Exercise Log 12.4.13 (Dev Day + Cardio)

Alright trying to keep this log short, today was development day and earlier this week I found my front squat lacking. So I did some online research and found some key points to consider and went to it. As far as syndicating these posts go, if the log is listed like this with details and videos linked, I’m going to post it to my front page and to my Facebook. If not though, and I’m going to try to keep them shorter, I’ll just post them silently to my homepage. So if you’re wondering if I’m still routinely doing these, I absolutely am just being quieter about it.

First for warmups I tried something new, medicine ball squats. I took a medicine ball, held it upright in front of my face like I was about to kiss it, and did some squats with it there. This kept my elbows upright like a front squat, and it also kind of allowed me to squat while checking my form out from the side mirror which was nice. Squatting requires a lot of neurological full body involvement, so to prime myself for this I took the same medicine ball and just spiked it into the ground, which is a great way to prep the neural system to take in the system shock of performing squats.

After about 4 sets of these warmup exercises, I did active side to side stretching and a few other static holds, just to prep myself, then went into the front squatting. I went on super light weight (105lbs) and did countdown reps, which I found online in this video…

I wasn’t badass enough to do each set of these without reracking the weight and taking a breather, even at my light weight level

Anyways that was a hellish way to get started. Then I did try a couple times to rep heavier, 1 rep at 135 then I tried to match my max weight and failed. My penalty for failing (I like to hold myself to a penalty once in a while, because sometimes you gotta show yourself some tough love) was three reps of isometric holding of the front squat bar loaded with my max rep weight for as long as possible. First was a solid 60 seconds, second was 30, third was 60. That’s a lot of pressure to maintain that shelf and clean grip position, and great for the thoracic extension which is a weak point I think in the heavier weight levels of my front squatting.

One form tip that helped a ton today was in this video…

A short video about building a stronger shoulder shelf

My shoulder shelf is strong already, but I lose a little thoracic extension to keep my elbows up when I ascend to press the weight up. This video the female trainer (didn’t catch her name) shows a technique to provide more shoulder torsion by gripping the bar wider and winding the wrists and elbows a bit more. This helped me keep the bar more upright more consistently and did not feel unsafe like I felt it would watching the video, in fact things felt a little more stable. I liked it so I’m gonna keep it for a while, try it out.

After all that I tried and failed to rep beyond my max weight, just to say that I didn’t give up too easily. Then I did did 3 sets of goblet squats at a moderate weight, 10 reps each. To work on my upper back support I did 5 sets of seated rows, 10 reps moderate weight. To add more to my back excercising I did 5 sets of lateral pulldowns at the pulldown machine, and varied the weight levels as I went up and down a bit… the idea of the back focus is to give my upper back more strength to hold the front squat weight upright as I do the ascending motion where I find I keep dipping my elbows, although some of that will just resolve itself with practice I’m sure.

I like to do a core workout usually on developmental day, so I did a nice round of 3 sets of 10 elbow to knee crunches paired with 10 toe touches (upper ab focus) and 10 jackknifes.

On developmental day I like to try new exercises and experiment with them and one I’ve seen for a while that is great for the legs, and may even help my front squat someday, is box jumps. Here is a quick video showing how to do them…

Scott Herman loves the box jump so I thought I’d give it a shot

At my gym my “box” is an adjustable stackable plastic stand, I’m not sure the exact height. All I know is that I stacked 10 of them and did 3 sets of 10 reps and felt good about it. So I went to 11, did another set of 10, still good. Did 10 more at 12 blocks and did 5 reps at 13. I started feeling like I was exceeding my height but stacked a 14th block, but as I went and did a few practice jumps, I could tell it was just barely too high for me to shoot for. I’m not sure how high that officially is for me, but I can keep track of it for future purposes, and I’m sure it’ll help my explosive leg power which is frankly something I never train.

I wrapped up with what was easily the shittiest cardio I’ve had in ages, 1 1/2 miles run rather haggardly. The less said about that the better, maybe the box jumps affected me more than I thought, I don’t know. Just hoping I shake off the dust in time for the next 5K.