I hopped in the gym today, worked up to an easy 5x353 on deadlift, and got in a bunch of light bench volume until my triceps couldn't take it anymore.

I also ****ed around with the machines to get some more leg work in since I can't squat. I did hamstring curls, leg extensions, and used the hip adductor machine. I learned something interesting - I'm weak as hell at this stuff!

The hip adductor machine was particularly eye-opening. I did sets of 20, and when opening my legs it was very easy. I basically did it with the whole rack of weights. However when it came to closing my legs, I set the pins at 30 pounds and was shaking the whole time. It was hard. My guess is this is because opening my legs is similar to shoving the knees out in the squat, and none of my powerlifting movements involve closing the legs against resistance.

Leg extensions/curls were difficult too. 20 reps at 20-30 pounds was absolutely no joke.

So I definitely have major imbalances. It's not clear if this ultimately affects my lifting numbers or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's leading to my injuries. If my outer adductors are 10x stronger than my inner adductors that can't be good.

I think I might try working in one of these machines every workout. Nothing serious, just throw it in at the end of my workout to give these under-trained muscles some work.

Is that necessarily true? Shouldn't the adductors be way stronger than the abductors because of bigger muscles and hip extension/adduction being more important from an evolutionary perspective?

Columbo,

What I'm getting from that last post is that you're a total slut.

No clue. What you said makes a lot of sense, but did you accidentally flip-flop adductor and abductor there?

Haha! I plead the fifth

Well what I meant was that the abductors are tiny muscles on the outsides of the thighs, while the adductors are powerful hip extensors that are prime movers in the squat and deadlift, so obviously teh latter would be much stronger than the former under any condition. Maybe I flip flopped what you meant.

Oh I gotcha. You're right. My first post was backwards. Closing my legs is using the outer thigh muscle (abductors), opening the legs is using the inner thigh muscle (adductor), but I said I had stronger abductors.

So my adductors are 10x stronger than my abductors. No idea if that's normal. My girlfriend who doesn't lift heavily has stronger abductors on this machine, so I found my imbalance interesting.

Outer thigh muscle abducts, meaning it moves the legs out. Inner thigh muscle adducts, doing the opposite. But the adductor magnus is a major hip extensor as well, so it's going to be well developed in a dude who squats and deadlifts 500 pounds.

Went into the gym today and did some squats and incline press. I know I'm not supposed to be squatting but I couldn't help myself. I kept things light and my back felt mostly fine. Still a little bit of soreness on the lat/oblique.

Squats: 5x10x225
Incline: worked up to 5x165

2017-12-04
Squat /w Belt
3x398 @7
3x430 @8
3x460 @10 (PR)

Bench
3x240 @7
3x250 @8
2x260 @10 (ugh)
3x240 @9

Spoto Press
5x185 @6
5x195 @7
5x205 @7.5
5x215 @9
5x205 @9


This workout wasn't that great, but not a disaster either. I hate making excuses but I had a few things going against me today:
• I hadn't eaten in about 16 hours, and I rarely lift fasted nowadays.
• Played a very physical 40 minutes of basketball 2 days prior and wasn't fully recovered.
• I'm still nursing the back injury.


I was pretty happy with my squats. My back was getting a little sore, but it wasn't too bad. I was able to mitigate the pain by changing my unrack technique a little bit. I squatted the weight off the pins rather than lifting it out with my back.

I wanted 3x460 to be @9 not @10, and on a better day I think that would have happened. My form today was a bit sloppy. I wasn't balanced enough and depth was questionable. I was focusing so much on keeping my back uninjured that I didn't have the necessary focus required to bang out some nice clean reps. My final rep was maybe my biggest grind ever, and there's a video of it below.

Bench was meh. Things felt good up until 260 then I just bombed out. I needed to stay tighter to hit that. Aiming for 260 was a greedy decision, but I wanted to make progress over my last accomplishment of 3x255. Maybe I should have used some micro plates.


Squat final set:


Bench all sets:



Definitely open to any form critiques, especially on bench.

2017-12-05
Deadlift /w Belt
3x398 @7
3x430 @8
3x465 @9.5 (PR)
3x435 @9.5

Front Squat
6x220 @6
6x242 @7
6x264 @8.5
6x247 @8

Pin Press
2x225 @7
2x235 @7.5
2x245 @8
2x255 @9
2x245 @9


I'm quite happy with today's results. I added 3 pounds to my 3RM on deadlift in 2 weeks and these may have even been @9.

Front squat was exhausting today, but my back wasn't bothered at all. I may be over this back injury (fingers crossed).

Nice glad to hear you're over that injury. I bet 500 is there!

