Sorry fellas, I should've posted a more general article, like this one: http://www.rdlfitness.com/best-exercise-tips/
What I like about his site is that he tries to understand everything according to general principles, like full ROM, anatomical or evolutionary function, and physiological adaptations, before deriving what he considers the best exercises or training protocols. His point about the shoulder is that it wasn't really designed for loading, but rather repositioning. I don't know enough about evolutionary biology to confirm or contradict this, but if true, it's worth considering when selecting exercises. And just going on experience, I like how he aligns with some of my findings, like the huge benefits of one-arm dumbbell rows, or going low rep and heavy.
Anyway, Thursday and Friday my left shoulder wasn't very happy, so I've got to revise last week's routine. Either separate the rows and bench press, or, more generally, separate the upper body pulls from the upper body pushes and maybe go back to doing the latter just once a week, something like this:
RDL doesn't comment on overhead press in the scapular plane. Some people think that it might safer?
http://muscleevo.net/save-your-shoulders/#.U9P8gqq3PMI
http://exercisesforinjuries.com/scaption-and-shoulder-impingement/
https://mikesirani.wordpress.com/tag/landmine-press/
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...ng_performance/in_defense_of_overhead_lifting
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/6_coaches_weigh_in_on_shoulders
Yeah I read through a few more of his articles, to be honest though he still irritates me its like half bullshit and half useful. I prefer a more 80/20 balance or maybe even 70/30.
Things like:
"This ignores though that you could fulfill the need for cardio with intervals and walking instead."
"Bikes are unbalanced and rely on your skill to stay upright"
"Conditioning from cardio comes and goes faster than strength and size through heavy lifting"
"Only three exercises can give complete results from heavy training."
"Variety will harm you"
"Fitness today has shifted toward making exercise fun. I would suggest avoiding this direction."
This guy seriously sounds like my grandma "don't do it because you might fall and get hurt".
Not sure what you mean by "lift to push too much." If you don't mind explaining, I'd appreciate it, since I'm on the fence with power cleans too. I'll probably keep them in the Friday routine for the time being, but keep them and everything else there fairly light. Still, it's tempting to throw them out and just squat more. It's just that I have a hard time mentally giving a good effort to an exercise more than once a week.You are right it is important to think about exercise selection though. I have decided that I probably won't do power cleans, I tend to lift to push too much and I think it may be an easy one to get hurt doing. So see I agree with him there. But I wouldn't tell anyone not to do it.
Anyway now that I knocked him, I am going to stick with my routine I had been dong that is similar to what he is suggesting. I saw good results with it and figure might as well keep going until it fizzles. I am going to add a day and so there will be 3 days of variety and do each once a week for 10-20 reps per lift.
TBDL
Swings
Press
KB Rows
Farmer carries
Squat
Bench
Pull Ups
Ab roll outs
DL
Goblet Squats
Incline/CG bench
Chin ups
Suitcase walks
Ha, good analogy.
He's arguing from principles, not practice, a lot of times, so you're right, you have to weed out the bs from the useful, which is not always easy to do unless you've educated yourself on anatomy and physiology to the same degree. Still, I find it refreshing that someone is trying to deduce the underlying principles involved in ST, rather than resorting to the ad hoc reasoning one often finds on meathead sites. Thinking through his reasoning has helped clarify things a bit more for me. Even if I don't change much of what I'm doing, it's good to rethink the logic of my routine. A lot of it, happily, already jibes with his thinking. But I hope I'm not agreeing just because it's what I want to hear.
I would be very reluctant to throw out three of my main exercises--the deadlift, pullup, and OH press--just because they put the body in mechanically less advantageous movements than the squat, bench press, and row. And it's hard to figure, from a purely functional or adaptive point of view, how routinely carrying one's body weight on one's back while squatting is less harmful than pressing a quarter to half that weight over one's head. I mean, is he saying in our evolution we never had a need to put something heavy over our heads? It seems like various grips and positionings in the context of training repetition is the real issue, as some of Sid's links point out.
Some of the quotes you picked out are similarly problematic, like recommending only intervals or stairs for cardio, although I agree with a few, like variety for variety's sake being useless.
And I like that he provides general reasons for why, for example, medium grips and stances are best, rather than simply proposing it as a solution to a specific problem.
