When you did the squat/lunges, did you maintain a curve in your back, or did you let it round?



Squats are actually an incredibly good, and SAFE exercise, if done properly.

I have no idea.

If you want to try to figure it out, grab a buddy and a camcorder (or forego the buddy) and shoot a quick video (from the side, please. Or optimally, from a few angles) of the following:


A few air squats. (Just a plain squat. No bar, no weights, just bodyweight.) Don't halfass these, a good air squat is critical do a good weight-lifting squat.

A few squats with a broomstick (or something similar). Pretend there's a good 100lbs on it, but just use the stick.

A few squats with just the bar. Same as above, pretend there's a bunch of weight, but don't actually put any weight on it.


It's stupid to work backwards when it comes to form. You should start by having a perfect air squat, and then the next step is a perfect squat with a broomstick, and then the next step is a perfect squat with just the bar, and then start adding weight slowly until your form suffers. If we were in person, I'd watch and help and correct you during each of the above steps, but... internet. But we can still pretend!

Also, if you want to kill two birds in one stone, do deadlifts too. I'd skip the "air deads" and jump straight to the broomstick, though... :p

A few things to note with the video: Please make sure your entire body is in frame. I want to see the top of your head, and the bottom of you feet. Like i said before, I want predominantly side-shots, but a few front and back could help identify, or at least give me a good way to show you, other problems that I can see.

When you've taken them, toss 'em all in a zip and you can email them to me, or upload to youtube, or something.

If you want to learn more about the basic olympic lifts (deadlift, squat, overhead press, etc), I HIGHLY recommend a book called "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe. The first chapter is called "The Squat." It is sixty five pages. About the squat. More than you ever thought possible to know about the squat. Written at a level everyone can understand, from your layman to your doctor, it is VERY educational.

An article/rant my roommate wrote about isolationist exercises and their futility. It does a better job than I did in whatever thread I was arguing in. If anyone is interested.

I completed another two 5B climbs last night! I'm sure I must be stronger than I was before my break in climbing because I can't see how I would have been able to do them back then, and my technique can't really have improved considering I stopped climbing for ages.

I've also been doing a couple of pressups whenever I get the chance (so usually just when I'm in for the evening). bearing in mind what you said about full motion, dud, I've cut back from 5 as I still wasn't getting quite as low as I think I should. but I can do 2-3 and get really low to the floor. no progress on the L-sits though, as I have nowhere to do them now...

Crossfit WOD.

Shoulder press
3-3-3-3-3

I have been remiss in my shoulder training. 75 lbs. Pathetic.

I have been working on candlestick legraises as well.

I spent 5 hours Friday, 12 hours Saturday, and 4 hours Sunday juggling.

I also spent 2 hours training Parkour with a Scottish traceuse (female parkour practictioner) on Sunday (today).

Afterwards, we did 50 pressups, various styles, and showed off various strength and conditioning techniques that we know. Most of these are fairly indescribable without video or pictures, but we're going out again tomorrow, and I'll try to get some good footage and such then.

did a 30+ mile cycle ride on sunday around part of lake leman (lake geneva otherwise known) with 3 mates, averaging just over 13 mph, not great but not bad considering the amount of hills that we went up and down.

only downside was that for the last mile or so I ran into the same problem I often seem to get near the end of a long bit of exercise, cramp...

my thighs felt as though there was this ever tightening ring around them just above my knees when it was happening, awesomely bad feeling believe me.

Any ideas, few people saying I should eat more salt...but I'm also notoriously bad at drinking enough water, although on that day I made a note to drink a lot.

I ran 2.28mi yesterday, I'm trying to work on my endurance, and that was the longest stretch I went for yet. Also, I'm looking to increase my cardio since I want to lose what remaining body fat I have.

It's an antagonist split (1st set A1, 1st set A2, 2nd set A1, 2nd set A2, etc.)

A1 - Close-grip Bench Press, 5x1 cluster
1st Set: 45 kg x 5
2nd Set: 50 kg x 5
3rd Set: 50 kg x 5

Thoughts: My triceps are weak, but I am improving considerably. Last time I did this, I had trouble with 42.5 kg. This time, I felt like I could have done more.

