10/11

pushups
20x4

face pulls and cable rows

10/13

DL (all done with hook grip)
225x5x2 - **** hook gripping reps
315x3 - **** hook gripping reps
405x2 - **** hook gripping reps
500x1 - **** hook grip.

I put athletic tape around my thumbs and tried it.
500x ~90% of the way up. The tape limited the mobility of my thumbs, so it the grip wound up being weaker than just doing double overhand. I think I can work with tape though. I just need to put it on looser so that my thumbs can flex more at the joints. I will continue fooling around with this.

All reps felt good and easy (aside from the misery of the hook grip).

I dont remember if I mentioned this in my log before or not, but my doc recommended that I do all my DLs double overhand from now on, which is why I am trying hook grip. Hopefully I can figure this out so that I can pull heavy **** with hook grip.

Don't put the tape on your joints. If you have a normal roll of athletic tape cut it in half width wise, and do one half below the crease on your thumb and one below

Thanks!

Do you wrap it about twice around the thumb?

yeah, I didnt even really tape the joint, but it got close enough to restrict it a little. My thumb mobility is garbage to start with and this little bit made it worse.

Another question: When you hook grip, how many fingers are you able to grab your thumb with? Because of my crappy thumb joint mobility, I haven't been able to grab my thumb with more than my index finger.

In The USPA rule book, it says you can only have one revolution of tape around your thumb but they never check it. But i did only do like 1.5 revs


I grab my thumb with two fingers. You dont really have to have your thumb tight around the bar though. it just kind of hangs there and the weight of the bar will squeeze your fingers against it and hold everything in place

I can only get two around, but I have small hands. I didn't get much out of taping, but I don't handle weights nearly as big as you.

I asked Steve Denison and he said no taping is allowed unless there is a medical issue. I dont know if I'll be competing in USPA anymore anyway as they rarely have multiply meets anymore and do not have full multiply nationals or worlds anymore. Bill Carpenter says its allowed in UPA as long as its below the knuckle.

Thanks for the tips.



That's good to know, thanks.

10/15

pushups
25x4

1 arm cable rows and face pulls

10/17

squat
155x1 - knee pain

I put briefs on
155x2 - The first one felt fine. The second one gave me knee pain. My teammate said my knee looked solid on the first one and it wobbled a little on the second one. I think I need more posterior chain stability. I'm seeing a physical therapist next Tuesday. Hopefully that will point me in the right direction.

DL
hook grip
225x5x2
315x3
405x2
495xf, f **** hook grip

double overhand
495x1, 1. Both were easy and I held it at the top of the second one for a couple seconds without losing my grip.

****ing hook grip. I probably cant do much more than 500 double overhand, so I need to figure this hook grip thing out.

I'll try this tomorrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5KYzrYQJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D55d3qVx_aY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7f4mZ8pDEs

I can't make it past 5 seconds of this video. I tried 3 times. I'll never know what this guy has to say.

> 7 minutes of useless bs to hear basically this:
- do it like Clint Darden says with your thumb sideways
- practice doing singles
yeah, the singles makes sense. I should have figured that out on my own, but I didnt yet, so I did actually get something useful out of this despite most of it just annoying me for taking so long to get to the point.

I'll try to watch the other vids later.

too bad. He really has a lot of useful advice. He is a bit of a goofball though.

I found that it just took a while to get used to using hookgrip, but once the thumb and fingers get used to gripping like that it is fairly easy. I haven't deadlifted in a while (plan on next week) but I think I got 1 or 2 fingers over my thumb.

I didnt watch any of the videos but how would you do it if you dont hold your thumb sideways?

Easiest way to explain it is making a fist with the thumb on the outside, but then move that thumb position to the inside of the fingers. Or just FF the video cha posted to 3:20.

This might be useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbYLp3KhBCY

The part about rotating your shoulders and screwing into the bar makes sense to me.

10/20

DL
225x5x2
315x3
405x2
double overhand^

495xf hook grip
495x1 double overhand

455x1 hook grip
455x1 hook grip

briefs
500x1 hook grip
515x1 hook grip (hook grip pr, yay)

I did the sideways thumb thing, focusing on grabbing a bit of skin on the other side of the thumbnail, and it put all the pressure and friction onto the thumb pads rather than the sides of the thumb skin. I guess I did it right, but it still sucks.

I found this today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXXcdP25OZ8
He talks about strengthening and mobilizing the thumb. This makes sense to me and its something I need. Oh by the way, the guy in the video pulled 800 @ 198 hook grip, so he has more credibility in my mind than most of the other people in hook grip vids I have seen.

10/22

push ups
30
+ 45 lbs chains x 10
+ 90 lbs chains x 10
+ 135 lbs chains x 6

DB rows
80x10
95x10

face pulls

10/24

I saw a physical therapist. She's supposed to have been good at "sports medicine", but had no idea about powerlifting until I explained it to her. The good thing is that even though she actually specializes in dance, she does squat and has a good grasp on a lot of other things.

She has read Supple Leopard and wrote down Low Back Disorders and Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance when I told her about those. She intends to read both of them. She said she wants to learn about powerlifting and intends to do some research on it. She wants me to bring my briefs in next week so she has a better idea of what I'm doing in those. I love the fact that she is interested in learning and doesnt pretend to know it all.

She said my air squat is the best she has ever seen. She identified the fact that my ITB is messed up, concurred with my chiro that my gracilis and sartorius are messed up, and identified that my left glute medius is not firing correctly. She wants me to do 30 side lying leg raises and 30 clamshells on each side daily. I've done a lot of both of these in the past. She showed me a couple things that will make my form better.

She also suggested that I do self-graston (IASTM) on my ITB. She said ART and rolling would probably be better on the gracilis and sartorius because those are so deep and hard to reach with IASTM.

After attempting to squat last week, I knew something in my posterior chain was not right. She figured out what exactly it was.

I did the PT work before lifting yesterday and my glute medius's were very pumped. I spent extra time rolling the gracilis and sartorius and did IASTM on the ITB.

squat w/briefs, nothing wrapped around knee, no sleeves
155x5
245x5
335x3
425x1x4

I focused on tight upper back and good neck position, so the neck is fine.

No knee pain. Some of the reps hit depth. No knee pain today so far either, but I can feel some DOMS from squatting.

Life is good.

10/25

push ups
35
+ 2 chains x 15
+ 4 chains x 12
+ 6 chains x 7

cable rows
200x15
240x12

TRX rows with feet elevated
10

face pulls
130x20
140x15

damn Cha I am still nursing my ankle and you back from 2 procedures! Why is everyone healing so fast on h&f?

No but seriously awesome stuff man, have bookmarked some posts for a read over.

Sup dude. Did your DR validate why you should not be using a mixed grip?