Blonde will make you STRONG

[iRaise]

so 180 flew up today, so happy. It should fly up, I just had a mental block. so confident 190 i son the cards next week

Got a set of five at 150/155/160 too. Want 2x5 at 160 next week.

Leg press back up to 200 too for 8's so pleased with that.

Throw in some farmers walk and we are living the dream. Ends a pretty decent week of training.

Up for a deadlift day, but haven't got a weekend free until May. But open then!

[EvilPie]

so 180 flew up today, so happy. It should fly up, I just had a mental block. so confident 190 i son the cards next week

Got a set of five at 150/155/160 too. Want 2x5 at 160 next week.

Leg press back up to 200 too for 8's so pleased with that.

Throw in some farmers walk and we are living the dream. Ends a pretty decent week of training.

Up for a deadlift day, but haven't got a weekend free until May. But open then!

I seriously can't imagine moving 4 plates. Amazing work!! There must be some kind of mental block with me because I wouldn't even attempt it for fear of injury whereas I'd happily stick 8 plates on one end of a bar and give that a go. Must be something about the deadlift technique that I just don't like and it's kind of ingrained.

I managed to get over my dislike of squats to the point where I now look forward to doing them twice per week and am absolutely loving them. Maybe I can do the same with deadlifts.........

I'm mostly free throughout May so that will hopefully work for me. It'll give me a bit more time to build my bench press as well for a shot at a decent 1RM.

[iRaise]

so 180 flew up today, so happy. It should fly up, I just had a mental block. so confident 190 i son the cards next week

Got a set of five at 150/155/160 too. Want 2x5 at 160 next week.

Leg press back up to 200 too for 8's so pleased with that.

Throw in some farmers walk and we are living the dream. Ends a pretty decent week of training.

Up for a deadlift day, but haven't got a weekend free until May. But open then!

I seriously can't imagine moving 4 plates. Amazing work!! There must be some kind of mental block with me because I wouldn't even attempt it for fear of injury whereas I'd happily stick 8 plates on one end of a bar and give that a go. Must be something about the deadlift technique that I just don't like and it's kind of ingrained.

I managed to get over my dislike of squats to the point where I now look forward to doing them twice per week and am absolutely loving them. Maybe I can do the same with deadlifts.........

I'm mostly free throughout May so that will hopefully work for me. It'll give me a bit more time to build my bench press as well for a shot at a decent 1RM.

Massive sigh when your bench 1RM will smoke my squat. I know what you mean though, I have mental blocks. I have such mental fragility it sucks. Working on it though. Today just felt in the zone. Had to pull out the big guns and get the red bull out before had though.

I should be doing 180 for 2/3 so its frustrating to get 1. 3 months ago I was on 2x4 at 180, albeit not an ideal technique, was making it far harder for myself.

If I am still dieting in May I don't expect a 180 for three, haha.

[EvilPie]

so 180 flew up today, so happy. It should fly up, I just had a mental block. so confident 190 i son the cards next week

Got a set of five at 150/155/160 too. Want 2x5 at 160 next week.

Leg press back up to 200 too for 8's so pleased with that.

Throw in some farmers walk and we are living the dream. Ends a pretty decent week of training.

Up for a deadlift day, but haven't got a weekend free until May. But open then!

I seriously can't imagine moving 4 plates. Amazing work!! There must be some kind of mental block with me because I wouldn't even attempt it for fear of injury whereas I'd happily stick 8 plates on one end of a bar and give that a go. Must be something about the deadlift technique that I just don't like and it's kind of ingrained.

I managed to get over my dislike of squats to the point where I now look forward to doing them twice per week and am absolutely loving them. Maybe I can do the same with deadlifts.........

I'm mostly free throughout May so that will hopefully work for me. It'll give me a bit more time to build my bench press as well for a shot at a decent 1RM.

Massive sigh when your bench 1RM will smoke my squat. I know what you mean though, I have mental blocks. I have such mental fragility it sucks. Working on it though. Today just felt in the zone. Had to pull out the big guns and get the red bull out before had though.

