Fitness Questions & Answers - Page 53

On March 16 2012 22:42 mordek wrote:
Eshlow, you mention strength and mobility work to correct muscle imbalances in regards to joints clicking/popping. What kind of mobility work do you recommend for the knee? I'm working on the strength with good success and being conscientious of posture but I've been paranoid about my left knee since ACL reconstruction 2 years ago. It pops when I straighten it which I was told was normal after the surgery but like I said I'm paranoid. I'm hoping to stave off any reinjury!

On March 18 2012 07:59 eshlow wrote:


Check out mobilitywod.com !

I mean, in general if you have tight muscles -- IT band/abductors, adductors/groin, quads, hams try to stretch them and even them out; IF you know you have some imbalance like quad is much stronger htan hammy then even that out too.

Not much I can say beyond that unless you give me more details -- you can usually tell the strength by the amount of muscle someone has, and the tightness by looking at how terrible you are with 3rd world squat

On March 19 2012 02:19 mordek wrote:

Thanks there's a lot of good stuff here. I just wasn't sure beyond rolling and stretching what I can do since Ultimate season just started and I can feel it in my knees already. If I had to pinpoint one issue it would be tight IT band (and TFL maybe?). I've had issues with it since cross country in college.

On March 19 2012 18:58 billy5000 wrote:
Guys, I'm thinking about not going parallel when I do squats. I know I won't be able to call it "squats," but I've had all sorts of hip problems. Ever since I had a (left) hip injury, which was due to hip inflexibility about 2 months ago, I've been stretching daily for 10min and I still don't feel comfortable going parallel. Even my uninjured right hip feels awkward at that position.

After a month later when my hip healed, I've been messing with high bar squats, which I could go a bit below parallel with ease. However, I miss the intensity of the low bar squats, relatively speaking. So one day I decided to try low bar but going ~15-20 degrees above parallel. It felt AMAZING. I don't even see a butt wink when I do it. Like if I were to go down an inch lower, that's when I start to see my lower back rounding (I've always had this problem).

I don't know. I feel like I'm cheating, but then I'm not lifting for competitions or to compare my PR with others. I'm only doing this for personal gains and to look and feel good. It just feels really weird because I took pride in my parallel squats prior to injury. I'd always make examples of the people who don't go parallel to my beginner friends as what not to do..and now, lol.

Am I just making excuses for myself? Or is what I'm doing reasonable? I feel guilty every time I do these so-called squats nowadays..note, I've been stretching my hips using mwod videos of sanfranciscocrossfit for 2 full months now, and it still feels awkward (not necessarily tense) going parallel.

On March 20 2012 00:09 mordek wrote:
I've recruited a buddy of mine to start lifting with me and I was showing him the ropes this morning. His last weightlifting experience was close to ten years ago. He's probably 6'4" and 170 lbs. I was working on squat form with him and he couldn't get his lower back to arch. I'm not an expert but I'm aware of what my back looks like and my training partners looks like and this was not it. No pain however, we started off at light weights so I was thinking maybe we'll keep it there and keep working on it. He proceeds to tell me at the deadlifts he has scoliosis. We get through it fine but I was concerned about his back and form.

Anyways did some research, looks like squats and dl's are good when addressed properly. This as mostly leg length and side-to-side adjustments so you don't exascerbate the deformity and instead strengthen the weak side. I'm going to talk to him and try to get more details on what it is but the lower back rounding immediately worried me and I couldn't find anything on it. Not scoliosis? Out of my league here but I want to keep this guy motivated since he's skinny as a twig and it sounds like he needs the back strengthening

On March 20 2012 05:44 FiWiFaKi wrote:
Just a question that just came up because I was reading the TLHF thread. Do I want to go to failure or what is the idea? For deadlift, benchpress, press, pull-ups, dips, I always go to failure for my last two sets. I think I do a pretty good job at keeping me technique/form strong, but is this a bad habit? I do 4x5-8 (depending on exercise and which set I'm on)... so usually it goes two warm up sets, then my first two work sets are usually 7 reps each, with energy to maybe push one more rep after. Then I do my third set to failure which usually involves me getting 6 reps. And the last set is me pushing 5 or 6 to failure depending on if I'm trying to get a PR, and usually I fall one rep short of that (which is no big deal imo).

