole squat, which makes it easier to go straight up and down, which includes keeping the bar path as vertical as possible.  With this technique, I find that I also seem to be in a stronger position with my gaze more downward, which is also somewhat helpful because when I kept my eyes straight ahead, as I go up and down, I can't keep my eyes fixed on anything in particular because the field of vision keeps changing.  By keeping my eyes more downcast, I can keep my gaze focused on one thing the whole time.  However, this makes it more necessary for me to ensure the upper back is really tight, since I lose the tightness that comes with looking straight and packing the neck.  Anyhow, I experimented a lot and after deciding to stick with the 2-part squat (unless I run into problems again as I seem to all the time), I drilled it in with some heavy squats up to 255x3, then 5x5 back off sets of 205, which is about a 70% estimated 1 RM.  I also started experiencing some tendonitis in the elbows from the previous squat workout early in the week and so I tried applying the wrist wraps higher up and it seemed to help a lot more.  I suspect before I had them too low so though they did help take some weight off, they were still bending enough to cause problems.

I ended the workout with bench press.  I dropped the weight a lot, down to 155 lbs, because I haven't benched in well over a week, and now I'm actually trying to do pause benching, as is necessary in competition, versus touch and go.

Overall, I think the ego has been beaten out of me due to all the changes in squat form, all the injuries with hips...etc., that I'm doing what I should have done in the beginning, which is to go slow and make gains incrementally as opposed to rushing.  The benefit of what I did do in rushing forward is that, until you are tested with heavy weights which are really challenging, you don't know how well your form might hold up, so now with my squats, I'm hoping I can keep with this form for good.  I will move forward from here slowly.  It's a passion, it's a marathon, and I hope to be running it for long long time so I need to stop my ego from pushing me to treat it like a sprint.