kd's log of........ something

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Can you expand on the hip hinge bit a bit more? (videos would help :p)

I'm still thinking it'd be worth me setting up a light deadlift set up (10kg or something) by which I can just practice form at home for a couple of days, until next DL day (Weds I think). That kind of weight won't strain anything, but will help me get a lot sorted. (My hip mobility is dire btw - can hardly touch my toes)

But I'll slow the reverse crunches down a bit, and for this one, my hands weren't anchored, but were above my head, that said, I can easily grab a kettelbell or medicine ball (up to about 10kg). When you say between my elbows, do you mean the elbows above my head? Because, I thought that'd be curling my spine far too much...

As for filming these, yeah they were a bit of a pain, I don't like asking the gf to film more than one thing, as it obviously impacts on her own routine, so I set up the camera myself there, and it had to be quite close, because of the weird looks people give me :p

For the Ice curl (I have no idea what to call it, and I'm not calling it whatever the long name you suggested it was made up of!) I am trying to work out at which point to extend my legs though. I could curl up, extend, and then lower them back to the ground, bring knees back in, and then crunch again, or I could crunch, wait till legs are back to original crunch position, straighten legs, lower until just above the ground, and then lift back up and draw into crunch position, and start again...

kd
 
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I may be able to get a video of the "ice curl/crunch" today.

Follow exactly what Cressey says for the reverse crunches, your hands need to be overhead holding onto something not quite heavy enough to anchor you. The idea is that you pull your t-spine into slight extension, which makes it harder not to extend your lumbar. The whole idea of this is to learn how to control your lumbar :)

Provided that the movement is slow and controlled, getting your knees between your knees shouldn't put your spine at risk.


For some preliminary hip hinge action, I love this video:
 
Knees between elbows is really throwing me. If you could get a video of that I'd appreciate it too :p

Update:
Well, just watched it again, just realised, the issue is I normally have my arms much flatter on the floor.

Feel that normally makes it harder xD

A video on the ice crunch would be useful still just from a leg extending perspective.

kd
 
Today's weights session (7th I think):
Ok here goes:
Squat 53.5 5x5
BB Bench 30 5x5
Barbell Row 35 5x5
Pull Downs 40 5x5
Dips 5 8 8
Paloff Press 10kg 4x10 (2R/2L)
Reverse Crunch 3x12 0kg
Plank 3x45s
Body Saw 10 5 10

Squats were good, still some form issues to fix, nothing major, but making sure I power through with both legs and getting the balance right. As it isn't anything too major, I'm aiming to hit either BW+Bar(81kg) or 100kg(including bar) or until I need to deload. Then when I hit that weight I reckon I'll spend a few weeks working solely on form at that kind of weight. Glutes didn't feel great mind..

Bench was fine. Weight is still light enough that it isn't really challenging me..

Barbell Row, again alright. I have to keep an eye on form for this, but looking in the mirror at it as I did it, I'm pretty sure it was ok.

Pull Downs - wasn't supposed to do these, but there was a guy doing a decent weight smithing in the squat and I was being nosy, so threw these in :) Also, the dipping station was busy at this point :p

Dips - actually didn't go too bad. Could still do with some more depth...

AB stuff -
Improved, tighter form on the reverse crunches, quite agonising, increased duration on the planks, oh, and didn't bother with the ice crunches today, because my abs were too painful from earlier.

Really need to work on some hip mobility as well.

kd
 
Swimming today. Shoulder is feeling unbelievably tight, but oh well, gave it a bit of a massage, and it seemed to loosen up quickly.

It's still tight, but oh well.

Sooo:
Swimming today:
4/3/2/1/1/2/3/4
200 Ketchup (really easy, really wasn't feeling it, so focussed on turns and kicking out to 10m to try and get something out of this)
200 Drag (same as a above)
Main Set:
16x100 (1:40) - Dropping the rest time by 5 seconds makes a surprisingly large amount of difference. I was hitting the wall at about 1:30, but I've adjusted the way my hand enters the water slightly today, and going to see how that effects my times in future. Definitely felt easier, so it'll be interesting to see how that carries through.
Drills:
200 Fly (done as half length full stroke, 3 strokes one arm, 3 other arm)
100 Back (about 100)
Then spent about 10-15 minutes practising back - breast turns. When you go under the flags, push hard for five strokes until you hit the wall, and turn. Been trying back to breast 'flip turns' as such. Been trying to see if these are legal at the top level, because there is no point practising them if not...
Did a 50 Free sprint after this. Really need to get someone to time me on this one day. Still trying to break 30 again, but looking up at a clock kind of makes it close...

