I hate squatting, too. Cleans are fun, especially the top part where you tuck yourself under the momentarily weightless bar and have it land softly on your shoulders. I would definitely suggest going through the SS progression up to hang cleans before you decide against them. It's pretty much impossible to have good form for the whole movement if you start from scratch. Yours looked better than that guy in the background of your vid, to me...

Keep working on all the points you've been working on; keep doing SMR & mobility work on your legs, hips and upper back; and keep squatting. Eventually you should get to a point where everything comes together and you might actually like doing it.

fwiw, until a little less than a year ago, my lower body always had little aches and pains that kept me from feeling good about squatting. I think the voodoo band mobility stuff I do fixed that. Until a few months ago, I kept messing up my neck/upper back/arms every time I squatted heavy.

Just the past few weeks I've noticed that I dont feel like I got run over by a truck after heavy squat workouts. I think this is largely due to improvements in my shoulder/rack/neck/core position.

For basically the first time ever, I dont dread approaching a heavy squat and feel like I could end up getting crushed, and I dont feel like I got run over by a truck for the next few days after a hard squat workout.

cliffs - keep working on squatting & it will get easier to do & better


Nice work on the DLs.

f the haters, squats are awesome, and the key to getting less weak

Thanks, cha and highland!

My friend and trainer has suggested that I work on cleans both with him and by following the progression in SS, which matches what you guys say, so I'm going to do that. I'll keep on working on mobility stuff, and hopefully get better at isolating and improving my mobility on the right spots. Hopefully that'll mean my squatting will get better, too!

I'm sure that I'll be less anti-squat when the numbers go up. It's depressing and disheartening to read some guy in the beginners thread who went 3 mo of SS without failing a squat rep and make such slow progress. But whatever - it's "the single best exercise you can do" or whatever, so I'm going to keep doing it, and get stronger at whatever pace that happens.

I had intended to skip Thurs workout this week to go climbing with coworkers to get some socializing with the group of my coworkers I normally don't get to see outside of work hours. However, by the time I got back from meetings, to SF, it was after 8 and they were only going to be climbing for another 45 min, so I passed. Instead, I watched TV and ate Chinese takeout. FWIW, SF Chinese delivery is the worst I've had in any major city.

Saturday 3/15 - lifting with friends:

Bench: We did a handful of 5 rep sets and then tried to hit new 1RM. All three people failed their PR attempts. For me, that was the super depressing failing 135 for the millionth time. Meh.

OHP: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x5,3,3,3. Was supposed to be 75x5x3, but, uh, I am weak. I did have way less body waving around than in the video I posted (trainer has seen video).

3xSuperset: 15 dumbell internal rotation tricep press/curl? w 15lb (idk how to say this - we laid on our backs with the dbs straight over chest then flared elbows out and rotated the db in toward the chest, then reverse?), 12 Ts (from ITY therapy/accessory stuff?) with 5lb plates in hands)

3xSuperset: As many pull ups as you can do (narrow grip), as many lat pull downs as you can do 50lb, as many medball pushups as you can do. (3,12,5) (2,10,3) (1,8,3)

And I think that was it?

Oh, the women's track team for the school was training. Many of you guys would have been drooling all over. 19 year old female sprinters doing touch and go 325x5 DL in short shorts. No pics obv because I'm not a perv?

You're almost certainly doing Ts wrong if you're doing them with 5 lbs. The goal of those is to make some of the little tiny muscles in your back do some work. When you load that movement with weight, your big muscles have to take over. Here's Mike Robertson teaching a guy who benches 615 how to do them: http://train.elitefts.com/instructio...-in-shoulders/

I've done ts in therapy. These weren't the same or close to. Just was convenient way of description. What we did was face down on flat bench, 5# plate in each hand, arms straight, stop and rest with weight on floor, raise weight until in line with body, at shoulder height. Do not lift/move chest or face off the bench. Similar, but not ts.

Edit: fwiw, the ts I have done in therapy are closer to what I did on Saturday than the ts on the floor that are shown in your video. As the speaker references, the ones I have done in therapy on flat or incline bench allow more momentum and range of motion. Depending on the nature of the injury and therapy needed, either has its place. As the class I just took was not a therapy for power lifting session, I'm pretty Meh on being overly nitty about those three minutes and how I notated it.

Great video, guess I'll be adding these to my nightly routine, as my left elbow gets a little tight sometimes and I'm sure I have less than optimal shoulder mobility.