I should be doing 180 for 2/3 so its frustrating to get 1. 3 months ago I was on 2x4 at 180, albeit not an ideal technique, was making it far harder for myself.

If I am still dieting in May I don't expect a 180 for three, haha.

Pretty certain your bench 1RM will be smoking my squat as well mate so I know how you feel

[iRaise]

so 180 flew up today, so happy. It should fly up, I just had a mental block. so confident 190 i son the cards next week

Got a set of five at 150/155/160 too. Want 2x5 at 160 next week.

Leg press back up to 200 too for 8's so pleased with that.

Throw in some farmers walk and we are living the dream. Ends a pretty decent week of training.

Up for a deadlift day, but haven't got a weekend free until May. But open then!

I seriously can't imagine moving 4 plates. Amazing work!! There must be some kind of mental block with me because I wouldn't even attempt it for fear of injury whereas I'd happily stick 8 plates on one end of a bar and give that a go. Must be something about the deadlift technique that I just don't like and it's kind of ingrained.

I managed to get over my dislike of squats to the point where I now look forward to doing them twice per week and am absolutely loving them. Maybe I can do the same with deadlifts.........

I'm mostly free throughout May so that will hopefully work for me. It'll give me a bit more time to build my bench press as well for a shot at a decent 1RM.

Massive sigh when your bench 1RM will smoke my squat. I know what you mean though, I have mental blocks. I have such mental fragility it sucks. Working on it though. Today just felt in the zone. Had to pull out the big guns and get the red bull out before had though.

I should be doing 180 for 2/3 so its frustrating to get 1. 3 months ago I was on 2x4 at 180, albeit not an ideal technique, was making it far harder for myself.

If I am still dieting in May I don't expect a 180 for three, haha.

Pretty certain your bench 1RM will be smoking my squat as well mate so I know how you feel

Haha, touche, I haven't tested it in ages. Haven't done any 'strength' pushing for a while now. Might throw some in pre May to see where I am. Would be great to get a team session in.

[EvilPie]

Managed the 120kg bench again this morning. I think I had 4 reps in me but unfortunately the guy I got to spot for me wasn't great. He was one of those that takes the weight from you too soon so when you're psyched for a big press it almost feels like it's being pulled away from you. It really put me off on my 3rd rep so I called it a day at that.

I also upped my OHP to 65kg for 2 x 4. Far from easy but I'm feeling good with those and confident with my shoulder stability so I'd like to see a bit of progress there. Would love to be able to push 80kg but it seems quite a way off. We'll see.....

Press up challenge is coming along nicely. I'm currently on 7286 which is 230 ahead of target. The really good thing with these is that I'm now doing enough each night to make my weekly target in 3 days. There's only been one week out of the last six that I've only done 3 sessions so it's looking really good at the moment. Would be nice to build a buffer just in case of any unforeseen issue.

So all in all everything's positive. Legs tomorrow so I'll update on squat progression.

[iRaise]

Managed the 120kg bench again this morning. I think I had 4 reps in me but unfortunately the guy I got to spot for me wasn't great. He was one of those that takes the weight from you too soon so when you're psyched for a big press it almost feels like it's being pulled away from you. It really put me off on my 3rd rep so I called it a day at that.

I also upped my OHP to 65kg for 2 x 4. Far from easy but I'm feeling good with those and confident with my shoulder stability so I'd like to see a bit of progress there. Would love to be able to push 80kg but it seems quite a way off. We'll see.....

Press up challenge is coming along nicely. I'm currently on 7286 which is 230 ahead of target. The really good thing with these is that I'm now doing enough each night to make my weekly target in 3 days. There's only been one week out of the last six that I've only done 3 sessions so it's looking really good at the moment. Would be nice to build a buffer just in case of any unforeseen issue.

So all in all everything's positive. Legs tomorrow so I'll update on squat progression.

