404 Squats Not Found

[OverheadDeadlifts]

23 year old male, 6ft, 97kg gym weight (I need bathroom scales).

Golfers elbow in both elbows even with wide grip high bar, and my right quad tendon won't shut the fuck up no matter how much I sit back with low bar, so I think it's time to just ditch squatting for a while. This log will feature bench gains and hopefully deadlift gains now that I've committed to throwing a lot more volume at it. My programming is kind of a mash up of what I've learned from RTS/BBM/Sheiko. I'll probably pick up some ideas from all this HPS stuff as well since it's in a very similar vein to what I'm doing. I think a 140kg bench and 220kg deadlift are reasonable short term goals for now.

Monday:

Bench: 8x5 90kg (70%)
Deadlift: 7x5 130kg (70%)
Pec Fly 4x8
Rear Delt 3x10
Hamstring curls 4x8

Right forearm pain on bench, pretty sure it's forearm splints, no big deal. 7x5 @70% deadlift wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, maybe even easier than the 5x3 (80%) I was doing previously.

Hamstring curls are new, I just wanted something to replace goodmornings with. I'm still doing GM's, just once a week instead of twice and I might cut them altogether since they also irritate my elbows. Rear delt flys are also new and gave me a satisfying stretch across my anterior shoulder/pec. Cool.

[Wilhelm]

New log, who dis?

Thanks for adding your log, @OverheadDeadlifts : )

[BenM]

As an IT guy, I approve of your log title. Welcome aboard!

[mbasic]

I lol'd

[OverheadDeadlifts]

As an IT guy, I approve of your log title. Welcome aboard!

New log, who dis?

Thanks for adding your log, @OverheadDeadlifts : )

I lol'd

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Wednesday

Bench 3x2 102.5kg (80%), singles up to 115kg @7.5
Deadlift singles up to 172.5kg @7
Barbell Rows 3x5 80kg
Press 4x3 65kg
DB Hammer Curls

Finally figured out why things have been feeling like 5kg heavier than they should when using hook grip recently. When setting up with straps/DOH I keep my arms relaxed, but with hook grip I've been gripping hard and tensing up which makes setting up much more difficult. Looser arms made a 162.5kg single feel almost as easy as the previous single at 152.5kg. Rad.

I've been pressing once a week and throwing 2.5kg on each time and now I'm matching numbers I was hitting when I actually emphasised press training with microloading. Turns out adding 15kg to my bench and doing some heavy triceps work means easy press gains which is cool because, historically, adding weight to my press does precisely nothing for my bench.

Sabo Goodlifts also arrived today (£25 on ebay). They're a Russian/European size lower than my Sabo Deadlifts and they'll need some breaking in. They're size 39 which translates to a UK 6.5 or US 7.5. That's right, I'm 6ft tall and can fit into size 6.5's. That must make me some crazy outlier, right?

I'll probably end up writing a flat shoe comparison once I do some training in the Goodlifts, if people are interested. I've used Chucks, Reebok power shoe/TR's, self modified (cobbled?) Power Perfect II's, Sabo Deadlifts and, soon, Sabo Goodlifts.

[BenM]

You know what they say about people with small feet.......


They need to buy small shoes.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

You know what they say about people with small feet.......


They need to buy small shoes.

I actually used to buy size 9's up until I was about 18 years old because adolescent me refused to believe that somebody my height needs size 8 shoes. Turns out even 8's are generous and 7.5 is about right.

[mbasic]

Finally figured out why things have been feeling like 5kg heavier than they should when using hook grip recently. When setting up with straps/DOH I keep my arms relaxed, but with hook grip I've been gripping hard and tensing up which makes setting up much more difficult. Looser arms made a 162.5kg single feel almost as easy as the previous single at 152.5kg. Rad.

funny, I'm the opposite.

With hook grip, the bar in the absolute lowest spot in my fingers. . . .
. . and general my arms are relax, because I know how the hook works.
So a shorter pull/ROM.

Straps? carried a little higher up in the hand, but still relaxed arms....becasue I know straps work.

DOH? worst, because I have to think about squeezing the bar like a mofo.
A lot of residual "arm tension" builds up in the biceps, etc
And it seems to have to been put even higher up in the hand.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Finally figured out why things have been feeling like 5kg heavier than they should when using hook grip recently. When setting up with straps/DOH I keep my arms relaxed, but with hook grip I've been gripping hard and tensing up which makes setting up much more difficult. Looser arms made a 162.5kg single feel almost as easy as the previous single at 152.5kg. Rad.

funny, I'm the opposite.

With hook grip, the bar in the absolute lowest spot in my fingers. . . .
. . and general my arms are relax, because I know how the hook works.
So a shorter pull/ROM.

Straps? carried a little higher up in the hand, but still relaxed arms....becasue I know straps work.

DOH? worst, because I have to think about squeezing the bar like a mofo.
A lot of residual "arm tension" builds up in the biceps, etc
And it seems to have to been put even higher up in the hand.

