DCR - Can you believe how much I am in heaven?

[KarlM]

My bad knee is fucking killing me and looking back at my log, and also based on history, I’m 99.999% convinced that it isn’t squatting. It’s the calf work.

I googled this and all of the hits are about doing calf work to cure knee pain. Wtf.

Dude, this happened to me too a long time ago. I had turned the elliptical into a dual calf raise exercise and my knee was freaking killing me. Kept my feet flat and that was the end of that.

One of those calf muscles crosses the knee joint. I can do the seated calf raise pain free, and it has the added benefit of training ankle extension in a similar position to the bottom of the squat. Dave Tate recommends it for knee health for the squat.

[DCR]

My bad knee is fucking killing me and looking back at my log, and also based on history, I’m 99.999% convinced that it isn’t squatting. It’s the calf work.

I googled this and all of the hits are about doing calf work to cure knee pain. Wtf.

Dude, this happened to me too a long time ago. I had turned the elliptical into a dual calf raise exercise and my knee was freaking killing me. Kept my feet flat and that was the end of that.

One of those calf muscles crosses the knee joint. I can do the seated calf raise pain free, and it has the added benefit of training ankle extension in a similar position to the bottom of the squat. Dave Tate recommends it for knee health for the squat.

Yes - in the past I had the same experience with seated raises not hurting even when standing raises did.

My other memory is that standing raises weren’t so bad so long as I kept my weight in my posterior chain and pushed up on the balls of my feet - meaning not through the first two toes as is recommended for the full contraction. Unfortunately - I’ve been doing all of that and here I am with a blown up knee, so seated it’ll be for a bit.

[DCR]

4/18/24

Superset:
Bench Press 45x6 135x6 185x6 225x6 255x3 280x1 230x6
DB Bent Rows 30s x10 40s x10 50s x10,10,10 55s x6,6

Superset:
Barbell Curls 45x6 85x6 102.5x2 95x3,4
Seated Arnold Presses 35s x6,6,7,7 40s x6

Goblet Squat 45x6,6,10

Notes: Thanks to @hector and @EricK, I decided to try out supersetting after... many... years away. The amount of time that I was spending in the gym to do very little just was ridiculous. I didn't do the movements immediately back to back; I essentially just took my usual rest periods on the first movement, and about halfway through hit a set of the second movement. To be honest, I didn't like it at all, but the results can't be denied. Took me maybe 1:15 to do what I normally do, and then some, in 2:00 or more. Also, to my great surprise, the top bench single felt like there was no gravity. To be fair, I also cut down on the work up reps, but the difference from my last session was shocking in any event.

Knee shit 100% is the calf work as surmised. Goblets felt great. As I've been, I just was trying to keep perfect midfoot pressure all the way down and up, and working on getting torque out of internal rotation.

Left shoulder still a bitch but actually not when I really jacked up the DBs (as opposed to keeping things controlled, which made it hurt). Weird. It's like there's a particular point where it hurts and if I quickly drive right through that point, there's no problem.

Soundtrack: Exist / Hijacking the Zeitgeist. I don't so much like prog and even less like vocalists who switch between harsh and clean, but this is really quirky and awesome. Highly recommend to anyone who likes music. Seriously, any music.

[hector]

Yes!!!!!!!
I look forward to seeing how super sets work out for you.

[DCR]

4/20/24

Squats 45,95,155x6 215x3,3,6
Seated Leg Curls 80x10,10,11
Seated Calf Machine 45x10,10,13



Notes: Felt much better about these light squats after watching the video and realizing that they were paused. That was unintentional, and interesting. The goal as it has been was perfect foot pressure all the way down and up, and it appears that in order to accomplish that I needed to gather myself in the hole. Huh.

No knee pain after switching from standing to seated calves.

Soundtrack: Civerous / Maze Envy

[SaviorSelf]

That’s excellent squat form. Have you ever tried the “divebomb” thing that you sometimes see Olympic lifters do? I think you could pull it off

Form like this:

[DCR]

@SaviorSelf, actually that’s a side goal right now. A few weeks ago I hit a lifetime PR at 365. The primary goal is to work back up there but with total control (mostly referring to foot pressure but generally no loss of position at all), and without having to get hyped up. The side goal is to work on exercising that control on faster and faster reps.

Pat’s squat there - upright, in the legs - makes my shorts tight.

[lheugh]

4/20/24

Squats 45,95,155x6 215x3,3,6
Seated Leg Curls 80x10,10,11
Seated Calf Machine 45x10,10,13



Notes: Felt much better about these light squats after watching the video and realizing that they were paused. That was unintentional, and interesting. The goal as it has been was perfect foot pressure all the way down and up, and it appears that in order to accomplish that I needed to gather myself in the hole. Huh.

No knee pain after switching from standing to seated calves.

Soundtrack: Civerous / Maze Envy

That was one quad-tacular set.

[slowmotion]

Squats looks really good. Nice work!

[DCR]

@slowmotion, thanks!

@lheugh, I just read an old, lengthy interview with Tom Platz over at the Tight Tan Slacks blog. My dreams are filled with juicy, hanging quads now haha.

[Bolder]

Do you screw your feet into the ground and angle them before you squat? I wonder (a little odd of what I'm saying here, sorry for that).

[lheugh]

@slowmotion, thanks!

@lheugh, I just read an old, lengthy interview with Tom Platz over at the Tight Tan Slacks blog. My dreams are filled with juicy, hanging quads now haha.

If there ever were a man built seamlessly to high bar squat, it would be Tom Platz.

