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Messages - entropy

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1066
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 12, 2012, 06:39:37 am »
Thoughts on BSS

I like these a lot. I found myself falling out of balance at first but I think it's just a matter of practice. Here are my immediate observations after the first time doing these.
  • L leg a lot stronger but got a sick burn - meaning the FSs done earlier exhausted this leg
  • R leg was struggling with the weight (lack of strength) but no burn

So hopefully 2 things will happen from BSS - R leg will catch up strength wise to L. And 2, once R has caught up to L - L won't be so fatigued from FS/BS because R leg will be contributing it's fair share.

Once the above correction takes place - hopefully I will cure this R hamstring tendon funkiness too.

And here begins the BSS experiment.

1067
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism -- w2d3
« on: December 12, 2012, 05:06:31 am »
Training
FS 4x100, 5x99.5 (PR)
BSS 35x5R, 35x5L, 35x4R (fail), 35x4L, 35x5R, 35x5R

OHP 2x5x56, 8x50

FS notes:
Was annoyed at not getting the 100kg pr, so decided to attempt a closeby 99.5 pr on the 2nd set. Got it but form left much to be desired. So next week i'll probably get 100x5 and then i'll see what to do about progressing from there.

BSS notes:
My right side is a lot weaker than L. I can go deep (touching ground with knee) on L. Not so much on R. Good! This means i've got an imbalance and I have an exercise which will fix it hopefully!

Shit failed BSS at the bottom of the last rep. had to jerk the barbell over my head, then drop it infront of me. Not sure how i'm supposed to fail these without breaking my shit.

Ok back into the rack, the pins will save me if I get trapped. Sorted out.

Anyway i'm fucked off with with my problems with squat form. I dunno if it's my body dimensions, my bent bar, the not level floor, or just flexibility but i've had enough with asymmetry. The bar isn't straight on my back, isn't straight out of the hole. Was thinking since i pay for medical insurance regularly I should probably try geting something back for my money and try seeing a physiotherapist, if it will help rule out a few of these factors. They tend to be useless quacks in my experience but surely this isn't a difficult problem to diagnose..?

Just another thought. If the problem is imbalance - I should try unilateral exercises. I've wanted to try bulgarian split squats earlier this year. But I couldn't because of a persistent ankle injury. I'm healed from that now so I might give it a shot. I just realised I don't even have to use a lot of weight. Suppose I work up to 100kg BSS then that's plenty of weight for just 1 leg. right? It shouldn't be too unsafe. I'm not used to training outside the cage though so it feels a bit weird.

1068
Pics, Videos, & Links / Re: beast
« on: December 10, 2012, 11:38:38 pm »
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA5bwqVN5LM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA5bwqVN5LM</a>

1069
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism -- w3d1
« on: December 10, 2012, 06:13:29 am »
Training
FS 1x107.5, 4x100, 5x95

BP 6x77.5, 6x75, 6x72.5, 6x70, 6x67.5, 6x65 (last 3 wg)

BS 3x90, 2x100, 3x102.5, 4x100, 2x97.5, 10x60

BW: 77.1kg/169.98lb  (quietly slipped into 160s -- reverse hypertrophy here I come)

FS notes:
Couldn't for the life of me figure out why almost every single rep including warmups had bad form. Were my shoe laces too tight? Was it the different pair of shorts? Was some muscle (group) not fully recovered from last week? Very frustrating.

BP notes:
Struggling with that top set but I finally got 6 this week. But it was so difficult that I may as well have failed it! The good thing about this session was getting 36 reps in. Decent amount of volume.

BS notes:
Delaying this to the 3rd (!) session made a big difference. I think also because I warmed up starting from the bar rather than my usual practice of going straight from FSs to BS starting with 90kg. Whatevers. Was still shit, couldn't get 6 reps at all. I didn't court failure though. Anyway, hopefully i've done enough to put some carbs into my legs all the same.

Session 1: Incredibly shitty workout. I guess i've had a good run lately, lots of PRs while cutting. In hindsight I might have erred by not taking the carb reload today. I have been feeling pretty awful, tired and my brain feels sluggish inside my scull. I guess that was a sign i'm carb depleted or whatever but I wanted to soldier on for another week. Nevermind. I'll take on wednesday.

I cut the workout short, will have some bread and try again later tonight to backsquat and bench. If i have time and weather permits, hiit sprints as well.

Session 2: I decided just to do the carb reload today. Why not? I've been eating bread like it's going out of fashion. So good.



