The Ups and Downs of high-bar squatting

02/10/15 - Friday

Front Squats. Had to get in and get out so there's almost nothing to log.

Front Squat

Bar x lots
30kg x 8
40kg x 2x3
45kg x 2x2
50kg x 5x5

I was meant to do 7 sets but calf was slightly tight so that was pulling on the knee. Just not comfortable.

Update: I have a competition in 5 weeks time so I am reintroducing back squats for light doubles and triples and shall be doing the same with front squats on my off days. So I'll squat mon/wed/fri and front squat tues/sat if I'm feeling up for it. This will be after deadlifts so we shall see... This should help be bring me up to a reasonable number to squat in the competition. The fun thing is that I'm not cutting for the competition since it's an equipped comp and I'm competing raw. So I wouldn't in anyway, I'm also not properly prepared for it either and tbh, I'm entering for the fun of it because others are. I'll worry about competing properly next year to get my qualifying total.
So next week I shall do some back squat and some front squat to get used to the movement again and then on Saturday I'll do an easy 1rm to see where I am and then do a 4 week program as (improper) prep for the competition. Should be good fun.

Bench, Sumo Deadlift and OHP tomorrow!
 
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03/10/15 - Saturday

Bench, sumo deadlift and OHP! Oh there was a lot of awesome going on today.

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
60kg x 3
67.5kg x 9

Nice and easy, had another 2-3 in me! Training max goes up next week!

Sumo Deadlift

70kg x 5
90kg x 3
100kg x 5
105kg x 5
110kg x 5
115kg(B) x 5
120kg(B) x 5

Super happy with that. I've gone from a challenging 100kg 2x6 with hip issue to 120kg x 5 with what felt like brilliant posterior chain activation, in 2 weeks!

Sumo Deadlift Block Pulls (S)

85kg x 3
97.5kg x 3
112.5kg x 2x3
125kg(B) x 2x2
132.5kg(B) x 3x1

The last top sets felt challenging to break from the block but they each went up nicely. After doing so many deadlifts though, I'm not disappointed in the slightest.

OHP

Bar x lots
30kg x 6
37.5kg x 3
42.5kg x 3x1
37.5kg x 3x5

Dones.

Chin Ups

BW x 6,7,7

BOR

30kg x lots
40kg x 4x10

And that is that finished with!
Really happy with that session. Shall be interesting to see where my deadlift is at next Saturday!
 
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Somnambulist said:
I just went on your Instagram and did a double take. Hiiiiii.

Not seen you at Elite lately...
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Hahahahahaha, I was going to say hello in Elite when I put two and two together but I didn't see you for ages, and now I've moved back to Newcastle for a while! Great work on the squats btw! How's the Greg Nuckols programs working for you?
 
Somnambulist said:
I haven't done it in a while. I had 6 weeks of not being on shift so did a cycle of Lyle's Generic Bulking Routine and I've used last week and this week to deload (bar going and getting that 135kg deadlift after not doing them for 6 weeks). Was't used to doing lots of higher rep sets before but it's got my squat up from 90kg 3x4 to 4x8 and I think I look a tiiiiiny bit bigger, so that was good.

As of Monday I have no idea what I'm doing again so I'm sat here at work trying to figure something out... it's tempting to go back to Greg's stuff again but... I've got all my strength back from pre-surgery then some and my strength standards according to pretty much all the calculators are basically right at the bottom of intermediate, so it's tempting to do something slightly different. His intermediate routines don't work as well with my shift pattern and for instance the squat x2 or x3 ones involve doing low/high(/front IIRC) soooooooooooo....
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Damn.. two week deload? I didn't know you had turned into a Westside powerlifter before a meet... Sounds like you made some tastey gains though and grats on the deadlift!
What have you got in mind for your next routine if Greg is off the list? Wendler, Sheiko? Or maybe because of your shift pattern go for a Conjugate STYLE routine where you do 1 heavy day, one hypertrophy/technique day for squats/ deadlift and then the same for bench. The main thing is that you only go heavy on 1 lower movement a week and alternate each week. When you go heavy on a lower body lift, you do the opposite lift light on the same day. There's much better documentation on the interwebz but it might be worth considering. Also, check out Massthetics as they both did(do?) conjugate and had great results. Just food for thought.