[DCR]

Do you screw your feet into the ground and angle them before you squat? I wonder (a little odd of what I'm saying here, sorry for that).

Here's what I do: I start by getting my stance width, which is about the outer edge of my shoes lining up with my armpits - so not as far out as my lateral delts, and I think narrower than most. Then yes, I do angle my feet, but barely, maybe 15 degrees or so. It may look like more in my videos, but it's deceptive - my knees come well out over my toes and therefore if you look at my knees it can look as if I've got a very open foot angle, but I actually don't at all. Anyway, I then let my center of gravity drift juuuuuust slightly forward and back (so toward my toes, then toward my heels), back and forth as many times as necessary until I find dead center midfoot where the pressure is even among big toe, little toe, and heel. I let my weight / the bar weight sink there, effectively "sticking" all three parts of the tripod to the floor. Then I initiate the squat.

I don't screw my feet into the floor, spread the floor, or do anything else that would result in external rotation, which - very unpopular opinion incoming - I think is a terrible squat cue. I guess it makes sense if one has a wide stance / otherwise wants to squat out of their hips, but for a quad-centric squat I strongly feel that internal rotation is what one wants. I don't mean to the point of one's knees caving of course, but that one should fight to keep the thighs in line in front, and against the urge to spread out and get into the hips.

[DCR]

4/22/24

Superset:
Low Incline DB Bench Press 45s x6 65s x8,8,8
Pullups x7,6,6,5

Superset:
Lateral Raises 35s x8,8,8
Incline DB Curls 30s x10,10,10

Superset:
Preset EZ Bar French Press 70x6,6,6
Goblet Squat 45x6,7,10

Notes: Today I actually enjoyed the supersets. I didn’t get more work done than the last time that I did this session, without them, in terms of number of sets, but I sure as hell got it done a lot faster and was stronger and added weight or reps to everything.

I’ve stayed committed to the very deep DB bench, pulling down even deeper than I otherwise could go. Hoping for big things out of this.

Damn pullups felt amazing when done as the first pulling movement. I think the biceps prioritization experiment is over. It was fun.

[Bolder]

Supersets = timesaver and give nice pumps.

Anyway, I love how you end your sessions with goblet squats. Definitely your trademark, lol.

[MarkKO]

Supersets are by far my favourite way to train anything that isn't squat or DL. For the record, my favourite way to train DL is to not.

[DCR]

Anyway, I love how you end your sessions with goblet squats. Definitely your trademark, lol.

Haha it's just a nod to my neurosis about squatting every session, but in a way that comes with zero systemic fatigue.

Supersets are by far my favourite way to train anything that isn't squat or DL. For the record, my favourite way to train DL is to not.

Same. Other than fits and starts that lasted a week or so, I haven't done them in a very long time. I'd have to check but could be going on two years? I've had a bit of a hankering lately, in that my squat now is so quad-centric that I feel as if my posterior may be sufferiing. I know that this is weak but I've just lost patience with all of the loading, especially here where I don't have a good jack. If I do bring them back, it'll probably be a standalone day where I deadlift and go home.

[DCR]

4/24/24

Squats 45,135,185x6 225x3,3,6
DB RDLs 35s x10,10,10
One Leg Press sled + 40,60,80x10 each leg
Seated Calf Machine 50x12,13,14



Notes:

It appears that I’m running another linear squat progression, just a slower, more spread out one (hitting them every four days instead of every other day). Ok. We'll see if it peaks any higher.

RDLs done with a pause and stretch at the bottom.

Super pleased that I finally grew a brain and figured out how to do a unilateral assistance movement that I don’t hate. This is a horizontal leg press with a floating pad, that you push yourself away from (as in, the chair moves, not the pad). Because the pad is floating, if you want to go one leg you can just straighten out the non-working leg in the space beneath. I did these as an add-set (h/t @MailmanMuscle) and am gonna progress the fuck out of them and see what they do for my squat. Also a h/t to @acorn93 for causing me to think about lower body assistance while in the gym.

Pic is not about the pump from the one leg presses but rather these sick iceberg green Vans that I debuted today after retiring the royal blue ones. A fresh pair of Vans has become the equivalent of when I used to complete a handwritten logbook and started in on a new one. “This is a reset.
This time I’m gonna train smarter.” Lolz.

[acorn93]

Sweet shoes!

[lheugh]

4/24/24

Squats 45,135,185x6 225x3,3,6
DB RDLs 35s x10,10,10
One Leg Press sled + 40,60,80x10 each leg
Seated Calf Machine 50x12,13,14



Notes:

It appears that I’m running another linear squat progression, just a slower, more spread out one (hitting them every four days instead of every other day). Ok. We'll see if it peaks any higher.

RDLs done with a pause and stretch at the bottom.

Super pleased that I finally grew a brain and figured out how to do a unilateral assistance movement that I don’t hate. This is a horizontal leg press with a floating pad, that you push yourself away from (as in, the chair moves, not the pad). Because the pad is floating, if you want to go one leg you can just straighten out the non-working leg in the space beneath. I did these as an add-set (h/t @MailmanMuscle) and am gonna progress the fuck out of them and see what they do for my squat. Also a h/t to @acorn93 for causing me to think about lower body assistance while in the gym.

Pic is not about the pump from the one leg presses but rather these sick iceberg green Vans that I debuted today after retiring the royal blue ones. A fresh pair of Vans has become the equivalent of when I used to complete a handwritten logbook and started in on a new one. “This is a reset.
This time I’m gonna train smarter.” Lolz.

I need a pair of vans. I wonder if they have size 15s though.