I got that Syntha-6 Chocolate and Peanut Butter protein powder today. Tried it out. Review in my log.

Hey guys. Do you do any work with medicine balls? What sort of medicine ball work and kettlebell work should I use with my workouts? So far all I have done is a twohanded kettlebell swing with 24kg for 3x12 which was pretty easy and also i had okay form. so what is the progressions?

good gym song; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPkAHvp1Vgw

Yes. "Wall Ball" is a popular CrossFit metcon.

Personally, I do lunges with a medball twists, medball slams, and rotational medball throws against my garage wall to develop rotational velocity.

Yes, the "core" muscles are primarily there to resist rotation (which is why you do planks and kneeling cable pulldowns or whatever), but in my line of athletics, you need the torso to flex and rotate quickly to add and transfer energy efficiently to the arm.

i kinda winced at this too, i think he explained it better in the forum for the article's discussion, i'll cut/paste the relevant post. (actually it was nate green quoting mike boyle)

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Early in my training career, whenever we sent one of our athletes to physical therapy, we were told he needed to stretch more. We eventually conceded the point, and added pre-workout static stretching. Almost immediately, we saw a significant drop in long-term injuries.

So imagine how strange it was to see my fellow coaches turn against pre-workout stretching in recent years. Why? Because research linked static stretching to a decrease in power.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather be injury-free than worry about an incredibly small decrease in immediate power.

Frankly, I never found those studies particularly compelling. I remember one where the researchers had their subjects perform a vertical jump, follow that with a standing hamstring stretch for 30 seconds, and then head back to do another vertical jump. The overall decrease in power in that study was something in the neighborhood of 3 percent. Not 30 percent. Three. There's a difference between something being statistically significant and genuinely important.

In another, more recent study, you'll see that static stretching didn't lead to a decrease in height for the vertical jump, a favorite marker of power.

I agree that static stretching will probably decrease power immediately after stretching. So if I'm working with a sprinter, I'm not going to have him do static stretches right before he runs 100 meters with a championship on the line. But I might tell him to do it an hour before the race.

That way I know I'm doing the best I can to keep him injury-free for future races.

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here was roberston's comment
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DeeseB wrote:
EasyRhino wrote:
wait, was Mike Robertson recommending static stretching *before* lifting? that's rare.

I was confused on whether that was supposed to be an orderly list or not as well.

Any pertinent static stretching/activation can be done pre-workout, yes. Typically this is geared towards a very specific muscle group, however (like the hip flexors).

MR
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i dunno, i never stretch before anything anymore and i feel way better than ever before

Borge Fagerli also recommended low intensity static stretching and cited Robertson and Boyle I think (lol)

Boyle FFS.

My left shoulder mostly. I've always been able to slightly dislocate it-- very flexible, significantly weaker than my right, other nonsense. Maybe low-bar squats are aggravating it. I'm still working on form.

I've always had this issue on dips- 1st rep sucks, next are ez. I brought my bench grip in a bit today and did some sets that felt good, so I'll stick with that for now.

lol?

WTF. I don't think anyone who understands MM or that general approach thinks all static stretching pre-workout is off limits. Static stretching the hip-flexors, for example, is great pre-lift because it weakens and inhibits them.

NG's rationale seems specious because besides loss of power, cold static stretching has linked to injury. You can always do those post-lift and still be "injury free for future races," so that doesn't hold water.

Further, MR's response is very conditional.

Depth is really close. Perhaps your knees need to go a little more forward at the beginning of the descent to give your hips room to get in the hole at the bottom. If you could take a front-side view next time that would be better, since it appears you *may* have your knees coming in a bit on the ascent. Hard to tell from this angle.

Your hang cleans are not good. Your shoulders start way behind the bar since you are keeping your torso too upright. Scapula over the bar during the first pull of a full power clean and also at the jump.

Your power cleans from the floor have a few problems but easily fixable, they are also better than your hang cleans. You have early arm bend and start your 2nd pull (the jump) too early. The bar barely passes your knees and you're pulling with the arms and jumping from that point. Because of that it kinda looks like a monopull. I think this also puts the bar a bit further away from your body and is probably why your catch is not so good.

Thanks tbk. I'm planning on putting some more up over the next week or two.

first 300+ lb deadlifts tonight (305). Woohoo!

I'm also of the mobility -> workout -> foam roll -> stretch school of thought. Mostly out of convenience.

Nice, kidcolin. Have you rethought your Bench Press setup wrt Dave Tate's advice?

After getting better leg drive and controlling my breathing, I've been making steady progress - even on jumps of 5 lbs/workout. I'm going to order those washers tomorrow morning since I feel I'll need them soon, though.

yes, I get up on my toes a bit more and it helps me stay tighter. I tuck my elbows more as well. I'm progressing better. I nailed 152.5 with relative ease, and if you see my log I did pretty good on 155 tonight. I missed one rep (actually didn't even attempt) because of form fail in the 2nd set, but corrected it and got it up fine in set 3. Moving up the weight next workout.

Good, good. Haven't checked your log specifically and it just jarred my memory when I saw your comment in this thread.

anyone? some ppl told me u dont need to worry about protein powder expiring, but im cautious

He's probably talking about static stretching after warming up though?

Regardless, if the argument for static stretching in general (like hamstring/quad stretches) rests on lengthening and relaxing muscles, dynamic stretching takes care of this just as well plus doesn't decrease power.

And like anklebreaker said, if Robertson is talking about the specific static stretches that Cressey recommends (front and lateral hip flexors, neck), he really, really should have specified this in the article.

yeah i had to read a little further to get to what was being talked about in the article soulman.


i've honestly found that the discussion aspect of the articles gives as much if not more information than whatever article is up on t-nation.


i'm going to finally be starting probably a year of programming by Chad Waterbury...4 or so 16 week protocols. Considering starting a log for it from beginning to end.

I found this homemade power cage setup on the web. Looks like mainly 2x8s and galvanized pipe. I might look into building something like this if I get my garage cleaned out.

Wombat, i saw another wooden contraption for squatting the other day also. Wasn't a power cage, it was basically one of they squat racks that look like a right angled triangle on it's side and you have all yor pins on the longest side. Looked pretty stable and easier to make than a full rack.

Managed to find something like it.

I saw that one too. If I build something, I would want it to be more power cage like though. I could also put a galvanized pipe across the top front for chin ups and pull ups.

I'm putting this here cause nobody posts in my blog except me:

I was doing squats today, 3x5x59kg was the plan, but on the 2nd rep of the 3rd set I got some pain in my lower back. Since I have a bad back I stopped immediately. If my back isn't hurting for my next workout day, what weight should I use?

If it wouldn't have been for the pain, which I blame on probably a small lapse in form, I could have finished the set relatively easily. I've been incrementing by 5kg on every workout so far.

Out of curiosity, how much would the raw materials for that skin you wombat? I don't have the first clue how much something like that would cost.