Conversion (b/c I'm American): 50 kg ~= 110 lbs

A2 - Close-grip Preacher Curl a.k.a. "Reverend PAIN," 5x1 cluster
1st Set: 15 kg plus the EZ bar (whatever that weighs??) x 5
2nd Set: 14.5 kg + x 5
3rd Set: 15 kg + x 4 (I did a fifth, but it was fudged)

Thoughts: As I did more of these, I hit a wall about midrange and had to concentrate to power through. When I did make it through, it felt great, but this exercise is a challenge for me.

Comparing with the Past: Last time I did preacher curls a few weeks ago, I was at 10 kg +, so I've made quite an improvement.

... (food's almost ready, so I'll type more later)

Got out of class, sat outside in the sun and juggled, napped, then juggled, then napped, then juggled, then went to meet a traceuse (girl who practices Parkour) from Scotland and trained for about 7 hours. I did everything barefoot. A lot of precisions and a LOT of railwork. We practiced a lot of technical work, precision with stuff in the way, awkward underbars, and some good treeclimbing (PS. Being able to do a muscle-up makes treeclimbing awesome.)

I also did some "cripple work." Someone was talking about how he couldn't climb trees with me because he hurt his left leg, so I climbed the tree without my left leg to prove him wrong. I also tried to do some left-hand only stuff, because while training on Sunday I kind of got stabbed by a tree in the right hand and it hurts quite a bit.

Old Crossfit WOD: Kelly

Five Rounds for Time of
Run 400m
30 24" box jumps
30 Wall ball shots*
Complete workout with puke.

Originally modified to 20 because my homemade medicine ball is 10 lbs. heavier than the standard. Then it broke open, so we did dumbbell thrusters with two 20 lb dumbbells. Another pathetic time; 31:30. I feel like I have pneumonia all the time so I might have to scale all of these workouts down for a week or so.

dud, on the subject of muscle ups, that is my next "gymnastic move" I want to learn, as it were. It has so much practical application, the fact that it is so unknown baffles me.

Monday, April 21, 2008
Running/Jogging
Next few months

At this point my running/jogging abilities are at a minimum. At best I can jog for about 5 or 6 blocks before I have to stop. My goal is to be able to jog from my house to the light house near by, making a 5 mile round trip. Wish me luck.

Spook - So you met pukie? He's a good guy, that pukie...

The muscle up is awesome. A few tips:

1) You need explosive, dynamic strength to get over the bar. Work on clapping pullups a bit.

2) At least at first, you'll need a good kip. Work on kipping pull ups (there's lots of info on Crossfit about them). I find it's easier to kip after doing a standard pullup, so if you're having trouble, try just doing a pullup, then drop down a bit faster and start the kip like that. (Does that make sense? If not, I'll make a video for you to demonstrate it)

3) Combine kipping and clapping pullups.

4) Get your shoulders OVER the bar. Kip, pull up hard and explosively, and lean your shoulders forward over that bar.

5) Try a false grip on the bar. Basically, it consists of getting more palm and less finger over the bar. It'll feel awkward at first, but when it comes time to push the shoulders over the bar, your hand will already be in the correct position, and you won't have to worry about rotating or shifting it.

If any of that doesn't make sense let me know and I'll find pictures/videos to demonstrate.

Good guy, I've known him for years now. However, I could do without meeting Uncle Rhabdo.





Thanks. For some reason, I didnt think of kipping to help. Duhr.

meh, i dont need to work out, i have a perfect slender body, and i cant be bothered to increase my muscle size.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

wait a few years.

drop it like its hot

Muscle size != strength. If you think I'm wrong: Look at some olympic level gymnast videos. Especially ringwork. Those people - many of whom never have lifted weights in their life, when given a bar and taught proper technique, dead 3x, even 4x their bodyweight.

Now find me a weight lifter who can dead 3x their bodyweight and hold an iron cross. Or a Maltese. Let alone transfer between the two.

Crossfit WOD (Yesterday)

Back Squat 5-5-5-5-5 reps

(Compare to 080421)

155 lbs 5th set. I feel okay about this, because I was doing below || and I have never really done those. I was nervous about my form but it felt like I was getting the hang of it towards the end. Taking my shoes off really helped.

Still have to do todays.

Weighted pull-ups 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

(Compare to 080422)

Pullups were only 27 weighted.

Compare to 080424

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats


34:50. ****. Had to jump on most of the pullups but everything else was good. My back started to hollow bigtime near the end of the pushups. Sets of 15-20.