Anyway, for reference for me, and anyone interested, here is:
A bunch of useful drills (or Ice can just look at shoulder mobility :p)

A bunch of turns: - The first back to breast one was the one I was practising.

I'd love to be able to get a camera in the pool with me... So so useful...

kd
 
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Right, swimming today (again)

Gym has taken a bit of hit this week.
Monday was ok, but yesterday didn't happen due to the hangover from Tuesday. Given it was my 21st, I think that's allowed..
Unfortunately though, due to a trip with the gf on Saturday, I suspect that won't happen either :S

Next Monday though I fully intend on getting back into it. Mind you, I may do the first day of this week again.

Swim today.
The last two days have been absolutely awful from a diet perspective, very few carbs, plenty of protein but not much to drink.

Needless to say, I could feel it in the swim. Felt awful.

Shoulders were saw and had a massive stitch, starting to rethink how achievable my rate of improvement for swimming is at the moment, might have to fiddle it a bit, but at the moment whilst I'm achieving everything that I'm aiming to, I might as well keep going.

Warm up: Standard Warm up.
Main Set: 20x100 (1:40)
Drills - bits and pieces - nothing great due to my shoulders.

I had to stretch, and massage my shoulder in between the warm up and main set, but once I got into the swing of it, it worked out fine.
The time was achievable, but certainly a stretch. It's the reason I'm starting to think it might require a bit more work getting down to the next time. Can probably keep up this time to the 30x100, but yeah, think I might have to rethink stuff dropping down to 1:35.

Also, Ice, have you got anything magical for hip mobility? Well, maybe not hip, but like, touching toes mobility :)

kd
 
mrthingyx said:
Christmas = mince pie'n'hangover gym. :cool:
Click to expand...

That does sum it up well unfortunately.

Term finished last week, and I've been rushing around a bit since then.

I've missed out a good few sessions in the last half a week since then though. Yesterday I managed to get down to the pool though and still get some training in, and at the moment, if I miss a gym day I'm going with a bit of a home made routine to try and keep a decentish level of strength up.

Only got 7.5kg Dumbells on me atm, which is obviously fairly limiting, but I've been trying to do:
Gob Squats/BSS/Static Squat (Legs)
OHP (Shoulders)
Curlz/Half dips/skull crushers (arms)
Push UPs (Chest) - (going to load up a backpack with some weights at some point for this as well)
DB Rows (Back)

I'd love to get some pull ups in, but my pull up bar doesn't fit in any of the doorways in this house for some reason...

To be honest, I hate that it's going so poorly at the moment. I've got some massive essays to write right now as well, so they're kind of taking priority over exercise unfortunately.

The real aim from now until about Jan 5th, is make sure I manage to maintain strength, and don't put on too much fat over Christmas.

It's hardly the best time to be doing this, but I'm trying to get by on what I've got at the moment. Admittedly the weights aren't challenging for a lot of stuff, so I tend to just be doing 3xf a lot of the time to try and get some decent stuff done. I do very well on routine, and this not being so routine is a bit annoying...

Shame really, seems to me like xmas would be a perfect time for a bulk xD

kd
 
Ok, so it's been some time, but basically, as I said the lack of weight at home was vastly limiting (about 40kg max). The local gym seemed to spend most of xmas closed as well which was a right pain.

Anyway, back at uni now, and whilst essay commitments have stopped me from swimming so far this week, I'm determined to make sure I get back into everything, and have done my weights this morning :)

I've restarted Stronglifts on the basis it's a 12 week program, and usefully, my uni term is 12 weeks.

That said, I'm obviously not going back to starting weights, but I am dropping them slightly from pre-break weights.

So, today:

Squats - 46 - 5x5
Chest Fly Machine - 30/35/40/40/40 (5/5/5/5/5)
Chest Press Machine - 50 - 5/5/5/5/4
BB Row - 30 - 5x5
Dips - 5/6/6
Reverse Crunch - 3x20

Tried some box jumps as well, to amuse FF, but my legs were killing from the squats...

