Good pulls, man!

what's your biceps inch dan? flex without pump

14 3/8 and 14 7/8, not pumped.

@-Dan, thanks again for the compliment. You look in fine form, all kind of muscle seems to pop up. Keep up the hard work~

My training progress for arm wrestling match with my friend (shorter than me, weighing 70kg, used-to-squat-120kg-but-now-taking-it-slowly-due-to-injured-back, bicep-size-of-a-gorilla-and-now-training-to-be-godzilla-for-our-arm-wrestling-match). I train my wrist/forearm, hope to give a good fight. I'm using my dip bar from my power rack for my wrist lever exercise, total weight is 4.4kg...


Rear lever

[attachmentid=2284275] [attachmentid=2284276]

Front lever (ugly sight, too heavy)

[attachmentid=2284274] [attachmentid=2284273]

Side lever

[attachmentid=2284277] [attachmentid=2284278]

[attachmentid=2284279] [attachmentid=2284280]

This post has been edited by hoxy: Jun 20 2011, 06:52 AM

Nice, not planning to bulk?

On a (sort of) clean bulk now. Slow and steady.

RAW Deadlift (pronated, hook grip, chalk) PR 110kg @53.1kg BW.

[attachmentid=2287599]

Going down to bridge from standing

[attachmentid=2287551]

Going up standing up from bridge

[attachmentid=2287552]

Stand-to-stand bridge (Convict conditioning bridge "master step"), clear!

I'm going to put some brake on deadlift intensity. Planning to develop strong midsection (abs, oblique, transversus, etc2) for a change...

I think the highlight of the day should be the backbend (stand-to-stand bridge), extremely pleased on this. Hope to match this skill with some strong midsection to put me out of harm way in future heavy lifting... thats the plan right now.

This post has been edited by hoxy: Jun 22 2011, 05:34 AM

The first picture tummy looks so ...

Haha... is it normal? I like to take video/picture every time I lift heavy weight to review. I noticed that nearly all my deadlift lockout is like that... my midsection seems like compressed.

I refer back to "Power to the People" by Pavel at pg.91 and seems like my midsection is same (it refers as the proper form in deadlift lockout). Pavel wearing the shirt but it does look the same to me...

I dont purposely do that, I only hold my breath, tighten my abs, and pull. At the top, it always looks like that. Is this how the "virtual belt" actually looks like? Tight midsection...

If someone can forward me any link conforming this lockout characteristic of the midsection, it will be helpful...

This post has been edited by hoxy: Jun 24 2011, 07:02 AM

That happens to me too when I'm either deadlifting or squatting its quite obvious. Can't say about benching, can't really see but yeah it should be your abdominal muscles contracting to balance your body thus pushing your visceral organs.

@Hoxy

Love the home gym and the equipments you have. It is one of my long term goals to have a complete home gym at home, though space will be an issue. All I'm looking into is just an Oly bar + plates + home-made sled + home-made bench + home-made squat stands. Why home-made squat stands? Because of the lack of space within the house, I plan to workout at the porch of my house. To buy the real, steel kind of squat stands would be 1.) expensive, 2.) a hassle to carry them in and out of the house due to the weight and size, 3.) unwise to leave them outside of the house (in fear of theft). Check out some vids of the DIY squat stands below.






You must have a grip of steel to be able to pull up such a heavy weight dude. I totally second your say on grip strength because I purchased a pair of RM14 deluxe grippers from Kettler last year and they helped my deadlifts tremendously in the 60-90kg range (that's 30kgs!). Though not as tough as CoCs, they are a pretty good investment for the price. I've also added a few reps to my chin ups at that time. Am I right in any way to say that your grip strength helped your pull ups more than your lats?

Your bridging/back-bend exercises reminded me of powerlifter Lamar Gant, 9 time world champ who has a record of deadlifting 5x his bodyweight (at 60kg). He too incorporate flexibility exercises to prevent injuries from lifting. Another reason why he did those exercises was because he had scoliosis, a spinal condition which ironically helped him deadlift bigger numbers; Gant's overall anatomy was built for the deadlift. See an article about Gant here.