For numbers, I have been doing my routine for 7-8 months in a lazy fashion, it a combination of heavylifts and assist work. I have 275lb squat, 355dl, 210bp, and 70ohdp @ 170lb (10-12%bf)... So I feel like my progress is good, but since my lifts are stagnating, I want to make sure all the variables influencing my workout are perfect so I can squeeze out larger lifts.

Also I'm curious about suggestion of what direction I want to train in. I want my upper body opposed to my lower body strong, right now I do legs once a week, and I'm fine with how that's going. My goals are, look good (which obviously is very subjective), while making my lifts go up. I'm looking to achieve a relatively defined physique for summer while still getting stronger. I'm not after a pure strength program like Smolov, but I do want to put on more size of lean muscle (10lb).

Most people here don't train like that, but if anyone does and people have suggestions for a good program to try, I'd greatly appreciate it! (:

On March 20 2012 05:44 FiWiFaKi wrote:
Just a question that just came up because I was reading the TLHF thread. Do I want to go to failure or what is the idea? For deadlift, benchpress, press, pull-ups, dips, I always go to failure for my last two sets. I think I do a pretty good job at keeping me technique/form strong, but is this a bad habit? I do 4x5-8 (depending on exercise and which set I'm on)... so usually it goes two warm up sets, then my first two work sets are usually 7 reps each, with energy to maybe push one more rep after. Then I do my third set to failure which usually involves me getting 6 reps. And the last set is me pushing 5 or 6 to failure depending on if I'm trying to get a PR, and usually I fall one rep short of that (which is no big deal imo).

For numbers, I have been doing my routine for 7-8 months in a lazy fashion, it a combination of heavylifts and assist work. I have 275lb squat, 355dl, 210bp, and 70ohdp @ 170lb (10-12%bf)... So I feel like my progress is good, but since my lifts are stagnating, I want to make sure all the variables influencing my workout are perfect so I can squeeze out larger lifts.

Also I'm curious about suggestion of what direction I want to train in. I want my upper body opposed to my lower body strong, right now I do legs once a week, and I'm fine with how that's going. My goals are, look good (which obviously is very subjective), while making my lifts go up. I'm looking to achieve a relatively defined physique for summer while still getting stronger. I'm not after a pure strength program like Smolov, but I do want to put on more size of lean muscle (10lb).

Most people here don't train like that, but if anyone does and people have suggestions for a good program to try, I'd greatly appreciate it! (:

On March 20 2012 05:44 FiWiFaKi wrote:
Just a question that just came up because I was reading the TLHF thread. Do I want to go to failure or what is the idea? For deadlift, benchpress, press, pull-ups, dips, I always go to failure for my last two sets. I think I do a pretty good job at keeping me technique/form strong, but is this a bad habit? I do 4x5-8 (depending on exercise and which set I'm on)... so usually it goes two warm up sets, then my first two work sets are usually 7 reps each, with energy to maybe push one more rep after. Then I do my third set to failure which usually involves me getting 6 reps. And the last set is me pushing 5 or 6 to failure depending on if I'm trying to get a PR, and usually I fall one rep short of that (which is no big deal imo).

For numbers, I have been doing my routine for 7-8 months in a lazy fashion, it a combination of heavylifts and assist work. I have 275lb squat, 355dl, 210bp, and 70ohdp @ 170lb (10-12%bf)... So I feel like my progress is good, but since my lifts are stagnating, I want to make sure all the variables influencing my workout are perfect so I can squeeze out larger lifts.

Also I'm curious about suggestion of what direction I want to train in. I want my upper body opposed to my lower body strong, right now I do legs once a week, and I'm fine with how that's going. My goals are, look good (which obviously is very subjective), while making my lifts go up. I'm looking to achieve a relatively defined physique for summer while still getting stronger. I'm not after a pure strength program like Smolov, but I do want to put on more size of lean muscle (10lb).

Most people here don't train like that, but if anyone does and people have suggestions for a good program to try, I'd greatly appreciate it! (:

On March 23 2012 00:52 mordek wrote:
You can try adding the auxiliary lifts he has in the book. Also, don't undervalue the benefits of rest/recovery.

On March 23 2012 01:12 FiWiFaKi wrote:


Layne Norton's PHAT looks crazy, definitely looks like something I'd be interested in, lots of variety, lots of volume, actually it seems very hypertrophy designed. I think I'm going to switch over to something like this for three months or so, and just see what happens I suppose. Thank you! If anyone has any experience with such programs, sharing would be really appreciated.