I know what you mean about the spot. I always like to over do it with someone I don't know, safety first and all. I would also rather be too safe than stand on his phone. But I see your point, I actually find spotting really hard for random people. One women in here literally just stops, like no noise/facial expression/bar slowing down. Just stops and drops so it is so difficult to spot correctly.

Had to bring out the box squat yesterday, just couldn't hit the depth properly. Think I am going to carry on with the box for a bit, just as I can go significantly heavier and will be good mentally to get some weight through, albeit lacking  touch physically.

[EvilPie]

Managed the 120kg bench again this morning. I think I had 4 reps in me but unfortunately the guy I got to spot for me wasn't great. He was one of those that takes the weight from you too soon so when you're psyched for a big press it almost feels like it's being pulled away from you. It really put me off on my 3rd rep so I called it a day at that.

I also upped my OHP to 65kg for 2 x 4. Far from easy but I'm feeling good with those and confident with my shoulder stability so I'd like to see a bit of progress there. Would love to be able to push 80kg but it seems quite a way off. We'll see.....

Press up challenge is coming along nicely. I'm currently on 7286 which is 230 ahead of target. The really good thing with these is that I'm now doing enough each night to make my weekly target in 3 days. There's only been one week out of the last six that I've only done 3 sessions so it's looking really good at the moment. Would be nice to build a buffer just in case of any unforeseen issue.

So all in all everything's positive. Legs tomorrow so I'll update on squat progression.

I know what you mean about the spot. I always like to over do it with someone I don't know, safety first and all. I would also rather be too safe than stand on his phone. But I see your point, I actually find spotting really hard for random people. One women in here literally just stops, like no noise/facial expression/bar slowing down. Just stops and drops so it is so difficult to spot correctly.

Had to bring out the box squat yesterday, just couldn't hit the depth properly. Think I am going to carry on with the box for a bit, just as I can go significantly heavier and will be good mentally to get some weight through, albeit lacking  touch physically.

Maybe I was being a bit harsh on the guy. I know what you're saying about safety but when it's that sort of weight you have to assume the guy knows what he's doing. The spot was from a guy who I've spotted for before at 120kg but I had to take a lot of the weight for him from the start. I guess he sees as a spot as helping to make it easier rather than just for safety and squeezing out that very last rep.

I'm really lucky with my squat depth. I can set the safety bars at exactly the right height so that a light tap is the perfect depth for me. Makes it so easy to gauge and obviously really safe which is important as I train on my own. I can't imagine using a box though, just seems weird sitting down with a bar on your back.... I take it you don't go as deep with a box squat hence going heavier? How much heavier are we talking?

[iRaise]

Managed the 120kg bench again this morning. I think I had 4 reps in me but unfortunately the guy I got to spot for me wasn't great. He was one of those that takes the weight from you too soon so when you're psyched for a big press it almost feels like it's being pulled away from you. It really put me off on my 3rd rep so I called it a day at that.

I also upped my OHP to 65kg for 2 x 4. Far from easy but I'm feeling good with those and confident with my shoulder stability so I'd like to see a bit of progress there. Would love to be able to push 80kg but it seems quite a way off. We'll see.....

Press up challenge is coming along nicely. I'm currently on 7286 which is 230 ahead of target. The really good thing with these is that I'm now doing enough each night to make my weekly target in 3 days. There's only been one week out of the last six that I've only done 3 sessions so it's looking really good at the moment. Would be nice to build a buffer just in case of any unforeseen issue.

So all in all everything's positive. Legs tomorrow so I'll update on squat progression.

I know what you mean about the spot. I always like to over do it with someone I don't know, safety first and all. I would also rather be too safe than stand on his phone. But I see your point, I actually find spotting really hard for random people. One women in here literally just stops, like no noise/facial expression/bar slowing down. Just stops and drops so it is so difficult to spot correctly.

Had to bring out the box squat yesterday, just couldn't hit the depth properly. Think I am going to carry on with the box for a bit, just as I can go significantly heavier and will be good mentally to get some weight through, albeit lacking  touch physically.

