CHAT TRANSCRIPT 11.01.2005
Lorrie
I didn't wear my monitor, but I can tomorrow...
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:52:29:
Cool - let me know some dates!
fireman1
Marty:
with regard to bar placement when doing squats. earlier you wrote that if the bar is creeping down your back the weight is too much. what if you place the bar a bit low to start and it doesn't move?
There are generally speaking three distinct br placements:
1. high bar - on top of flexed traps
2. medium bar - resting on the upper
3. low bar - resting on the flexed rear delts
As long as there is stability and as long as the lifter can stand erect and take breaths between reps, than all three bar postitions are legit
recently I had a knee injury that kept me from doing squats. now with the knee recovered I'm back to squatting. during the injury I could always do deadlifts, so my deadlift FAR exceeds my squat. for that reason, my back was rather sore on squat days because my back was compensating for the lack of strength in the legs. I took your advice and lowered the poundage a bit and worked on perfect form. in that process I found that my form is good and my back doesn't ache when I start with the bar just back off my shoulders - is this a problem?
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:48:07:
Lorrie
Kettlebell heresy! I took the kettlebells to a step aerobics class. Don't tell Pavel. Every time the instructor said "Ok we are going to bring your heart rate down a little now" I'd grab 'em and try to adapt the moves with overhead presses and whatnot. After class a bunch of women clustered around and asked "What are those? They are so cute!"
Don't ask how the bench press goal went. Can I still come up for consolation barbeque instead of victory barbeque?
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:44:22:
Shore - when can you come? Hey did you wear a heart rate monitor? I would love to see what kind of HR combining K-bells and step aerobics would produce?
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:47:24:
also I see where owners are spray painting them in wild colors....
Tom
Marty,
The old-time lifters had a technique called the "continental" that they used to raise a barbell from from floor to shoulders. As I understand it, it was sort of like a deadlift with a hitch that turned into a clean. But I can't find a clear description of how to do it. Do you have any idea how this lift is performed?
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:40:12:
Shore!
Thing of the continental as a sort of 'clean it anyway you can' sort of lift...whereas the clean never acutally was allowed to rest or stop, in the continental (and jerk) the lifter could hoist it and rest it before trying to work it up his torso to eventually snap it over and 'clean it' to his top delts ready to be fired overhead...a continental technique sort of formalized itself but that was out of lifting efficency and not mandated
JimmyV
I'm in Arlington, VA, just over Key Bridge. Anything good coming up?
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:39:09:
Duh! richmond in jan would be what, an hour drive for you? Check PLUSA for local Va or Md competitions
ms_irreverent
You did give me two of those magnets (the others were nowhere to be seen), and I've occasionally used them for one-armed stuff. The gym bells are in 2.5 increments, though, so the jumps are doable. How long do I stick with 3x8x5pounds? Till it gets easy?
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:25:51:
Yes - easy is usless in progressive resistance training - we seek hard
JimmyV
Good idea about the meet -- though I think I'd be more inclined to observe than compete, at least for now. So far I'm not that much stronger than my 70-year-old grandmother (a stout West Virginia born and bred woman, but still).
I think I'll hop down to 3x2 for a few weeks and see if I can peak out strength at the end of it. After that, I was thinking something high volume, moderately high reps -- maybe another dose of 10x10s for a while.
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:33:48:
Now you're thinking...that's some serious contrast
the cool thing about beginner competition on the local level is its all very supportive and in the raw meets the poundages are very realistic...what part of the country are you in?
ms_irreverent
Snap clean report: I tried 'em this morning. Three sets of 8 at 5 pounds, going up straight then coming back down by way of an overhead press (that is what you meant, right?). The first two sets were pretty easy. The third set was tough; I had to stop halfway through and rest for a minute or two. So far so good, with no aftereffects in that disk.
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:12:06:
Keep it going - you need a set of those dinky little magnet weights Iron Vic used to carry around - did I give you those? little 1.25 magnets, four of them, they'd attach to four outside plates on two sets of dumbbells and provide a 5-pound total boost between the bells instead of the usual 10-pound bump....
JimmyV
Any advice on breaking through a sticking point on flat bench? I've been doing 2x5 for my major compound first-in-line exercises (going on six weeks), and squats, deads and DB overhead press are moving right along, but the bench seems to have stagnated a bit.
On what should be the fifth completed rep, I consistently get the bar about four inches off my chest, where there might as well be a brick wall suspended above me. Is there any way in particular I should try to work the sticking point itself, or change up the rep/set protocol? And if I change up reps/sets, should I do it for just bench day?
If it makes any difference, I'm about 6'1", long-limbed and narrow shouldered (not exactly great BP levers). I tend to lift with a substantial arch and my pinkies on the rings.
Thanks much.
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 11:58:05:
1. let's stop beating our head against the 5-rep wall...
2. you need CONTRAST - what fires you up? pick 1...higher reps, say 12...lower reps, say 3x2 with a static weight...dumbbells exclusively for 4-5 weeks...