I think I also squeeze like a motherfucker using DOH, but only the instant the pull starts so that it doesn't interfere with my setup. For some reason my brain was telling me to SQUEEZE, ALL TIME, RIGHT NOW from the second I gripped the bar with hook grip.

My theory for why I started tensing up my arms only with hook grip is because I DOH all my warm ups, and when the weight got heavy enough to warrant hooking my subconscious was probably thinking 'okay, work set time, gotta get extra tight' and that tightness trickled down to somewhere that being tight actually fucks things up for me.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday (why am I doing this, it says the day on the fucking post)

Bench 102.5kg 6x3 (80%)
Deadlift 152.5 4x3 (80%)
HAP (holding a plate) LTE's 25kg 4x10
ZERCHER good morning's 40kg 5x5
Neutral Grip Chin Ups

First impression of the Sabo Goodlift's: They are fantastic. I've always thought the sign of a good lifting shoe is how well it resists supination. I normally roll my feet side to side when setting up for deadlifts in order to find a good neutral position, and the Sabo Deadlifts let me do this pretty freely. However, I quickly hit a big rubber outsole wall when trying to push too far into supination with the Goodlift's. They feel nicely built up in that outer toebox area, much like Romaleos do. The strap is nice and wide, and the metal loop (which is chunky as hell) is secured by the same nylon webbing as the strap which bodes well for the shoe's longevity. I'll never understand why some manufacturers secure the loop with leather, because leather stretches and that loop is obviously going to be under some serious tension if you like to crank the strap. The straps on my old Power Perfect II's are ruined because the leather stretched and the loop doesn't sit correctly anymore.

Back in the home gym for a couple weeks so I had to improvise a substitute for triceps cable pushdowns. I really liked doing them LTE style with a plate, easy on the elbows. Also, in the search for a good morning replacement to remove all golfers elbow stress from my training, I tried doing an RDL with the bar swinging out in front to mimic the bar path of a good morning. Didn't like it. Then I tried zercher style and the movement pattern and difficulty matched up VERY closely with my good mornings, so I'll be doing them this way for a while.

[augeleven]

I've always thought the sign of a good lifting shoe is how well it resists supination.

Huh. I've never heard somebody talking of foot supination in the context of lifting. Do you have issues with your feet supinating, especially during the squat?
I'm currently trying to debug one of my feet, and I'm wondering if this could be part of the problem.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

I've always thought the sign of a good lifting shoe is how well it resists supination.

Huh. I've never heard somebody talking of foot supination in the context of lifting. Do you have issues with your feet supinating, especially during the squat?
I'm currently trying to debug one of my feet, and I'm wondering if this could be part of the problem.

Nah, just purely as a test of lateral stability in the shoe. I find that it's hard to pronate my foot so much that the outside of my shoe leaves contact with the ground, but I can certainly supinate enough that the inside comes off the ground quite easily. So if a shoe prevents or resists that loss of ground contact, I take it as a sign that it's quite laterally stable.

I did actually used to overdo 'knees out' on the descent of squats when I thought that lack of knees out was the reason my knees were caving in on the way up (it wasn't), which probably did put me too much into supination, but that was a long time ago.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Bench 90kg 8x5 (70%)
Deadlift 135kg 7x5 (70%)
DB Fly 7.5kg 4x8
A bunch of Hammer Curls
A few Front Raises
Some Lateral Raises
FLEXIBILITY PR: touched toes with locked knees

Deadlifts were a bit more challenging this week. The home gym warms up quickly which is no fun when you're gassed and sweaty going into your 7th set of deadlifts. Touching my toes with locked knees was cool though, never been able to do that before.

Also no hamstring curl or rear delt fly machine so threw in some raises instead. Decided fuck conventional wisdom and did both of these all the way to the top overhead instead of just stopping at shoulder height. I mean shoulder height is the hardest part of the ROM, so why stop there? It would be like stopping all your presses just above your forehead instead of driving them all the way to lockout, or only doing curls to elbow height. My shoulders felt pretty juicy after these so I'll probably keep them in as a fun new addition. Who doesn't want cannonball delts?

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Bench 115kg x1@8
Deadlift 172.5kg x1@7
Press 62.5kg 5x3
BB Row 90kg 5x5
Hammer Curl 16kg 5x8

It was my friend's birthday on Monday so I drank for 12 hours (I rarely drink), didn't sleep much, only managed 1300 calories on Tuesday because of the severe hangover and then started coming down with a cold last night. I felt like a pile of shit today, which is probably why my bench was up 0.5 rpe from last week. I'm just happy that I convinced myself to load up on paracetamol, ibuprofen and coffee and get the workout done in the first place.

