My guess is it's what was hurting for me due to doing low bar squats and also doing the Rippetoe recommended non-finger wrapping grip method. The reason I think it's similar is when I have her do posterior lacrosse ball things, she can't find the spot on her arm/shoulder, but I can immediately for her, .

I do not think it's in the joint. Imo also supported by posterior lacrosse ball work hitting the spot that she had difficulty with.

Also, she described the issue as more of a "spasm" than whatever you'd call joint pain.

Eventually, one day I went to squat and that part of my upper arm/shoulder just didn't hurt or feel tight anymore and I could go with a grip ~1 inch closer which has allowed me to keep my wrists from "caving" which I had some issues with for a bit.

Well, I can't say I "want to" but I would say that I'm motivated to not have to use mixed grip and just do overhand. The reason is because I'd like my grip to proceed alongside my DL weight, and I was there when Cha went to a mixed grip and then pulled back too much on that side. Which didn't cause, but seemed to lead to the injury that he's been dealing with.

Tbh it was kinda scary to witness and while I can cross my fingers and say my discs are in tip-top shape, I'd prefer to do overhand grip.

Plus, I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly) this will all have the side effect of letting me palm the ball (my grip on a bball with my right hand is much better since I started SS without doing any bball palming practicing...with my left hand it's a bit better but can't palm it at all).

Meh, most people have to do mixed grip eventually if their DL progress as per standard linear progression. I wouldn't worry about it. Throw in grip work later imo. Or use straps.

My other IRL friend who did/does SS (lurker on here, don't even remember his handle) is over 400 on DL and says he always has done double overhand and never even tried mixed grip - it's never been an issue for him allegedly.

This might be a dumb question but do you absolutely have to push the limits of your strength on DL?

The injury risks are pretty big.......

ww - I'm not sure doing ~240lbs on DL is "pushing the limits" of anything. As long as I can keep my lower back set and straight I feel pushing is fine. Besides, Cha wasn't even pushing it when he had that issue, it was on one of his heavier warmup sets.

This whole problem arose imo b/c in bball last season I jammed my left hand thumb pretty badly right after starting SS and had a v hard time with gripping for DLs (and everything else) for a while. It's still not really 100% but I can definitely grip much more normally. But the difference between my left hand grip and right hand grip strength has just gotten bigger in the meantime.

So I guess I should say that when going double overhand, my left hand grip just slips. My right hand then starts to slip which I assume is b/c of the left slippage. Maybe if I'm just patient my left hand will catch up on its own.

The injury risks of DLing heavy weights are only big if you dont have good control of your low back.

In the book Ultimate Back Performance by Stuart McGill (world renowned low back expert who works exclusively with elite athletes and people with extremely bad low back injuries), he says that when you have good muscular control of the supporting muscles of the low back, your lower torso should be like concrete when you lift and the risk of injury is minimal. To put that into more context, he was specifically talking about deadlifting.

When you lose that rigidity is when injuries can happen. I had a brain fart that made me vulnerable. fwiw, that wasnt what herniated my disc - it just made me more vulnerable later. I was focused on my grip and forgot about my back. That was the first and last time that will happen.

You can injure your back picking up a penny off the ground if you do it wrong. You can be pretty safe DLing heavy weights if you do it right.


edit - I should add this: You should never push yourself DLing if you do not have complete control of your low back muscles and cant keep your low back rigid during the lift. Learning to do that correctly is a skill that is necessary in order to lift heavy weights safely.

edit 2: watch this guy's low back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26yqOMsxQho

Does he look like he might ever have a low back injury? Pretty solid imo - not likely. McGill says elite athletes with good form rarely get injured (as far as low backs go).

7/21 log

I've really been slacking on rolling thoroughly recently. I go home on non-lifting days and then sit at my computer and never end up rolling. And on lifting days I've gotten to the gym later than ideal and end up shortening rolling or skipping it so that my workout doesn't go to 9pm as things have been going a lot slower now that my g/f lifts with me (although it did last time anyway, ldo). I think this will go much faster now that she's a super pro on form. We just need to stop talking with each other which is sometimes hard to do.

