OK. For the entire year so far, all I’ve been doing for my lower body (erectors, glutes, legs) are lunges and some therapeutic assistance work; extensions and ab work.
In fact, the last time I felt my hamstrings working hard was when I was 24 and I’m now 26. By 24, I was not deadlifting for real and only squatted, did heavy extension work, leg pressed and occasionally went for extreme snatch deads which hit my posterior chains better than squats but were not much.
Before that time, my training was pretty irregular and inconsistent and I often did somewhat risky and unusual lifts which I believe gave me good, overall posterior chain and core strength but did nothing for my quadriceps. Since 24, however, my hamstrings have been depending on nothing but squatting and this worries me for the following reasons;
-I don’t really care that much about my squat numbers; I just want a big deadlift but I have hurt my back just pulling the bar off the ground for rows and lunges don’t kill my lower back like back squats do. I used to always squat ATG and just read an article about how risky it supposedly is. I just find parallel squatting to be lame so I don’t want to do it. Front squats seem impossible to do properly. Hence, I lunge to reduce spinal loading while still getting a reasonable workout.
-My knees are aching a lot recently and even my back is not feeling that great. I think my hamstring/quad strength and size ratio may be endangering the health of my knees but could it affect the back as well?
I definitely don’t have flexibility issues that could cause these problems. If anything, I Believe excess flexibility is what contributed to my hospitalization from lifting prior to hitting 25. As it stood, my discs were being ripped by both the lifts and the contortion I was doing.
I started having serious problems with my back prior to hitting 25, when I switched from the historical hamstring inflexibility and dominance to quad dominance and hamstring flexibility. Hard to say what caused which as stress accumulates with age.
After my blow-out right before hitting 25, my back has never been the same. Judging by the fact that I have lost some sensation from my right inner thigh and groin, and I have a burning sensation in my right groin, at the junction of the thigh and the pubic region. I eventually had severe pain in the right erector, down to the buttock but upon relative healing, I had an episode of a hot, constant burning sensation and loss of sensation across my right quadricep. The thigh, except for the groin region, has since regained a fair bit of sensation.
Sorry if this is a hard read. Although I have specific plans, I’m a very emotional lifter and not very fond of this or that periodization or program, and have gone my own way. So I’m not a noob to be patronized, even if my training has not been the best. I want to keep doing things in a way that is satisfactory for me, but am willing to look into any changes that I feel would not destroy my motivation.