Yeeeeeeaaah Buddy- dave's log

ME Lower

Box squats- set to mean that the top of my leg is parallel to the floor

bar x loads
60kg x 5
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 3
120kg x 1
120kg x 1

- seriously weak squatting in anyones book

Dumbell split squat
15kg dumbells, 3 sets of 8 on each leg

Cable pull through 2x10

Leg curl 6, 6, 5

Ive come to the conclusion that my hamstrings offer absolutely nothing at the moment. Therefore im aiming to make all lower body days very hamstring/glute focused. Im also going to make rack pulls me first exercise on ME upper day and increase the ROM on them for some extra hamstring focus.

Dude - going by the DOMS in my glutes and slight tenderness to my hamstrings, I'd recommend Barbell over Dumbbell for lunges. My previous routine used dumbbells throughout but after my first session with the barbell I've got that nice stiff legged feeling again.
Next session I'm going to use a step for my front foot to land on for additional ROM.
Also, why split squats over dynamic lunges?

What's happening with the squat numbers? Are you really struggling with these or is this just an effect of illness and injuries?

I never thought I'd say this but I'd rather squat at the Taro than Cannons. After being a pUssy yesterday and the fear of getting stuck under the bar being greater than the pleasure I'd have had in makeing the squat, I need to squat with some kind of safety feature and the adjustable bars at the Taro seem like a good idea now. What I'd give for a power rack like at your place though

Im not doing any lunges at the moment- I think doing to exercises in a row which involve having a barbell on my back are more trouble than they re worth for me.

Doing split squats to try and get some more single leg action on the go- and surprisingly my right leg was a lot weaker than my left.

With regard to the box squatting I have no idea. On the bench at the taro I hit 160 for 3 but that was high. Im purposely setting the box at parallel to try and really hit my posterior chain- rapidly coming to the conclusion that my hamstrings and glutes dont actually do anything the amount my lower back feels squatting!

Havent done any heavy leg weights in ages and my knee is not 100% so hopefully we ll see a progression over the next few weeks. It is really irritating not making great progress on this lift- still havent hit 130 of my box- but hopefully it ll be worth sticking with.

I thought a split squat was a lunge?
One foot in front of the other, lower the back knee down to the floor, return to start position, repeat, switch feet.


New project for Easter then re: Box Squatting @ Taro. We need a box with the width slighter larger than the depth that we can both squat onto and still hit parallel. How's your woodwork??

A split squat you have your back leg up on a bench jackass! Or is that a bulgarian reach around lunge? I get confused...

I wouldnt trust me to make one, but I would trust travis perkins if we asked them?

Split Squat = what I said
Bulgarian Split Squat = what you said
Romanian Split Squat = nothing - I just made it up

I'm going out on a limb here but I reckon you got the idea of the BSS from DeFranco's site. There's a few pics in the gallery of the college kids BSS with decent weights.

Yeah I saw it there a while back. I decided to give them a go since I remember trying them once and just sacking them off as they were 2 hard! Bit of variety away from lunging 2. Im increasingly finding that I hate lunges to be honest! Also they re in the encyclopedia so if they re good enough for Arnie then they re good enough for everyone.

Ive sacked of any flat pressing for a while 2 since I feel my incline is disproportionatly weak. This means that rack pulling has become my primarly ME upper exercise.

RE day:-

Incline close grip bench press- aiming for max reps over 3 sets with same weights

60kg x10, 8, 7 (25)

BW Neutral grip chin up, same rep scheme

10, 8, 7 (25)

Superset of Decline dumbell press and tbar row

35kg x10, 10 on press
25kgx15, 30kg x15 on row

Extensions, curl, shoulder health exercises

ME Upper-

Weighted chin ups-

bw x 5
10kg x 5
15g x 5
17.5kg x 5
20kg x 5

Incline dumbell press-

32.5kg x 8
35kg x 6
32.5kg x 6

Bent over row / dumbell pullover superset

60kg x12, 12, 12, 12 row
25kg x 10, 10- 27.5kg x 10, 7

Curl and pushdown.

