sick.

get a vid from the diagonal. Also, not that it's a big deal, it's usually easier to deal with the box if you turn it 45 degrees.

boxes can be used in some different ways, but I like to really sit back as much as possible. I even started going wide to look like a suited up PL donk.

Diagonal is how I have always box squatted before. I just did that to give my feet a point of reference to widen my stance a bit, and thats about as wide as I can go right now while getting that deep.

Camera angle - I dont have a lot of space off to the sides, but I'll try that next time.

1/17

soft tissue 6:30
mobility 7:11
weights 7:33

I went fast with the warmup stuff.

DL
145*10, 225*5*2, 285*3, 325*3, 375*3, 415*1 (used double overhand grip for all that)
425*2 (alternating grip), 425*2 (double overhand with thumbs taped), 425*2 (straps)

trap bar DL
400*1*2, 440*1, 490*2


circuit - 90 seconds between sets, 2 mins between circuits, added a KB swing set at the end

pull ups
5, 5

KB swings
62*12, 70*12, 80*12

DB row
75*8, 95*8

good mornings
195*8*2

end of circuit

flye EQI
15*45

lat EQI
15*45

end - 9:04

I think maybe my issue with this bar tearing up my hands is grip related, but its kind of an unusual problem. Long story - I've noticed the past few weeks, the muscles above and below my elbow on the left side are very sore. I figured this had something to do with more chins recently, and maybe that is contributing too, but I now think it has to do with my alternating DL grip when I face my left palm away. That has always felt un-natural. Back ~15 years ago, I always DL'ed with my right palm away and the left one toward me. That led to some muscle imbalances, so I have been switching back and forth the past year or so.

I think that when I have the left palm away now, its leading to slippage with my grip. I think its also leading to a left shoulder issue - the past couple weeks my left shoulder has been feeling weird. It hasnt bothered me at all benching, but last night I noticed when I tried to turn my left palm out for the mixed grip DL, it not only caused pain in my upper left forearm, lower biceps & triceps, it felt like it was damaging my shoulder.

I need to do something different. Maybe I do need to learn how to use a hook grip or something. I tried that last night, but it felt like my thumbs were going to break so I didnt follow through and instead just did a set double overhanded, then a set with straps.

One more comment unrelated to the above - I waited an extra day to do this workout because I still had DOMS in the inner thighs from doing those wider stance box squats the other day. I think I need to keep doing that to get those muscles stronger.

The hook will take at least 2 weeks to get used to (at least it does for me, also add in a black and blue thumbnail).

otoh, using straps on a DL really isn't the end of the world imo.

yeah, straps seem like the easiest short term solution. As long as I continue with the heavy trap bar DLs, my grip shouldnt suffer too much. If I ever decide to compete, I suppose I could use the right hand palm forward grip for every lift.

If I did want to try the hook grip, you're supposed to put your thumb under two of your fingers - right? I can do one, but it doesnt feel like a strong grip at all. When I try two, that's when my thumbs feel like they would break if I tried to lift - not the thumbnail areas, the 2nd bone feels like it would crack in half. I have weird thumbs I guess.

lol, it felt like that (thumb breaking) for me even at the meager 260 or whatever I lifted when I tried it...prob takes some getting used to. Possibly use it for warm-up sets for a few weeks to get used to it? Or just use straps.

I probably didnt even pull with 260 lbs of force to get that feeling.... Did you ever get used to it?

Yup.



I try to get as much as I possibly can, 3 fingers if possible. And ya, it really hurts whilst getting used to it.

What I've noticed with the hook grip is that the tighter you squeeze the less pain there is. If I try to crush the bar I can hook grip 400 without any pain, but if I get lazy and just pick the bar up then even 330 would be uncomfortable.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably play around with it some more and see if I can make it work.

1/19

disjointed soft tissue stuff - spent about 45 minutes doing it, but it took ~90 because of having to take care of other stuff - being interrupted several times.

mobility warmup - 6:51
weights - 7:13

12.5" box squats with 45 lbs of chains
55*8*2, 155*5, 195*3, 245*2 reps*3 sets then 1 set of 245*1/ (weight not including chains, same as last time)
I was getting a mild pain in my left knee since the last warmup set. It was starting to get a little worse, so I figured continuing squatting would be a bad idea. I dont think this is anything to be concerned about - its probably knots in my vmo.

5 minutes on treadmill at 2.5 mph to loosen up my knee

KB swings
10 swings followed by 45 seconds on treadmill at 2.2 mph per set
62*2, 70*2, 80*2

flye EQI
15*60

lat EQI
15*60

MB slams
15 slams followed by 30 seconds on treadmill at 2.2 mph per set
6 sets

done 8:10

Low energy tonight in addition to the gimpy knee. I didnt get much sleep the night before last, but got plenty last night. I dont know, but maybe that affected my energy level. I'm considering doing a real squat workout prior to DLing next, but I'm not sure yet.

psa:

http://ericcressey.com/high-performa...hup-variations

Good push up variations in that link. Those are very good alternatives to benching. They are much easier on the shoulders when done properly, plus they have the added side benefit of being a good core exercise. When you do some of the variations as shown in that link, they can actually be a good muscle building exercise.