Yesterday

Compare to 080425

Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3 reps.

Highest set was 213. Pathetic once again. Man am I out of shape.

My roommate's just did Angie. They got raped too.

Saturday: Went to gymnastics, did a pretty awesome conditioning workout, and then I worked on aeriels the rest of the time (basically, a no-handed cartwheel). Towards the end of the day, I FINALLY got it.

First time, it was just luck.
Second time, it was chance.
Third time is skill.

(and then I did it two more times after that.)

Aeriels are so much fun.

Today

Compare to 080426

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Hang Power Snatch, 15 reps
Run 400 meters

Scaled to 65# because I am not good at power snatches.

22:00 even.

dud, I am definitely thinking that doing some gymnastics would be very beneficial. It's a bit hard to find a gymnastics class that is for males over the age of 14, or open gyms that do any of the apparatus (mostly rings). In the meantime I am kicking the internet tuts and that Naval Aviator book they have on the crossfit site. That thing is a bible.

http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/ <-- That is a great website for gymnastics stuff. Coach Sommer is pretty much the most elite gymnastics coach of all time. This website, and especially the forum, has really great stuff.

In terms of gyms, just keep calling around, asking about open gym sessions.

Murphy

1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run.

Did the runs with my flak on, and a number of the sets. 10-20-30 x10.

Didn't even record my time, I started whiting out by the third set so I took huge rests in there. But I did all the reps. Pullups were assisted instead of kipping because I hate doing kipping pullups with weight.

Last couple days I was out of town working. Ran 5k and did some handstand pushups. Probably rested too much.

Thanks for the link dud.

Field training day yesterday. Lots of hiking a line digging. Now that's a hell of a workout.



I deal with this all the time when I have my lacrosse players working out in the weight room. The simplest way to explain it is for people to keep their weight in their heals so that they can wiggle their toes while still maintaining balance and control This keeps the back aligned properly and it keeps the knees from getting ahead of the toes.

Compare to 080503

Shoulder Press 1 rep max

75 85 85 75 75

Push Press 3 rep max

95 95 95 95 95

Jerk

105 105 105 105 105


****. The fact that there is such a discrepancy between my weights and my performance in real world manual labour tells me that my technique is to blame.

Did a Taekwondo Demo yesterday, video up as soon as I can compress and upload it. Today I spent about 3 hours doing Parkour. About 1/2 that time was focused on strength and conditioning through parkour-style techniques.

Avenger- A GREAT technique I've learned to teach people is make them do an air squat (no weight/no bar, just pretend there is) with their toes touching a wall. It forces near-perfection in technique. If there is any weight on the balls of the foot, their knees will start to pass infront of their toes, and hit the wall. If their shoulders are coming too far forwards, they'll hit the wall. etc.

Spook - Just because you can lift x#'s in the gym doesn't mean you can lift x#'s outside. Having a perfectly sized bar, with the weight balanced on each end is very different than a big, awkward crate with stuff sliding around in it. Don't get discouaged.

That's the thing. I can load and unload trucks all day, walk around with heavy **** on my back and not my hips, and so on, but I just suck *** on most of these lifts.

But I guess it just takes work and perseverance.

May 5, 2008

-Military press: 1 set of 10 reps at 90 lbs, 4 sets of 5 reps at 110 lbs

-Bench press: 1 set of 8 reps at 130 lbs, 3 sets of 5 reps at 150

-Pull ups: 1 set of 8 reps, 1 set of 5 reps

-Seated rows: 1 set of 10 reps at 130 lbs, 3 sets of 6 reps at 150 lbs

-EZ bar curls: 4 sets of 5 reps at 75 lbs

I used to hit the gym about 3 times a week for 2 years, but in the past 6 months I got reeeeally lazy. I've been maybe 2 or 3 times in that whole period, but I'm getting back into it this summer. I'm most disappointed with my losses in the bench press and pull ups. My end of the month goals are as follows, disregarding the warm up set:

-Miltary: 5x5 at 130 lbs

-Bench: 5x5 at 180 lbs

-Pull ups: 5x8

-T-bar rows (replacing seated): 5x5 at 160 lbs

-EZ bar curls: 4x5 at 105 (might be a bit high)

I'll be switching to different exercises at the end of the month to change things up. Of course this only deals with my upper body. I'll post my plans for my lower body after I see how badly it's atrophied tomorrow.