Maybe I was being a bit harsh on the guy. I know what you're saying about safety but when it's that sort of weight you have to assume the guy knows what he's doing. The spot was from a guy who I've spotted for before at 120kg but I had to take a lot of the weight for him from the start. I guess he sees as a spot as helping to make it easier rather than just for safety and squeezing out that very last rep.

I'm really lucky with my squat depth. I can set the safety bars at exactly the right height so that a light tap is the perfect depth for me. Makes it so easy to gauge and obviously really safe which is important as I train on my own. I can't imagine using a box though, just seems weird sitting down with a bar on your back.... I take it you don't go as deep with a box squat hence going heavier? How much heavier are we talking?

I think spotting is tough, and like you say, people may have a different view of it. I'm definitely about safety, unless I train with someone on a regular basis and know they won't lose confidence in full on failing.

The benches (the box in this case) at pure are kinda high, I think I am a touch above parallel which is annoying, it feels like I am half squatting which is great for confidence on my actual squat. But no problem with this plan for 4-8 weeks. Ended up on 130 for 5, but wasn't to difficult at all, so hoping to get to 140-50 with this. Great for confidence and I come out of it too.

[Eso Kral]

Had a decent week last week until the last 2 reps of the last set of the day on squats where I felt my glute/back freeze again

I stretched off and booked back into the physio who I saw today but managed to do upper body yesterday at full program and then today did 25 mins cycle and some dynamic stretching followed by hip flexors, double kettle ball squats, calf raises and leg extensions before a warm down.

Hayley my physio thinks I may have had an underlying back issue which is now causing the problems and she manipulated me again and told me to switch Dead Lifts to the upper body day so that they are not super setted with squats and for the next 2 weeks work on 60% of what I was doing previously on those 2 exercises so hopefully this works.

She checked my form for both exercises whilst I was there and couldn't see any issue there so at least it's not something I have done.

[EvilPie]

Had a decent week last week until the last 2 reps of the last set of the day on squats where I felt my glute/back freeze again

I stretched off and booked back into the physio who I saw today but managed to do upper body yesterday at full program and then today did 25 mins cycle and some dynamic stretching followed by hip flexors, double kettle ball squats, calf raises and leg extensions before a warm down.

Hayley my physio thinks I may have had an underlying back issue which is now causing the problems and she manipulated me again and told me to switch Dead Lifts to the upper body day so that they are not super setted with squats and for the next 2 weeks work on 60% of what I was doing previously on those 2 exercises so hopefully this works.

She checked my form for both exercises whilst I was there and couldn't see any issue there so at least it's not something I have done.

Sounds like a physio to stick with there mate. There's so many of them that don't really understand people who lift so they just tell you to stay away from the gym not realising that you can't

A physio who gets the mentality will tell you what to change and it sounds like that's what Hayley has done. One thing's for sure you'll know that if she says you have to rest you'll know she really means it!!

I went through a spell where this glute freeze would happen to me on occasion so I know what you're going through. The main thing I'd recommend is plenty of stretching that focuses on the hamstrings as the link between them and your glutes is immense. Also if you can just do the stretch part of a calf raise that will help. I've got a very good lower body stretch routine that I use if you want me to send it to you. Only problem is it's 25 minutes but I now do it 4 or 5 times a week and I've been injury free in my lower body for months.

I'd try to avoid calf raises and more importantly leg extensions until you're fully recovered as well. They both really focus on contraction whereas it's stretching you need to be doing. Romanian deadlift or even light stiff leg deadlift would be much better for helping with that flexibility. Also nice deep squats will develop your calves and quads as well as any number of calf raises or leg raises whilst at the same time getting a much better stretch.

You say it's not something you've done but I can almost guarantee it wouldn't have happened if you'd not been at the gym so in reality it is. Actually it's more likely something you've not done because you're too tight to be doing the exercises you're currently doing.

What does you warm down involve by the way? I'd say it should just be more stretching of your lower body whilst you've got this ongoing glute issue.

