Thai for dinner and new low weigh in today. Not gonna lie bit of a relief having been stalled out past few days.
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14/11/18
Back in Melbourne at Doherty’s Brunswick. Not signed up yet but will next time. No lock in contract $15 a week is good for what you get.
Another day and some new stuff to try.
Fatigue set at:
Squat - 4
Bench - 1
Deadlift - 2
Sumo Technique Practice Up to 200kg
Comp Bench 11x2 @ 95kg
Pause Squats Half Way Down 5x5 @120kg
Sumo with calibrated plates and deadlift bar feeling awkward. Feel like I need to ease the bar off the ground right now to maintain control. I could be putting more force into the pull I feel. Will take a while to get used to I guess.
Squats with pause half way down is also a strange one. Feels very unnatural to pause at that point.
Bench is very chill compared to what I was doing before so it looks like there’s going to be lots of 1s on the fatigue rating scale. Comp style bench at Doherty’s Brunswick but it’s not really that good. Pad is slippery as fuck (I think it’s been replaced from the original) so might need to be some shelf liner to grip better
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Summer approaches so less pants more tights. 2XU 50% off sale still pretty expensive but no price is too high for sexy.
Takes me back to when I started this log and got all the comments about sexi tights.
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Moving back in to Melbourne and sorting/packing everything gets me thinking I need to organise this lot again too.
Has been a while since I’ve gone digging in the deepest darkest recesses of my bag and honestly I dunno what’s in there
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Sexy tights god
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Where’s yours sexi tight action
I spy my next belt… maybe when there’s a sale lol
Apparently Pioneer made this one with their extra prong hole design but it’s sold by iron tanks so is IPF approved. One for the Aussies here
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqM6znvgHIF/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=5s1iwq6jwzxt
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Soonn
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Wrap tighter. Iron Z’s are a pretty light wrap to begin with, if you don’t wrap them as tight as possible you won’t get a whole lot out of them. And that kind of defeats the purpose of knee wraps, right? There isn’t really much to squatting in wraps, the faster you hit the hole the more rebound you will get and stronger wraps make it harder to reach depth but will give more support and rebound.
I don’t have Iron Z knee wraps but I have Pioneer Guardians which are pretty much the same thing, if they aren’t tight then they are like knee sleeves, if I wrap them as tight as I can then I get a decent bounce but they actually hurt like hell, more than any other wraps I have tried. For someone new to wraps I think they would be good just to get used to everything, once you are comfortable with those you can get a stronger set of wraps.
I spent a lot of time trying to research this because I was having some wrap issue myself, there actually seems to be a lack of useful information on knee wraps. You are descending fast, so you definitely want a wrap that is more rebound than stopping power. Titan Signature Golds are good (I have a pair) but they are stiff and I find it harder to hit depth in them. Titan Titanium (which I haven’t tried) are supposedly good for people with a fast descent like yourself, but they might not be too different from the Iron Z’s. Pioneer Phantoms and the Lilliebridge wraps are two of the most popular ones out there among elite lifters, people say the Phantoms have crazy rebound but they need to be broken in because they are real tough. The red Slingshots are good too (I have those as well), less of a bounce out of the hole than the Sig Golds but they feel like they carry you to the top. They are more uncomfortable when you wrap tight though, and also harder to wrap yourself because they are so stretchy. Also the Iron Rebel outlaws are apparently real good, lots of rebound.
So if I was you I would get one or two pairs of the above wraps, or borrow some from a friend if that is an option. You really won’t know what you like better without trying, but I get the impression that there is less difference between similar types of wraps (like Sig Gold vs. red Slingshot) than you would think. Anything with a ton of stretch is going to be a fucking pain in the ass to wrap yourself, the red Slingshots aren’t even that stretchy but at one point I was doing 5-6 sets in them once a week and after a month I think I was getting tendinitis in my right bicep.
If I was going to buy any other wraps at the moment, the two I would want are Pioneer Phantoms and the Lilliebridges.
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Also, just to let you know in case you go looking for info on wraps online. There is some guy who call himself “Ramrod”, he has wrap review thread in several forums and his own site as well. I don’t know him and it’s not like I have some personal issue with him, but at least half of what he says conflicts with what the knee wrap manufacturers themselves say about their wraps. I would not follow his advice.
