gym again today. took all the advice on board. the rowing and bike is just a cardio hit to break up the full stuff. Made it 150/350 @joex - &Did leg press instead of leg curls, better.
Weirdly the only time today I had any knee pain was doing 1 leg squats- but it was the unloaded knee that hurt. Have identified what’s painful, it’s holding the foot off the ground against gravity with the hip extended and the knee flexed at 90 degrees. I’m doing it right now leaning against the kitchen worktop (quiet at the back) and it’s the same.
guess this is part of the running action but not swimming or cycling, which is why that’s a problem at the mo🤷♂️
Squat! well as long as you can do a full squat with feet flat on the ground with body weight. I need my heals raised so whilst I do squat with weight, I need to work on ankle and hip mobility so that can squat properly before i start doing 100kg! Too many people jump straight into heavy lifting without making sure their movement patterns are sound to start with (I’m probably preaching to the choir here though) I sound like a broken record sometimes, stems from working with teenage boys at the swim club who just want big guns and do bench and show off! no do this simple stuff with bodyweight, nail the mobility and technique, get those patterns right to reduce injury risk and leave the ego for when you are with the girls at school kids
These are good videos, caveat I’m a qualified Functional Movement Professional and can do the full FMS (even have the kit now) so am a little biased. Look at a lot of stuff on their channel, loads of useful videos. The touch toes progression also really works , I touched my toes with straight legs feet together in around 5 minutes having not done it since I was 10
OK, an old PT tip for you all, well for those of you not doing this!
When you clean your teeth, stand on dominant leg and use non-dominant hand, then switch sides with non-dominant leg and with dominant hand. Do this whenever you clean your teeth.
You’ll thank me when you are older and need to keep your proprioception tip top
Also, when shoelace tying, stand on one leg and lift your foot up to your hands, don’t bend to the floor. Cant remember if I got this of Jackie Chan or the old Wing Chun master himself.
That’s intermediate level. Advanced level is to stand on dominant leg and clean teeth with the non-dominant foot…
(I wish)
A gentle core routine I picked up from a physio once is to stand in front of a mirror, stand on one leg ideally on a box, and slowly trace the letters of the alphabet with the other foot, starting at A and ending at Z. Then, do it on the other leg.
Dunno why but I tend to do lower case, which results in a staccato Bruce Lee kick to put the dots on the “i” and “j”. Like to think I look a bit like the karate kid doing his Kata on the beach, although probably the harsh reality is I look like a middle aged man trying not to fall over.
The bigger the letters, the bigger the challenge. Sounds easy but by “XYZ” I’m usually more than ready to get back to having 2 feet on he ground.
After nearly turning myself into a taco squatting 2x120kg last week, my back was aching a bit all weekend.
I decided to buy a lifting belt and see if that helped. Just ordered a cheap 6" one from eBay for @£10 and, as if by magic, it arrived this afternoon, just in time for leg day.
Tried it this evening for the first time and immediately managed 6x120kg without any worries about stability, could purely focus on driving through the legs.
Been going to the gym regularly since Easter and finally succumbed to including Deadlifts at the weekend. I’ve been avoiding them up until now, partly as I was a bit worried about putting my back out and partly as they’re quite tricky to fit in to a routine without dropping something I’d rather do. (Are they legs or back for example)
Anyway, had a go on Sunday and got up to 100kg without too much trouble (without lifting straps). I had done them a few times at the Tri club S&C sessions so had a decent idea of the technique, but they were never very heavy as everyone used the same bar in a circuit arrangement.
This means I’ve now got something in my tracker for all the key lifts and can see where I’m weak/strong comparatively speaking.
As a bit of a short term goal I’m looking to bench my bodyweight by Christmas; in an ideal world that’ll be 100kg if I can carry on shedding a bit of fat here and there at the same time.
- &Did leg press instead of leg curls, better.