05/10/15 - Monday

Just Bench and Rows since I'm testing squat and deadlift on Saturday so I'm just doing enough to keep the motor patterns and not much more.

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
60kg x 3
70kg x 3x2
60kg x 3x5

Easy enough. Odd bit of elbow clicking caused by a tight ankle... Sounds crazy but having a tight ankle prevented me getting into a stable position on the bench, this threw my hips and my ribcage out of line and put the scap in a silly position that just was not working. Bizzare.

BOR (Bench Grip)

Bar x lots
30kg x 12
40kg x 12
45kg x 4x8

Nicer that these are heavier. Can't get as low as I would like because of the fatigue in my lumbar but I'm still getting decent contractions and great ROM so it's still doing it's job.

Finished up with some pec and shoulder stretches followed by some ankle and calf stuff because it's been giving me havoc just walking around.
 
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mrthingyx said:
Interesting elbow issue... Although I haven't benched properly in around... Err... A very, very long time! :D
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Freefaller said:
Is that in Orpington or is there another Elite gym in London?
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I know it sounds crazy but I was talking to a physio earlier in the day and she explained all the medical mumbo behind it, I thought she was crazy, yet made sense. So when I went to bench last night, instead of looking directly at the problem area, I checked everything else. I stretched out the ankles to get a better setup and it just worked...

And yeah it's in Orpington, pricey but decent. No bumper plates though :( I was tempted to come over to your gym in Greenwich but it would have been too far for my training partner to travel, so we compromised and settled with Elite.
 
Somnambulist said:
I live like 2 minutes in the car from Elite. If only they had bumper plates and hadn't ruined the back area by cramming way too much stuff in. I miss that 2nd platform...



Yeah I'm regretting it already, feel weak coming back although I just finished my first set of night shifts for about 2 months and feel broken with tiredness.

I still have no idea. :(

This is my shift pattern:
shifts_zpsvypdcx8a.png


Days marked x I can train. Orange is day shifts, blue is night shifts. There's just not enough hours in the day to train when I'm working (would be possible if the gym was 24 hours perhaps but then I'd be cutting my sleep to something stupid). It's always tempting to cram in as much frequency as can!
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You might have to get creative and design a routine yourself since that shift "pattern" is all over the place. You could look into something like push/pull/legs or a powerbuilding routine as it'd be in a similar format. Your other option is getting creative. What's the worst that could really happen?

Also, have they still not put in another platform?!

06/10/15 - Tuesday

Tbh, I didn't even train. I ended up unexpectedly coaching for the evening so the main coach and myself had to shuffle our stuff until tomorrow. All I did was OHP...

OHP

Bar x lots
30kg x 5
37.5kg x 8

That's it. Nothing more and nothing less. Should be squats, bench and deadlift tomorrow!
 
Somnambulist said:
They're building a spin studio at the moment upstairs which has halved the never-used lounge area. No movement on sticking another platform where the other half rack is.

I'll likely end up doing what I did last time which was a suicidal high frequency of squat/bench/row days then OHP/deadlift or similar/pullups the next, keep the fluff fairly minimal except on days when I'm working the next day or it's a rest day after. Maybe this time I'll have a bigger swing between sets/reps than Greg's beginner setup - maybe something like:
Day 1 = 4x8
Day 2 = 6x3
Day 3 = 5x5

For squat/bench anyway.
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Swap the 5x5 and 6x3 days around as it's a nice simple way to start of with high volume low intensity and swap to low volume high intensity.
Shame on Elite... I think they're not bothering because the only people that used the platforms was you, my friend, myself and that random weightlifter.

07/10/15 - Wednesday A.M

Super basic session, squats, deadlift, push press.

Squat

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 10
50kg x 7
60kg x 5
70kg x 3

Done.

Deadlift

40kg x 10
60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 3

Done.

Push press

Bar x 10
30kg x 10
35kg x 7
40kg x 5

Need to work on more drive from the legs.

This was essentially a warm up for my session tonight. Low Bar squats and super light deadlifts later.
 
07/10/15 - Wednesday P.M

Squats and deadlifts. Medium weight squats just to get a feel for them again and light deadlifts to save energy for Saturday.

Squat

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 5
60kg x 3
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
100kg(B) x 3x2

Done. The speed of the first rep of the main work sets were brilliant and the second ones were always slower. Nevermind, just practice to get back into it.

