I’ve been thinking about maybe doing these training updates a bit more often, it would keep the log active. The question is do you guys want to see them?
An observation I’ve made is that nowadays I don’t rely on wrist wraps, straps and belt nearly as much as I used to. Wrist wraps I haven’t used in ages, I use straps on my Deadlift AMRAPs and I use my belt only during front squats. (I may use it with deadlifts if my back is feeling cranky)
I’m also doing my lifts in a more controlled manner than ever before. A squat descent takes multiple seconds now. Of course I still lift the weight aggressively, I’m just slowing the negatives down a lot. Feels good.
Today I trained alone, and did the whole session with practically no rest between sets (which is quite usual to me nowadays) I only rested between sets of squats as that was the only movement that wasn’t paired with something else. Even then the rest was sub one minute.
So, today’s training:
Lower body
1 Beltless Highbar squat
2x3
increase weight
2x2,5 (last set amrap)
2A Rack pulls from pin 2 (about mid shin)
2x5,10 (last set amrap)
2B Standing crunch on lat pulldown
3x10
3A Seated leg curl
3x8,15
3B Hip Belt Squat
4x20
3C Hanging leg raise
3x15
4A Seated calf raise
2x15
4B Leg extension
2x15
4C Situps with a twist
2x10/side
quad stretch
5 minutes of cardio
Notes:
Squat felt really solid. I squat in a very quad-dominant way with a high bar position. I push my knees out and forward and descent in a rather upright position. I can’t do that with a belt, for some reason it seems to turn squat into a more posterior chain-focused movement.
After squats I did rack pulls from mid shin. A huge difference in the way these feel on my back compared to pulling from the ground. I used straps on my last set but went without them for the first two. Given the bad knurling on our bars it really taxed the grip.
Next up, seated leg curl. I have a problem with the movement - the stack is too small. I can rep the whole stack for over 30 reps so I really had to do everything in my power to make the lift harder so I could do sets of eight here. Last set I wanted to let it a bit looser and did 15.
Our gym doesn’t have a belt squat machine so I just stacked up a bunch of plates to create two platforms and squatted between them. I used a dip belt for this. Keeping an upright torso and squatting deep with constant tension for sets of 20 had my quads screaming.
By rep 8 of the first set I was already contemplating life, just so you know.
Lastly I did calf raises with a five second stretch at the bottom. That eliminates the stretch reflex really well. Also did a three second peak contraction hold at the top here.
I paired it with leg extensions to get a bit of isolation for the quads going on. Did a one-second hold on top of each rep here.
I did the quad stretch after my second set of these.
The situps with a twist are one of Scott Abel’s brainchilds. Basically you hold your arms pointed straight forward (if youw were standing) the whole time and as you come up you reach for the toes of the opposing side with one of your arms.
So go up reach for left leg toes with right arm, go down. Go up, right leg toes with left hand etc.
Finished up with 5 minutes of cardio.
All in all, a solid session. No pain in the wrong places, everything felt just like it was supposed to feel. Spent ten minutes afterwards in the locker room trying not to die.