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I’ll be waiting for your glute activation workout in tights
Thanks for the help again man. Wrapping tighter sounds fun in a real painful uncomfortable kind of way lol but will co. Might save the next level of wraps for next year though
Maybe you should write your own wraps 101 article and help a lot of guys.
Oops questions:
Since my program doesn’t account for wraps how do you reckon I could practice them? I was thinking maybe a single or two in wraps twice a week.
Is there any truth in a lot of knee wrapping or wrapped squatting damaging your knees with the compression or something like that ? Like if I practice knee wraps at home will it be too much or hurt me?
I don’t really have any special insight, I’m just giving you my own experience. You can check this article out, the guy who wrote it is from Ottawa but I don’t know him, they train in a gym on the other side of town and for a number of reasons it doesn’t work for me.
EDIT: Apparently I can’t link the article so look for “So, You Want To Be A Cheater? A Guide To Squatting In Wraps” on Power Rack Strength.
When is your meet? Why does your program not have you lifting in wraps? What does your program look like?
You could either do your last 1-2 warm ups and top set, maybe down sets in wraps, I wouldn’t do more than about 4 sets total in wraps because it becomes a pain in the ass. Unless you wrap really light and then there is just no point. Alternately, you could do whatever your planned top set was without wraps and then do 1-2 more sets with wraps for a bit of overload and technique practice, then continue with the rest of your workout. You will have to cut volume from somewhere to make room for the sets in wraps though, unless your program is already way less volume than you can handle.
That’s what some people claim, the compression causes the cartilage under your kneecap to wear down faster. However, tissues adapt and regenerate so as long as you don’t over do it and don’t squat in wraps all the time it shouldn’t be a problem. I was using wraps every week since January until about a month ago and my knees are fine, Malanichev always squats in wraps, all the time. However, I wasn’t doing a ton of volume in wraps and Malanichev only does one work set. I would just take a month or two off from the wraps a couple times a year and even when using wraps still do most of my volume without them.
I see no harm in practicing wrapping yourself at home, just don’t go crazy with it. If anything it will probably bother your forearms and biceps more than anything. Just figure out how you want your knees wrapped and how to wrap them tight and you’re good, better to fuck around a bit at home than waste time between sets in the gym unwrapping and rewrapping.
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Was a shorter read than I thought it would be. One bit I found particularly interesting was when it was saying about how your squat technique with wraps might be different than without wraps to use the wraps best and lift most weight. I could descend a bit faster too I think
Meet is probably around March TBC with my friend.
It’s somewhere a few posts up but current program is Garrett Blevins Skynet AI Powerlifting doesn’t have an option for my situation with wraps but one or two reps extra or swapped out for reps in sleeves shouldn’t throw off the whole thing.
Like for example today I’m gonna do 11x2 @ 140kg so maybe do one set in wraps?
16/11/18
Lotsa work today so can’t slow down to appreciate a quiet night at Doherty’s Brunswick.
Now im a member so I can go here and the city gym as much as I can. Incredible gyms with big strong guys everywhere to push me.
Fatigue for today set @ Squat:3 , Bench:1, Deadlift:3. Low rep squats always feel good. Bench always light weight baby. Deadlift a bit sticky off the floor conventional technique a bit sloppy today.
Comp Squat 10x2 @ 140kg
Did a single in wraps too and the worst thing was walking it out. Felt hella shaky like I could topple and ended up standing uneven lol. Moved well though. Could be like 30% tighter on the wrapping though. Overall wraps feels less uncomfy.
Will probably get a form check and more wrapped squatting advice from the forum.
Comp Bench 6x5 @ 85kg
Conventional Deadlift 3x8 @ RPE 8 @ 140kg
Overhead Press 3 Sets @ 50,60,60 kg
Pull Ups 3 Sets
Barbell Row 3 Sets
When you fancy doing some of that lifting they do in the Olympics
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Is that 11 doubles or 2 sets of 11? I would definitely add weight to the bar for any work in wraps.
This is something I had an issue with too, for some reason it felt better if I unracked with my feet wider apart. Other than that just practice.
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11 doubles so like I do 1-2 reps in wraps or two singles.
Will try unracking wider. Might bust out the safeties next time too just to be safe.