My latest programming change has bumped up the weekly bench tonnage quite a bit, but things aren't going too well so far. I think I just need to 'build momentum' and the lower weight next week from the e1rm dropping should help me get things moving. Maybe it's time to start microloading again.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Yeah no fuck that. Quite possibly the most ill I had ever felt, and I deciding that adding more DOMS on to the already disgusting body aches was not a good idea. I'll train quite happily through a cold and that didn't feel like any cold I'd ever had. Maybe flu? Not sure.

Monday

Bench 87.5kg 8x5 (70%)
Deadlift 137.5 7x5 (70%)
Hammer Curls 16kg 3x8
Lateral Raises
Front Raises

The sun beating down on my home gym "shed" all day made for a not-so-nice deadlift session. Felt totally exhausted afterwards, to the point where the last couple reps were fast but I still felt the need to groan out loud at the top. Bench felt good today. The eccentric has been feeling janky the past few sessions when doing 5's at 70%, and I today I realised it's because I'm controlling the eccentric way more than I need to, if that makes sense. It's just too light at the moment to warrant labouring over the eccentric phase, and it's making things jittery on the way down.

Got round to measuring the total heel height of all my flat lifting shoes (and romaleos because why not). I'll probably post the results over in the Equipment forum because it's more likely to be seen by interested people than if I posted it here on my log.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Bench 112.5kg @7, 102.5kg 5x3 (80%)
Deadlift 175kg @7, 157.5kg 4x3 (80%)
Press 65kg 5x3
BB Rows 90kg 3x5
LTE 20kg 4x8

I think "Thoracic Extension" is my panacea cue that fixes everything. ROM or bar path feels weird on bench? Thoracic extension. Back rounding on deadlifts? Thoracic extension. Squishing or bar path problems on squats? Thoracic extension. That 1 weird old trick that personal trainers DON'T want you to know about????? Thoracic extension.

A friend mentioned signing up for a powerlifting meet in October and it's 5 minutes away from me. Never entered one before so it could be fun, as well as giving me a reason to start squatting again. Quad tendon feels okay at the moment, doesn't hurt when I press down on it. Last time I squatted was December so maybe it's time to reintroduce them.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Bench 90kg 8x5 (70%)
Deadlift 137.5 7x5 (70%)
Pec Fly 4x8
Rear Delt Fly 3x10
Hamstring Curls 3x8
Hammer Curls 3x8
Front Raises 3x8
Side Raises 3x8

Just building momentum.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Wednesday

Bench 115x1@7 (sweet)
Deadlift 177.5kg@8 (fuck)
Press 65kg 5x3
Rows 92.5kg 3x5
Hammer Curls 3x12
Side Raises 3x8

Maybe basing my deadlift training percentages off of a single on Wednesday after I did 7x5 on Monday isn't such a good idea since the fatigue is probably going to make the RPE fluctuate a lot. Hell, doing 7x5 deadlifts on Monday at the moment feels a little too Texas Methody, i.e. wrecking myself on Monday and spending the rest of the week recovering. Might need to spread it out a little more. Maybe 5x5@70% on Monday, 3x4@75% on Wednesday and 3x3@80% on Friday or something. Or start programming over 2 weeks instead of 1. Decisions.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Friday

Deadlift 177.5x1@7 (that's more like it), 160kg 4x3
Bench 105kg 5x3
Zercher GM 42.5kg 5x5
LTE 42.5kg 4x8
Bike sprints 4x20s
Lat Pulldown 3x8

Decided to redo the deadlift single from Wednesday and it went much better so I'll do it on Friday from now. Very busy in the gym due to good Friday so I had to use a rack for bench instead of the bench station. I couldn't get the hooks in a good position so I had to essentially do the top half of a bench rep to unrack it which, combined with the bench itself being much higher, made Bench harder than it should have been.

Also threw in some HIIT on a stationary bike to see if it makes Monday's deadlifts more tolerable. I have a feeling my baseline cardio is utterly shit and needs improving.

[OverheadDeadlifts]

Monday

Bench 90kg 8x5 (70%)
Deadlift 140kg 7x5 (70%)
Hamstring curls 4x8
DB Pec Fly 4x8
Hammer Curls 3x8
Side Raises 3x10

I like to leave at least 2 hours after I eat before training, and today I was reminded why I do that. Had about 1 hour 30 minutes between lunch and training (the meal also contained more fat than it should have) and I spent the first half of the workout with an uncomfortable stomach whilst doing burps that tasted like peanut butter.

Took me about 5 minutes to strip the plates off the bar after deadlifts because of the lower back pump, mostly in my left erector. Such a shitty feeling.

I feel like I should try doing squats on Wednesday, and I'm probably more likely to do them if I say it here so: I WILL do squats on Wednesday. I'm sort of at a crossroads as to what to do with my form to begin with. Common sense says I should sit back and a lot and stay the hell away from my knees, but that really didn't seem to reduce the quad tendon pain before. I actually like doing low bar fairly upright, and I used to do them super upright with quite a wide stance (they looked like high bar from the side) to avoid some hip pain I used to get. I think doing a more upright squat might also agree better with all the deadlifting I'm doing.