Finally, while it's true he goes against the thinking of a lot of smart people in the strength training mainstream, he points out that pure strength requirements are different from bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, and powerlifting requirements. That's one thing that's been impressed upon me lately, that a lot of the advice on T-Nation and Bodybuilding and other sites isn't aimed at guys like me. Even Rippetoe, who aims at a general, and generally novice, audience, seems to have a powerlifting bias. And so it's useful to question what, for example, is the purpose of a lateral shoulder raise or a wide-stance squat for pure strength development. For me, strength (as a foundation for general fitness) is the end; for Olympic weightlifters, bodybuilders, and powerlifters, strength is a means to an end, so the calculus for including or excluding an exercise may be different.
Not sure what you mean by "lift to push too much." If you don't mind explaining, I'd appreciate it, since I'm on the fence with power cleans too. I'll probably keep them in the Friday routine for the time being, but keep them and everything else there fairly light. Still, it's tempting to throw them out and just squat more. It's just that I have a hard time mentally giving a good effort to an exercise more than once a week.
Seems like a nice mix and rep range. I'm trying to keep each workout to 4-5 lifts too, sometimes I only do 3. This week I'm going to try to re-integrate the plyo and mobility stuff into the last 10-20 minutes of each workout, and will try to shorten the ST portion a bit to guard against overtraining. I'll try something like this:
Mon - Pull
ST Bottom: Deadlift
ST Middle: BB Row, DB Row & Russian Twist
ST Top: Chinups
Plyo: Box Jumps, Burpees
Stabilizers: Hyperextensions, Pike
Mobility: (c/ ankle weights) Leg Raises and Swings, Dirty Dog, Donkey Kick, Mountain Climber, Iron Cross, etc.
Wed - Push
ST Bottom: Squats & OH Squat
ST Middle: Bench Press
ST Top: OH Press and/or Landmine Press
Plyo: Bench Hops, Medicine Ball Toss
Stabilizers: Bicycle & Flutter Kicks
Mobility: Kicks, Clubbells, Bear Crawl
Fri-Lite
ST Bottom: Power Clean, Hex-Bar DL
ST Middle: Cable Row, Dips
ST Top: Neutral Grip Pullups
Plyo: Box Jumps, Burpees, Hex Bar Jump
Stabilizers: Hanging Leg Raises, Ab roll-outs
Mobility: (c/ ankle weights) Leg Raises and Swings, Dirty Dog, Donkey Kick, Mountain Climber, Iron Cross, etc.
That's the perennial problem! Pretty ambitious schedule, especially with a newborn in tow. It's all I can do to get in three good runs and three good ST sessions per week.
Yesterday, felt like crap, but once I warmed up to 315 on my DL, I decided to do something stupid and added another 40 pounds, for a new PR of 355.
Nope.
I might've done it if my life depended on it, but mentally, I just wasn't up for it. I could feel that I would be putting my back and/or knees at risk, so I dropped it after a few inches of lift. Then I took off 20 pounds and did singles all the way back down to 285 in 10-pound increments--335, 325, 315, 305, 295. Once I got to 285, I did two sets of five reps. Wow, did that feel great after all the heavy singles. Might've been my best deadlift workout yet. I was shredded.
So now I have a pretty good idea of what a workable 1RM deadlift is for me. It's about 335. I'll try to stay there for a few weeks and try to get my worksets up to 305 or so before trying for a new PR.
For the rows, I just did 3x5x100 db rows. I didn't have it in me to do my 120-pound dumbbells. Maybe I should save the heavy rows for Friday's workout? Then I did the Russian Twists, and then supersetted (assisted) chinups with hyperextensions. I did the latter while holding a empty barbell across my shoulders, crucifixion-style. Next time I'll try it with a few plates on. When I went to neutral grip pullups my left shoulder protested, so I called it a day and moved onto box jumps. By then my family had come home so my son stayed in the garage to admire my jumping ability while my daughter made fun of me before heading straight for her ipad and Minecraft. I kept the max height at 19" since it's been a while since I did box jumps. I'll shoot for 24" next time.
So I didn't get that far into my new post-ST plyo/stabilizer(core)/mobility routine, but it was a start. I think it's going to work to combine all that stuff with the st sessions, and just do stretching on my running days. Last night I slept like a baby and had dreams about squats. Today my whole back is sore. I'm glad I added the hyperextensions back in, even it violates one of RDL's principles of not loading or directly working the stabilizers. With the Hyperextensions finishing off a session of DLs, Rows, Chinups, and Russian Twists, I really get a complete back workout.
