Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Entry #363

DE lower~body

I always leave this particular session feeling extremely supple and limber in my lower back. If any a day must be skipped, this definitely isn't it, despite its lower intensity.

In between the following sets, I did light rounds of the double~end bag.

Snatch squats: 10 sets, 3 reps
That name is of my creation. The official term isn't as straightforward as mine, whatever it is. The exercise involves snatching the barbell overhead and squatting in the held position. Balance and form was more important than the amount of poundage.

Good mornings: 4 sets, 8 reps
I finally have the form down, albeit with light weight. The key is pulling the barbell down into the traps, while driving firmly planted feet into the ground. Previously, I had problems with the weights rolling up onto my neck. I need to work on keeping my legs straighter, but this marks a milestone in lower~body efforts. My hamstrings felt like they were worked more in these few sets than years of leg curls combined.

Chop crunches: 5 sets, 12 reps
This is another invention. Upon the climax of the movement, the crunch position is held (as with every other crunch variation I do), and sharp hand chops are delivered on the stomach for four counts before releasing back. After the first set, I felt a harsh, tightening cramp in that region, which has never happened before. I don't know whether it was coincidence or not, but it subsided after a few minutes, and I continued on with no issue.

Plate pinches: 3 sets, 30 second holds
I'm fond of these, in a crude sort of way. My fingers were gnarled and torn afterwards.

A jump~rope circuit concluded the night.

10 comments:

  1. That name is of my creation. The official term isn't as straightforward as mine, whatever it is. The exercise involves snatching the barbell overhead and squatting in the held position.As far I'm aware, that exactly describes overhead squats.Regardless, that's cool. I want to learn some olympic style lifts, and hopefully I will soon.Congrats on making progress with the good mornings.

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  2. Mine is adequate for what I did because active attention was paid to the method of getting it overhead. The snatch movement was as much a part of it as the squat itself.

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  3. Did you do a snatch for every rep?

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  4. I need to work GMs into my routine.  Outstanding work dude.

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  5. I only snatch to get into position, not on every rep.

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  6. Then I don't really see the difference, but I'm glad they're working for you. I may have to give 'em a shot after I've learned to do snatch lifts.

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  7. Squat protocol has the bar starting up from a rack so that you can use heavier weight. The same goes for overhead squats. Snatching it up changes the intent.

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  8. Then exrx.net lied to me, and I feel cheapened by having placed my trust in them. Well, not really, but they do list the preparation of overhead squat as a snatch or hanging snatch to get into position.

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  9. They don't show it in the animation, however. It's merely listed under preparation. Note how they didn't include clean and jerk as a method of getting it up, but you could just as well do that, too. Point being, my focus was on a different portion of the lift. I'm not saying that I did a different exercise, only that the same one was done for a different reason.

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  10. For overhead squats I usually use a very insignificant amount of weight....usually 125-135lbs.Balance is indeed key

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