So:
Good thing I dropped the weight a bit, the squats were horrible! Had a fantastic moment where I was walking down the stairs afterwards and my legs gave way... had to panic and grab the nearest rail xD
So, what else, obviously should have been bench, but was restricted by the sheer number of people benching - nothing was free - so instead went with the two machines. Not a great substitute, but it'll do...
Dips - I'm still having issues with my right hand. I've narrowed it down to the fact that when I broke my left elbow when I was younger, I did some quite severe brusing/tissue damage at the time to my right hand. This hasn't been helped over the years when I used to play waterpolo and that area would frequently have a ball smashed into it. Anyway, it creates a lot of pain when I'm dipping, so I tend to just put a towel over the grip on that hand for padding. Loosing man points, I know, but I'd rather find a compromise that works and be able to dip, then not be able to dip.

Did quite a bit of mobility and foam rolling (demolished the legs to hope they don't seize up) at the end as well.

kd
 
Had some epic DOMS over the last couple of days... First session back clearly caused that.

Anyway, today's session wasn't too bad. Had to switch the order up a bit because it was absolutely packed (about 20 people lifting I a room that's probably 3x6m...)

Pull Down machine - 45kg 5x5
Squat - 48.5 5x5
OHP - 25 5x5
DL - 45 5x5
Palloff press 2x12 ( each side) 7.5/10
Dips - 8/8/7
Reverse Crunch 3x12
Body saw 3x12

A lot of pain, but legs weren't actually too bad as I foam roller'd them both ends of training...

Busyness made it a right pain...

Want to sort out some diet stuff. Could really do with a meal replacement shake in the morning, as eating bagels just isn't happening :s

kd
 
Right Start 2, Day 3.

SL.

Barbell Row - 5x5x30
Squat - 5x5x51
Bench - 5x5x30
Dips - 8/8/9
Reverse Crunch - 3x12
Plank - 3x30s
Body Saw - 8/10/8

Again, had to mix up the order here slightly due to the NY army.

Weekly review on form:
- So I've decided that whilst my daily stuff may be a bit weak on the standard form discussion, more talking about weight, I'll make sure at the very least, I'll talk about how form is going on a weekly basis. I must say at the moment, the NY army are making it very hard to get form videos due to it being so busy.

BB Row - So, form was a bit all over the place here. More how my arms were pulling in though rather than my back not being straight I feel though. I know what the issues are though, so at least that's going through.

Squat - So, I'm still stuck with the Smith. That said, I feel I'm getting decent depth, and my knees are going over my toes, and I'm working on getting the knees out, so to speak. As such I'm relatively happy with that. That said, I am certainly noticing the issues with the Smith here, not from an injury perspective, more that I've noticed that there are times where if I was squatting normally, I wouldn't be holding up balance wise due to lacking in stabilisation, and as such I'd have fallen over if that was a normal bar. Really trying to get rid of this.

Bench - The thing lacking in my bench at the moment is the stabilisation. The Chest Press machine, I'll happily press 50 for reps (as I did on Tuesday), however, whilst 30 wasn't pushing me too much, I could tell stabilisation was suffering quite a bit here. Again, I had to suffer with a BB bench due to it being packed again, but at least I got a Bench this time. I may try some DB stuff next time to see if it helps with the stabilisation.

Dips - Ok, so these are progressing at a rate of knots. I've kind of decided as well, that I'll probably be putting them in every session if I don't have Chin Ups. They're something I really want to work on, and at least it's only 1 arm exercise a session - and a good one at that! I had a minor aim this year to get three sets of 8, so managing that so soon is pretty nice. The only issue I'm actually having is still with the hand (see previous points), padding on the right hand is still allowing me to push through nicely. I feel next time I may try no padding on the right hand and see how it goes, but we shall see. Ultimately, I'd rather pad out my hand slightly and be doing more dips than have to call it a day at 2/3 dips because my hands in agony.

Reverse Crunch - been working more on the stuff discussed earlier, bringing knees in more.
Plank - Pretty standard, not much to say here
Body Saw - This has really now become my 'main' ab exercise at the moment. The other two I didn't push myself too hard knowing I had this coming. I've been working more on more and how much I 'Saw' shall we say. Feeling it will build up nicely to swapping these out for ab rollouts in the near future - it would be nice if I can be doing roll outs as my main ab exercise by Feb.

Other exercises from the week to comment on form wise:
Overhead Press - This is going quite well I feel, no real issues here, and the bar is going down in front of my face now with no issues what so ever.

