Unilateral 45-Degree Leg Press 135 x 15r x 3 / x 9l x 2
Notes: Motherfucking PR. Just under double bodyweight totally unequipped paused back squat went smoothly and quickly. Had to fight with the rep that was a little over double bodyweight, but got it. Blew my shorts out on that rep and my shoulder still hurts. So no other work done to day except low volume, relatively light squats. But stoked as hell.
365 paused, beltless, wrapless back squat @ 188
380 paused, beltless, wrapless back squat @ 188 PR
In an amusing twist I am going supplementing my squat and deadlift work with some form of leg press on every day that I squat and deadlift.
On the Heavy Squat Day (with belt, wraps, and heavy partials), I will be doing bilateral, high volume leg press with squat shoes with a squat stance.
On the Light Squat Day (just unequipped paused back squat), I will be doing unilateral work with focus on the lagging right leg.
On Pull Day (deadlifts and/or GHR), I will be doing flat shoe close/deadlift stance partials to mimic the deadlift start off the floor.
I will be doing some form of leg press more often than I do some form of squat or deadlift. Ha!
My long femurs and short torso combination makes the squat not as productive for me as for more squat-favored lifters. But the leg press seems to be doing wonders for my quad size and in turn my squat progress. I am making the fastest progress of my life since I added the leg press.
Also, I think I have no choice but to add direct calf work in the form of the donkey calf raise. I have to get my calves up to par now that my quads are expanding. I'm still not entirely sure one can truly increase the size of one's calves much through isolation training, but I've gotten amazing results by expanding my lower body training protocol already, so I'm willing it to give this a go. I won't cost me much effort and maybe I can get an extra inch on my calves.
Aaaaaand I just realized that these foot extensions are best done in...the leg press! Hips are already at the correct angle to target the gastrocnemius. So I will be tacking this work on after each leg press session on squat day so they get hit twice a week with three or four days rest in between.
Thursday, September 28, 2017
I think it's funny that people consider knee wraps a cheat in the squat...and then squat low bar.
Lowering the bar on my back adds twice as many pounds to my squat as the wraps do. But with wraps at least my squat still looks like a squat and not a good morning.
My low bar is 30 to 50 lbs higher than my high bar. My wraps asd 10 to 20 lbs to my high bar depending on how tightly I wrap. But low bar bastardizes the movement, too. The high bar with wraps is far and away the purer squat than the low bar without wraps
186.3 lbs this morning. 185.3 after coffee effect.
I love that my body weight is barely climbing as my squat takes huge leaps each week.
I think adding the supra-maximal partials and high rep leg presses are really boosting progress beyond anything I've seen before.
The partials are making me comfortable with very heavy weights. The extra high volune the leg press lets me get volume after I can't squat anymore is adding more quad mass for me to exploit.
Of course, this squat progress is probably coming at the expense of my bench progress, but I am okay with that right now. I'm starting to think I could get 1100-1200 total for squat and dead without bench.
Back Squat [paused first rep till 345; belt at 365, wraps at 405]
45 x 6 x 3
135 x 6
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 2
345 x 2
365 x 2
385 x 1
395 x 1
405 x 1
420 x 2 x 2
Long Pause Back Squat [no belt] 315 x 1 x 3
Deadstop Quarter Squat to Pins position 8 [belt] 525 x 5
45-Degree Leg Press 455 x 13
Notes: Great session. My glute didn't give a hint of complaint and I was able to be smart about how much volume I did. I just did the one set of quarter squats and really felt my distal quads working. I just did one all out set of leg press because I had to get going, but that's fine. I'm very happy that I worked up to the doubles with 420. It was with belt and wraps, but that's fine. I am still getting very close to a double bodyweight paused back squat. Just 40 lbs away. After all that pain and fretting, I got in some really good work. Weighed just a bit over 187 when I got home.
345 paused + 1
420 x 2 second set
Gluteal origin is a little achy when I first wake up, but once I get a hot shower and start moving around, it feels fine.
