The RDL is getting better. You still need to learn to sit back into the movement. You see the angle of your shin? You should be extending the hips until it's 90 degrees to the floor. You're accomplishing the last big of ROM entirely with your back. Which is fine but you'll get even lower if you can get the hips back. You're definitely stretching and strengthening your hamstrings as is, which is a very good thing, but I think you'll get a lot more out of it when you get your hips further back and down.

Do you know how to do a box squat? Try taking a narrow stance (rather than a normal wider box squat stance) and squatting down by hinging the hips backwards rather than breaking at the knees, leaning forward at the same time as the hips move back. Do so until your ass touches the top of the box. Your hamstrings should feel loaded (but not quite like they are at the end of a stretch). That's very similar to a full ROM RDL.

Nice squats.

I've heard it might be bad to lock out your knees like you do in the leg press

I think I know what your talking about and it's something I've felt myself doing during deadlift eccentrics. I'll keep it in mind on DL day tomorrow.

I was doing these for a short while:



But what your describing is more like a paused squat that uses the box as a cue to drive.

Thanks. We will see how good they look when there is something heavier than lunchboxes loaded on the bar.

That's a box squat but not the type I'm referring to. You're getting a ton of knee bend there, causing the hamstrings to slack. You still need to learn to sit back- wish I could give better advice on the subject

I've heard one more idea for learning to sit back. Try sitting like on a couch, with your back relatively straight, and your feet, legs, hips the width and angle of a DL. Weight on your heels. Normally in this position, to stand would require to shift your weight forward, because your bodyweight is too far back. Now, instead of shifting your weight forward and standing, with your weight on your heels, rise only your butt upwards until the hamstrings load, with your back inclining forward (so your lower back doesn't hyperextend). Literally take the toes off the ground. You'll need to lean the back forward so you don't fall backwards. At this point your hips should be loaded and way back and your back should be angled forward. That's basically the bottom of an RDL. You can do the exact same thing with a squat stance and you have a good morning.

Week 46 Diet, Week 28 Cut



Thursday through Sunday were vacation days. Pretty much a total blowout, but I made no effort to restrict what I ate or drank. I'm not that concerned about it but will remain cautious for the next couple of weeks. I need to string together some 1400 calorie days just to get back on track. I didn't record average weight this week since I only had access to a scale on Monday-Wednesday.

Monday, February 27, 2017 Training
Deadlift Variant, C1W2 TM112 4x6 @70%

6cm Block Pulls:

20x10 rdl
40x5 rdl
60x3
70x2

77.5x6
77.5x6
77.5x6
77.5x12


Paused HBBS (belt):

65x8 (side view)
65x8
65x8 (front view)

SS1: T-Bar Rows (kg):

50x8
50x8
50x12

SS1: Hanging Leg Raise:

13
13
13

SS2: DB Hammer Curl (#):

20x13
20x13
20x13

SS2: Leg Curl (#):

60x12
60x12
60x12

***

I'm still pretty far from max-effort on block pulls. I cut the last set off at 12 reps because I felt my form getting a little soft. Squats felt good. Really not sure about my t-bar form. It seems like I need to get lower. I mainly focused on keeping my shoulders from rounding and in that aspect, I think I did well.

So concludes Week 2. I'm not going to mess further with the training maxes for any of the lifts until this cycle is over. I want to get a feel for how difficult weeks 3 and 4 will be and make suitable increases after that.

By the angle of my shin I assume you mean its angle to the floor, i.e. 90 degrees being vertical. I'm interpreting this as I should basically prevent my shins from drifting over the bar for as long as I can while I descend into the bottom of the RDL. Is that accurate? This is what I was thinking about during the 40x5 set today.

I haven't yet explicitly tried this with a couch like you suggested, but I feel like I briefly have this feeling during my better RDL and block pull reps. It's just a matter of repeating that and getting more practice, I suppose. I think when I'm doing it right that my knees aren't getting in the way of the bar during the eccentric phase of the block pulls.

