The Syla5 Files

We kind of touching on the issue of finding the style that's strongest for you, which might not be a typical low bar squat.

Be very careful of dumping your lower back like that. Your hard work to make your core operate properly is negated by falling into shoddy patterns.
 
hmmmm the strange thing is that everything still feels tight, nothing feels like it loosens up at the bottom and there is no dump feeling.

Maybe i need to try with the bar a little lower on my back and see if that natually pulls me back in to the squat a little more and also controlling the depth a little better.

definitley need to make sure nothing untoward is going on with my lower back at the meet.
 
Bench day. I have decided to move OHP to a different day and see if i can make better progress on both.

Bench
bar x15
40x10
60x5
80x2
85x5/5/5+2 spotted
Very pleased with these got all my planned reps with no assistance at all, found an awesome spotter :D, and i forced an extra couple of reps at the end which he really made me work for.

DB Heavy Row
36x8/8/8 might need to invest in some wrist weights very soon, i am supposed to be doing 6 solid tight reps but it doesnt feel enough, and the db's only go to 36 :(

DB shoulder press
26x8/8/5 damn these are tough :D

Front squats
Bar x 10
40x9
60x8
80x5
100x2 PB - depth needs work but focused on keeping things tight through the whole movement.
60x5

Face Pulls
36x10
41x10/10

Pallof Press
18x10/10

Reverse crunches
bw x 10
 
You should be able to go as deep as your goblet squats with the fronties. A side angle will probably reveal your not dropping down and between your legs.
 
the heavy set was very different depth wise compared to the other sets. it was more of an exploratory try at a heavy weight where back tightness > depth for now.

Here is one of my 60kg sets for depth

As for stance, to narrow and i tuck, i would prefer to hit depth with a straight back and have a slightly wider stance. This stance still has the inside of my foot inline with the outside of my shoulder so 4-6" wider total compared to shoulder width, but allows me to get much cleaner depth. As my ankle mobility continues to improve this will allow me to bring the stance in and achieve depth and have a narrower stance.
 
Yeah that needs some tweaking, and possibly a healed shoe.

You should be able to literally sit down at the bottom. Something to practice.
 
A fun answer to bum tuck with a narrow stance is to REALLY splay your knees.

It's also a good opportunity to work that ankle mobility: if you look for the IronMind picture of Ilya Ilin catching 233kg for his C&J world record, you'll see huge ankle flexion and seriously splayed knees.

Yes, he's the Olympic champion, but look at his back, too - I was posting about this with BennyC how it's worth rolling the bar an inch or so down your delts from their insertion around the AC joint so you can really torque your shoulders back and get your back straight and vertical.

Another helping factor for this will be to crank your elbows inward and up in the front rack position: this is pretty tough in the 'crossed-arms' position because your not getting the benefit of the shoulder rotation to really stabilise your upper back.

Why am I spouting all this when I know front squats are not your primary focus? Because you'll never get heavy on front squats without a tight upper back, and it's amazing how different a near-vertical spine feels when front squatting: no back loading, and no bum tuck. As well as an absolute violation of your legs and glutes, and that means gains. Lots of gains. :cool:
 
Cheers Guys.

Ah Mrthingyx i get what you mean now by splayed knees!! i have been using a wider stance to get my knees out, now i will focus on actually getting my knees out rather then widening my stance to achieve the same as i am clearly robbing my self of ankle range improvement!
 
Yeah, it's a funny one.

When I overhead or front squat, my stance is actually comparatively narrow at the heels, with toes at five-to-one at the very least.

Big leg spread (:eek:), deep, deep squat.

As ice points out, I'd also suggest using (as you tried before, IIRC) some fractional plates under your heels for uber simulated ankle flexion. :D
 
I wear high heels - easier than all this mobility lark. :eek:

First trick is Olympic lifting shoes.

Second I unwittingly did was a lot of front squats without shoes...

Third that I've seen is stretch resistance band around the base of the tibia and - with weight on the heel - pushing the knee out and over the toes to stretch out the calves. I use a similar principle for the recfem stretch...
 
I am sure you linked the ankle band stretches from M-wod for me :D They are somewhere in my log. Also there is a recent video on Mwod showing the soft ball work on the ankle, i have been doing that as well with my lacross ball until i can find a decent soft ball to use. Then its just general soft tissue work on my lower legs with the roller and lacrosse ball.

Main thing is the ankle band stretches, i do these every gym session between my warmup sets.
 
Syla5 said:
I am sure you linked the ankle band stretches from M-wod for me :D They are somewhere in my log. Also there is a recent video on Mwod showing the soft ball work on the ankle, i have been doing that as well with my lacross ball until i can find a decent soft ball to use. Then its just general soft tissue work on my lower legs with the roller and lacrosse ball.

Main thing is the ankle band stretches, i do these every gym session between my warmup sets.
Click to expand...

Can't have been me - even if it was, I'd have embedded it in lots of verbose, pointless text on random stuff that never got to the point. :D
 
Syla5 said:
I am sure you linked the ankle band stretches from M-wod for me :D They are somewhere in my log. Also there is a recent video on Mwod showing the soft ball work on the ankle, i have been doing that as well with my lacross ball until i can find a decent soft ball to use. Then its just general soft tissue work on my lower legs with the roller and lacrosse ball.

Main thing is the ankle band stretches, i do these every gym session between my warmup sets.
Click to expand...

Hah yea, that was me who linked it. Just didn't know if you added anything else to it too. I try to do them as often as I can too, seem to be working well!
 
Sorry Mrthingyx that was Deception that I thought had linked it not you :)

I enjoy the verbose pointless text so keep at it :D
 
Last day of 5's week of cycle 3, deadlifts and OHP. Pleased is a good word to sum up today.

Deadlifts
Bar x 10
60x5
90x5
110x4
130x2
135x5/5/5
Went with a slightly narrower stance and it felt strong! slight hip raising early to address. Set 3 a little fatigue kicking in, and deadlifting infront of a mirror brings out the headfault in me :(

OHP
Bar x 5
30x5
40x3
55x5/5/5

Dips
bw x8 warmup, got a serious case of bro shoulders going on, all kinds of tightness today even after some band dislocations
30x7/6/7 damn these were tough after OHP, but i want OHP to improve well to help with my benching.

Standing Cable Row
41x10
45x10/10

Goblet Squats with pulse (running out of time :()
10x10
12x10
worked on feet closer together and extra splay on the knees to really push the ankle mob to new limits. Yes my back could be more upright, but i have reduced my stance width by a good 4-6" so this was a good start i feel.

One of the PT's came over to speak to me as i was heading back in to the changing rooms, and i thought "oh god here we go". He said he noticed i was training for functional strength and more focused on strength, and then went on to say he was really impressed with my lifting and would like to train with me next week, in a non PT fashion. I consider that a complement, as long as he doesnt try and turn it in to PT sessions hes more then welcome to train with me :D
 
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