Sacked off rack pulls as ive had to move ME lower to tomorrow and I didnt want to be fatigued for squatting

Nice work on the chins. Good to see you've still got quality strength there. Last time I tried chins I managed 5/5/4/3. And that was just BW

I'm expecting a decent squat session posted up tomorrow as you sacked off rack pulls. 3 plates would be good.

I've befriended this geeza at Cannons who I made box squat with me a couple of weeks ago. He's fairly strong and deadlifted 200kg last week so we're having a deadlift session tonight. The aim is 210kg/465lbs. I haven't done a 1RM since we were at the Taro so this might be interesting.

Another horribly wank ME lower:

Parallel box squats-
bar x loads
60kg x 6
80kg x 5
90kg x 5
100kg x 5
110kg x 5
115kg x 3
120kg x 3
122.5kg x 3- horrible,nearly passed out, last rep form wasnt the best.

Gassed after squatting and gym was packed so I couldnt do split squats- did a few full squat power cleans.

Im not looking for any excuses as to this ongoing weakness but we did do a lot of hill sprinting on sunday and my legs were a little sore still.

I really cant fathom how my squat is less than 60% of my deadlift and isnt improving at all. 120kg felt really heavy and it really isnt a heavy weight at all. Weird and annoying.

I see what you mean about the squatting. Is the guy you train with a decent spotter or do you squat in the power rack?

Can't really offer any suggestions to why your squat is progressing so slowly. The weights are lower than the Taro because the bench there, for you, would be well above parallel. Is it just the squat where the weights are down or is it across the board?

I think everything else seems alright to be honest- rack pulled 180kg x 5 from 2/3 inches below the knee which I was fairly happy with. Im not benching at the moment since im trying to work on my incline so im not sure about that. Trying to get back into things still after the season so im not going crazy, just trying to get back to a reasonable level in order to make some gains over Easter.

As for the squatting im pretty much using bench press weights and really really struggling with it. This is weird, especially since during the summer I was front squatting more than that without to much trouble.

Pretty frustrating seeing as squatting has always gone fairly well for me in the past. Guess I ll just have to stick with it. Wondering whether more volume is the way to go seeing as in the summer I was squatting x2 per week? To be fair it could also just be the fact that my posterior chain is really weak and that when I deadlift I mostly involve my back?

What are you trying to gain from using the box?
My aim for them is to basically find a squat variation I 'm comfortable with and that's working.
For you, your back and front squat are already decent so what do you hope to achieve from switching to the box?

Basically I wasnt hugely comfortable with back squats and I didnt really feel that I got a lot out of them.

As for front squats, I rate them a lot but sue to my weak performance last time we deadlifted I felt that an exercise that placed more empahsis upon the posterior chain would be appropriate. All im basing that on is that Im good for 250kg + once I get the bar to me knee, but off the floor I struggle with 200-210kg whilst deadlifting.

Yesterday RE day

close grip incline press

60kg x 11, 9, 7- 27 in total

BW neutral grip chin up

10, 9, 7- 26 total

Dumbell Floor press

35kg x 10, 9, 8

Tbar row

30kg x 15, 15 ,15

Dumbell Power clean thingys- felt these a lot in my traps and my shoulders felt really good afterwards.

Training this week has gone to the dogs a bit due to massive uni commitments, im still eating ok so training will resume thurs/fri with ME lower hopefully.

RE upper back at home-

rack lockouts-

100kg x 10
120kg x 10

-started to hurt my elbows so sacked it off

pull ups ss dumbell floor press (40kg)-

chin- 12, 9, 8 (29)- press- 8, 7, 7

bent over rope row-

20kg x 12, 25kg x 12, 30kg x 12, 35kg x 6, 6, 6

Seated dumbell power cleans, reverse flys, hanging leg raises, goblet squats.

Good session.

Those goblet squats were quality work for the lower quads so I think I ll add them in as a more regular assistance exercise. Did kicking practise today for about an hour, maybe a bit longer- nothing to hard, just enough to work up a sweat.