Deadlifts - These are something I really need to work on. The whole movement of when to drive with what, when, has been causing me all sorts of issues. I've been watching more and more videos and discussion of these in the form thread, so hopefully I can get this sorted. Again, I intend to get some videos myself, as soon as there is room. I'm also thinking I'll reset up on each exercise. It won't be quite as challenging I suspect from a weight perspective, but it seems resetting each time is much much better to help build form.

Other notes on form:
I foolishly made the mistake of not bringing my barbell back up to uni after Christmas. So whilst I can happily work out in the gym, I've no longer got a simple bar that I can load 10kg on and use as a method to practice form at home. I might try finding a long broomstick handle or something similar, and load some of the weights of of the dumbells I have on to it. Frankly I feel like right now I could really do with it for the DL in particular, and maybe also the BB Row.
I'm starting to think that once I get to a certain weight for each exercise I feel there's issues on, I might stagnate the weight for a few sessions and focus entirely on form. At the moment, I'm considering starting this about week 4, maybe week 5 of the program. To be honest, I've always been quite open in that I don't feel a need to lift huge. I'm impressed by those who can lift huge, but I have no real desire to be able to even pull anything much above 150 myself. That may change in time, but for now, this is how I feel. I'll certainly be stopping and revisiting my DL technique, again, at both 1xBW and 1.5XBW I suspect at the very least.

Bit of an essay there, but hope it made sense.

kd
 
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14/1/13 - Swim
First time back in the pool since Christmas. Was always going to be rough.
Stretching, lots of stretching, and mobility
4/3/2/1/1/2/3/4
2x200 - 1 ketchup, 1 bilateral
16x100 - 1:40
Warm down
It was horrific. Annoyed how much fitness has dropped off, but I did just hit the times for the main set. That said, I was hitting the wall, looking at the clock, and going. So basically no rest. Hoping this will be solved soon enough once I'm back into it.

15/1/13 - 5x5 SL
Squats - bar x 10, 10kgx10 20kgx10, 56kg 5x5
OHP - 27.5kg 5x5
DL - 50kg 5x5 100xf 70x1
Chins - 8/5/5
Dips - 10
Plank 3x30
Reverse Crunch 3x12

Comments:
I was feeling unbelievably rough. There were numerous things that annoyed me prior to the session, so really wasn't feeling it. Especially with the weather. Anyway, walked through blizzard to get through gym, which I did :)
Anyway squats - was a big day for me. 20kg plate on each end :) Woop Woop! Nothing major, but it was still nice to see :)
OHP - these were hard, and technique was really suffering by the end. Saturday should be 30kg, but following on from that I may stagnate for a bit and practice form at that weight. Maybe switch to dumbells or something for a session or two.
Deadlifts - felt surprisingly good. I reset between every single rep, which yeah meant it did last long, and more rest, but still, for, was much better as a result. Did then try a 100, it didn't want to shift :( so tried a 70, that went up easily. More curiosity here, but oh well. Apparently by the end of SL I'll be training with 100... That'll be interesting.
Chins - not much to say, was feeling weak by this point though.
Dips - just wanted to try some without padding on right hand, hence only one set. Seemed fine, so guessing that's gone :)
Ab stuff - more just a formality. But I know my core was wrecked because I sneezed and it hurt xD

kd
 
16/1/13
Pool closed today due to weather conditions and staff shortages. No swim.

To be honest, the weather was putting me off anyway. I'm not sure if this has given me the excuse to not go, or annoyed me because I can't go.

kd
 
17/1/13
Gym: - SL 5x5

Bit of a mixed up session today. I went in at 11 and didn't have a lecture until 1 so had a bit of time to kill.
Stretching/Mobility - plenty.

Squat - 58.5 x5x5
BB Row - 32.5x5x5
- 45x5x1
Bench - 30 x5x1
- 35 x5x4
Dips - 11/8/8
Chins - 8/5/5
kd pull down, no idea what it actually is - kind of reverse front raise using cable machine. - 5x5x1
- 15x5x1
- 10x5x3
2500M Row - About 10 minutes - was a bit of cardio as I missed yesterday's swim, and I'm having takeaway curry tonight
Reverse Crunch - 3x12
Stretching + Mobility

Not a bad session. Stability on the bench is poooor. Still aiming to get some videos soon.

kd
 
19/1/13
Gym - SL 5x5

Go away NY Resolution army! I thought snow would help. Apparently not. Two middle aged women in the smith today. Spent about 15 minutes asking the PT for advice on form. Then did one set of bar each. *sigh*. Oh well.