Honestly you are lowering too slow and can't seem to both push your hips back and descend with the back at the same time which is the whole point. It looks very unnatural. I hate to say it but you may want to consider another lift for posterior chain and just doing bodyweight until you can learn the movement pattern. I'm sure you can get *some* strength benefits from the lift the way it is, but it's not really training the right movement pattern. Do you feel your hamstrings stretching at the eccentric? They're supposed to progressively stretch and then reverse. You're basically squatting down a little at the point where the lift gets past the knees, when you should really be halting the movement and reversing. The hip extension all comes from leaning forward and pushing the hips way back. Maybe a bent over row would give you the same posterior chain benefits, as well as being awesome for the upper and mid back. I'd consider switching to a broomstick or just the barbell and/or practicing hip hinges with BW.

Re; the cue, you shouldn't really be getting that feeling with block pulls. Even with BW, it should be a strong enough stretch that if you used full strength to push back you would hurt yourself. A couch or a chair or whatever works, the key is to get the weight all the way on the heels and stick the ass back and up, leaning the back forward to prevent hyperextension and keep from falling backwards. If that doesn't work you'll have to try other things/find a qualified expert.

For the record the block pulls look very good.

I want to leave the RDLs in there for a few more weeks. I may also try a good morning and see if that feels more natural. I'll take all these things in mind during squat day tomorrow. Thanks.

edit: To answer your question, yeah I feel my hamstrings stretching, I just think that the extensibility is very limited.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017 Training
Bench Variant, C1W3 TM70 5x7 @72.5%

1. Close-Grip Bench:

20x10
35x5

51x7
51x7
51x7
51x7
51x9 @9.5

2. Arnold Press (#):

25x12
25x12
25x12
25x12

2. T-Bar Row (kg):

50x8
50x8
50x8
50x13

3. Lat Pulldown (#):

115x8
100x12
100x12

3. Rope Triceps Pushdown (#):

35x15
35x15
35x15

3. Cable Lateral (#):

15x9
15x9
15x9

***

Week 3 brings more volume. I feel like my bench form is getting rusty due to the benching-only-one-day-a-week thing. I'm gonna fix that by doing paused CGBP as secondary on overhead day. I'd like to have gotten another rep or two in the amrap, but this is probably fine.

I was a bit distracted during today's session because I had my GF there (which I'm thrilled about, but still it's distracting). She claims she's gonna be coming in with me every time, but we will see. I had her do bench press 3x5, squat 3x5, lat pulldowns 3x10 and some dumbbell overhead presses. She really enjoyed it so decent chance she sticks with it.

What size are those plates on that t-bar row?

Trying to compare what you say you're cg benching vs rowing and its a tad confusing because in a bench you count the entirety of the weight you're moving - bar and plates.

But you don't count the bar, at least I don't, in a T-Bar row because you aren't moving the entirety of the bars weight, you're only moving something like 34-40% or whatever physics math says.

With those T-bar rows you stand more and more upright as the set goes on. Something to look out for. Also why I like chest supported rows but gotta make due if your gym doesn't have one.

Its 30kg in plates, and a lot less than I am benching. I am going intentionally light on the movement to make sure my shoulders don't get pulled into rounding. As for whether to count the bar I dont think it matters as long as the convention is constant; I'm only comparing a tbar row to another tbar row, and afaik nobody brags about his tbar row weight.

Also, my CGBP is merely a closer grip bench press. Its about 2 inches in from my standard grip.

Thanks, will keep an eye out. I like the way they feel way more than bent over rows so they're staying in for now. No chest supported row at my gym.

Absolutely no argument - as long as your metric for progress measurement is consistent that's all that matters.

I'm simply speaking as an outsider who sees nearly identical weight on a lift we know includes the full bar.