Are you pulling hook grip or is that double overhand? Either way, very impressive

Thanks guys.

I deadlift with hook grip. Never really felt comfortable with mixed. I wish I could pull 3x465 double overhand, but I'm a long way from there.

I woke up this morning and my back was pretty sore, which sucks. I just want to get through this cycle (one more week) and test my maxes, then I'll probably dial things back for a few consecutive weeks.

2017-12-07
Double Pause Squat
2x354 @7
2x381 @8
2x410 @9
2x391 @9

Push Press
3x155 @5.5
3x177 @7
3x200 @9
3x187 @9

TNG Bench
3x225 @6
3x235 @7
3x245 @7.5
3x250 @9
3x240 @8


Solid day. Everything felt strong and in control (particularly squats). My right elbow started flaring up on me, particularly on push press. Bringing the weight from above my head back down to the rack position puts a ton of stress on my elbows, and once the weight got heavy, I started having problems. You can see in the vid below that my fatigue set was really sloppy. This was due to the elbows. I have elbow sleeves so I really just need to put those on and keep doing curls.

Here's a vid of my whole workout. It's only 4-5 min. Check it out - and as always, form checks are welcome.

2017-12-08
Double Pause Deadlift
4x265 @6
4x292 @7
4x331 @8
4x313 @8

5ct Pause Bench
3x205 @6
3x215 @7
3x225 @8
3x215 @8

Pendlay Rows
5x242 @6
5x264 @7
5x286 @8
5x271 @8


Good day. My elbow started getting a bit sore again and of course I forgot my sleeves. I did a bunch of curls to try to rehab my bicep, since that is the root of the problem.

Full workout:

2017-12-11
Squat /w Belt
2x408 @7
2x445 @8
2x480 @9 (PR)
2x457 @9

Bench
2x250 @7
2x260 @8
2x267 @9 (PR)
2x255 @9

Spoto Press
4x185 @6.5
4x195 @7.5
4x205 @8
4x215 @9
4x205 @9


Really great day. This was fasted in the morning too, which is good to see.

Squats were great. 5 pounds more than when I last did doubles 2 weeks ago, and they were much cleaner. I'm shooting for 500 next week and feeling very confident.

Bench was very nice as well. I just wanted to make sure I didn't fail again, and was able to set a 2lb PR. I kept thinking about the cue of ripping the bar apart and it's helping me a lot right now. I forgot about it last week. Hoping to get at least 280 on my bench single next week, and anything 285 or above would be fantastic.

Squats:


Bench:

At least I can take solace in the fact that our benches are close. 480 double on the squat is sick.

Nice work man. 480 double should be easily 500. When I got 500 on the squat the week before I was supposed to get two doubles with 460 and I only got one double

Nice, those looked cruiser man, in for 500.

2017-12-12
Deadlift /w Belt
2x408 @7
2x445 @8
2x480 @9.5 (PR)
2x445 @9

Front Squat
7x220 @6
7x242 @8
7x230 @8

Pin Press
3x225 @7
3x235 @8
3x245 @9
3x235 @8.5
3x235 @9


I wasn't too thrilled with my deadlifts today. Technically I set a PR, but when I did 2x475 two weeks ago, I felt a lot stronger. I felt like I wasn't properly anchoring my hips down or executing strong enough leg drive. Also, it looks like I start to let the bar drift away from me on some reps.

I'm getting great at grinding out deadlift reps. The pauses have helped a bunch. Next week I'd like to get 510 on the deadlift, which would be a 9lb PR.

I went back to the beginning of your log and wow you've made a lot of progress.
Your beginning numbers are about the same as mine now. I of course won't get to your weights, but seeing them is inspiring.

Sick stuff man

MeLoveYouLongTime - I'm glad you found some value in this log! But don't sell yourself short. Anyone is capable of getting to these weights. All things considered, my progress has actually been pretty slow. It's taken me 5 years to get here, and I've never taken more than a week off (and only did that a couple of times). Just remain dedicated and don't miss workouts. Consistency is king.

2017-12-14
Double Pause Squat
3x331 @7
3x359 @8
3x386 @9
3x364 @9

Push Press
4x155 @6
4x175 @7
4x190 @9
4x180 @8
4x180 @9

TNG Bench
4x225 @6
4x235 @7
4x245 @8
4x235 @8


On the squats, I executed my 2nd pause a bit lower than last week. I think this is closer to my sticking point and these squats were more difficult and felt more effective.

Bench was a bit ugly today. My bar path was all over the place and I never felt locked in.

Since you asked, you're dipping really low on those push presses, and if your elbow bothers you, you could lower it a lot faster. Maybe aim for something like this: