New Boy

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
You folks who squat without safeties are brave, I say. Have you ever tried pointing your toes out a bit more when you squat?

There are no safety bars, although there are holes for them. I’m sure it would help Psychologically if I could use some. As for my toes, I watched an EliteFTS video, and they were telling a guy to straighten his toes so that he could ‘spread the floor’ better and to help keep his knees out. Before that my toes did point out more.

Regarding the shoulder, sounds like a strain or bruise. Let’s hope it’s nothing more than that, at least. But if you can OHP and rotate your shoulder to hold the bar to squat, perhaps it’s only minor.[/quote]

It’s feeling a bit better this morning, and it only really pains me in one plain of movement. Band Pullaparts hurt like hell, as does benching and rowing. Vertical work does’nt hurt atall. I’m hoping it will clear up enough to have a go at some Bench pressing this weekend.

I’m with snap, you’ve got some stones squatting without any catches. Really surprised any gym these days would have squat stands. Anyhow, squats looked good nice training.

Today is meant to be my Max effort upper body day, but guess what, I still cant bench.
Good news though, I found that I can do Dumbell rows, rather than my favourite BB Rows.

So I decided to do push presses as a Max Effort lift.

10/9/2011

Dunbell Rows
77lb DB Right Arm:8 Left Arm:6
88lb DB Right Arm:8 Left Arm:6
99lb DB Right Arm:8 Left Arm:5
The heaviest set did agravate my shoulder a bit, so I stopped here

Push Presses:
Barx10
132x8
154x5
165x5
176x5
187x5 (video)
198x3
The push presses went well. Nice and fast. I accentuated the negative to give my shoulders a bit more work. Would like some feedback on the video below, as I’m not sure if I use too much leg drive, and am I meant to come up on my toes like that.

Finished off with 4 sets of pulley standing crunches.

Leg night, and all is well!
I had to work late so couldnt do everything tonight, but got my squats and RDL’s done, so I should be covered.

Lots more speed out of the hole tonight, so things felt better, and was able to keep my upper body tighter tonight.

I also found this on the Elite FTS site:
http://asp.elitefts.net/qa/training-logs.asp?qid=152933&tid=124

In it, Dave Tate talks about elbow positioning. Looking at my squat videos, I thought my elbows were too far back, so I concentrated on keeping them further forward tonight. It did help me keep my chest up, but felt a bit un-natural. I guess I’ll get used to it!

Anyhoo, heres the scores for this evening:

13/09/2011

Squats:
132x8
198x6
231x5
275x5
297x5
308x2

RDL’s:
132x8
174x8
242x6,6,6,6

The RDL’s felt good, and id’nt pull on my injured shoulder like they did last week. Now (3 hours later) I can definitely feel my shoulder.

Welcome to the forum and the senior section…errrrrr, the “more mature part of the forum”.

Very strong lifts. It looks like your heels are coming up when you squat. Make sure that the weight stays on them and you shouldn’t have that trouble anymore.

james

As far as legs on push presses go?, the more legs the better. It’s a whole body exercise.

The toe bit is a bit unnecessary, but who am I to judge, I go up on my toes on deadlifts!

Nice work Staffy.

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
As far as legs on push presses go?, the more legs the better. It’s a whole body exercise.

The toe bit is a bit unnecessary, but who am I to judge, I go up on my toes on deadlifts!

Nice work Staffy.
[/quote]

You go up on your toes on deadlifts??? We need to have a talk.

[quote]atypical1 wrote:
Welcome to the forum and the senior section…errrrrr, the “more mature part of the forum”.

Very strong lifts. It looks like your heels are coming up when you squat. Make sure that the weight stays on them and you shouldn’t have that trouble anymore.

james[/quote]

Hi James,

I think that I was falling forward a bit on those squats. Did’nt seem to feel like that that last night, as I was able to keep my chest up more. Will get another video soon, and see if I’m right.

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
As far as legs on push presses go?, the more legs the better. It’s a whole body exercise.

The toe bit is a bit unnecessary, but who am I to judge, I go up on my toes on deadlifts!

Nice work Staffy.
[/quote]

I’ll try and keep my heels on the floor next time. Not sure how easy it’ll be though. :slight_smile:

Welcome aboard!

Upper body Rep day (sort of)

Although the shoulder still hurts, I gave it a little test by doing some push ups, and surprisingly they were pain free!
So what did I do? Well, I thought it would be a good idea to try and do some benching. Could’nt do standard grip, but close grip felt kind of Ok.

CG Bench press (Index finger on the smooth part of the bar)
Bar: 10, 10
110x8,8
176x8
198x8
220x6,6
I was very happy at the time about this. Now, its aching like hell. We shall see what the morning brings.

