*** The 2019 Gym Rats Thread ***

I’ve followed your pointers. Narrowed my stance slightly (my groin feels much better for this, not getting that lock) and the prompt regarding the knees. I’m not feeling my glutes coming into play which is definitely good.

The Butt wink is still there though. Any other tips? :)

Ho-kay.

I think there's a core bracing component (not enough abz/obliques) and you're also hitting depth by drifting forward (notice how your ankles start moving as you're just above depth)... Part of the problem - I think, watching your t-shirt move - is that your core bracing isn't actually stopping your lumbar move (it moves at the top - indepedently of your thorax - and, unsurprisingly, at the bottom, too). You have to squat as if your core (hips through to shoulders) are rigid, so sitting back SHOULDN'T happen independently of your thorax tilting.

When you brace your core, it should feel like you're trying to rid yourself of the ultimate battler: everything should be as tight as you can make it in the right position. My old coach got me to test this by coughing whilst pinching in an inch from the iliac crest: if that is not rock hard, you're not doing it right. I've just had a go myself (grown a gut specifically for trying low bar) and you need to get that squeeze on tight.

There are some genuinely unpleasant stretches for your hip capsule area (couch stretch, pigeon stretch and frog stretch - I don't make these names up) that will probably have you screaming in no time. Once you've done your warm up sets, give these a go for a minute each (and each side) and then carry on with another warm-up set before your working ones. If there is any more hip mobility to get, you'll find it here.

Also, what is this about no glutes? That is not good. :) Pull your knees out wide to keep them busy. This will also help you create that additional space for your trunk, too.
 
So bracing. TBH I wasn't really bracing properly on those squats because they are a way off what I normally squat but that's no excuse. I think I've always had problems with my bracing. I guess I have to just keep practising it?
 
So bracing. TBH I wasn't really bracing properly on those squats because they are a way off what I normally squat but that's no excuse. I think I've always had problems with my bracing. I guess I have to just keep practising it?

Yes - very much so. :)

However, if you include a set of heavy-ish goblet squats into your workout and really go all out with your core bracing, it's not a bad way to practice it and sort of make gains at the same time.
 
Right, what else can I do for this golfer's elbow thing apart from rest it? Seriously affecting my pull exercises now, after recent 3 week rest came back straight away at the gym.
 
Right, what else can I do for this golfer's elbow thing apart from rest it? Seriously affecting my pull exercises now, after recent 3 week rest came back straight away at the gym.

Rest it - I kept on doing small rests and then thinking it was gone for it to keep coming back...….. rest a lot longer than you think and hopefully will be fine (was out for 3 months)
 
Neo its up to you I was in the same situation and kept on thinking it was fine and taking it easy back and it kept on coming back - its so annoying...

After my long rest I have now been training again for 3 months and all is fine so far...… making sure form is 100% - im not whacking weight on as quick this time as I dont want to injure - if I struggle I keep at same weight and just increase the amount of reps until that feels fine and move up again...…. e.g. Squats 100kg I dropped down to 30kg (now up to 60kg) / Bench dropped from 80kg to 30kg (now 55kg) / Deads dropped from 135kg to 60kg (now 90kg)
 
Right, what else can I do for this golfer's elbow thing apart from rest it? Seriously affecting my pull exercises now, after recent 3 week rest came back straight away at the gym.

Took close to 3 months for mine to go away entirely. Did exercises with this daily - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000KGOMBC/

I kept trying to start again after a few weeks rest and making it worse.
 
Just sheer frustration when it's such a relatively small injury that's hampering so many lifts, especially when I've finally made good headway with the diet and really need the exercise part to ramp up.

It's mostly the pull stuff that's affected, worst one is something like dumbbell curls and pull ups. Don't have issues with shoulder and bench presses and even deadlifts are fine. Squats are fine too, so I think it's a case of cutting out certain exercises completely because I'll probably just get depressed and go back to a pizza diet over the winter, instead of getting that summer body :D
 
Yeah it is really frustrating...…. I know how you feel...….

Certain lifts do affect the elbow more than others (especially pull ups (ive cut them out completely as I think its easy to cause the elbow injury with form!) / curls ( I do hammer curls if I have to do curls now)

If you want you can try doing other exercises and see if that doesnt aggravate it
 
To be fair there's no pain in the elbow, it's more forearm towards the elbow but guessing it's the same thing and some kind of tendon inflammation.
 
It was doing pull ups that caused mine, had a bit left in the tank at the end of a workout and did more than I should have.

Even now, over a year later I have to be careful with pull ups as I can feel the start of the same kind of pain and irritation I had with golfers elbow.
 
Finally had to give in and buy some straps. Been training grip strength occasionally to try and avoid using them but it's not really gone anywhere. It's not that I feel my grip slipping so much as it is a dull, building pain in my joints that's hindering my progression and has even forced me to abandon entire sets at times. Annoying thing is I'm not even moving that much weight and that it doesn't really happen during deadlifts, just rows and the like. I do have quite small hands and have often wondered whether that's got something to do with it?
 
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There's nothing wrong with straps, they're as useful as weightlifting shoes or belts:
- there are powerlifters like Tom Martin who can pull over 400kg (420kg+ now he's switched to sumo!), but use straps for a lot of pulls in training because it trashes his hands less.
- pretty much every elite weightlifter uses straps in training
- pretty much every bodybuilder use them for movements like RDLs, or vertical/horizontal pulls, where the limiting factor should be the target muscle fatiguing not whether you can hold onto the weight long enough

Obviously your grip shouldn't be weak but it doesn't take much work to develop and maintain grip strength whilst using straps for appropriate situations. The padded ones that you tie to your wrists and loop over and over are crap though, the best ones are either the weightlifting style ones like I have or getting bodybuilding fancy, things like the VersaGrips.
 
I'm 3 weeks into Stronglifts 5x5, I'm about 30kg off of what I normally squat but I'm starting to struggle. My groin just feels fatigued. I'm guessing my body still needs to get used to squatting 3x per week.
 
Does anyone else suffer from extremely tight hamstrings? I can barely bend more than about 15 degrees at my hips before I need to bend my knees. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can fix this?
 
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