There Will Be Grymm

[Grymm]

(I'm pretty happy the MSPaint editing came out so well!)

 

Goal 1: Continue with Stronglifts.  Zero week is week 10 of Stronglifts.  At the end of the challenge, I’ll have completed week 14.  I’m doing a 2 week deload on squats to work on form a bit.  I’m going to keep going on the other lifts.  I’ve been working on my bench form a bit as it’s now the lift I probably have the poorest form on.  My elbow angles change between sets.  I’ll be interested to see if I can make it through this challenge without missing a bench rep. 

 

Goal 2: Accessories – I’ve got to start doing a couple accessories in order to keep my squats progressing and get ready to start up a new volleyball season. 

1. Good mornings.  During the deload weeks, I can start doing these (maybe 3sets of 8, fairly light), to work my back extensors. 

2. Calf raises.  When you play on the net a lot, you need strong calves both to jump and especially to cushion the landing a bit.

3. Face pulls – targeted upper back work.  This requires some home depot/amazon hardware shenanigans.

 

Goal 3: Dietary goals – I’m coming into this challenge at about 271#.  My only goal, really, is to eat enough.  However, some of the lifts are going to start moving into progression territory that previously weren’t.  That might trigger a little weight gain.  It’s smaller muscle groups, so I’m aiming to finish the challenge around 273#. 

 

Goal 4: I’ve dropped walking from the challenge goals.  I’ll still walk here and there, but I want to use the time to be productive.  The substitute will then be 15 minutes of thoracic mobility twice a week. 

 

Goal 5: I'm going to switch up my "adulting points" system to an effort based score.  I want to spend 16 hours over the (4) weeks working toward goals:

1.  Home/Gym improvement

2.  Costume prep

3.  Other justifiable efforts

This will actually be pretty difficult because (fantasy) football season starts during this challenge and draft season tends to require a lot of time.

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

I'm here.  To follow.  

[RedStone]

[Jord]

[Grymm]

[miss_marissa]

Mmm yes.

[elvenengineer]

[wildross]

Hi..gifless hi

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Alanna]

NF tells me we liked our challenge threads simultaneously.

 

Here's to good mornings!

[Grymm]

Zero week workout:

S: 2x5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x185, 5x5x205

P: 5x5x80

D: 2x5x245

G'Mornings: 3x8x45

 

I video taped some squat sets and the first DL set.  The takeaways:

1.  My back looks fine on squats.  It actually looks much straighter than it normally is due to the shoulders back.

2.  The bar path comes forward at the bottom.  This is me leaning too far forward.  This leads to my hip angle closing more which leads to....

3.  Not hitting depth.  Some of this is perspective, but I was definitely 1-2" high despite absolutely bottoming out my range of motion.  

4.  I workout in the dark.  I only have 1 light down there and the video is very dark.

 

Corrections made:

1.  Stop worrying about my back angle being too vertical.  If the bar moves straight up and down, it moves straight up and down.

2.  Keep more weight on the heels.  

The last set I taped had a better bar path but the motion definitely puts more load on the posterior.  I'm very quad dominant so the deload was a good idea to let the back end catch up.

 

On the deadlifts, I basically just checked my back angle at the starting position.  Here with my shoulders forward, the curve is very pronounced.  Not much I can do about it.  I have my hips at the elevation they come to when the lift starts.  They feel under my shoulders though it looks flatter from the side.  Meh, if I posted a form check without an xray attached, people would probably think I was in danger of paralyzing myself.  Meh.

[AugustaAdaByron]

[Grymm]

11 minutes ago, AugustaAdaByron said:

^^This made me think of Adventure Time.

 

[Broba Fett]

I have arrived to follow and cheer mightily.

 

 

21 hours ago, Grymm said:

 Not hitting depth.  Some of this is perspective, but I was definitely 1-2" high despite absolutely bottoming out my range of motion.  

 

 

So you're getting down as far as your body can but it's still not breaking parallel?  Or are you going for ATG?  I always thought I wasn't getting low enough on my squats because I wasn't bottoming out before coming back up but my coach starting verbally telling me when I broke parallel a couple weeks ago.  It was much higher than I thought.

[Grymm]

I am not hitting parallel.  I have fairly restrictive hips that I've been working on.  I can hit parallel in a bodyweight squat or like a goblet squat where I can have a weight in front of me to balance, but it's maybe 1" past parallel.  After that, I might as well be sitting in a chair - a really uncomfortable chair.  When I lean forward to put the bar over mid-foot, I'm closing my hip angle already a little.  That moves "bottom" up.  Now, when I was squatting yesterday, I was concentrating on a lot of different things and got really heavy on my toes.  The last couple sets were better, more weight in the heels.  This is a little more upright, a little less dorsiflexion at the ankle, and a little more depth.  

