That sounds like your best bet for the current situation 
Part of this is mental too! I’m tired of avoiding squats due to pain. I’ve definitely reached the mindset of “This is ridiculous and I’m sick of it. I’m going to do what I want. Avoiding things hasn’t improved anything.”
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Wednesday, 11/14/18
Air temperature - a balmy 24* F or -4.4* C. Time to rearrange my garage so I can set up my weights in there 
Goals worked to: front squats, healthy shoulders, stretching my shirt sleeves
Front Squats / shoulders
- bw x 20
- 65 x 10
- 115 x 5
- 140 x 3 / 1-arm DB press 30 x 12
- 165 x 1 / 1-arm DB press 35 x 12
- 165 x 1 / 1-arm DB press 45 x 8
- 165 x 1 / rear delt flye 15 x 12
- 165 x 1 / rear delt flye 15 x 12
- 165 x 1 / rear delt flye 15 x 15
DB swings / BB curls
- 55 x 10 / 60 x 8
- 55 x 10 / 70 x 8
- 55 x 10 / 80 x 8
BB reverse lunges
- 65 x 5/leg
- 65 x 5/leg
- 65 x 5/leg
Full v-ups
- bw x 15
- bw x 15
- bw x 15
DB shoulder presses started pinching, so i can’t do them yet. Like @Frank_C, I’m committing to shoulder rehab for a bit.
After Sunday’s back squats, I was reminded why I don’t do them regularly - they jack up my hips. I have to wear an orthotic in my injured leg’s shoe and, while it’s helpful, it doesn’t completely fix the deficits.
With my anatomical structure, I can get into a much better squat position with front squats. I’ve no idea of I’ll be up for doing them 5 times each week, but I’ll view 3 times per week, plus my other exercising, as a victory. I’ll call them TWFS (thrice-weekly front squats) lol.
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If front squats are your thing then run with it! They’re the devil for me. I think they exacerbated my hip impingement and lead me down the path to surgery. They’re also the movement that instantly brought back my pain in July. I was doing great until I tried them again. I wish I could do them because it’d help my cleans.
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That sucks you had to learn the hard way that front squats don’t work for you. Cleans don’t trouble your hip or shoulder? They screw with something on me, but I’m not sure what. Lol. I do ok with one or two light, high-rep back squat sets each week, but that’s it.
I do power cleans and I have to catch it high in a quarter squat position. Right now I can only do pulls (just the jump and shrug portion of the movement) because the high pull (elbows up) motion causes some movement and noise in my shoulder that’s quite gross.
I’ve used pulls to improve my clean in the past so I know I can still make progress. Here’s some videos to show my awkward version of the power clean.
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Your power cleans look just like mine! That’s encouraging.
Especially at your height, moving nearly 300 pounds from a dead stop on the ground to your shoulders is explosively powerful. Don’t underestimate your strength.
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That’s what I keep telling myself! I think I’ve finally accepted that I’m not going to do what other people do on bench and squat. If I hit a three plate bench someday then I’ll be ecstatic and call it good, but I’m not too worried about it. I’m close. I’d like to squat four plates but I don’t know if it’s in my future. My hip still hurts even after the injection. Eventually I’m going to learn that some things just aren’t worth it. I could stop squatting today but the down side is that I’d have to adopt some single leg work and it takes twice as long!
I’ve accepted that I’m a damn good pull athlete. I’ll just keep thriving with deadlifts and power cleans and hang my hat on that. That video shows how much I’ve let my power slip. I almost had that 320. Nowadays I don’t even move 275 that fast. I can get it back; I just need to get past these injuries and make it a priority.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had your form critiqued, but if yours is close to mine then you’re doing good. CT watched one of my lifts (I think it was the 295 lbs clean) and said my form was pretty good. I’ll call that a win and I don’t worry about making any changes.
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Being able to excel at pulling movements is a great trait to have. The hips are really the power source for the body, so the ability to harness that engine situates you well for nearly all force production needs. I mean, when was the last time you lay down on your back to move a heavy weight that just happened to be perfectly symmetrical? Yeah, me neither. Lol
Again, that’s good to know! I haven’t really done cleans for a decade, and I was only informally assessed by a friend and my brother, both of whom were more proficient with cleans than me. If I get back into them, I’ll post a video here.