^I've been doing those recently. Cressey calls them prone cobras, if that's the same thing.

Cit when the weather gets better, you're welcome to come out by me for a form check or taking a look at power cleans, etc. A Sat morning lifting session then burger/beer for lunch sounds pretty good to me. Any Sat where we don't die because it's still too cold works. >50 and it's pretty nice in my garage. PM or send me a message on FB if you're interested.

DT,

Thanks for the generous offer! I'll hopefully take you up on that in ~August or whenever we actually get to 50*.

Also,

We actually do the chest on floor versions as in that video during warm ups on Saturday lifting with friends day. No weights, obv.

3/17 1h kettle bells class

I'm sure I'm going to forget some stuff :-(

12kg
1m one arm squat
1m one arm squat to clean
1m one arm squat to clean and press
Each arm, then do both arms simultaneously.

1m one arm swing
1m one arm swing to snatch
1m one arm swing to snatch and triangle each arm, then both arms (not the triangles)

8kg
1m one arm bottom up hold squat to ohp
1m " bell grip "
1m " standard grip "
Each arm, then both arms.

I'm definitely forgetting at least one full set. That is sad.

My kb snatches were much better today. Hardly any wrist destruction. My cleans were another story. Lots of shoulder destruction. I'm guessing it's around an equally easy fix?

Other than that, was a reasonable workout. My shoulder strength is terrible overall so getting more pressing in at lower weights I think is helpful in a different way than just trying to bb ohp 5*3.

Likely going to hit B&W with friends on weds, which could be very good.

Also, bought 2lbs London broil to make sandwiches for lunch and help on the whole eat more protein thing. So far so good but the Multigrain bread I have is awful with meat. :-( marinaded steak with a base of diet coke. Don't tell YTF.

3/22 - Saturday with friends

Worked past 10 every night this week after Monday. Awful. No gym. Only saving grace is that on Monday I made a giant pile of a farro salad for dinners, and a big london broil to make sandwiches for lunch, so I didn't start eating garbage until Chinese delivery on Thursday. Yay.

DL day at gym.

KB swings:
55lb x 15
60lb x 15
65lb x 15

DL
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 3
235 x 3
245 x 3
255 x 3
225 x 6

255 is a new 1rep PR for me. 3rd rep got sloppy, as I didn't pause at the bottom to reset, so I started with my butt too high. Pretty sure I can go heavier for 1, but that wasn't what we were doing today. Last 225 set was "to exhaustion."

Leg press
I've never used leg press machine before. I don't know how to mark this up or if leg press machines are universal or whatever. This one was seated, independent legs, where the weight moves in an arc due to being attached to a hinge about 3' over the foot platforms.

45lb on each leg x 50
135 x 12, 90 x 8, 45 x 25
No rest on that second thing, when we were tiring, the weights were pulled off between reps. Second line was "to exhaustion" at each weight.

edit: As an incentive to read/comment here, I'll start posting cocktail recipes I like/have made recently. We'll see how that works out.

Last night made The Leap Frog, from the PDT book.
2oz gin (Plymouth prefered)
.75oz lemon juice
.5oz apricot brandy (Rothman & Winter specified, I used Brizard Apry)
.25oz 1-1 simple syrup (can sub .5oz superfine sugar + 1T boiling water)
6 mint leaves
2 dashes orange bitters

1. Muddle mint leaves with simple syrup
2. Add remaining ingredients and shake with ice
3. Strain into chilled cocktail glass

congrats on the pr!

Thanks, cha!

I am apparently a delicate ****ing snowflake, because I've now gotten 2 ingrown hairs on my thigh in the last 2 weeks which I think are related to compression shorts? This new one is ****ing painful and not close to the surface, so I am pretty pissed off.

Plan this week is to do:

1hr kettle bells class on M/Th
Go lift at B&W W
Lift with friends on Sat
Internal/external rotation PT stuff for shoulder every day
Soft tissue work at home at least 2x

Nice PR and on the SMR/mobility stuff planned.

Somewhat predictably, this week has been a total ****show at work, with most (ok really every) nights working past 10pm.

I did do 3 of 4 days so far this week of shoulder rehab work and assorted mobility work, as well as 2 days this week doing pushups -> 60s rest -> pushups until i got to 100. My pushup game is weak. I've also been walking (yugo style?) around 4 miles a day, and eating pretty well, so that's nice. Weighted in today under 163, which made me pretty happy.