Pulldowns (V handle)
Block 12: 10,7,6,3

Standing Military presses:
143x10 (Rep PR)
154x6,5,5,5
I think the push presses I did at the weekend had a seriously positive effect. I was trying to move the bar much more quickly, and because I was using less weight than with the push press, the weight felt ‘light’.

Late to the party as always…but welcome…

Upper body max effort day, and still no chance of benching. I think I’ll have to go to the docs, and get it checked out. (I hate going to the doctor.)

Anyway, Did push presses again for max effort lift, and they went great. I guess I’m at that stage with them where you improve quickly, while your body learns the groove.

So, the scores today were:

Seated Casble row:
Block 12: 10,10,10,10

Push press:
132x8
154x6
176x6
187x6
198x5
209x4

Standing pulley crunches:
4x10

While doing my crunches, I spied a pec dec machine. Now I know that everyone hates them, but having done no benching for 3 weeks or more, I’m willing to do pretty much anything to get my chest to do some work. So I tried it out, and did 3 sets of 8 just to get my chest working, and not agravate my shoulder.
As the bodybilders out there would say: ‘The pumpz was good!’

I’ve been feeling a bit beaten up for the last few days, so decided to miss legs out this week, and let myself recover.

I did do my usual upper body day last night though.

21/9/2011
Close Grip Bench
Bar 2x10
132x8
176x8
220x8x2
231x3

Pulldowns
Block 12x11,7,7,2

Military Press
154x7,7,5,6

Some real good stuff going on in here, are you having shoulder issues? If so I have fucked up shoulders myself, and didnt flat bench for about 6 months because of it. Basically because I benched elbows flared for so many years it tore my shit up…Anyways since I have been doing Band and Broomstick dislocates, pullaparts and starting in on the scarecrows my shoulder pain with what used to be a 7-8 is now a 2-3.

Where abouts are you in the uk staffy ??

[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Some real good stuff going on in here, are you having shoulder issues? If so I have fucked up shoulders myself, and didnt flat bench for about 6 months because of it. Basically because I benched elbows flared for so many years it tore my shit up…Anyways since I have been doing Band and Broomstick dislocates, pullaparts and starting in on the scarecrows my shoulder pain with what used to be a 7-8 is now a 2-3. [/quote]

I’ll look up the dislocates, and scarecrows. I do pullaparts, and thats the plane of movement that gives me pain.
I can close grip Bench, and do rows now. Can’t do standard grip Bench. Weirdly I can do overhead pressing with no pain.

As the Push Press is now my favourite movemnet, I’m not that bothered right now.

Big Nurse,
I live in Luton, just north of London. Originally I’m a southerner from Portsmouth.
You’re down in Plymouth right? I’m down that way in October for a couple of days. In Exeter.

[quote]Staffy wrote:

[quote]MattyXL wrote

I

Big Nurse,
I live in Luton, just north of London. Originally I’m a southerner from Portsmouth.
You’re down in Plymouth right? I’m down that way in October for a couple of days. In Exeter.[/quote]

Work thing ??

[quote]big nurse wrote:

[quote]Staffy wrote:

[quote]MattyXL wrote

I

Big Nurse,
I live in Luton, just north of London. Originally I’m a southerner from Portsmouth.
You’re down in Plymouth right? I’m down that way in October for a couple of days. In Exeter.[/quote]

Work thing ??
[/quote]

Yep. I work in tourism marketing, and spend time travelling round the country training the travel industry on the country I represent.

This week I’m travelling alot for work, so I am trying to find gyms to train in.

Todays gym was Factory Gym in Edinburgh. Really nice place. It had a proper power rack, all sorts of bars (more of which later). and some very nice machines.

Anyway, heres what I did:

26/9/2011

Chest supported row Machine:
210x10
225x10x4
This machine was really great, I could really feel it in my lats, and felt really strong.

Push Press:
132x8
154x6
187x5
198x5
209x2
209x1
132x8
This felt very heavy today. Perhaps Scottish metal weighs more than English metal. Anyway, struggled bigtime through these sets. The only good thing was that they had those plates that are all the same size, so by the time you work up to about 200lbs, it looks like you’re actually lifting a gazillion pounds! Very good for the ego. I recomend it!

I spied that they had a trap bar, which my gym does’nt, so I thought I’d try out, for deadlifting, as I’ve never done that either. (My gym does’nt allow deadlifting. They say its too noisy.)

Anyway, This exercise was really cool!!!
Trap Bar Deadlifts:
165x5
231x5
319x3
385x2
407x0 I think optimistically I moved it 2 inches off the floor
319x5x2

Not being a deadlifter, is the trap bar comparable weight wise, or is it a very different movement with a straight bar??
Enjoyed these very much.

Finished off with some Kettlebell swings:
53x20x2