1/21

There is something wrong with my left knee. I was showing my wife how to do split squats, before I warmed up, and I got a pain in my left knee that was much worse than the other night. I couldnt even do a split stance rotation after that. I skipped most of my warmup for that reason and just did upper body lifts. It feels fine walking around now, but I am a little concerned.

My wife was using the bench when I was ready to start benching, and I didnt want to wait, so I did some floor presses with chains instead.

Floor press with 45 lbs of chains
55*15*2, 145*8, 195*3*8
I liked the way these felt

Neutral grip chins
6, 6, 6

blast strap pushups + 45 lbs of chains
10, 8
That was kind of fun

blast strap rows
10, 10

blast strap fallouts
10, 10

flye EQI
15*60

lat eqi
15*60

Oh yeah, I saw my chiro today and asked him about my left shoulder and the grip issue on the DLs. He said my teres major (I think) is too short and tight on the left side, and showed me an interesting stretch. It looked similar to the band stretch by that SF crossfit guy in the stick scap video so I asked him about doing it with a band. He said that would be good and even suggested the proper angle I should do it with. I was going to do that pre workout tonight, but after I hurt my knee, I forgot all about it. I need to get in the habit of doing that stretch frequently.

1/23

I didnt time the soft tissue stuff, but I must have done it for ~90 minutes today. I got everything really good, including extra stuff on the quads, hammies, and shoulders - I spent a lot of time doing that SF crossfit sticky scap stuff including the band stretch.

My shoulders felt good and my left knee was no problem at all today. Warming up properly is important - especially when you get to be my age.

start mobility warmup - 4:18
weights - 4:45

DL
145*10, 225*5*2, 285*3, 325*3, 375*2, 415*1 (used double overhand grip for all that)
450*2*2 (straps)

trap bar DL
440*1, 465*1 (oops - I forgot to put a 25 lb plate on one side ), 490*1, 530*2


circuit - 90 seconds between sets, 2 mins between circuits, added a KB swing set at the end

pull ups (palms fwd)
5, 5

KB swings
62*12, 70*12, 80*12

DB row
90*8, 95*8

good mornings
205*8*2

end of circuit

flye EQI
15*45

lat EQI
15*45

end - 6:18

I guess you probably saw this and know a lot of this, but I thought this was informative:

http://www.mikereinold.com/2011/01/g...ion-iastm.html

yeah, I know a bit about Graston and my chiro has done it on my shoulders & biceps a few times. That's a good, informative link though - thanks for posting it.

I was not aware of the Gua Sha that the author mentions at the end of the article. I might look into that further. I wanted to buy some Graston tools for myself, but only providers can buy those and they cost several thousand dollars. I think I would be able to make effective use of Gua Sha tools.

1/25
7:26 mobility warmup
7:51 weights

12.5" box squats with 45 lbs of chains
55*8*2, 155*5, 195*3, 245*2 reps*7 sets (weight not including chains)
90 seconds between sets, feet wide.

My low back started to tighten up in the 2nd to last set, then got quite a bit tighter the last set. I DL'ed quite a bit two days ago, so I think my body said "that's enough of this ****". I decided to listen and rolled my glutes with a lacrosse ball for a couple minutes before continuing.

The knee did fine today. I did a lot of soft tissue stuff on the quads, hammies & glutes prior to working out, which helped. Also, I paid close attention to keeping my knees from caving during the squats. I think the initial problem last week probably happened due to slightly sloppy form, and maybe from not warming up as well as I should have.


KB swings/MB slams superset
10 KB swings then 15 MB slams followed by 60 seconds on treadmill at 2.2 mph per set
62*1, 70*2, 80*3
These supersets were pretty hard.

flye EQI
15*30

lat EQI
15*30


done 8:48. Short, but hard workout.

Hi,

got a question for you on my brother. Thought I'd ask it here rather than through PM in case other people are interested.

Warning: tl;dr :/

One of the foremost strength trainers in Norway, Borge Fagerli (the guy AJ lubs), recommended a naprapath here in my city to deal with all kinds of injuries. Naprapathy on Wiki.

Basically, my brother injured his knee pretty badly late October/early November. His knee was very noisy on the day in question, but didn't feel painful at all. He went ahead and did his squat session anyway (3x5~240 or so). The day after his knee was pretty massively swollen. It's way better now, but still not good. He did a very light squat session on Sunday, and his knee felt worse after.

He visited a PT after about a month, who said his knee had become "inflamed" (my brother didn't describe it better unfortunately). Given the length of time which has passed since the initial acute injury, I suspect it's tendonisis rather than tendinitis. The PT said he could try squatting again after a while to see how it felt. This same PT has said some dubious stuff about training before (novices shouldn't do 5 rep sets etc), so I'm a bit suspicious about how good he is at exercise-related injuries.

