Push/pull
Zoinks my elbow hurts! I tried to do front squats today in the pushing phase of my push/pull workout program and I, apparently, just don't have the elbow flexion necessary to hold the clean rack for that long (during an actual clean the time under tension in the clean rack is limited to a couple of seconds) and I CERTAINLY can't hold it in the crook of my elbows to do a Zercher squat. Apparently the possible benefits of front squats on the abdominal wall will just have to be a thing that I miss since I physically cannot perform the movement. I modified a back squat, however, by setting the bar higher on my neck (as opposed to across my trapezius), dipping below parallel, getting into the famous "butt in the grass" position favored by Olympic ilfters, and holding for a second in the hole before popping back up. This put my quadriceps under enormous pressure and forced them to work through the full range of motion and pumped a lot of blood into my lower body. Heavy squats release testosterone, the hormone responsible for strength building and growth, so they will always be the cornerstone of my workout and I'm always trying to find variations on them, ways to make them more effective.
I finished off, this afternoon, with the standing shoulder press. I've been reading Shawn Phillips' book on Focus Intensity Training and, although he has a lot of good points, I think he unfairly maligns overhead presses. He claims that pressing from the shoulder puts undue stress on the shoulder girdle, leading to injury, but I suspect that injuries don't come from the movement itself but from 1) lack of attention to strict form, 2) use of weights that are too heavy and 3) lack of shoulder flexibility in American athletes. I can attest to the truth of this third point... if I step away from shoulder presses for even a few weeks and come back, I am ungodly stiff on my first few workouts and unable to do more than about 200 pounds. Even when I loosen up after a few days I still remain at about .5 to .65 of my one rep bench press max for my standing shoulder press workouts (putting me between 225 and 255 pounds for big triples), and I make sure to keep my back straight, hips tight and abdominal wall flexed. Taking these precautions allows me to perform the overhead press and reap the benefits of an exercise which hits the anterior and medial deltoids like no other.
I finished off, this afternoon, with the standing shoulder press. I've been reading Shawn Phillips' book on Focus Intensity Training and, although he has a lot of good points, I think he unfairly maligns overhead presses. He claims that pressing from the shoulder puts undue stress on the shoulder girdle, leading to injury, but I suspect that injuries don't come from the movement itself but from 1) lack of attention to strict form, 2) use of weights that are too heavy and 3) lack of shoulder flexibility in American athletes. I can attest to the truth of this third point... if I step away from shoulder presses for even a few weeks and come back, I am ungodly stiff on my first few workouts and unable to do more than about 200 pounds. Even when I loosen up after a few days I still remain at about .5 to .65 of my one rep bench press max for my standing shoulder press workouts (putting me between 225 and 255 pounds for big triples), and I make sure to keep my back straight, hips tight and abdominal wall flexed. Taking these precautions allows me to perform the overhead press and reap the benefits of an exercise which hits the anterior and medial deltoids like no other.