DLs - no, no need to use wraps, and those shouldnt hurt your wrist. If they do hurt, just dont do them for now. If youre asking if you should do them, yes, I dont see why any pulling should bother the wrist.

You will want to remove the wraps between sets and only put them on right before you do your sets. Put them on fairly tight.

If you want some bands, this might be a good time to buy them. Bands are nice to have for lots of things, but you dont need them like you need wrist wraps.

EFTS had a deal on good belts for cheap a while back - Brian looked at them, but they only had weird sizes, so he didnt get one. I dont know if they've restocked or quit selling them. It might be worth looking. I love my lever belt - I recommend those if you're considering a belt.

I will check out belts. I'll also order a wrist wrap.

I couldn't figure out front squats today very well and my wrist was hurting as I went up in weight (either my other arm was pressing on it trying to keep my arms tight on the bar or it was pressing on the bar trying to keep my arms tight on the bar).

So I did leg press again....

Next time I guess I'll try DLs but I feel like that much weight transmitting through my wrist may hurt, but I guess since you're saying it won't I'll try. Lugging around DBs seems fine as long as my wrist doesn't twist at all.

3/11 log

Front squats
45x5x3
85x5
135x2
115x3 - I gave up at this point, I wasn't avoiding putting pressure on my wrist, didn't feel super balanced when doing them, and decided it wasn't a good idea to go up in case I slipped or something.

Leg Press
warmups
720x5
720x5
740x4

I didn't push the last one as I was having a hard time getting enough extension to "rack" the leg press at the end. But anyway, these felt good and very tough.

Offset Step ups
25x10
35x10x3

GHRs
BW+bosu x 4x7 (I don't know how many sets I did, but it was a lot, I was trying to do a bunch to get more used to them).

My g/f did:

LBBS
130x5x3 (PR)

OHP
48.75x5 (PR)
48.75x4
48.75x3

DL
135x5

Have you tried using straps for front squats? Might be a workaround temporarily to get around wrist pain. See vids from G4S.

Yeah I saw using straps for FS but it looked like it would be harder on my wrist. But next time I will bring my straps and try it for sure....b/c now I'm thinking it would be better too.

re: using straps for fs, I don't see how it could be hard on your wrist at all. You barely do anything with your hands, they are just there so the bar doesn't roll off your shoulders. You wrist stays in the neutral straight position the entire time.

I'm most certainly bringing straps next time for squats then. From watching the videos it's hard for me to tell.

Btw, where does it rest on my shoulders? I felt kinda tippy to the left and right when unracking. Is that normally if I'm not used to doing it with heavier weights?

Also, I thought FS was going to be as hard or easier overall than LBBS, but I guess it's supposed to be much harder or just until you get used to it?

It was much harder for me. I did 10x315 back squat but could not even do 1x315 front.

So if I can back squat 225x5, maybe try for 150 or even lower on my first FS session?

I felt quite offbalance on 135 when I tried it but it was for sure doable and I shouldn't need to quit when using straps.

For some people FS is very close to BS, but if you are just starting, no harm in starting light.

I am a professional trainer and i have applied this with my trainees and pupils that all the players and sportsmen should do yoga before the game and exercise.It increases their stamina and energy level by bringing them in rest and free from stress.

I'm not sure what this has to specifically do with me or why you mentioned this in my log. Seems like spam.

Kevin Love did yoga all summer and he is a beast. But from what I know there are 234234234 types of yoga so I dno.

hint: the undertitle...

FS will be harder (re: amount of weight you can do) than LBBS for sure. I've seen the FS = 80% of HBBS figure thrown around quite often.

FS hits your quads harder and will tax mobility (thoracic esp) more than LBBS. Also upper back/thoracic strength will be tested more as well.

Some general pointers:

1. Elbows up, up & up (otherwise you will tend to lean forward and lose the weight)
2. Get the bar as close to your neck and rest completely on your delts with your hands/wrists not bearing much of the weight (AKA - good rack position)
3. Elbows up, up & up

Good luck.

Thanks for the tips. Cha emailed me some links too that have been helpful:

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-front-...per-technique/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRmdtSvmQQ
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...ur_front_squat

I'm going to get my straps as I mentioned and try it that way not doing cross grip. This should really help me keep my elbows up I'm hoping. I'm also not going to worry too much about how heavy I can go. I'll just do warmups and keep adding weight slowly instead.