Deadlift (1" deficit)

60kg x 5
80kg x 1
85kg x 4x3

Came up slower than expected, just feeling drained after a long day, easy enough though and no issues.

Chin Ups

BW x 7,7,7

And that is that done and finished! Easy bench press tomorrow and then relax until Saturday!
 
08/10/15 - Thursday

Bench and rows. Super light.

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 2x6
60kg x 3
65kg x 2x3
70kg x 2x2

So easy.

BOR (Bench Grip)

Bar x lots
30kg x 10
40kg x 10
45kg x 4x8

Also very easy. Need more left trap contraction.

And that's that. Saving all my energy for Saturday (squat and deadlift) and benching on Sunday.
 
10/10/15 - Saturday

Squat and Deadlift max!

Lots of dynamic warmups and followed with a quit squat demonstration and then the actually squatting. Because I was leading the session I was losing a lot of time between my warmups so maybe if I had a more efficient warm up then I might have got higher in the squat (There was more in me!), who knows...

Squat

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 2
70kg x 1
80kg x 1
90kg(B) x 1
97.5kg(B) x 1
105kg(B) x 1
112.5kg(B) x 1 - Current pb :P not really a pb at all but I'm happy.

Deadlift

70kg x 5
90kg x 3
110kg x 1
120kg(B) x 1
130kg(B) x 1
137.5kg(B) x 1
142.5kg(B) x 1
147.5kg x 1

I tried 152.5kg but I was tired. Since I didn't know what to aim for I played it safe with the attempts and only did small increments! Now I have a rough idea where I'm at!

Time to rest and start training again from Monday!
 
12/10/15 - Monday

Great little training session! Squats and Bench, left OHP for tomorrow.

Squats

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
60kg x 3
70kg x 2
77.5kg x 1
82.5kg x 5x5

really chuffed with these, almost know knee funk providing I kept everything under control (not necessarily slow). This is a good sign.

Bench

Bar x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
60kg x 3
67.5kg x 1
72.5kg x 6

Bar path was a bit off but the weight was simple enough. I think the fact I had a long weekend, diet was off and I was extremely tired (and tight in the pecs) didn't help anything. Still got enough reps to progress through the program so I'm happy.

BOR (Bench grip)

Bar x lots
30kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 4x6

Easy enough, fatigue hit me though after the second set.

I'm going to alternate the grips each session. One session I'll use my bench grip and the other I'll use my deadlift grip in hope of getting the best of both worlds.
 
mrthingyx said:
Just deadlift with your elbows back. :)

Works a treat for ripping your arms out your sockets... But then, I find rowing a low easier than bench, so go figure. :(
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I'll definitely give that a go with some lighter sets and see how I get on.

13/10/15 - Tuesday

Deadlifts and OHP

Deficit Deadlift (3"-3.5"?)

70kg x 3
90kg x 3
102.5kg x 3

Deadlift

115kg(B) x 2
122.5kg(B) x 5
122.5kg(B) x 2x3

More difficult than what I was expecting. Seriously low on food today again though so that could be a possible factor.

OHP

Bar x lots
30kg x 6
37.5kg x 2
42.5kg x 1
47.5kg x 1
50kg x 1
55kg x f - Skipped 52.5kg as this would be a new pb. Cleared it off my chest and up to about my nose but no further. there's always next time.

And that's that, short and simple. I'm hoping that I have more energy next time for deadlifts.
 
14/10/15 - Wednesday A.M

Squats, deadlifts, Push press. Not fun after last night but I also did high bar instead of low bar and I'm deadlifting in my high heels today. The session was overrun in terms of time so we were rushed and I (happily) missed a few things out just so some of the other members of the club could get a proper taste for things.

Squat (High Bar)

Bar x lots
40kg x 8
60kg x 6
70kg x 5
80kg x 3x5

Deadlift (High Heels, Hook Grip)

60kg x 8
90kg x 6

I was about to start 110kg but were told we only had 10 minutes left and to get some push press in.

Push Press

Bar x 8
25kg x 6

And ran out of time...

The session started off really well but I was paired with someone who was a complete beginner so it took ages to find the right weights for them. Next time I'll find someone on a similar level so hopefully I can get a full session in.

More training later. Low bar squat and bench!
 
