Sarge's Lifting Chronicles 2006-2007

[*Bunny*]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

Ok, stop being generalized, lol.

My thread... talk about me.

Now before... would you have known that I had imbalances?

It was obvious I had no erector strength from pics, ect... and the imbalance came along after seriously training my posterior chain without proper ab work.

More recently: I did weighted (slight) decline abs (20lb dumbell) felt great... think I should keep rolling with that?

Or have any other ideas, I mean... I don't want to be spending 30 mintues a day on a yoga ball... but I really do need core work.

Tell me.

You know you. I cannot tell from a computer or dim vids you posted. If I was there to SEE how you did certain things, sure I could have made those calls. But I wasn't so I couldn't. There is more to core work than decline abs lol

 

[Cynical Simian]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

X-Ray update:

this is uber-non medical terminology, lol...

Slight lordis (sp?) the lower back curve... cuz my sacrum (tail bone thing) and vertebra (lowest one) down there is angled ... so ab strengthening, and mid/upper back is tweaked from tight right erector... different stretches to do now.

yay, no abnormal or fucked up vertebra... it can all be fixed. Light squats are fine, ect... any posterior hitting stuff is ok... light though cuz it's strong back there, just imbalanced. Abs abs abs... and keep rollering my erectors like i do at home that helps.

And I stand up at work as much as I can now.

Now that I think back on it. It wasn't very smart to do the 5x5 without a proper ab strengthening approach

Hind sight is 20/20, right.

...one of the main things they discuss is lordosis, the extreme spinal arch you just described.

It was obvious I had no erector strength from pics, ect... and the imbalance came along after seriously training my posterior chain without proper ab work.

I haven't seen any of the pics, but I agree with this. Whatever strength imbalances people have before beginning a strength program are pretty trivial compared to the strength they'll add afterwards. The thing that can cause serious imbalances is, in most cases, unequal intensive training, with guys whose only consistently trained compound lift is flat bench being the most obvious and common example.

Sarge, do the same thing for your abs that you did for your erectors: a basic movement or two (holds/sit-ups on a decline bench) trained progressively.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

lol, yah yeah... you and Buns deserve Cookies

I'm practicing the vaccume holds and lower ab contractions as well... while sitting, that helps tremendously.

I'll be adding in a few light G.P. Rows, add in light squats, Light GM stretches, SLDLs... all light to get a good stretch, no heavy hammering of the posterior chain until my abs are stronger.

Treil... I know you have comments If you have time, please enlighten me.

 

[al420]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

I totally agree w/ CS on this one Sarge - If Needsize and Weighted Decline aren't enought to strengthen your abs then there is a problem somewhere else.

Somewhere on Madcows site it talks about warming up, and decline situps are part of the warm up - so if you weren't doing them M,W,F on the 5x5 then you were missing a step.

Also - if I were you I would do something ala Blut Wump and do BW squats, then add the bar, then add 5kg per week or something like that - another idea would be to do overhead squats w/ a broom stick or something like that.

And for what it's worth ATF squats place more burden on your core than any reverse cable swiss ball exercise could ever hope to. I know your goal is to be strong and you have found the right path to do this - don't let a few strength gaps tell you differently.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

Must have not read that part. Yeah... missed a huge step.

 

[*Bunny*]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

Can you do planks?

 

[SgtSlaughter]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

Can you do planks?

I don't know. I'll tell ya later... or if no one's lookin' hop on the floor real quick, lol.

Reference

 

[*Bunny*]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

I don't know. I'll tell ya later... or if no one's lookin' hop on the floor real quick, lol.

Reference

You already know my thoughts on this pilates stuff Ive been doing vs my old ab work. lol

Building strength is good, just do not forget about improving stabilization.

Hypers, Vacs, declines (IMO focus on ECC contraction NOT how many reps, quality not quantity... you can also as a twist to these), Supermans (Contralateral Supermans too), planks (both front side on back, i.e. 360's), Decline Leg raisies (hitting more Rectus Abdominis)

then the lower back stuff for the erector spinae (hypers & supers noted above), not sure how limited you are there.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

Ouuuu! Good one's!

Decline leg raises? lol...wtf... will I fall off the decline bench?

 

[*Bunny*]

Re: Sarge hits the 5x5 for Ginormous Soleus Muscles!! - Log

Ouuuu! Good one's!

Decline leg raises? lol...wtf... will I fall off the decline bench?

Here's a ton of ideas as well

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/RectusAbdominis/WtInclineLegHipRaise.html

they call them incline here. I just call it a decline bench, sorry

You CAN do ball work if you're a big enough man to not take shit off the other guys on here.