I think there were 8, 10 or 12 in the whole pack. I didn't pay attention. But looking online each one is 16g of cho, 2.8g pro, 0.7g fat - so pretty great for a good clean carb reload.

1070
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 09, 2012, 11:20:55 pm »
Thank you for the data guys. It looks like it uses neck circumference as a proxy for muscularity and waist circumference for fatness. If you have an inch more of neck circumference it affords you an extra inch of waist circumference for the same bodyfat. Interesting stuff.

1071
Introduce Yourself / Re: New member with basketball aspirations
« on: December 09, 2012, 10:39:26 pm »
Hi, Good strong first post. What's your training currently look like?

1072
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 09, 2012, 12:04:32 am »
Body comp thoughts
When I started cutting at 87kg (190lb) I thought by the time I got to 80kg (175lb) I'd be ripped. Then I got there and it wasn't the case. So I said, surely by 75kg (165lb) it will happen. And as i'm quickly approaching 75kg I realise it's not going to happen there either! I'm thinking it might be closer to 70kg (155lb). I can't imagine needing to go under 70kg, that must be a safe lower bound, but lets see what happens. I'm getting used to disappointment.

My waist is now just under 33" and I suspect given my build, i'll need to look at achieving a 30" or smaller waist for single digit bodyfat. So I probably have months of cutting left to do. This sucks obviously. But i'm satisfied knowing there will be the light at the end of the tunnel, i'm just not anywhere near it yet.

Oh and the reason why I'm looking at 30" is the following table:

American Council on Exercise
Bodyfat %   Abdomen (in.)   
0%   26.58
1%   26.92
2%   27.27   Essential Fat
3%   27.63
4%   28.00
5%   28.38
6%   28.77   Athletes
7%   29.17
8%   29.58
9%   30.00
10%   30.44
11%   30.88
12%   31.34
13%   31.81
14%   32.29   Fitness
15%   32.79
16%   33.30
17%   33.82

generated using http://www.chaosreigns.com/gym/waistfromfat.html - i put in 14" for neck and 75" for height. Would be interesting to see what other people get using the calculator for their current waist and expected waist at 10%?

funk master flex

1073
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 07, 2012, 10:34:14 am »
Quote from: LBSS on December 07, 2012, 10:16:10 am
interesting analysis. you're obviously in a better position to know than i am.

Yeah I think quad weakness is the cause, and upper back rounding the effect.

It's one thing which really bugs me about my front squats. It feels like this whole time i've been doing them i've been cheating my way through and even though I set out to build leg strength by them, i've just build glute strength or something instead.

But i'm wrong, because yesterday when I tried out my swimming shorts for the first time since last summer, they have got real tight around the thighs, so much so that I can't even walk properly when I wear them. And my quads bulge out which never used to happen before. If you think maybe you just got fat - well no, because i'm some 20 pounds lighter now so it's the muscular kind of girth not the starting strength one.

I know how a good front squat should feel like (real leg dominant) and it just doesn't happen often. Could probably count on my fingertips on one hand the reps which i've felt 'hitting' my quads til now. I even get the feeling I get better quad involvement out of my more modest backsquats than I do from my front squats, even though the front squat weight is heavier than the bs weight!

That's why I would like to try out some SSB squats one day, see if they hit my quads better. And if you are thinking 'then why don't you just do backsquats' - it's because i'm built wrong for backsquats, hit this awful sticking point halfway up and either near enough snap my spine squatmorning or grind out a slow difficult rep. But it just sounds like im making excuses sometimes.

1074
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 07, 2012, 10:12:50 am »
Quote from: LBSS on December 07, 2012, 09:37:09 am
that ain't just quads, broseph. look at how much your upper back rounds on the concentric.

I think the causality goes the other way. insufficient quad strength leads to upper back rounding. Fix the quad weakness, fix the rounding. You can argue my upper back rounds, which causes the breakdown of form. But I know from being under the bar that it was my quads being close to limit effort that my body compensates by allowing back to round, making it easier to bring the bar into my body using lower back strength, and then once the bar is back into my body (and raised slightly), i push my glutes thru. This whole thing bypasses my quads because they couldn't do the job in the first place. But we'll see how it goes, if i'm wrong then quad work wont make much difference and will be back to square 1.