 

When I do a paleo-chair stretch now, I feel the stretch kind of in the seat of my pants - I assume this is the bottom end of the glutes.  When I do squats at 45, 95, and 135, I tend to sit in the bottom a little to stretch.  I can do more of that.  I can also bring my feet out a little more.  

 

Ultimately, there are (2) things to be concerned with:

1.  Hitting parallel just for correct form.

2.  Extending my ROM beyond parallel so that I don't lose tightness at the bottom.  A lot of my squats feel like paused squats if I hit the end of my ROM.

 

It's a work in progress.

 

[RedStone]

I've been playing with paused squats on light weights and body weight to help reinforce the depth. I'll let you know how that goes after some regularity...

[Jord]

I try to do box squats once every two weeks to practice hitting depth. I set the height where I know I will be below parallel. But I don't sit on the box, because that's not how you back squat mechanically. I just tap the end of my bootay on the edge of the "box". I find this helpful anyway. So I can regularly get a reminder of what depth is in case I start squatting squatting higher as weights get heavier. 

[Grymm]

I've considered box squats or really any kind of depth indicator, but I think the first thing I want to concentrate on is getting my weight back more.  It's not that I'm starting the up movement early.  It's that I don't have any more down movement available.  It could also be that since I switched to lifting shoes, I've narrowed my stance a little.  I'll play around with it at a lifter weight and see where I'm at.

[Haikoo]

Interesting, all the squat depth talk. I've just been analyzing my (mostly new to this) squat and trying to figure out just what parallel is for me. It's REALLY hard to tell w/ my meaty and short thighs...

 

[Grymm]

To really know, do a bodyweight or light squat and record it from the side.  The crease of your hip should pass the top of your knee.  Obviously, you need to wear closing that allows you to see the crease and you knee. 

Good reference:

http://www.usapowerlifting.com/newsletter/06/novice/novice.html

 

I would love to be able to hit the depth shown in figure C. 

[wildross]

50 minutes ago, Grymm said:

To really know, do a bodyweight or light squat and record it from the side.  The crease of your hip should pass the top of your knee.  Obviously, you need to wear closing that allows you to see the crease and you knee. 

Good reference:

http://www.usapowerlifting.com/newsletter/06/novice/novice.html

 

I would love to be able to hit the depth shown in figure C. 

What he said.  Also helps if you have pants or shorts with a stripe down the leg to wear those when you video tape it.  Make sure the stripe is straight before squatting....

[Jord]

24 minutes ago, wildross said:

What he said.  Also helps if you have pants or shorts with a stripe down the leg to wear those when you video tape it.  Make sure the stripe is straight before squatting....

 

I also saw Alan Thrall just tape an X at the hip joint. But a stripe is probably clearer. 

[Grymm]

Yesterday was a rest day.  Did some thoracic mobility.  Today would have been a lift day, but my dad had texted me earlier in the week about going to dinner.  I really don't see my family much so when it does come up, it gets priority.  I'm debating whether I want to log today or not.  I don't care much about the totals.  It's just annoying to try and log what you ate at a diner for dinner.   Also ate out for lunch with friends.  I have enough calories down and probably not enough protein.  It's a second rest day in a row, so I probably don't need much.  

 

However, I did get some adulting done:

1.  Bought my mom and uncle plane tickets to come up and visit myself and my brother (and his family including the only grandchild).

2.  Emptied a ton of cardboard boxes out of the house for recycling tomorrow.

3.  Collected all the change amassing on all horizontal surfaces in my room (17.4lb worth)

4.  Got a couple custom machine orders completed at work that had taken months to get configured.  What a pain, but worth the $300,000 it saved the project.  Followed that up with ordering 343,000#s of steel counterweight filler.  Sometimes I think it's pretty cool to work with big numbers.  Other times, it can be somewhat stressful.

 

Going to do a bit more stretching and call it a night.

[Volki]

Sweet challenge and Im following

[Wild Wolf]

I guess my first thought was you have a very "neat" challenge... Almost crisp. I like it. I'll be lurking but then it'll probably turn into a subtle follow [emoji1303]

W0lf

"Maximum Effort"

[Jord]

You either have a lot of horizontal surfaces in your room or many pyramids of change that would make the Aztecs blush.