Warmup:
Jog 1/2 mile
Firehydrants, birddogs, etc...
Squat 45x12; 135x10; 225x4
I cannot stress enough how thoroughly warming up has completely changed the way I lift. Being paranoid about injury has finally paid off. I don't care how good you feel, there's no excuse for not doing a complete warmup before lifting. With some I'm preaching to the choir, with others (and you know who you are...) take it from someone who is trying to push the boundaries of his physical capabilities (i.e. long and skinny), there's no better way to protect yourself. Ok...there, I'll get off of my soapbox now.
Working Sets
Squat (90 sec breaks) 250x4x10
Really really hard, but really really rewarding. I'm still not breaking parallel on most sets, I think I did at my peak performance sets 3-5, but my hips have completely transformed from my previous form. I'm also doing a great job of fighting my anterior pelvic tilt, which puts too much stress on my lower back and prevents me from generating power in the hole. I'm not there yet, but my improvement from early this summer is huge. Also...knees no longer come in...virtually at all, maybe slightly on sets 9 and 10, but otherwise nearly solid. Next cycle will be 270x3x10...so...wish me luck...
Leg Press (knees in, 90 sec breaks) 4.5 platesx4x10
GM 135x12; 185x8
Pullthrough 140x12; 175x12
Windshield Wiper BWx12x2 BW+5x8
Kneeling Ab Roller BWx16x3
Did a lot of work fighting anterior pelvic tilt here as well...I find I have such a tendency to arch that basically rounding my back at the beginning of each rep allows me to fight the tilt as I go down. For others who have APT, namely Rene I would recommend doing these as assistance work from time to time, as they have helped me tremendously.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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I'm not sure how much ab rolling helps prevent APT. My understanding is that you're supposed to keep your back slightly rounded in order to keep your abs contracted during the entire movement. I'm a little sloppy on this sometimes, but keeping your back rounded is very different from trying to keep it arched on all the other lifts (squat, deadlift).
ReplyDeleteMy point is that I dont even have to try to keep my back arched...ever wonder how I can essentially straight leg a DL and keep an arch...its because my hips angle so far forward I dont even have to try. Rounding my back forces me to activate the muscles in my hips in the OPPOSITE direction which, for me and anyone else who has APT is a version of training their hips to be straight instead of angled forward.
ReplyDelete-- Regarding warm-up sets, why not increment the weight by half-plates? So ... empty bar, 95, 135, 185, 225. Think about this in percents: Suppose your max squat is 300 (just a round estimate), then adding a full plate between sets is 30%.
ReplyDelete-- Also, why not go slightly below parallel on every set of squats? Since you don't have a special slot for improving the lower part, I think this is necessary.