1075
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism -- w2d5
« on: December 07, 2012, 04:46:54 am »
Training
FS 1x100, 1x107.5, 1x112.5, 1x117.5 (PR)
BP 1x77.5, 1x82.5, 1x87.5, 0x92.5, 3x80

BS 3x107.5, 3x105, 4x102.5
WCU 2x84.5, 1x89.5, 1x99.5, 1x104.5, 1x102, 2x99.5, 4x94.5, 5x89.5, 5x87, 9xBW (PR)
Jumps (5 svjs, about 5 double step jumps)

HIIT sprints 06:10:13

BW: 77kg/170lb

FS notes:
Warmed up rusty. But finally a new 1RM PR breakthrough. That means i'm above 1.5BW now!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCF-PbHlZ0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCF-PbHlZ0</a>

Form was iffy - and I know exactly why - it's a lack of quad strength. I know the form breakdown mode very well, all i'm lacking is a strategy to attack it with. Andrew gave me an idea earlier in the log to use heavy partials - that might help. Provided quads get stronger in the next few weeks, I believe I can get 120kg @ ~75kg with good form by the end of the year.

BP notes:
I came closer at getting the 92.5 max this week but it's still a bit too heavy for me. I won't try it again next week, instead i'll try getting some more reps in with a weight that's slightly below there.

BS notes:
Good form. Happy with backsquat!

Jump notes:
I am about 6" away from touching the top of the square on the outdoor rim. This isn't too bad considering i haven't jumped in months. So I haven't lost much if at all, if anything i'm jumping slightly better than before. But I think once i'm done cutting (as in a legit 10% bodyfat) - I will be some 5kg (of pure lard) lighter than i am currently. I'll also be able to train jump more seriously and will be able to eat better etc. So these are all promising signs that i'm on the right track.

1076
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 05, 2012, 09:28:27 am »
Quote from: Raptor on December 05, 2012, 07:05:16 am
I am personally locking my knees and even trying to actively hyperextending them (I know, sounds terrible) and also am doing the same thing with the hips (going for a posteriorly rotate pelvis at the top) - these two things help me really squeeze the VMOs and glutes, a thing that normally doesn't happen if I don't actively think about it. If I'm just doing "normal" reps these things don't occur. It's a pretty big difference for me (I can feel the VMOs and glutes do work doing this).
I might be misunderstanding you (probable) but are you saying that if you consciously exaggarate the movement at the end of the cocentric you get better activation in VMOS and glutes? I'll have to try that out and see for myself.

Quote
Obviously I'm not overdoing it or really exaggerating it to the point of injury, and I'm usually doing it with lower weights. You won't see me think about this doing 1RM stuff.
Interesting. Yeah, it would have to be an effect seen over volume since it's such a small part of the ROM.

I read that as people diet down to lower bodyfat - their muscle fibres transition into slow twitch ones. Now that's something I don't want to happen - so I should keep the sprints and jumps in while cutting. But what i'm wondering is, maybe when they studied this thing, they were studying people who did a lot of traditional "fat burn" training like slow steady cardio. If you spend hours on the treadmill a day, of course that will mean your muscles adapt to that sort of activity. Doesn't necessarily mean cutting bodyfat itself is automatically the mechanism for the fast->slow twitch changes.

1077
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism -- w2d3
« on: December 05, 2012, 08:04:16 am »
Training
OHP 2x5x55
FS 5x98.5 (PR), 5x94.5

BS 3x105, 6x101
HIIT 6x 10 on, 13 off

FS notes:
Felt weak today warming up, the last warmup with 100kg felt like an RPE 10. But somehow I still got the PR and it wasn't too bad. Next week i'll go for the 100x5 which is fairly exciting! 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnDZFaH8EYA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnDZFaH8EYA</a>

Btw i'm going really deep now on FS - It's not surprising to me that I caught the pins last workout now that I think about it.

BS notes:
Wanted 5x105 but 3x105 will do for now - I didn't chase failure! The 6th rep of 101 was unsafely ugly. Stupid backsquat. But it's my fault, I shouldn't be working with RMs like this. Should keep a rep in the tank!!

So on friday i'll aim to get 5x105 and 3x107.5 - This might be too ambitious? Ideas welcome.

OHP notes:
Kinda tweaked my back on OHP. I hate this stupid lift, always gives me back problems. I should focus on maintaining perfect form and only adding weight once i've mastered the weight. Patience will probably go a long way as long as I'm consistent over a period of 6-12months.

Conditioning notes:
Got a stitch lol - that's how unfit i've become. But this is good, have to do my HIIT regularly to get rid of this damn lower ab fat.

Decided to try splitting up squatting into two sessions - FS and BS. Will see if it leads to higher quality BS workouts.

Delaying weighted chins for another workout - can't be bothered today. Instead i'll do the first conditioning workout in about a month lol.