Meanwhile, my shoulder feels right fucked. Lifting it so my arm is perpendicular to my torso causes pain. I can probably still push and pull vertically, but I have to back off supine pushing for sure. Damn shame because that's one of the events in the full meet. But if I'm not careful with this shoulder, it will affect my ability to hold the bar in the squat. And then I'd be really pissed.
I'm not planning on really pushing the bench this time around anyway. I'd rather overhead press and chin up with decent weights. I can devote my energies to squatting and deadlifting.
So I'm (yet again) scrapping my plan so I can squat twice and pull once per week while adding the press and chin after I'm done squatting or pulling.
Wed - Squat heavy
Sat --- Squat light
Sun -- Deadlift or Glute-Ham Raise
Wed - Squat Heavy
Back Squat, belt and wraps on work set
Deadstop Quarter Squat from Pins (belt of course)
45-Degree Leg Press (with squat shoes)
Pull Up (as much to decompress back as to get stronger)
Sat - Squat Light
Paused Back Squat, no belt or wraps
Leg Extension
Single-Leg Work (maybe)
Standing Barbell Press (for volume)
Sun - Pull Heavy
Weighted Chin Up
Deadlift or Glute-Ham Raise
Although today I wonder if I shouldn't just start with paused back squats today. Or I could just lower the weight and try to get a little volume. No need to strive for new local maximum when I'm recovering from a butt pull. Maybe like 345 for a couple sets of five or six, or 315 for a few sets of eight (if I can).
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Tuesday! And I will continue to rest. On Thursday I'll ease back in with a Pull Day [Weighted Chin, GHR, and DB Row], then Press Day [Standing Press, Close Grip Bench, Lateral Raise] on Saturday, and finally Stand Day [Back Squat, Leg Press] on Sunday, at which point I really hope my hip is fully healed. My shoulder already feels about 95% better.
Last week I bottomed out at 185 lbs and since then I've been back on the upswing. I was waking up at 187 for a few days and today I woke up at 188. I'm shooting for a solid pound per week till the meet. I should easily come in tight and strong and under 198.
Quarter Squatting for Vertical
I've read a lot of stuff (I'll provide all the links in the footnotes to this space eventually) that has me wanting to quarter squat heavy. There is still plenty of resistance to the idea that quarter squats have any value at all, much less value the specific result for which I'm looking: increased vertical jump height and decreased sprint times. But I'm willing to experiment on myself for this.
It's just a few weeks of adding these supra-maximal partials. At the very least, these will make me more comfortable with handling bigger weights and maybe strengthen my connective tissue and make it more resilient for full squatting. I'm doing these off pins and from a dead stop at the start of every rep. I will not be trying to reverse direction with these kinds of loads!
I've increased my squat a lot in the past few years and my vertical remains around 24". I got it up to 28"-30" back around 2008-2010 when I trained very specifically for it with accommodating resistance. But the full squat on its own isn't the key. My upper thighs are about 24.5" around right now (left is still slightly bigger than right, but much better than the 23"/19" split from years ago) and my vertical is hovering around 24". I'll use a "switching" speed/power phase after the meet to see how much higher I can jump after increasing my quarter squat 100 lbs.
Deadlift Highlights and Goals
I was looking over my records. My best ever conventional deadlift performance was 500 x 2 with no belt back on October 30, 2016 when weighed ~195 lbs.
I did get 495 x 2 at only 189 no belt the next year, Aprl 23, 2017.
And recently --September 23, 2017-- I got back up to 495 x 2 at only 185, but I very much needed a belt for that on that particular day because my lower back was very, very tired.
The last two at 189 and 185 are comparable. I got the same weight for a double both times, but I needed that belt to do it at 185. Still, the belt generally gives me only 10 lbs on my conventional deadlift.
The next time I deadlift, I will probably weigh 190 lbs. I absolutely must set an all-time personal record on that day with at least 515 for a double. Frankly, I really want 535 x 2 with a belt.
Shoulder Impingement
My gluteal pull is getting better and the pain is subsiding. But my shoulder pain remains pretty bad. I initially thought maybe I dinged it with the bench press, but I'm now thinking that it was those couple sets of lateral raises that caused the problem. Thing is I can overhead press just fine, but I did something wrong with those laterals. It's lifting my arms out to the side tht is causing me pain now.