Ok, so yesterday I did tonnnns of foam rolling, tennis ball sock action on my neck, lacrosse ball almost everywhere.

1/2 of the gym was going to be open at 7pm and I got to the gym a bit after 6pm. By the time I was done rolling it was almost 7pm and "boot camp" was over. So I grabbed a bball and got some drilling in for the first time in quite a while.

For whatever reason, I now have a low post left handed move to the baseline but cannot replicate it on the other side with my right hand. I have a counter low post move away from the baseline with my right hand but it's really more like an up and under or a sweeping layup to the opposite side of the rim. I'm not sure I'll ever have space to get it off the way I need to in a game. But maybe if I set it up with my baseline move it will create way more than I expect.

I'm hoping on the block I'm talking about these moves will suffice. I think I can also do a weak quasi-step back shot as well if I don't have someone 6'3" on me or whatever. But I don't release my shot that quickly (although I can release at a time people don't expect) so I'm not sure it will work in-game.

On the other block (which should be easier as baseline is with my right hand) I basically am incapable of doing anything.

Case in point, I played 3x4 with 2 ~HS age guys who could both dunk and bomb 3s and then 2 v little kids, 1 pretty little kid, and 1 HS guy who is probably worse than all the little kids. Anyway, I played most of the game with the 2 HS guys on the other team b/c otherwise, how does my win count, amiright? Obv we didn't win, and I had to score almost all of our points, but I did it by getting rebounds and fighting hard.

I even got the HS guy who is terrible on my back several times on the block I have trouble on and did some sort of junky, not strong move and missed. I've decided that it's not okay to have junky moves that work XX% of the time against good players, but only work the same XX% of time against junky players. They should work 90%+ of the time against junky players.

Anyway, so concludes the basketball blog portion of this log. Any thoughts, ideas, discussions welcome!

As a non-expert: With your style of play, I think you need to get your ass as big as Charles Barkley's so you can move people around with ease. Keep DLing, squatting and working those glutes hard. And eat more protein

Cha - that's the plan so far, which is why I haven't been doing too much drilling. At the same time, just having a big ass isn't going to put the ball into the bucket for me, lol.

And it's a bit disconcerting that even when playing against little kids and such, I don't really dominate offensively in terms of scoring. I just kill even more on boards, and my defense is even better on crappy players, but I mean, my mid-range shots go in at about the same % which I expect, but my low post stuff should just end up being completely automatic imo. In these cases I don't need to get bigger or stronger, I need more skill/comfort/practice.

Then after I get that big ass and strength, I will feel like I'm playing with crappy players all the time and get those high % shots that I've drilled and practiced!

yeah, getting strong wont improve your shooting skill, but you'll barely notice people shoving & bumping you.

7/22 log

I should have mentioned yesterday I took the JonFon layup challenge(TM) and shot 50 FTs as fast as I could. It was 9-10 minutes imo.

Today I did some solid rolling and the bball court was open so I did some post moves and then did the JonFon layup extravaganza in 8:10. This was the first time I tried to really pay attention to exactly when I started and stopped. I didn't have a stopwatch or watch or anything so just waited for the clock to switch. I'm sure this is my PR.

Then one of the guys from yesterday who was young and bombed 3s and could dunk was there so we played 1 on 1. I was already somewhat tired at this point.

I think the final score when he had to go was like 55-37 him (2s and 3s ldo - I took and luckboxed my one 3). I gotta say at one point I had him right where I wanted him after staging a huge 14-0 run but then he hit like 5 deep threes in a row.

He apparently is from Italy and says his "trainer" (his English isn't great so I don't know if this means he has a real trainer or just a coach or what) watched Kobe play before moving to the US and always says Kobe was "just a normal kid" when he was that age.