There will be three 1 month phases. After 3 months, I hope to weigh 200 lbs or just above. I currently weigh 179 lbs. I'll be eating quite a bit!

Planning on working out for the first time in over a year tonight. I miss being in shape...and I don't like the 20 lbs of fat I've gained. I'm hoping to keep the weight (I could use it) but convert it to muscle.

Murc - what do you plan on doing?

Probably what I did last year:

- Work out every other day
- Warm up each time with a decent run (a mile or two, 20-30 minutes-ish)
- Basic upper body workout: pecs/upper back, biceps/triceps, abs/lower back

When I get further along and more into the rhythm of working out, I'll hopefully expand it to running 5 or 6 days a week (shorter runs on lifting days and longer runs on non-lifting days) and expand the lifting to include more muscles.

Ok, with no job, and no school in my future (I graduate this week) I'm planning in better shape. I go to 24 hour fitness.
--------------------------------
What I've been typically doing:
Try to run between 1 and 2 miles on the treadmill.
Do the elliptical thingamagig.
^^ combined approximately 30-45 minutes

Bench Press:
95*12 105*12 115*12 125*10 135*10
Burnout w/ bar 50-100 reps

Then random other stuff. I'll do the squat machine where you squat weights upward at a 45degree angle with 90 pounds, which is a pathetic weight, for 2 sets.
Seated row 2*10 90lbs sometimes
Maybe 2 sets of situps on those slanted situp machines where your head is lower than your upper body and you "sit up."
------------------------------------
What I want:

To be able to do 5 sets of 10 pullups with my bodyweight (approximately 210 pounds now)

For my lower body to be able to support my upper body much better. I have little muscle in my legs/glutes. I've basically been just sitting down this semester, and it has has led to me to being not so muscular.

I look at my legs and sometimes think they look only slightly bigger than my arms. I want them to be much bigger than my arms.
I'm not sure how to be specific about this...
I'd like to have muscle in my lower back/legs so that I can jump and land "quietly" without hurting myself and/or making a loud 210-lb person crashing sound.

A defined six pack (typical goal I guess, but even when in good shape I've always had some kind of fat layer over it).

Oh, and this is long-term, but I'd also like to be able to move a plane with my neck like those guys on TV.

Why no lower body work?



I'd actually reccomend more of a 2 on/1 off or 3 on/1 off schedule, rather than just 5 or 6 straight days a week. A common problem people have is overtraining and not giving their body's enough rest. That rest is when you get stronger and make gains - not when you're lifting. Lifting (or whatever other exercise) just breaks down the muscle fibers, the rest days are when they grow back stronger.
By working out for a few days in a row, you can rest enough to break them down a bit further each day until your rest day, when it can recover fully.

One more note - two miles at 20 minutes is a ten minute mile. This is one extreme of your guesstimated milage, and the other extreme of time. Setting correct and realistic goals rather than just tossing out numbers is fairly important - otherwise you won't know how hard you're pushing yourself. So either say "My goal is a 20 minute 2 mile" or "a 30 minute mile." Both of these are good, specific, goals. "A twenty or thirty minute mile or two" is not as good of a goal.

Compare to 080506

"Elizabeth"

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

Subbed 135 for 109.

Brutal. Dips were really hard last two sets. I sprained my wrist and probably should not have done this workout.

Dud, can you give me some exercises for the chest? I'm been doing pushups and don't have access to do bench pressing.

May 6th (when I did this)

-Squats: 1 set of 8 reps at 130 lbs, 3 sets of 6 reps at 160 lbs

-Deadlifts: 1 set of 8 reps at 130 lbs, 4 sets of 5 reps at 180 lbs

-Seated calf raises: 5 sets of 6 reps at 140 lbs

My squats and calf raises have suffered a good bit, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my deadlift strength has stayed pretty much the same. I suppose it's because I hadn't done them much even when I was exercising regularly.

End of month goals:

-Squats: 5x5 at 200 lbs
-Deadlifts: 5x5 at 220
-Calf raises: 6x5 at 200

Compare to 080507

Four rounds, each for time of:
800 meter run

Rest as needed between efforts.

Subbed 800 for 880 due to size of track.

Set 1: 3:33:34
Set 2: 3:41:10
Set 3: 3:46:59
Set 4: 3:50:44

Not bad considering I haven't ran further than 440 meters at one time in months.