Squat: 61x5x5
OHP: 30 - 5/5/5/3/5
DL: 55 - 5x5
Pull Downs - 50 - 5x5, 70 - chin grip 5
Chins - 5/5/5 - this is when Forearm pump got painful.
Dips - 12/10/8
Reverse Crunch - 12/20/20
Plank - 3x30s
Body Saw - 3x12

Stretching + Mobility - lots and lots.

Week 'review'.

Squats - Great progress this week. Finally got 20kg on the bar, and I'm getting close to a BW squat - that said, it will be in the Smith, and I'm not sure the 16kg bar really is representative of 16. I'd like to get 70 weight wise on the bar, but that's some way off atm. (86 total)

OHP - Today's OHP fail was a pain. That said, following on from Tuesday, I knew today wasn't going to be easy. Have to redo 30 on Thursday. But that fourth set, the weight came down after the third, and wasn't going up. That said, I did focus a bit more on form today, and will do again on Thursday. I may keep the weight at 30 for a while if I feel the need to, although getting it to 35 would be nice as that would be a 1/2 BW press.

Deadlift - Monday's form was great. Today's was not. Was in slightly more of a rush today which probably didn't help, but I think I might definitely have to stagnate it slightly soon to work on form, because I think whilst the weight might be moving based on today's session it wasn't moving properly. Again here, I'd like to stagnate around 65/70 to work on form for it to be a BW DL.

Bench - Stability is an issue here. In fact it is the big issue. I'm pretty sure I could add quite a bit more weight on without this. Wish this would go up faster as well though. Feeling quite weak in the chest atm.

BB Row - Form is getting fixed here. The issue I was having is now pretty much resolved now. So happy with this.

Dips - Coming along at a pace of knots. Really happy with progress here, and hand is now at a point where it doesn't need any padding. Apparently when I hit 15 on the first set I should be getting a dipping belt and adding small amounts of weights. Might wait until I can do 15/15/15 though with perfect form. Still, unbelievably chuffed about how fast these are progressing.

Chins - In contrast to the dips, these seem to have got worse, and I'm really not happy about progress here. Thinking I'm going to up frequency on these, just because I want to get to again, a solid 15/15/15 quite quickly, and feel I should be able to quite easily. Yeah. Really not happy about this.

Pull Downs - Did 50x5x5 today, and it seems to be progressing well. That said, again, these I'd like to be upping the gain here, so may up the frequency slightly.

Ab stuff - fine - although wish I was making a bit more progress here...

That's pretty much it. NYR army are still limiting videos - when someone is about a foot in front of you OHPing whilst you're DLing, it kind of points out how little room there is.

I got the Ian Thorpe cooking book this morning. Half of what he says could have come straight out of FF's mouth with regards to nutrients and supps. As such, I may look into switching up my diet if I feel like it and there's something interesting in it.

kd
 
22/1/13

Order was a bit messed up again, but oh well.
SL - 5x5

Stretching and mobility.
BB Row - 32.5x5x5
Squats - 61x5x5 - 76x1 - 86xf/f - 81x1
Bench - 40x5x4 - 40x8
Chin Ups - 8/5/5
Dips - 12/12/8
Pull Downs - 50x5x3
Reverse Crunch - 12x3
Stretching and mobility

So - comments.

The astute amongst you will notice that I tried a 1RM for funs on squats. You might also notice that I did 61kg both this time and last. Bit annoying really, because it felt easy, and it wasn't until the 4th set, that I realised the weight on the bar wasn't 63.5 (which is what I knew it should be)
Bench, I pushed myself a bit harder, and again weight is going up faster. Think from this point forward I'm going to keep adding weight from this point. 42.5 will be next bench session I feel.
Pull downs were brutal having already done chin ups and dips. Really wasn't happy about these.
Abs - didn't have much time for the ab stuff, considering swapping reverse crunch out for a dragon flag style exercise but with knees bent up.

kd
 
Try overhead squatting with just the bar for a warm up. You'll see why they're quite a different beast to either front or back squats. :)

I can't remember if you have a barbell at your gym, or whether it's just smiths and that's it...
 
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