thread of getting sw0le

one interesting thing abt olympic lifting is the speed and how that relates to yr form, like im decently flexible in the squat i have good form and can get well below horizontal but what i realized is w an olympic lift because u have to get into yr squat almost immediately that yr effective flexibility only extends to where u start to feel any tension in yr form at all its where u start to stretch which is a wildly different spot than where u can get to slowly w some weight on yr back, so i have to be doing yoga to get more limber i feel, i did yoga today

also i wld like to say that i think power cleans are a disgrace not even trying to get under the bar its disrespectful

lifting makes me too hungry its a crisis

Back into physical therapy, taking it seriously and doing every damn exercise every damn day, and switching from an all-heavy all the time powerlifting approach to a bodybuilding program that has higher volume (4x week vs 3, which works better for me motivation-wise) and more room for adaptability to specifically target my issues. Switched from low bar squat to high bar to exactly parallel with knee sleeves and it felt like the best/most correct sets I have ever done in multiple years of frustrating squatting (side note: Mark Rippetoe can eat my entire ass), Romanian deadlifts to work on my weak posterior chain, and chest-supported rows to avoid overtaxing my lower back. I'm feeling good about this for the first time in a while; it also helps that I have a date to work toward (a beach wedding in September).

giving you creepy high fives through the internet as we speak

Rippetoe has his uses but ultimately I have been moving away from him too. It seems like he’s oriented toward the only goal in life being to lift the maximum weight possible while developing a body that looks like a walking beanbag.

i guffawed

Oh man, so much more too:
He's a shitty teacher, incapable of making a point succinctly
He routinely insults people on his forums (back when I still thought of them as a potential resource, whenever I searched for people with similar questions he would either ask "have you read the book" or say shit like "maybe you have ovarian cancer"- this is one of his favorites)
He's a right-wing creep

Fuck that guy.

im fully obsessed w the clean n jerk

― lag∞n, Friday, May 17, 2019 10:59 PM (six days ago)

love this lift ! when i was lifting a lot a few years back i put up #235 a few times

dang thats a lot a yoink

yeah man i was putting in a lot of time on technique and shit for whatever reason but i enjoyed it. Had my snatch lift up to almost body weight too .

sick! yeah im totally into the technique of it its fascinating, prob try to f w the snatch once i get some familiarity w the c&j

also i like that its lifting something off the floor over yr head its so fundamental, the technique is complicated and weird but its also actually a natural motion like u can figure out a lot just by feeling out what the best way to jump is which is just something u naturally can feel, just put yr feet in the best spot for jumping

its really interesting what a full body motion it is too i can feel it hitting weakness/imbalances in my body which is informative

also from a youtube video perspective the power lifting guys are so wack compared to the olympians, having a bar released from hooks w 20 guys spotting u how embarrassing

training footage is oddly mesmerizing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL79TztUK-g

ts really interesting what a full body motion it is too i can feel it hitting weakness/imbalances in my body which is informative

― lag∞n, Thursday, May 23, 2019 3:18 PM (forty-nine minutes ago)

yeah also the effects practicing those explosive movements really had me feeling in great shape for sports and activities . the stresses on the nervous system are crazy too but you're body is better for it and obviously the flexibility aspect which is huge

pro tip - proper lifting shoes really make a difference

i dont think im ready psychologically for lifting shoes but if i keep it up maybe ill get there

re sports etc yeah it kinda feels like its the best exercise there is

as someone who dabbles in many types of exercise ive been of the opinion for a while that lifting is all things considered generally the best exercise which is not to say its the one i do or like the most and i think olympic lifting might be the best lifting

I just ordered some Adidas Powerlifts on account of my persistent ankle mobility issues with squatting fwiw, they arrive tomorrow. Lately I've been using plates under my heels but I feel like that creates its own problems and may be fucking with my lower back.

as someone who dabbles in many types of exercise ive been of the opinion for a while that lifting is all things considered generally the best exercise which is not to say its the one i do or like the most and i think olympic lifting might be the best lifting

Lifting is great but it takes a toll on the body.

kinda meant lifting the best bang for yr buck exercise fwiw tho maybe not exactly that or only that, ashtanga is great too i was doing a lil bit of it recently, feel like yoga is something ive told myself i shd get more into for like 15 years

I think I’m done with low bar squats. With the lifting shoes added in I feel like I’m falling forward and my lower back is collapsing at the bottom. The mechanics of having the bar that low on my back with a shoe pushing me forward just makes no sense to me. I’ve been increasingly subbing in sets of goblet squats and I think I’m just gonna do that and start adding high bar at low weights until I’m comfortable.

Lower back and hips generally feel worse since I went low bar. It seems more like Rippetoe’s lughead idea for how a less mobile guy can lift more weight rather than an actually healthy movement.

ya u can lift a tiny bit more w low but who cares high bar is a more chill movement

Also started a low carb diet and cutting off eating after 9. Got fat from trying to eat for lifting. Reality is I’m not training for a meet here.

i get paranoid I'm going to crunch the bar into a vertebra on high-bar

what i would really like to do is front squat but the few times i tried it were like whoa

you gotta keep trying. i was high bar squatting a bit but the truth is i just hate doing it. i, too, have to keep trying, but i'm long

i am going to front squat tomorrow

Today is the start of my second week on the new program, also with high bar squats, so I don't have a ton of data to add to this but it sounds like my experience was largely the same- core stabilization issues while being able to break parallel easily meant that I was putting most of the stress from the low bar on my lumbar spine and hips. And hip hinging is important in the movement but the larger muscle groups that are supposed to be doing most of the work felt like they weren't active at all. Moving to high bar, it was suddenly all ass and quads, which is what I'm trying to do in the first place, so hopefully this turns out to be sustainable/something I can progress.

high bar is so nice u can make a shelf for the bar to sit on by pushing you shoulder blades way back then you barely have to use yr arms to stabilize the bar at all it just sits there, that setup also goes a long way towards making yr core good and tight for the lift

front squats feel like a more contrived form w the bar all up in yr throat space and elbows forward etc

i have been doing them tho because of the clean n jerk

one downside of the c&j is sometimes u nail yrself in the adams apple w the bar

I've just sat so much for so much of my life that all kinds of squats feel like making my body speak a second language.

i consider it a project, i figure out new weird shit my body is up to all the time

ive decided i dont ef w the bench anymore the bench is for cowards

u mean bench press or squatting to a bench?

anything to do with the bench i dont acknowledge the bench anymore

huh, interesting

what do you do for chest then?

its just like whatre u doing lying down on the job?

i only do the clean and jerk and related lifts front squat rows overhead press, i never liked the bench really

anything to do with the bench i dont acknowledge the bench anymore

― lag∞n, Wednesday, May 29, 2019 4:14 PM (three minutes ago)

gotta use the bench for those bulgarian split squats tho

i dont even know what that is im just a simple man who hates the bench aka the cowards apparatus

lol look it up it's a great exercise and you only use the bench to stabilize your foot

but bench press is for lames . when do i ever need to press something away from my body like that with such force, idk?

i might start doing a lift that involves throwing the bench out the window

I lying-down-press my kids all the time, they love it

the true functional strength