Wednesday, December 16, 2009

12-15-09 Squat

Worked on low bar squatting. My lower back is pretty sore from it. I like being able to move faster with high bar squats and I'm not sure which one I'm stronger with right now. I had some bar slippage at the bottom of the movement toward the end of my sets. None of the weights felt heavy, but it felt kinda awkward and it was hard to get depth.

Squat
185x5x3
225x1
245x1

Box Squat on 12" box plus 2" plate
95x8
135x8
155x8
For box squats I went low bar also. Again I focused on form, not weight. I really felt it in the hamstrings. I worked on reaching back with my ass and keeping my shins vertical.

Power Cleans
65 x a lot
95 x a lot
115 x a few
I've never really been shown how to clean/power clean properly before so I kept the weight low and had a lot of instruction. Before I had been catching the clean with my forearms vertical, but I worked on receiving it on my fingers with my triceps parallel to the ground.

5 box jumps, 10 pullups, 30 seconds rest, 4 sets

3 comments:

Juggernaut, the said...

If you feel the bar slipping down your back, you might try moving your hands in some. This keeps the upper back tighter and provides more support from the forearms to keep the bar higher. You might also try using a thumbless grip.

For cleans, try to stick in the 4-5 rep range. I know it sounds crazy, but it's easy to do bad form with light weight. However, once the weight gets moderately heavy, you have to have decent form or the weight won't go anywhere. I'm not suggesting packing on the weight, but just putting enough on that it reinforces moving the bar with maximum momentum.

Good call on adjusting how you catch the bar. Is someone helping you out with these?

Luke said...

The bar was actually slipping forward toward my head. I was able to fix this by changing the way I place my hands during setup before I even step under the bar. I was going thumbless.

I'll go heavier next time, I feel a lot more confident doing cleans now.

and ya I had someone helping me

Jake Ceccarelli said...

I agree with Dave on the cleans. You should be doing 4-8 sets of 4-6 reps. Super light weights are pretty useless, but you can definitely get stronger on cleans with weight as low as 60%. Don't let the Crossfit people let you stay super light for too long though, because to really gain strength 80% is where you want to be.