There is surprisingly little stuff on GHRs from sources I know are reputable. It seems from what I can tell though I'm doing them fine and that some bend at the hips is fine on them. Also, it seems I may want to concentrate even more on going down slowly - it feels like I'm basically falling face first into the ground at 2342342343 mph. I'm going to continue pseudo-GTGing and once I'm a bit more confident in keeping my form okay I'll try doing some higher reps with more pushoff if necessary from the bosu ball.

I'm surprised that doesnt hurt your wrist a lot.

I use my other arm to break my fall on the bosu ball, so it doesn't hurt my wrist at all, .

Btw, it feels like I'm plummeting straight down but I'm probably not - it's only 4 feet distance so not too much time to pick up much speed. Plus, it's a squishy not super pumped bosu ball which helps. Once my wrist is better I probably can just go to the ground and use both arms.

Just use your face to break your fall

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v34W...s5eyxH3gSNw%3D <---- this guy is a beast. Check out some of the demented stuff he does in his other vids - just for fun.

also, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt7DH...eature=related

This makes me wish I had gotten bands along with the wrist wraps.

Hmm, seems I may be doing GHRs wrong. I don't go to parallel with the floor I go down to the floor, that may be part of the reason why I have trouble keeping my hips from bending.

yeah, its too bad I didnt see this before you got the wraps.

3/13 log

I think I did SMR and cardio.

3/14 log

Got the wrist wraps right before this workout. Had to get on the batphone to Cha to make sure I was gonna use them correctly, lol @ me.

Mobility

LBBS
225x5x3

Bam! The wrist wrap on my bad wrist was suuuuuper helpful. I definitely had some GMing but pretty good given my inconsistent lifting in the last month + due to injury/illness/vacation/injury.

Looks like my WR leg press days are behind me now and I can concentrate on actually getting stronger, .

Bench
150x3 - at the top when I'm locking out is when my wrist seems vulnerable and the strained part of it maybe hurts...so I dropped back down.

135x6x2 - g/f said the 2nd set in particular looked really good with only a bit of elbow flair on the last couple of reps

I for sure wouldn't have been able to do these without the wrist wrap. Still frustrating it's not super easy. But, I mean, my PR is, what, ~160 so I mean, not too bad at all imo.

DL
I tried a warmup set with wrist wrap and without - having it definitely helped my wrist so I kept it on.

235x5 - this was not easy but I apparently kept my butt almost completely down and was able to grind out the last rep without form issues. Frustrating to be below my PR (~255?) but, this is what happens when you can't train something consistently. I actually should be impressed I got this weight. And I went double overhand without straps. My grip was a bit tough and my breathing at the end but still, I'm happy with it.

So, no PRs are or anything but my first full workout in quite a while. My shoulder isn't bothering me at all (although is a bit sorer than the good shoulder the next day).

My lower back is oddly sore today now (2 days later), although I think I slept most of the night in some weird contorted position b/c everything seemed all mangled when I got up in the middle of the night.

My wrist is more sore again but I'm not sure it was due to the weights...I moved a bunch of stuff and randomly bang it or flex it too much since it doesn't hurt all the time anymore. So I think I just need to keep being careful in my everyday life and continue to ice when I remember and such.

Also, I just wanted to mention that I realllllly want to hit intermediate in something (gonna be squats imo ldo) before April or by the end of April (not sure when I will count my start of SS but it will have been a year and if I'm not intermediate in *something* I will be very sad. If I had to do it all over again I would have done 234234234 more reps of lighter weight earlier on (especially when still playing bball) - made sure I ate more calories when lifting and trying to make gains, and done 2342343 more reps to learn proper form faster. The fact that I didn't know how (and still am not an expert in it) to push myself on any lift until somewhat recently due to form incompetence was a huge hurdle towards making progress.

Start eating more now imo. Go G4S for a while. This will help.

Your form is good enough to push yourself a little harder with most lifts (still dont let your low back flex though). Just think more about giving everything you have to moving the weight and less about form when you get to something difficult.

But I'm fatter than I've ever been (well, in recent memory, not even close to my high of 220 or w/e). I was thinking I could just make gains and eat at maintenance to recomposition for a bit and then once I stalled more, start eating more again.

What do you really want to do?

Good question, it was to get better at bball but I'm not sure all the lifting is helping as much as I'd hoped. Plus, it's very hard for me to tell if I'm better or worse than I was a year ago.

Also, hitting intermediate at a higher weight means I have to hit a higher #. So I'm not sure eating more should be necessary. Is it easier to hit intermediate at 220 lbs or at 180 lbs? Either way I want to continue an upward trend no matter how much extra weight I gain.

I've gained 20 lbs and of course gotten stronger, but I'm not sure how much those extra 20 lbs have boosted my relative gains.