Yah, the mental aspect and biorhythms factor into it, and yesterday I was kind of low in both, so 355 is still conceivable, but it did feel pretty close to my physical limit. Up to now, as I've worked my way up from 275 to 345 over the last several months, it's mostly been a matter of overcoming my mental limits, getting the confidence that I wasn't risking injury. From here on out though, it will be more a matter of improving my physical strength, with perhaps a little extra boost from improved technique. So I expect progress will be slower. 405 by the end of the year might be overly ambitious, but we'll see. If I can get more consistent with the squats and really nail the technique, then there should start to be some carry-over to the DLs, so that will help too. My new emphasis on super heavy rows might factor in as well.Haha some days weight is just glued to the floor and then others that same weight feels light. It's funny how it works. Normally what I do is not think about it, I just walk up squat down and pull and just keep it in my head that I can do it and usually that helps get over the mental aspect.
I dunno, I really like a couple of sets of 4-5 reps at the end of my DL session. It works the back and butt differently than 1-2 reps. I agree though big lifts like the squat, deadlift, bench, and probably db rows should all be done in the lower rep ranges. Even for the lighter lifts like OH presses, I think one should go as heavy as possible while still maintaining good form. Currently that means 4-5 reps for me. Anything in the 1-2 rep range and my right arm starts to take over and the bar goes up unevenly. RDL really helped nail the point home that intensity and tension are all that really matter in strength training. In any case, I've always hated higher rep training and now I have a good excuse to avoid it.Something I have been tinkering with is what DL weight to rep with I am thinking of only doing 140+ for all of my DL sets and skip the easier sets other than a warmup? I think it works a little better with lower volume to push higher work set percentages. I might also stick with the 1-2-3-1-2-3 pattern.
Yeah, I agree, thanks. Monday the focus should be on DLs, right? And then maybe go medium intensity on the rows--maybe just stick to Pendlay rows? Friday, the power cleans or hex-bar DLs could be medium or light and the db rows heavy. The only real problem area then is Wednesday, where doing squats, bench presses and OH presses and dips all in one day gets to be problematic. It would be good to shift either the squats or the dips to Friday, but then that starts to overload that day. Maybe I should throw out the power cleans? Something like this:Maybe doing a heavy back day on friday wouldnt be a bad idea? Your back/grip should be toast after that DL session and is probably limiting you. I've done hyper extensions with weight before and have found holding a plate to the chest is the most comfortable.
Pretty good list. I guess we've come to similar conclusions through trail and error and disparate readings. Perreto's 80/20 ratio seems a little extreme, but the general principle of focusing on what benefits you most is probably correct, although it's not always easy to tell how much apparently peripheral activities may be supporting one's main foci. Still, participating on your thread here and reading Rippetoe, RDL, and others has really helped me pare things down to the basics. I also liked how he included some kind of rotational exercise or trunk flexion in his list of basic patterns. I really like the Russian Twist, Lawnmower, Golf Swing, and my recent overloading of the Dumbbell Row for this very reason.http://www.t-nation.com/training/10-principles-for-better-programming/comments
Here is a good article about some stuff we have been discussing. I like the Parreto's principle not sure if it holds true but it's interesting to think about.
I should have been more specific. I have indeed tried it. I actually wanted people's thoughts on it.Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!
Iteresting. I'll have to give this a shot.
Hey, btw, you got an opinion about lunges?
I guess one or two beers in the evening is still OK: http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/lifters-guide-to-alcohol
Opps, should've refreshed before I posted this just now. Thanks for the confirmation!Yeah my experience with lunges have been they cause significant DOMS and knee aches without any noticeable benefits. I think weighted stair climbs or step ups might be a little better for safety reasons.
I might have to build my own box then. I'll look into this next week (I'll be on vacation at home).http://www.rdlfitness.com/how-to-split-squat/
http://www.rdlfitness.com/avoid-lunges/
Personally, if I were to do one-legged versions of the squat, I'd do them with the unweighted leg in front. But it seems safest, easiest, and most natural just to step-ups with dumbbells. Even unweighted, it's a challenge to step up onto my adjustable plyo box when it's at 24" height.
Opps, should've refreshed before I posted this just now. Thanks for the confirmation!
I should have been more specific. I have indeed tried it. I actually wanted people's thoughts on it.
Personally, I like it, but I feel if you don't have proper balance (like on my right leg) it becomes difficult to execute with proper form.
I'm not sure who's known to be a credible source on youtube or not, but the video shows the movement. Skip to 0:55 if you don't wanna hear the intro.