Anyway, this guy really should have just completely demolished me. But I used all the WIM I had with some wily smoke & mirrors to kind of stay in the game. It's kind of tough when your opponent can shoot over you, hit deep threes, dunk, and can blow by you on the dribble. Oh, and he said he was 197 cms (6' 5.5") so I basically got only 2 offensive rebounds in the game - but I did make him try hard on them. Thank god I was stronger and could hold my space allowing me to at least get junky post moves off and basically all my defensive rebounds.

At the end when I asked if he played bball he said yes and I think he was genuinely surprised he had as much trouble with me as he did.

Anyway, it felt realllly good to finally have some sort of good opponent to play against who had a v different style. In some ways I really should have made more of my post shots, but in many other ways, he really should have had 100 points as it was make it, take it.

Nice post and absurd vid. lol superbeast imo.

7/23 log

Mobility/activation stuff (did rolling later in the day)

Squat
45x2x5
75x1x5
115x1x3
155x1x2
195x1x5
195x1x5
195x1x4

The last one was probably mental. As you can see I just get to my "sticking point" and nothing happens.

Since I have videos now, please free for all on my form. All suggestions/comments welcome! Is the video angle bad? Is my form off in any way?

Bench
45x2x5
70x1x5
100x1x3
130x1x2
145x3x5

Bam! Finally can move up. The last rep didn't go up super smoothly but I think that was a mental thing. Much easier than last time.

There's no good space to take video of bench if someone is on the bench next to it. I guess we could take video from overhead. What is the best bench angle to take video? I'd assume from the side.


Pullthroughs supersetted with chin/pullups/neutral
27.5x1x10
37.5x1x10
47.5x1x10
52.5x2x10

BW+10x1x5 (pullups)
BW+10x1x5 (chins)
BW+10x1x4 (neutral)

Took everyone's suggestions and added a 10lbs weight. Made it v tough. Sadly, no little kids were handy and we were in a hurry.

My g/f did this:

squats:
24x2x5
45x1x5
50x1x3
70x1x2
90x2x5

She said her knee felt tweaked on the second set. She had surgery to remove most of her meniscus on that knee and so is very wary of it. It was "1 out of 10" in terms of pain but mentally I think it was wise to stop and hit up 90 again next time. We took video but I'm not sure if she wants me to share it. If so, form feedback will be really helpful as she's worried that on heavy work set weights, her form isn't good and she will F up her knee.

She's doing great but in general I think a big part of her thinks "this is dangerous, these are all heavy weights and it's not safe."

Bench
24x3x5
45x1x3
50x1x2
60x3x5

Wish we had video of her 2nd work set. She started laughing (just like last time ldo) and on her 2nd rep the bar just sat at her chest for 3 full seconds while she stopped laughing, then she got it up for the full 5 reps. 3rd set went up pretty smoothly too. WIM imo.

Unfortuntely, while helping me set up one of my work sets, she twisted her legs a bit with a 45lbs plate in her hands and felt pain in her knee, the kind that "is in 5 places" as in it moves a bit around a general area as it was twisting. I really think it's muscle stuff and not structural. But we'll see if there is any swelling that takes place and make sure good foam rolling happens.

Cha - what is the link to "bulletproof" knees again?

Then she did some bro curls, tricep pulldowns, and assisted pullups.

I'd love feedback. I may put a couple of my vids in the form check forum but all advice is welcome since it's been so long since I've posted any videos.

Video form checks of my g/f's squats:

24x1x5
45x1x5
90x1x5
90x1x5

Like I mentioned, she felt she may have tweaked her knee on her work set. So if anyone sees anything wrong with the work sets, please let me know! I think her form looks very, very good for someone doing squats for the 3rd (or whatever) time ever.

Is it her left knee? She moved her left foot towards the end of the last set. Its hard to see if there's any knee caving from that angle, but that's probably what did it. With her knee history, its probably wise to not do anything that hurts it. If its feeling ok next time she wants to work out, have her do air squats first, and focus on keeping the knees out. I think she's fine adding weight as long as there's no pain. She should stop if there's pain.