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11/17/18
Front squats / single-leg standing calf raise
- bw x 15
- 65 x 10
- 115 x 5
- 140 x 3
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 11
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 11
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 11
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 11
- 165 x 1
Low incline bench press
- 115 x 8
- 135 x 8
- 155 x 6 (ouch)
- 155 x 6 (ouch)
- 55 (db) x 14 (3-second negatives)
Semi-supinated rows / push-ups
- 110 x 6
- 135 x 6
- 145 x 6
- 155 x 6 / bw x 20
- 165 x 8 / bw x 20
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Nice full body workout here TnT.
Got almost everything worked here.
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Just take the 1 off the 155 and I can relate to this!
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@ChickenLittle that made me lol! I learned I need to forwgo all OHP and BB pressing right now; what does incline bench hurt on you?
@mortdk thanks! Instead of doing a true full-body workout, I held back so I can do everything else today. Hopefully limiting myself to around 25 total sets will help me recover and be able to lift daily instead of every other day.
Mostly my pride! If I don’t get the grip width right my right shoulder. I think it’s one of those exercises that if you hate it, you should probably do more of it…lol
I can relate. For me, it’s a matter of grip angle - neutral grip, ergo dumbbells, works well, but pronated grip on a barbell currently does not.
Heh if that’s a hard and fast rule, I need to redo 90% of my training regimen.
I’ve learned that the exercises I need most are a combo of those I love and look forward to and those I dread and try to avoid.
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Sunday, 11/18/18
Goals worked towards: front squats, shoulder health, consistency
Front squats / pull aparts / db curls
- bw x 15
- 65 x 10 / 2x red x 13 (pull aparts)
- 115 x 5 / 2x red x 14
- 145 x 3 / 2x red x 13
- 175 x 1 / 2x red x 13
- 175 x 1 / 2x red x 13
- 175 x 1 / 30 x 12 (db curls)
- 175 x 1 / 30 x 12
- 175 x 1 / 30 x 12
Deficit deadlifts / lateral raises
- 205 x 2 / 25 x 8
- 235 x 2 / 25 x 8
- 265 x 2 / 25 x 8
- 265 x 2 / 25 x 8
- 265 x 2
- 265 x 2
- 265 x 2
I’ve decided to add deficit deadlifts to the daily dose workout. Yeah, they’re really light, but they’re better than nothing. I’ll add a backpack with weights next week, once I’ve adjusted.
Tonight was scheduled to increase the front squats weight by five percent. It felt great! I might bump the regular weight to this in a couple weeks.
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Are you going to deadlift every day you do your Daily Dose? The program advocates using variations throughout so you’re spot on with deficits. I thought about throwing those in today but I’m still undecided. I might just settle for snatch grip deads.
I’m unsure whether I’m going to do deficit deadlifts every day or twice a week, switching between them and lunge variations so I keep up with single-leg work. As for doing variations, I’m forced to right now - I only have the small, screw-lock type barbell and plates. I’ve read here those bars can snap at around 275 pounds. 265 has always felt stable, so I’m sticking with that. For extra weight, I’ll wear a backpack with plates in it. My biggest plates are 25 pounds, so the deadlift is deficit by default, and I like to take a different grip each set - regular, wide, snatch - to emphasize different back muscles.
You should go nuts and do some snatch-grip deficits with me! When lifting a specific exercise so frequently, we can play around with different nuances.
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Friday, 11/23/18
Can’t Stop the Gravy Gains
Front squats / pull-aparts / single calf raise
- 15 x 15 / 2x red x 15 (pull apart)
- 65 x 10 / 2x red x 15
- 115 x 5 / 2x red x 15
- 140 x 3 / 2x red x 15
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 12 (single calf raise)
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 12
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 12
- 165 x 1 / 10 x 12
- 165 x 1
Pushups on handles / Semi-supinated row
- bw x 15 / 120 x 6
- 10 x 12 / 145 x 6
- 20 x 12 / 155 x 6
- 25 x 12 / 165 x 6
- 30 x 12 / 175 x 7
Thanksgiving prep considering med my time earlier this week, so it felt great to exercise off some calorie-dense food
Daily dose front squats are feeling great, though as I’d figured, I’m doing them three times each week instead of five.
I’m most pleased with the pushups; 30 pounds extra for 12 reps felt great throughout my upper body.
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It really doesn’t matter, but I read an article a few days ago (probably here on TN) about doing only deficit, a small deficit, and only doing comp lift when competing.
NO, DDD, is about doing DL (or another lift) 5 times a week.
You are really doing this the way it was meant fo be I think.
Are you doing DD front squat as well, but 3 days a week? I know @Frank_C did that too. I thought it might be a bit rough on recovery.
If I should do it with two lifts it would be an upper body and a lower body lift.
Looking forward to see how it goes over the next month or two.
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