My left ulna by the wrist is giving me some **** because I slipped on some ice and I think I aggravated the part that didn't fully heal last year. Meh.

Last night I finally got to actually go to the gym. Couldn't make it to 1h KB, but made it for "20-20-20" which is 20 min cardio, 20 min weights, 20 min core. I'm not going to lie, it was brutal to me.

Cardio: quick box jumps onto bench. burpees. running mountain climbers leaning into the trx straps. squat jumps while leaning out/holding on to trx straps. one leg burpees with one leg in strap. 16kgx10x10 kb swings.

Weights: incline bench, db: 20#x20, 40#x5x3. incline reverse fly, 10#x10x3. double kb clean and jerks, 12kgx10x3

Core: lots of TRX stuff. tall planks with feet in rings. tall side planks with feet in rings. mountain climbers with feet in rings. tall side planks with rotations, feet in rings. tall plan with one foot in ring, knee to chest then rotation, probably at least one awful thing i'm forgetting. then 12kg fractional turkish get up on swiss ballx5x2 each side.

Yowch.

Oh, and tomorrow should be bench day.
If I can't bench 135x1 I'm going to be super pissed.

Grip the bar super hard and get your traps super tight. I kind of half ass it when I'm tired before heading to the gym and kind of halfass bench without being tight, and it makes a world of difference.

Good luck on the PR, next will be 3 plate deadlift!

The part about gripping the bar hard is right on, but the bold part is not. You want your weight pushed down on your traps, but you want your lats and mid back musles to be tight - not your traps. You want to pull your shoulder blades down, not have them shrugged up, when you bench.

Right, that's what I meant, my wording was super bad. Sorry about that.

Did do upper body, didn't do 1rm bench.

3/29 -

Stretching/etc
5x5 plyo pushups

Low incline bench:
45x10
95x6

Then we were supposed to do a cluster set(?) of 4 sets of 3 with 15 rest.
105x1,f
Well that didn't work out as planned.

75x3, 80x3, 85x3, 90x3, with 15s rest between sets.

As you can see, my bench is still awful.

Rows (each arm):
40x10, 50x10, 55x10, 65x10. (65x10 in the form of 4,3,3 with about 5 seconds rest because I'm weak.)

Then, as many as you could do without pausing, same weights, in reverse. got 4,4,4,7 and 4,4,4,6.

Hips up floor press, supersetted w/medball pushups:
(95x6, full pushup x 2, knees pushups x 6)x3

Tricep extensions with bands for resistance x 10
Pullovers with bands for resistance x 10
x2

(Human partner holding bands, so no clue how much resistance this is?)

Obviously not super happy with any of the upper body work, but on the upside, I have no idea how to compare any of this stuff to flat bench/etc, so meh.

incline is always tough if you don't do them often, very easy for the bar path and angle to put strain on different muscles and feel strange. it's probably also the only exercise where I feel like I have 2-3 more in me so I go for another rep, and then my triceps give out immediately and I have to roll of shame

Hi Thread. Been a while.

Due to a lot of life stuff, I've been inconsistent. Just lots of work related stuff, honestly. But, it's possible (or even likely?) that those things are going to resolve themselves in the near future.

I have been doing lifting at least once a week on Saturdays, and getting at least 1 hour of kettlebelling, and about 1 3 mile run a week. Of late, we have switched to doing lifting with my friend as trainer 2x a week which has me happier. With the weather warming up, I'll probably also add a second run to my mix. Still considering joining the gym DT referenced, and that my friends go to. Quit my SF gym as I'll be spending little to no time out there.

On Saturday, I finally benched 135! That was exciting. I think (given my super weak-ness) that I've been handicapping my 1rms by over-warming up with pushups, plyo pushups, etc. Meh. Don't really care too much.

Yesterday we did paused squats, then accessory stuff tuned for where we had issues. Trainer says that the current weakest part of my back squat is my quads (which seems unbelievable to me), so after 5 sets of 3 140# paused back squat, I did 4 sets of 8 95# front squat. Now I can't walk good. =( Also, bulgarian split squats afterwards were not fun at all. Others had box squats or good mornings as their accessory work.

Current 1rm is like B 135 S 165 DL 275
Progress, but not enough.

I think I have to like, make a decision to either cut, and get rid of the fat that annoys me at a deficit, or eat more, get stronger, and cut later. I've been in like a 3# range the whole year and not really doing rapid recomposition or strength gain, which is frustrating.

Welcome to the SALTS. We have a chair reserved for you right over here...

DYEL bro?