3. have you ever considered entering a bench meet? they have them all the time and past a point a serious lifter needs to occasionally test his mettle...
Scott in Michigan
Marty-
When I go to higher poundages in the squat, I put the bar lower on the upper back. But when I'm doing my work set (295 for 5) the bar tends to "move" down my back after the 3-4 rep. This is not good as I tend to lean forward to maintain control of the bar on rep#5, not to mention shoulder strain. I'm tempted to rerack and reposition after rep#3 because I know I've got the leg strength to do the 5 reps, but I end up using my lower back more than I want/should on the last rep or two.
The owner/powerlifter of the gym I go to looked over my form and bar position and said all was OK, and that he had the same problem with the straight bars past a triple. He recommended I try a new cambered bar that he just bought a couple of weeks ago. I'll give that a try next week.
Any suggestions/tips for bar control in the squat? Thanks.
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:02:46:
MY MACHINE IS RUNNING SLOW AS HELL - FEELS LIKE COMPUTER PROBLEMS - IF I GO OFF-LINE OR DISAPEAR - LIKELY I'VE CRASHED - IT THAT HAPPENS I'LL JUMP BACK ON LATER TODAY AND ANSWER EVERY THING HANGING....now for the question...
NO! I don't care how 'normal' the gym owner attempts to make a shifting barbell - it ain't normal and you need to back off, back down and go back over old technical territory - drop the weight - it's too heavy - you're in over your head and headed towards a squat bar drop off the backside - and those ain't pretty...you should be able to stand erect all day long between squat reps - any time a bar works it's way down the back during a squat, the brain is saying, "This is tooo freaking heavy and I, the barbell, want to crawl down this guy's back to better leverage closer to the hip-joint fulcrum."
Either that or you have the bar positioned so percariously that it shakes loose (!) from it's moorings during the lift - very uncool...
Bartletts Quotations
Marty's Quote of the Week (Halloween Blog):
"You get it from me, and you get the best."
Succinct, factual, confident with a touch of arrogance but without going over the top. I love it!!
Great blogs the last week or so. Keep up the good work.
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:21:41:
it comes with doing something 43 years...I've been sick all week - very rare for me, and it's messed up my preceptions and equilibrium...sleep a lot and seem to be doing better...I'm like an eskimo going to the big city - I go to richmond and meet and greet a bunch of people and catch a little cold - no big deal for the anglo saxons but for us indigineous types potentially disastorous...
Jack the Pilot
Marty,
Have you ever enjoyed the wonder of a nice two week break? I planned a week after Richmond, but added another as i had to do some rescue work to help my family in Miami. Hard work, good and plentifull food, no time under the iron makes Jack have no aches and pains. Well...maybe less!
j the p
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:26:33:
Are you flying a C147 as you type this? Are you over enemy airspace? This is Jack the Pilot who is defending all our collective glutes flying aircraft hither and yon - he resides in New Orleans and had to be subjected to all that heart ache and misery then lifted in Richmond and just missed a 550-bench press...jack is quick and nimble figuratively and literally
i eat puppies
Hey Marty,
Lots of questions this week, so I'm just submitting them as they come to me (save you the trouble of writing one long response).
OK, in one month my chest added 1/2 inch, to 38 1/2", my belly stayed jolly 38 1/4", my arms stayed at 14 1/4", and my quads stayed at 22 1/2".
I've also gained about 5 lbs.
I am in weight gain phase.
Does this sound right to you? Seems like five lbs is a lot for 1/2" added to the chest.
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:30:06:
5-pounds in a month is pretty slim pickings son...eat big, lift big, rest big, grow big...push that body weight up and push those training poundages up - squat like your life depended on it...get a 400-pound squat and all your physique expectations will be fullfilled - great handle - I eat puppies - sounds like an LA punck scene band circa 1979...
i eat puppies
Hey Marty,
Squat question here. How does your stance affect your quads? Does a wider stance work the insides more?
My stance is like this- If you dropped a line from the outside of my shoulders to the ground, it would pass through the center of my heals. Toes pointed 30-45 degrees out.
What say you, Mr. Gallagher??
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:36:09:
Puppy Killer part duex - the wider the more thigh-exclusive...narrow is more hip/thigh/glutes and hamstrings....akin to a wide-grip pec isolation bench grip versus a narrow bench pec/delt/tri spread - also - toes flared wide changes the thigh stress considerably...
Marty Gallagher
Hello, and welcome to this week's chat! you may submit questions ahead of time, and I'll answer them when the chat starts at noon. Please note that questions appear in the order they are asked, not the order they're answered. Earlier questions post towards the bottom. Sorry, no fix for this right now! On with the show!
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:50:52:
seems I can't refresh this screen - let me try again!
Marty Gallagher replies on 11-01-2005 at 12:52:55:
OKAY - IF THERE ARE NO FURTHER QUESTIONS I AM GOING TO MOVE ONTO OTHER THINGS!
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