Yogi's Random Training Thoughts

here’s my amazon.co.uk supplement shopping list for this month:

-D3 with iodine
-Curcumin
-EPA/DHA
-vitamin K2
-Vitamin C
-ZMA
-Red Palm Oil (essentially just a vitamin E supp)

Costs me a fucking fortune trying to delay the inevitable heart attack/cancer to which I’ll eventually succumb.

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@theBird so it turns out the trap bar is the best thing ever.

Gave it a bash today and worked up to a single with 4 plates! Haha. Bailed on the rep halfway through because I felt my position going and I’m supposed to be in rehab mode, but I had a blast deadlifting today so I’m going to do trap bar deadlifts as my main leg movement from now on.

Moved on to reverse lunges with a front squat grip afterwards and I really fucking suck at those. I’m all over the place, so I reckon getting good at those’ll make a big difference to my mobility.

So it’s looking like leg day is now going to be:

-trap bar dead (5/3/1 style with a VERY conservative training max)
-reverse lunges
-leg curls
-leg raises
-stir the pot/face pulls

VERY heavy posterior chain/core focus as you can see, and my poor ole quads are going to shrivel up to nothing, but a few months of this should have me lifting like a champ when I come back to squats, hopefully with a much stronger core.

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Thats awesome news.
Im so keen to try one, if and once my lower back feels 90%. Unfortunately my regular gym does not have one, but I will find somewhere that does and maybe just buy the bar myself.

How low down are you pulling from? From my understanding you have 2 options of how you can grab the handles, with one option been higher up than the other? How often do you think you will use it? Probably would be an idea to be cautious and cycle it in and out of your programming??

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Eh Yogi, I’ve always wondered, what are your main lifts (big 3 + overhead press)? I know you’re primarily training for bodybuilding and all but I’m sure you’ll have a rough idea whats your 5rm or something like that.

Considering you’ve never really posted and of your lifts before, as far as I know. I’ve always thought you would have a…

4.5 plate squat
3.5 plate bench
2.5 plate overhead press
3-4 plate deadlift considering you have a history of back injuries?

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He once said somewhere that he is front squatting 315 for 5 or 185 for 30 on different leg days,yet he hasn’t back squatted 405.I don’t remember if he wrote anything else but I think there was some more at a thread called ‘‘yogi how do you train’’ or something like that

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Interesting question! Sadly, between my messed up shoulder and weakass lower back, my lifts have never really been all that impressive except for my bench, which I don’t even do anymore.

I hit a 4 plate bench on a decline YEARS ago, and was pretty sure I was closing in on a 4 plate regular bench before I had to just admit that I needed to stop benching or I’d not be able to do ANY pressing later in life. Kinda sucky, but so what.

I’ve never lifted 4 plates on anything, really, because my lower body was always done with the intention of keeping my lower back healthy, so instead I opted for stupidly high reps like Straongfak said. It’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about the hex bar. The fact I practically hit 4 plates on my first go has reassured me that I’m not a total pussy, and can actually shift some iron if I find an exercise that allows for my mobility deficits.

To give you an idea of the sort of weights I’m working with for upper stuff, here’s what my last workouts have been:

-Pre-exhaust chest then hit 45 degree incline 100k, 5 sets of that with a 3 second negative (been using the smith for this for the last 6 months so being very careful and starting out slow - would probably be good for a 120k max, probably hit 3 plates by spring if my shoulder stays happy and I stop pre-exhausting)
-dumbbell bench with 42k bells (that’s the heaviest my gym has. I’ve used more in the past)
-Chins with 2 plates (3 I think, maybe 5? Can’t remember)

And lower body is currently a farce so let’s not go there. My only real go-to lifts are dumbbell bench and chest supported rows. I rotate through exercises fairly regularly for the sake of keeping it interesting.

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I use the high handles. In future maybe I’ll try the lower and even the deficit but the high ones are adequate for now.

I think I’m just going to go for a fairly simple 5x5 type approach at first while I get used to the lift, then program it 5/3/1 style. It’ll be my main exercise on lower days.

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I am so glad you guys are still talking about trap deads because…

HUGE FAN OF TRAP BARS!!!

IMO Squats and Deads are both on either sides of the ideal leverages and a trap bar is right in the middle putting the (any) human body in the ideal situation for moving heavy (and all) weights. That “ideal” position is what keeps our bodies safe during and after the lifting.

What I mean by any is that you can adjust so many variables to make sure the lift is ideal to your own personal leverages to a much higher degree than you can with either the squat or dead.

Squating nor Deadlifting are mandatory but compound lower body movements are. Trap bar deads (using the low handles) can be a very adequate substitute for one or both of those lifts. Add in goblet/landmine squats and lunges and BOOM call it a great workout.

If your focus is powerlifting I would only substitute them for deads (ROM/carryover thing). And if you are having lower back issues any time during your program I would suggest switching to trap bar deads to get through that.

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great post and I couldn’t agree more!

Time will tell if my first foray into trap bar deadlifting was just a fluke, but I’m pretty excited about giving it a proper go.

If I can pull with a trap bar pain-free then anybody can.

How do you guys feel about a trap bar for farmers carry? Just in case Santa asks me what I want for Christmas :wink:

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I prefer farmer’s handles myself, but carries are fine with a trap bar.

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I’m another huge fan of the trapbar. I’ve always had a tonne of lower back issues but I’ve recently been having a lot more success with conventional deadlifts which I attribute mostly to better bracing as well as more frequent belt use. But earlier this year I was using the trapbar a lot and loving it.

One word of warning though - don’t get too carried away with it and think it can’t still really fuck you up! Much safer than a barbell, but it can still cause problems.

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Milking your beginner gains, I see.

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I set my high school record on a high handled trap bar at 690 lbs. I feel like the high handled pull has really little carryover to other lifts or muscular benefits. Maybe I’m just weird though.

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haha, yeah, I’ve been keeping that in mind hence my not grinding out my four plates.

nice pull! Obviously as an “easier” lift it’s not going to have as much benefit as others but I’m sure if you load it up heavy enough something has to adapt to the stress

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Lol I left out the important part of my post, sorry.
I think the trap bar deadlift has a good amount of benefit if the posture and movement itself is paid attention to. I pulled with a pretty rounded back and hitching. I hardly looked like I lifted weights (not much has changed, lol). I do think that the low handle trap bar deadlift is an awesome lover body movement though, with the benefit of some additional trap work.

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dude if you locked that shit out then that’s all that counts! Haha.

My grand plan is high handles → low handles → deficit but that’ll literally be years down the line.

The real question is at what point do I add the squats back in? That’s something that will require a great deal of pondering. It’s not like there’s going to be some level of strength I can get to where it’ll be obvious that I can squat again. Is it a 5 plate trap bar DL? Hold a plank for 5 minutes (the very thought of which hurts my soul)? A set of 30 hanging leg raises?

I dunno. I suppose I’ll just have to trust my instincts and try and forget that my instincts are terrible and steer me wrong at every turn.

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Do walking lunges hurt? What constitutes your desire to squat?