A lot of those mobility exercises I have you doing are for activating the glutes, which should help keep the knees out. If she's not doing those already, she should be. If she is, there's a lot more stuff she can do.

If you want to buy Bulletproof Knees, here's the link to that: http://www.bulletproofknees.com/

Here's a link to free stuff:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...63-mcd02.hydra

Nope, that's her good knee. I'm not sure anything on the squats injured it, my best guess is that doing squats at the work weight just got her tight muscles to squeeze on something to cause a bit of pain.

I'd guess her left foot movement was due to attempting to compensate mentally as she was worried about her right knee.

Thanks for the links!

Anything else about form you noticed? How bad is it that I wasn't going to parallel or below parallel on my last set of squats? Did the other sets look ok?

7/24 log

We went on a 6 mile bike ride to the gym. I did foam rolling with their crappy white roller. Then we biked the 6 miles back. Man, I feel toasted. I tried to conserve my legs going up a few "hills" by going slowly so hopefully my lifts tomorrow go ok.

Now it's time to go to the beach and try not to fall asleep and get burned.

From that angle they look ok. Try shooting from straight behind and from 45 degrees next time.

7/25 log

Rolling, mobility, activation. Definitely have been making sure to do all the rolling I plan to instead of skipping some.

Squat
45x3x5
75x1x5
115x1x3
155x1x2
195x1x3
175x1x2
135x1x5

So I concentrated on getting below parallel and I couldn't get the @#$@ weight back up. And my knees seemed to want to buckle. And my lower back likely wasn't staying set. Are my hammies and lower back still just too weak? I feel like I'm not following SS when I'm stalling on such light weights. I don't remember reading in it that it would take months for me to get perfect form and then I'd get stronger.

Press
45x3x5
60x1x3
70x1x2
87.5x1x5
87.5x1x5or6
87.5x1x4or5

Well I'm going to move it up next time but my counting could have been a bit more precise. Since I'm doing microweights I'm not too worried about 90 being ridic heavy or whatever.

DL
135x2x5
140x1x3
200x1x2
240x1x5 - I definitely got all 5. Did a mixed grip with plenty of chalk. I have a feeling my lower back wasn't suuuper tight/strong the last 1.5 reps or so. It's very hard to know when no one is able to tell you afterwards. I did my best to keep it set. I think it's just maybe weak still? I dno.

So.....in regards to SS, it seems my one IRL friend who has done it tells me to fight hard, keep moving up and concentrate on my form and if there's pain at all, drop back down until it's fixed.

However, other people seem to be telling me my form sucks and I need to fix it before injuring myself. What should I actually do? I can't believe 234234234 people haven't had the exact same issues I'm having before. What did they do to fix it?

I am no expert but dude you have to get your form right. I would reset and concentrate on your form. You are pretty young right? You got plenty of time man.....

In other news, I finally have an appointment with Cha's chiro (of ART fame) on 8/8. We'll see what he says about my leg (that I hurt in bball a couple years ago) and neck (which always is sore when I wake up).

As for lifting, I still am not sure whether to reset or not. I guess maybe I could reset my squats as I think I can stay with my D/L weight and get some video to make sure I'm okay on that before moving up. Maybe for a while I should just not move up unless it's cleared by H&F as I can't tell when I'm doing things with acceptable form or not.

You picked his busiest time of the year to start seeing him lol. He has to go back & forth between here & Mankato for the Vikes, going down there all weekend and the next couple Wednesdays, see his existing patients M, Tu, Th & Fr, and somehow make time to go work on the Twins too.

I bet that's why they pushed your 1st appointment back so far.

Typically, I can get appointments same or next day.


Squats - I think you're psyching yourself out by thinking too much. Think "back tight, knees out, push through heels HARD!". Dont think about depth when you have weight on your back for now imo. Just think about those other things.

Work on depth when you dont have weight on your back. And keep doing lots of glute work.