My brother had his first appointment with the naprapath this week. He basically didn't look at his knee much. He had my brother demonstrate an air squat. He noted the rather significant butt wink as a possible culprit, and said that other parts of the body need to take the stress once his back loses extension. Which sounds dubious (wouldn't the lower back just get increased stress), but butt wink tends to get way better with more weight on your back. Which is also the case with my brother - I wouldn't say his butt wink is very significant at work weight.

Now, he did basically do a bunch of myofascial release stuff, like you've described here - loosening muscle adhesions in his thighs. He also added like 5 mins of acupuncture on the end, which I think is pretty meh but w/e. He also recommended basically what you did, namely using a ball (small, hard rubber ball akin to a lacrosse ball) on himself.

So all in all, it sounded like the treatment is ok. I was a bit skeptical that he didn't touch the knee at all though - what do you think about that?

I basically advised my brother to get a few more appointments and see if it helps. I'm pretty much at a loss on what to recommend besides this kind of treatment, since I don't think there's much he can do besides just rest and not squat. Which obviously sucks big-time given that he's on SS, but what can you do.

Oh, extra info: my brother's always had pretty horrible posture. Got worse after he got fatter on SS (eating like a horse and not doing the program = lol). Got his **** together a bit after I pointed it out, but still prob slightly APTy.

I dont have much of an understanding about Naprapathy (the wiki page didnt help me ), but from what you describe, it sounds like exactly what he needs.

I should mention that I do not have any opinion on acupuncture. I dont know anything about it and dont have an opinion as to whether its BS or useful.

My chiro has never worked directly on my knees. He has examined them thoroughly, but done nothing to the joints as far as manipulation or ART or Graston or anything. He has done all kinds of work on my quads, hips and calves. That fixed my knees.

When you get adhesions in the muscles around a joint, you can get problems in the joint itself, and in tendons as well. I've had my chiro fix problems in my shoulder that I thought were tendon related, and all that was wrong was I had knots in my delts. With my right knee, I couldnt squat at all a little over a year ago because the kneecap bone rubbed on the leg bone when I got to ~45 degrees. The soft tissue work he did on me made that go away.

As far as your brother's low back - his hammies & glutes are probably too tight and weak, his core is probably weak, and his quads are probably way too tight - that's why his back loses extension. Roll the hammies & glutes, and do stuff like pull throughs, DLs, RDLs, etc. imo.

See if you can get him to read this whole series: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...no_more_part_v

and at the very least, have him read this: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...that_hunchback

If he wont read all of the last one, just have him scroll down to the part about Posture Improvements in Daily Life. Doing that takes about 30 seconds, and he should do that about every 30 - 60 minutes every day when hes sitting down.

And for the knee - do what his guy suggests as far as soft tissue work. Roll the quads, ITB, calves, hips, hammies, everything. I'd be surprised if that doesnt help a lot.

Wow, interesting about the bone on bone rubbing - that's exactly what he experiences as well. Any idea on how to actually tell if you have a lot of muscle adhesions or not?

Thank you very much for the solid write-up, appreciate it a whole bunch. You're the man on this stuff <3

I'll forward your post and the links to my brother and make sure he reads it.

Glad to help. I think its good to have this discussion in this log so I can refer to it later too.

In my original log, several smart people were telling me I needed to squat. I told them I couldnt. They told me I must have some debilitating injury if that was the case, and I was not a "special snowflake". I said I didnt think it was a debilitating injury, but I didnt know what to do about it. No one had an answer, aside from "squat".

Through a link posted somewhere in this forum, I read some stuff on TNation by Cressey or Robertson that mentioned ART. It sounded more promising than the useless physical therapy that I was doing, so I did some research and found my chiro. I didnt know at the time how helpful that was going to be, or that it would fix my knee, but it did.

I can squat pretty good now

I recognized a lot of what my brother's guy said from your log. Muscle adhesions, myofascial release (exceedingly painful), using a small, hard ball and finding your painful spots etc. From that and Borge's recommendation it seems he knows what he's doing. My brother lead of with "meh, guy did acupuncture", so I naturally thought that was all he did. If he wants to add 5 mins of that stuff at the end, whatever imo.

I remember that log and vaguely remember some flaming going on. I might have even participated for all I know, heh...tough to be a know-it-all and be wrong

Butt wink will cause more stress to be put on the knees, so he made a good point. He probably needs to tighten up more at the bottom in general, even if you don't see any butt wink with weighted squats.

Hm, ok. I'll impose that on him. In his case, I think lack of hamstring flexibility might be a case too, he's really damn stiff. But could def be lack of tightness too.

ETA: given that his injury was acute, I still think there's a chance that it was simply a tear in the meniscus or something. In which case I guess there's not much to do besides rest. On the other hand, the immediate swelling the day after occured in a different area than it does now, so I dunno.

Its probably lack of glute activation and weak hammies as much or more than inflexible hammies.