14/10/15 - Wednesday P.M

Just squats, no room to bench so leaving it for tomorrow. Might even try some Oly stuff tomorrow :o

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 6
55kg x 8
67.5kg x 6
80kg x 2x4
90kg x 2x3

Not too bad, weight was fairly easy but there were a few clicks in the left knee, but not on every rep so that's a good sign. I forgot to 'screw my feet into the floor' so that might have something to do with the clicks. The other option is that I squatted earlier so it was more volume than my knee was used to.

Good Morning

30kg x 3x12

DBSS

BW x 3x8(each leg)
 
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15/10/15 - Thursday

Bench, left OHP so shoulders and traps could recover properly; I'm also benching tomorrow.

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
60kg x 3
67.5kg x 5x5

Arch and bar path are getting much better. Need to get the hips (and entirety of the legs) more mobile too so I can comfortably keep myself in a tight position rather than feeling like I might have a hamstring spasm at any point.
 
16/10/15 - Friday

Squats, Bench, OHP.


Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
55kg x 3
67.5kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 2x3

Really happy with that, only one noticeable click in the left knee tonight and so far it feels fine. The squats were also way better and so much easier than last time. I managed to pause the last rep for a good few seconds before coming up.

DBSS

BW x 3x8 (each leg)

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
45kg x 8
52.5kg x 6
62.5kg x 2x4
70kg x 2x3

62.5kg was a trololol, 70kg was a tad harder but still easy.

OHP

Bar x 8
30kg x 6
35kg x 10
32.5kg x 10
30kg x 12

Oddly made my lats and scaps feel amazing, not complaining at all.

BOR (Deadlift grip)

30kg x 12
40kg x 8
50kg x 4x6

Incredibly easy.

Lots of deadlifts tomorrow.
 
17/10/15 - Saturday

Sumo Deadliffffffttttttttssssss.

Sumo Deadlift

70kg x 5
90kg x 3
107.5kg x 3
115kg(B) x 2x6

Supposed to leave 2 in the tank, felt like maybe 4-6 first set, 3-4/5 second set. More weight next week :D

Paused Sumo Deadlift Above Knee(S)

70kg x 3
90kg x 3
105kg x 4x2

Lovely and easy. Lots of booty work and proper hamstring and glute loading going on.

Chin Ups

BW x 7,7,8

Happy days.

Already I can feel that the weight for the next cycle will be going up by whatever my top set of 5 is in two weeks time. We shall see what that is when we come to it.
 
19/10/15 - Monday

Squats, Bench, OHP and Rows....long session.

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
55kg x 3
67.5kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 4x3
82.5kg x 3x6

Took a while to get the hip to work but the down sets were nice. The most of the reps on the works sets were nice too but there was a fair amount of knee clicks, but nothing of pain though.

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
60kg x 3
70kg x 9 - Boom!

Last rep was hard but not terrible. More weight next week!

OHP

Bat x lots
30kg x 6
35kg x 3
40kg x 3x5
35kg x 3x8

Fun, fun, funs. I'm pressing wider than I used to for some reason but it's really comfortable and feels just as strong (I think).

BOR (Bench Grip)

30kg x 15
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
55kg x 4x4

Finally back at a weight where it feels like it's doing something. Yay.
 
20/10/15 - Tuesday

Bench and Deadlift. Dear goodness that was heavy.

Bench

Bar x lots x lots
40kg x 8
50kg x 6
60kg x 3
67.5kg x 3
72.5kg x 4x3
67.5kg x 3x6

Moved so well without hardly any issues too. Pleased with this.

Deadlift

70kg x 5
90kg x 3
110kg x 3
120kg(B) x 2
127.5kg(B) x 5
127.5kg(B) x 3x3

All went up with good form but the last rep on the first set was hard, I think I could have pushed out 1-2 more at a serious push.

Deadlift Block Pulls 3" (S)

85kg x 3
102.5kg x 3
107.5kg 2x3 (was supposed to be 117.5kg...)
117.5kg(B) x 2x3
125kg(B) x 3x3

And that is more than enough for tonight...

Chin Ups

BW x 7,8,8

So happy that's over with. One of the heaviest sessions I've done in ages. Next week is supposed to be heavier by either 2.5kg-5kg. Might try +5kg for the first set and see how I get on. Part of me is thinking of being sensible and only going+2.5kg for next week. Time and food will tell...
 
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