[Eso Kral]

Had a decent week last week until the last 2 reps of the last set of the day on squats where I felt my glute/back freeze again

I stretched off and booked back into the physio who I saw today but managed to do upper body yesterday at full program and then today did 25 mins cycle and some dynamic stretching followed by hip flexors, double kettle ball squats, calf raises and leg extensions before a warm down.

Hayley my physio thinks I may have had an underlying back issue which is now causing the problems and she manipulated me again and told me to switch Dead Lifts to the upper body day so that they are not super setted with squats and for the next 2 weeks work on 60% of what I was doing previously on those 2 exercises so hopefully this works.

She checked my form for both exercises whilst I was there and couldn't see any issue there so at least it's not something I have done.

Sounds like a physio to stick with there mate. There's so many of them that don't really understand people who lift so they just tell you to stay away from the gym not realising that you can't

A physio who gets the mentality will tell you what to change and it sounds like that's what Hayley has done. One thing's for sure you'll know that if she says you have to rest you'll know she really means it!!

I went through a spell where this glute freeze would happen to me on occasion so I know what you're going through. The main thing I'd recommend is plenty of stretching that focuses on the hamstrings as the link between them and your glutes is immense. Also if you can just do the stretch part of a calf raise that will help. I've got a very good lower body stretch routine that I use if you want me to send it to you. Only problem is it's 25 minutes but I now do it 4 or 5 times a week and I've been injury free in my lower body for months.

I'd try to avoid calf raises and more importantly leg extensions until you're fully recovered as well. They both really focus on contraction whereas it's stretching you need to be doing. Romanian deadlift or even light stiff leg deadlift would be much better for helping with that flexibility. Also nice deep squats will develop your calves and quads as well as any number of calf raises or leg raises whilst at the same time getting a much better stretch.

You say it's not something you've done but I can almost guarantee it wouldn't have happened if you'd not been at the gym so in reality it is. Actually it's more likely something you've not done because you're too tight to be doing the exercises you're currently doing.

What does you warm down involve by the way? I'd say it should just be more stretching of your lower body whilst you've got this ongoing glute issue.

Yeah she is really good imo and used to be a physio at the Southend Football club looking after the academy players as well as a dance school so most of her stuff is lower body and I have been really happy to have her this past few weeks.

If you could send it to me I would be grateful thanks Matt and the time is not an issue as I'm at the gym at 5.50 so have enough time to crack through it and be home by 7.15 as I only live 5 mins walk to the gym.

When I meant it's not something I have done obv it is something I have done but whilst doing something positive.  The warm down is stretching of all the muscle groups that I have used on a mat in the cardio area and since this injury my glutes have never been stretched so much.

Thanks for your input and info though mate it's much appreciated.

[Marky147]

Matt, if you don't mind, would you fire me a copy over as well, please.

My legs are my big problem, and not just because of the lump they have to carry around, before Eso gets in there

I've got a few stretches that I do, but it definitely wouldn't do any harm to try some other stuff, too.

I've been doing some TRX stuff to try and increase my flexibility, and movement in my legs, and a few core exercises, as that's the other area that is very weak.

[muckthenuts]

I've spent the last 3 weeks off the gym, exercise, eating well, and anything else that goes on in this thread. Real life work had gotten too overwhelming and i found i didn't have the motivation to plough on with the gym while i was stressed out with that. So i completely switched off.

However i've got the bulk of deadlines out of the way now and i'm ready to swap the big mac's for brown pasta and the coke for water. Tomorrow i'll be back in the gym to hopefully start addressing some of my weaker points over the next few weeks. Going to throw in some hill sprints in the end of my sessions too and see how i do with those.

Also, Sean has kind of made me think yoga would be a good idea. It looks quite fun. Will keep you guys posted on that one

[iRaise]

Decent training day today. Grip getting stronger and fatiguing my back now with one arm rows which is good.

Threw in 500m row at the end of the session for time. Absolutely gassed out around 415m in. Thought I was on for sub a minute, then plodded to 1.36 but looking to see where I get with that. Quad burn at the end was outrageous.