Out of curiosity, partly because of a question John McDonald asked and partly out of suspicion that my squat workouts were stale, I skipped speed day and just tested squat. I worked up to a slow 275, and failed at 295 (I'm normally good for a 330 single). It was depressing but rather than mope, I analyzed the situation.
The guy who spotted me said that I got below parallel depth on 275 and slowly came up out of the hole but the lift was solid. At 295, I hit depth and he said that my legs looked game but the weight looked stuck. After getting him to explain, he confirmed my suspicion that my lower back had gotten weak: at the bottom, I could not drive the bar back and I had a hard time staying straight. How could this have happened?
At the core of my best and strongest squat periods were two full range erector movements: RDL and arched back good mornings. Last cycle, I did none of these and though I was deadlifting twice a week, it was partial range movements: ultrawide sumos (back was nearly erect) and rack pulls (back was at 45 degrees). Doing two box squats meant one day of not doing heavy weights, and there was no heavy back movement. My hams are no problem, but my lower back has become a liability I have to fix. Fast - - - I'm on it!!!
90 degree External Rotations (Done between squat sets):2x20x2, 4x15, 6x12, 8x12, 10x15, 12x12x2, 15x10, 20x4. Since I benched Monday, I did these today. 4 more reps at 20 lbs and I will have reached my target of 8 reps with 20 lbs.
Band GHR: 4 sets of 6.
T-Bar Rows: 120x6, 140x1, 130x6, 150x1, 95x15.
3 comments:
I agree that you may have lost some lower back strength this past cycle.
I do almost no core work and very little posterior chain accessory work but I've been squatting strong.
I blame this on the bent-over goodmornings I've been doing at least once per week.
When you stop and think about it, goodmornings are in a sense core work since you have to keep your abs very tight throughout the whole movement.
You know what you need to do to remedy your deficiencies.
Go get 'em!
Hummm...now I'm wondering about the program I'm on. There's a bit of RDL's in it which I hope will keep me where I need to be. But I haven't specifically trained for squat, so who knows.
Go and get at it.
What scares me, also, is that in almost every writing from Kenny Croxdale to Louie Simmons to Bill Starr, the good morning is also a major building block of the deadlift. So my deadlift is probably in need of overhaul, too!!!
Post a Comment