Burly Decides to Squat Again...

[JM1000]

Same here, lots of hip warming up before these two lifts, makes a diffrence for me! I should really get a rumble roller, the foam roller really doesnt do anything anymore lol

[burlyman30]

Always been impressed with guys who have flexibility. I've never had it and even when adding it in to my regular routine, my flexibility never really increased so I've never pursued it much. I stretch in between sets but that's about it.

[O_RYAN_007]

I used to run track and jumped in track and field, so I needed to me really flexible... I continued to stretch and run throughout college, but I stopped running after I started lifting. I continued to stretch as I I lifted and my flexibility has remained close to what it was in college, if not better.

[burlyman30]

Well, today was not exactly ideal conditions for squatting. I DL'ed yesterday, along with a full back workout. This meant my hams and back were a bit sore. But I couldn't very well do a chest/arm workout today, since I also worked delts yesterday. Since my shoulder is the more injury prone area, I knew I needed to give that joint a rest. So squats it was.

Since this is only workout #2 for squatting, I figured I am still breaking in my body to the movement, and therefore keeping the session brief and submaximal would keep the break-in process moving forward without entirely taxing my back and hams.

I went into the workout hungry, which is certainly not ideal. All I had eaten was a breakfast burrito in the morning and a protein bar around 11 am. Workout was at 6pm, so you could say I was in a fasted state and hopefully burning a bit of fat for energy. I mixed up some All-In and downed that about 30 minutes pre workout. Then I began sipping on my PeptoPro/Tang mixture on my drive over to the gym (and all throughout the workout). This kept me just on the edge, hunger/blood sugar-wise.

All squats performed are below parallel.

Bar x 20
95 x 12
135 x 10
185 x 6
225 x 6
275 x 6
315 x 6

Everything felt good overall. The legs didn't cramp up like last week. They may have if I continued with more sets, but I was ok with shutting it down early and letting my body acclimate to the movement/weight again. 315 felt like some decent weight, but I probably could have done a dozen at that weight if I was pushing myself. Nevertheless, I felt it, and 4 hours later I am still feeling it. It was the right move to not go higher weight or reps this week.

I wanted to do more quad work, but nothing that would overly stress my hams or back, so I opted for some DB lunges. I do them by stepping back, not forward, as it is less stress on the knees (for me, at least). 3 sets of 10 completely toasted the quads and then I finished off with calf work.

All in all, a short, but good workout.

[markam]

You probably mentioned front squats in this thread, not sure, but your comments motivated me to try them (for the first time), and I'm finding them very useful. Is I work out at home and have very basic equipment, the front squats appear to be hitting muscles that were pretty much neglected in the past. I can only front squat a small % of what I can squat, so I'm going light with 8-10 reps and gradually ramping up the weight. Imo, Front squats are definitely an excellent exercise to help with regular squat form. So thanks for that.

Also, Kudos on sharing such personal information in your TRT thread. People pretty much responded in a mature and respectful fashion, and I think it has helped set a standard for appropriate behaviour on the forum. (Of course, there's always room for inappropriate comments, just only when it's appropriate ).

Not sure about all that salad stuff though, def count me out of that

[burlyman30]

You probably mentioned front squats in this thread, not sure, but your comments motivated me to try them (for the first time), and I'm finding them very useful. Is I work out at home and have very basic equipment, the front squats appear to be hitting muscles that were pretty much neglected in the past. I can only front squat a small % of what I can squat, so I'm going light with 8-10 reps and gradually ramping up the weight. Imo, Front squats are definitely an excellent exercise to help with regular squat form. So thanks for that.

Also, Kudos on sharing such personal information in your TRT thread. People pretty much responded in a mature and respectful fashion, and I think it has helped set a standard for appropriate behaviour on the forum. (Of course, there's always room for inappropriate comments, just only when it's appropriate ).

Not sure about all that salad stuff though, def count me out of that

Not sure how I missed this comment for the last few days, but let me respond now.

On the front squats, yes, they are a great exercise. They are difficult for me to do at this time because of my shoulder injury, but they target the quads similarly to a hack squat or a smith machine squat because of the more uprightness of the torso. I'm glad to hear you have started these and they have been useful for you.

On the TRT thread, thanks. The personal stuff isn't the easiest stuff for me to share, but I figure that transparency and honesty and the greatest amount of detail possible will make that thread more valuable to others. Hopefully, it can help someone in the future. As for the responses... well, thankfully we have a pretty mature group of guys here who can respond in adult fashion. If we didn't, I'm not sure I'd be ok sharing so much information in the first place. So thanks to all of you guys for that.

[burlyman30]

Squats went well tonight.

bar x 20
95 x 12
135 x 6
185 x 6
225 x 6
275 x 2
315 x 1
365 x 6 This was work. Form was good, but could be improved on. As it got heavy, I found myself leaning forward more than usual. Depth on the first couple reps was an inch or two shallow, as I was assessing my body's ability to complete full ROM during the exercise while still getting the weight up. Depth dropped into place after that.
225 x 12 Could have done 15+, but could feel the burn pretty good here and decided to shut it down and increase my reps from here each week.


I noticed after dropping down from 365 to 225 that my patellas hurt a bit. It has been a while since I squatted 3 plates+, so I am guessing this is just my knees saying "hey, what are you doing to us?" However, I did find it odd that it was the knee cap, not inside the joint itself. I am guessing it is just a bit of tendon strain and should go away, but I will keep you posted.

[Sorrow]

Putting in work! Looks like things are coming back at a nice pace.

[burlyman30]

Putting in work! Looks like things are coming back at a nice pace.

Better than expected, actually. Though 405 could probably go up next week, I will likely stay at 365 and work my form or do a modest jump to 385. I'll just take it one set at a time and see what the body can do. Considering I went into the workout hungry and tired, it turned out well. Knees feel fine today. I think I just put them in a state of shock last night. Legs are moderately sore, but walking and getting into my truck is no problem today.

[burlyman30]

So I hit a second squat workout this week. Fact of the matter is, though, I am beat up from a previous squat and DL workout this week. I went up to 365 again, but just for a double. Could have done more, probably 4, but just did two super slow and real deep. Wanted to focus on a couple perfect reps. Dropped down to 225 for a slow and deep set of 12. Legs were worked, but not thrashed. Felt like I did enough for today.

Finished off with some back hypers for the hams, and moved on to calves.

Oddball thing... after the set at 365 which felt fine, I had to manipulate my patella again and really move the knee about because there was a sharp pain on the right knee (the better of the two). I did eventually get it to go away so I could complete the last set.