For BG fitness fanatics, a question..

[shaddix]

Must be the same reason you don't lift in fluffy running shoes. You would be a much slower runner and waste a lot of energy if there is a big marshmallow between your foot and the running surface.

[Osede]

Presumably, this stemmed from a skiing trip in middle school (I'm in my second year of college) in which I fell on Ice and bruised my tailbone to the point where it hurt to sit for year+ after it occurred. Regardless of when it happened I've had back problems since the middle of highschool so I think if it would have healed itself, it would have by now. My doctor said there's only one option which was to give me pain meds until it got to the point where surgery was the only option. I've read at numerous websites that even surgery doesn't fix it all the time.

You can work on something light weight but high volume, such as reverse sit up. Just don't go increase the weight too much (probably max of 25lbs after a year of training).

[shaddix]

[Chun Liroy]

Idgi.

[Weiing]

wanting to get a pair of vibrams (the shoes that look like feet) for some light runnin & prolly as footwear for my schools gym. would i look like a douche (in the gym) if i do so? i mean, i know everyones working out & doin their own thing but still, don't want to give myself unneeded attention.

Late but...who cares what other people think? I go to the gym (on my lifting days) with vibrams...and sometimes my cardio days. I get excited when I see a fellow gym-goer with vibrams. Some people have come to ask me about the shoes (are they comfortable? How long have I had them...etc) But eh, it's not too often. YOu'll only feel like a douche when you become self-conscious about it. I love lifting in mine... I wouldn't recommend it on a treadmill though...the impact hurts.

If it wasn't for some guy wearing vibrams at the gym, I probably wouldn't have decided to get my own pair (I had been debating for a few months before I saw some guy wearing them)

[shaddix]

Land on the balls

[Gekii]

had my first encounter with a "using multiple things" guy on friday, saw a bench lookin free so i get stoked. walk over, and vroooommmmm! guy on the squat rack runs over and comes to claim his special bench with "i got two sets left braj" before walking all the back to the squat rack and returning to squatting hah. what a butt, had a notebook and everything checking off what exercises he did.

[Moss]

had my first encounter with a "using multiple things" guy on friday, saw a bench lookin free so i get stoked. walk over, and vroooommmmm! guy on the squat rack runs over and comes to claim his special bench with "i got two sets left braj" before walking all the back to the squat rack and returning to squatting hah. what a butt, had a notebook and everything checking off what exercises he did.

lol, I think that was one of the stereotypes in the espn article I posted a while back.

I worked out for the first time in 10 days and felt great. I had been stuck squatting 185 3x5 for weeks, but I easily repped 185, 195, then 205. It was strange. I have taken rests of comparable length before but never experienced anything like that.

[shaddix]

I want to see you squatting 260 by the end of march!

[Moss]

but I'm too tall and skinneh

[shaddix]

5000 calories a day! You can do it!

[Osede]

but I'm too tall and skinneh

there is no execuse! I was following some olympic way of leg training last summer and manage to get from 155 to 200~215 after three months. So, you can do it :D

and besides that I just a short asian monkey

[Moss]

there is no execuse! I was following some olympic way of leg training last summer and manage to get from 155 to 200~215 after three months. So, you can do it :D

and besides that I just a short asian monkey

Yeah I was joking, I know it's possible. My current circumstances are less than ideal, otherwise that goal might be realistic.

[Kuya]

Is a deadlift supposed to be very similar to a squat? I did them but i couldn't help but feeling like i was doing it wrong. It felt like i was doing a squat with just the barbell and my arms being in a different position. The highs are not supposed to drop below parallel unlike the squat, right?

[shaddix]

Shouldn't have to worry about thigh position on deadlift. Put the bar over the middle of your foot, put your shoulders a little in front of the bar, touch the bar with your shins and force your back into locked extension, then push the floor away.

[Kuya]

Yea, places i've checked online say that you're not supposed to drop your hips below parallel/knees like you would a squat. But i thought the point of dropping below parallel was to avoid knee injury and to make the squats harder. But i want to be sure i'm doing deadlifts properly.

[shaddix]

The reason going below parallel on squats keeps your knees from getting injured is because quarter squats and half squats can be done with much more weight than the knee is adapted to. If you can full squat a particular weight it wont hurt your knees to half or quarter squat it. But half squatting a weight you can't full squat will give you patellar tendinitis

[shaddix]

I'm at the house now instead of on phone, so here is my current understanding:

When you squat to proper depth, the hamstrings are fully stretched in the bottom of the squat and pull on the posterior side of the knee, opposite the pull from the quads on the anterior side, balancing the forces to prevent the shear that is present from the quads only in a half or quarter squat. In this way the ligaments of the knee are avoided any excessive stress because the muscles are stabilizing the knee. This way heavy weights can be moved safely without destroying your knees. Now I am skeptical of the mantra to keep your knees behind your toes, mainly because two inches of difference in placement of the knee does not significantly change how the forces are applied to the body.

That information applies to low bar back squats, not high bar, I do not know which you are doing. In high bar I believe the knees are spared any damage by simply going really deep. I have read about the ligaments of the knee and the lowest forces applied to them during an olympic squat is at full flexion. And you can't really argue with the fact that hundreds of thousands of olympic trainees are squatting high bar style every single day year round while at the same time having no knee problems.


For deadlift, the start of the movement is done by knee extension from the quads, you would think this would be akin to a quarter squat. But when you begin a deadlift, your back is of course locked in extension and you're bent way over, so all the slack in the hamstrings is taken out when you start pulling in order to maintain your hip angle(otherwise your ass would just shoot up in the air and the bar wouldn't move, which does in fact happen when people have their hips too low at the start of the deadlift(or clean for that matter)), so you do have the posterior tug to balance the quads pull from the front at the start of the deadlift as well.

[Kuya]

Your terminology is confusing me.

[shaddix]

Which part is confusing. The jist of it is your hamstrings attach to the back of your knee, and the quadriceps attach to the front. If you half-squat, the quadriceps pull on the front but the hamstrings don't pull as hard on the back, so it's like your quads are trying to rip the lower half of your leg off. As if someone were to put one hand on the front of your thigh right above the knee, and another on the back of your calf right below the knee, and then started pulling on your calf and pushing on your thigh at the same time. The only reason your leg doesn't separate at the knee is because of all the ligaments holding it together. But ideally, your musculature should be holding your knee together, not the ligaments.

With proper depth on the squat(and in a properly performed deadlift as well) there is another dude(the hamstrings) standing behind you pulling back on your shin cancelling out the dude pulling on your calf from the front.