Chromoly's SS Log

[carson]

Good progress. Welcome. Just curious about the thumb problem. Have you determined what causes it? I'm not familiar with this.

[chromoly]

Good progress. Welcome. Just curious about the thumb problem. Have you determined what causes it? I'm not familiar with this.

Thank you! I think the thumb thing is related to using the hook grip. It only bothers me with heavy (for me) weights when I use the hook grip. I found this article about hook grip. Maybe I'm not gripping it hard enough. From the article:

The hook will “feel” fine for lighter weight that you can still hold with a double pronated grip, even if you are doing it incorrectly and not gripping it as tightly as you should. However, when the weight is greater than what your double pronated grip can hold, you have to grip that bar as if someone is trying to steal your paycheck in order for the hook to work properly. And with a tight—and I mean TIGHT—hook grip, you are smashing your own thumb to the deadlift bar. If you grab the bar with less than your tightest grip, the bar will smash your thumb as the bar is lifted, so now you have gravity, the barbell, and 700 pounds smashing your thumb. The tighter the grip of your hook, the less pain to your thumbs.

Or it's possible that I'm just a wuss and am not used to hook grip yet.

[chromoly]

July 3: I woke up today with So. Much. DOMS. I foam rolled yesterday but my hamstrings! Good thing I have 2 or 3 off days planned.

[commanist]

July 3: I woke up today with So. Much. DOMS. I foam rolled yesterday but my hamstrings! Good thing I have 2 or 3 off days planned.

In my experience as an also-entirely-too-flexible woman, learning how to create tension at the bottom of the squat will do that to you. It does go away after a week or two at most if you're consistent.

Very nice deadlift, by the way!

[chromoly]

In my experience as an also-entirely-too-flexible woman, learning how to create tension at the bottom of the squat will do that to you. It does go away after a week or two at most if you're consistent.

Very nice deadlift, by the way!

Thanks! The deadlift and power clean are the two lifts in SS that I like the most.

I'll keep the bit in mind about soreness in my hammies going away soon. Why is keeping tension so HARD??? I just want to squat ATG because I think it's comfortable to hang out in that position all day

[chromoly]

I wanted to celebrate 'murica and Freedom today with some squats. My Adidas Powerlifts just arrived (and they're beautiful), but yesterday I rolled my cankle while playing tennis. I'm RICE-ing it and frustrated because I can't try out my new shoes. I was hoping to use Paul Horn's advice and make some gainzzz; 2-3 off days may need to become a week, we'll see how it goes.

[Piper]

Hey, chins for America while sporting new shoes is still fun! And since you'll be using superfluous equipment, might as well use some straps and a two-board as well.

[commanist]

Thanks! The deadlift and power clean are the two lifts in SS that I like the most.

My favorites are power cleans and Whatever Isn't Sucking Right Now. This rotates day-to-day. At the moment, probably bench, because of my inner bro.

Why is keeping tension so HARD???

Because not only are you sitting down in, then standing up from an invisible too-low chair with most of your bodyweight on your back, you have to do what is essentially a plank while doing it.

Alternatively, because Satan.

Squatting to a box at the correct depth, by the way (vs. Doing A Box Squat--there's no pause at the bottom, just a quick brush-and-up) has been very helpful in assisting me with learning the motor pattern while I've been rehabbing. It felt absurdly high at first, but has done wonders.

[chromoly]

Thursday July 9 (10 Weeks In)

Having rolled my cankle on Friday while playing tennis, I thought it'd be prudent to take some time off from lifting, biking, and really anything that could further injure the ankle/foot/lower leg. I broke my leg right above the ankle as a kid, and it's been weak since then. Went to student health, they insisted I get X-rays and gave me an ankle brace. The good news is that my cankle (it's still pretty swollen right now still, looks like a cankle rather than an ankle) isn't broken! I've been antsy taking the bus in and not biking, so I went back to lifting today.

Squats: 44x5x2, 64x5, 84x3, 94x3, 104x1, 114x5x3
Bench Press: 44x5x2, 54x5, 59x3, 64x3, 69x1, 74x3x5, PR!
Deadlift: 44x5x2, 94x5, 134x5, 174x2, 194x2x1, PR! (but not what I was supposed to lift...)

No ankle pain during lifting today. Hooray!

I got to try out the new squat shoes. They're nice, but not revolutionary the way I'd read about (i.e., I didn't PR anything immediately). My work weight went up pretty easy though. I switched back to 115# at 3x5 at Paul's suggestion, spent the session focusing on my depth (not TOO deep). I even set the safeties to one position higher so that I would bang into them if I went ATG. I felt way too high, and I know for sure my last rep was too high. According to my video, most of my reps were parallel or only slightly below though.

The bench arch seems to help. I'm not sure I'm doing it right though. All the bros I bench with seem to do it flat back, so I will just need to read the book more and work on that on my own.

I could barely pull 195# today with a mixed grip and chalk. Not sure if I lost my gainzZz (from the week off), didn't eat enough carbs this morning (bad day), or it was the men's 20kg bar. This is something I'm going to be stubborn about in the future, despite Paul's suggestion-- I want to use the 15kg women's bar for my deadlifts. Even loaded to the same weight, it's literally easier for my small (but not that small) hands to hold. I'm going to try this weight again next time I deadlift, but with the women's bar and moar carbzZz.

[chromoly]

Alternatively, because Satan.

Squatting to a box at the correct depth, by the way (vs. Doing A Box Squat--there's no pause at the bottom, just a quick brush-and-up) has been very helpful in assisting me with learning the motor pattern while I've been rehabbing. It felt absurdly high at first, but has done wonders.

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (squat ATG, all day, err'day)

I'll try squatting to a box if I can find something at the right height. The benches at my gym are a little too high I think. When I was working with Paul (SSC), I did a few sets with TUBOW, which helped both my depth and my knees. I might do this next time. The people at my gym are going to start thinking I'm crazy: bringing my own chalk, taking off my shoes when I deadlift, video-taping myself, a piece of wood....