1078
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism -- w2d3
« on: December 05, 2012, 06:41:45 am »
Quote from: vag on December 05, 2012, 04:24:45 am
Quote from: entropy on December 05, 2012, 04:12:14 am
OHP notes:
Kinda tweaked my back on OHP. I hate this stupid lift, always gives me back problems. I should focus on maintaining perfect form and only adding weight once i've mastered the weight. Patience will probably go a long way as long as I'm consistent over a period of 6-12months.

I have the same problem and i don't even lift as heavy as you , currently at 7-6-6@45kg if i remember well.
Why don't you switch to push press , the back problems for me appear at the bottom of the ROM and they all dissapeared when i switched to push-press. Lance is a big fan of push-press too , it's also supposed to have a much better athletic carryover ( which seems logical since there is a violent triple extension involved ). I hate the OHP and i loved the push-press ( but now i'm stuck with OHP because of my quad injury , FML , irrelevant ).
Just some thoughts material.
:lololol:

Dabbled with PP earlier in the year. Did not mind them but not in love with them either! I dislike both of them equally :) I also do not think they are an OHP replacement. If I were doing PP i'd still keep an overhead press in there but my preference is to do less exercises than more. I don't think PP are safer than OHP though - I can fail OHP easier than PP because the weight is lighter. There is also an equipment issue -  if I had bumpers i'd reconsider PPs since they'd be easy to drop if something went wrong. But if I had bumpers i'd probably just do jerks instead!

One exercise I would consider replacing OHP with is the incline press. Is that a good idea?

Quote from: Raptor on December 05, 2012, 05:07:14 am
Do you purposedly not lock your knees at the end of the movement (back up)? What's up with that? It looks like you're so weak when you stand tall, at the knee joint.

Yes mate, I relax at the top of the lift to get my breath back. I don't lock out my knees completely because I don't know, it just feels more in control of the weight and I prefer to be actively bouncing around (keeping my CNS primed) than statically locked out with a passive CNS if that makes sense. Do you think it matters? I find it better prepares me for the next rep this way.

1079
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 05, 2012, 12:28:41 am »
Quote
What rep range/volume did you use for your quarter deadlifts?

Work up a heavy triple (135kg ish last time I did them). Then 2 sets of 10 with around 110kg. Did them once a week.
So i've lost 20lb since I first dunked. Wonder what my vertical is now? I haven't been on a basketball court for many months. I wouldn't mind testing vert at some point.
Got wicked lower body doms from last workout. Still sore today will see how it goes squatting.

1080
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: December 03, 2012, 03:05:52 pm »
Quote from: LBSS on December 03, 2012, 02:44:52 pm
Quote from: entropy on December 03, 2012, 12:14:41 pm
Quote from: LBSS on December 03, 2012, 12:01:46 pm
at this point why are you still worried about going deeper? your depth is great, you need to keep adding weight to the bar!

Pretty sure you wouldn't approve of my depth on back squats. In fact I remember you told me to squat deeper in the first place in my old log :) But have a look at the video first :-

Btw is it ok to backsquat to parallel or just slightly below if i'm doing ATG front squats as well?

word, i guess i figured that because your FS depth has improved so much your BS depth had followed. on that video, you could be deeper but you're at or below the plane. 

Well in a way I can squat a lot deeper on BS if I take some weight off the bar but you might say that's pointless and I should be looking to add weight instead. Maybe it's psychological, don't like being at the bottom of a backsquat with a heavy weight, feels precarious. I don't mind with front squat, that feels perfectly comfortable even with limit weights, but with BS I feel i could easily snap some shit up, esp when I hit my sticking point and then I have to work very hard not to get bent over and squat morning.

Quote
whether it's okay to BS to parallel or slightly below depends on what you're trying to get out of the BS. hell, some of adarq's best vert gains came when he was half-squatting to pins.

This is what I wanna know. Do I get more out of doing deeper and lighter backsquats, or do I get more out of doing heavier parallel ones. Who knows.

raptor, i'm kind of sick of training already, i dont wanna add any more exercises cos it feels like I live in the gym already. That's why I don't do RDLs anymore, just cant be bothered with another exercise unless it's absolutely improving my athleticism - which I found RDL not to be doing. I think i got nothing out of the 3-5 months I spent working on my RDL. On the other hand, i'm not squatting much right now so maybe I should just work on adding some weight before looking to assistance exercises like hip thrusts. But perhaps if I did do them, i would find it easier to progress my BS? I dunno. I'm willing to hear suggestions. I agree with you about HBBS tho - i use a HBBS placement (kind of) but my backsquats are closer to LBBS than HBBS - do you agree?

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