Maybe I'm in the minority in not even considering the bar in a tbar row, but I suspect not. I'm just the nit that said something here

Thursday, March 2, 2017 Training
Squat Variant, C1W3 TM97 5x7 @72.5%

1. HBBS:

20x10
35x5
60x3

70x7
70x7
70x7
70x7
70x14


2. Romanian Deadlift (kg):

45x10
45x10
45x10
45x10

2. Cable Straight-Back Crunch (#):

100x13
100x13
100x13
100x13

3. Good Morning (kg):

20x10*
20x10
20x10
20x10

3. Cable Curl (#):

55x12
55x12
55x12

3. Leg Press (kg):

140x9
140x10
140x11

* this set was done prior to the RDLs

***

Good day. I woke up this morning feeling pretty sore everywhere in my upper body, which is pretty rare for me and IMO a good sign that I'm doing the right amount of volume.

Not much to say about more cardio squats. If I could catch my breath I'm sure I have 20+ reps of this.

For RDLs I basically tried increasing the tempo and exaggerating the "weight on the heels" cue. In the video, you can see my toes actually coming up off the floor for most of the reps. Same for the good mornings. I don't know if these are just sped-up versions of my RDL abortions or if I'm making headway here, but they did feel better.

Keep in mind that soreness is not a metric of anything other than you are doing something to a body part that it is not used to.

So yah it can be a sign you're finally hitting something you weren't before, but it should not be used as a metric that means improvement will necessarily follow.

On mobile so I cba to hunt it down but I saw an Israetel or Chad Wesley Smith video that (paraphrasing) said that volume/intensity should escalate over time, and soreness can be a decent indicator of doing so. This doesn't necessarily disagree with your assessment of soreness. My body isn't used to this much volume and thus I become sore.

DOMS is an indicator that exercised induced muscle damage has occurred. So it's actually not bad to seek it. See brad schoenfeld + soreness + hypertrophy if you want to know more.

It's not understood very well and not necessary for hypertrophy. Also have to take into account that certain muscles tend to DOMS and may not mean anything.

Since I never ever make gains any more and I never ever get sore, I think it's real, soreness good to seek but not necessary.

Renton,

Those look perfect. Congrats on the result/sticking with the problem. They couldn't be more different than the last session. The coordination is there, the movement pattern is good, everything.

I guess weight on heels and speeding the lift up is exactly what you needed. Is that really all you did? Well done.

Good mornings look equally good

Yeah that's all I did. Maybe also doing the good morning set beforehand.

I can't tell you how good it is to hear that they're improving. I am really anxious to get back to doing some (reasonably) heavy pulls in the near future.

First time checking this thread in a while. Excellent job on the cut. You look like a different person.

Nice job on the RDL's

Thanks, bros.

@kc, yeah thread should be called Renton's Rise from Fatness. The rise from weakness hopefully happens this year.


Saturday, March 4, 2017 Training
Overhead Variant, C1W3 TM40 5x7 @72.5%

1. Press:

10x10
20x5
25x2

29x7
29x7
29x7
29x7
29x9 @8.5


2. Chin-ups (@59kg)

8
7
7
8 @10

2. Paused CGBP (kg):

45x8
45x8 side view
45x8 front view
45x8

3. DB Incline Press (#):

35x8
35x9
35x10

3. Cable Face-pull (#):

65x12
65x16
65x16

3. DB External Rotation:

4kg x12
4kg x12
4kg x12

***

I hate the press. I can't find a grip width / setup method that is comfortable. My form seems very inconsistent, with some reps looking better than others. Now that I seem to be in a comfortable place with my form on the other big three, I guess it's time to start addressing this.

FWIW, my grip is just outside of shoulder width, but I start my press just below my neck instead of by my chest. I thought I read something saying below the neck is better for people that have kyphosis, which I think you mentioned earlier. Since doing OHPs this way, I do not get shoulder pain. Also, when I take a breath during a set, I take it at the top. Pausing at the bottom makes the weight feel heavier to me.

I'll try the higher rack. As for starting the reps at the top, I was doing that up until recently. I don't doubt that it would make the lift easier and allow me to lift more weight/reps, but I feel doing them more strictly may have a better training effect. It also greatly simplifies the movement, which is probably a good idea for someone who sucks at pressing technique.