I have a question. How long did it take for you to get adapted to the hook grip? I tried it once and my thumbs were in a throbbing pain thereafter. I know I should work up the weight gradually with the hook grip but gah! I guess it's just like getting used to lifting without gloves, takes some time to adapt. The video below is the reason why I want to switch to hook grip. I dare not attempt max pulls anymore before I master the hook grip.

(Look at the contraction of the left bicep and listen to the 'pop' at 0:47.. that's the sound of a bicep tendon tear!)


(Bicep tear when deadlifting an axle bar)


I don't have any grip issues, I think, cause I was able to rackpull 110%RM of my deadlift (theoretical number) for 5's without my grip failing. Though I don't think that would stop my bicep tendons from tearing apart.. If you noticed, the 2nd lifter above actually gripped in a hand position whereby the biceps had to contract beyond maximum; his hands weren't as straight as they should be. The first lifter looked like he was lifting with straight arms though. What do you see?

---

Added on June 24, 2011, 3:08 pmBTW, is anyone going for PushMore's open day event tomorrow?

http://pushmore.com.my/2011/06/wod-062411/

This post has been edited by Vbs: Jun 24 2011, 08:32 PM

oh no.... That's really scary....

@D_s_X, thanks for the conformation~


@VBS, thanks for the compliment. It meant a lot to me, it helps to motivate me to improve even further.

Good to hear that you plan to have a home gym for long term. I've seen those home-made rack on youtube before, I think it is nice and very cheap also. You just need to make sure you have a good "exit"/fail-safe technique if you get into trouble when squatting (no spotter). If you ever managed to built this, dont forget to pm me so that I am aware of it!

About the grip, yes I think the grip plays a big role in my pull up. I've figured gripping the bar so hard makes me a little bit stronger. Pavel explains further in a concept called "irradiation".

http://doubleyourgains.com/increase-body-strength



In "Beyond Bodybuilding" (BB), Pavel explains further that you need to grip the bar without wrapping the thumb around, I think it is a false grip/thumbless grip. This will weaken bicep involvement and put more involvement of lat. Same goes to try to put more weight on the little and ring fingers. I am now incorporating these concept together with irradiation concept. So yes, grip harder, more involvement on the lats. I hope you like my answer... FYI, you can go check youtube, even the world record holder is using this thumbless grip for his total weighted pull up record.

Hook grip. Hmmm, it takes me 2 month to feel comfortable with hook grip. It takes a lot of time, and patience. It really hurt. My deadlift 1RM has not moved for those time frame, it takes a lot of patience out of me, plus focus on the end goal. Sometime I just feel like giving up on having the numbness at my thumb. But now, I'm just glad I did what I did. It is worth the pain and time~ . Especially if you train your pinch grip, I believe it will help even more on the hook grip capability.

Bicep tear. Wow, that is my first time seeing this kind of thing. Scary~

I havent tried even once a supinated/mixed grip for deadlift. This kind of tear seems only to happen with this kind of grip right? Both of the lifter is a world class lifter... mistake happen even to the very best. Anyway, both of them must not fully extend their elbow for this to happen. If their arm is fully extended, no way this going to happen. As Pavel says, actively thinking flexing the triceps might help straighten the arm...

Even if you switch to hook grip, bending at the arm will probably put any of us at a higher risk replicating those incident... straight arm all the way.

The article on Lamar Gant is a nice one. Never know who he is until now (I am a newbie)... glad to know he is incorporating backbend to his lifestyle. Lets do bridge/backbend at least once a day. Hopefully it will serve as a prevention of back injury...

On a side note, VBS, how about opening a separate thread on technique for squat and deadlift (each owns a separate thread). You seems to be very technical and knowledgeable on this...

You going to the pushmore open day ka? Dont forget to take a video...

This post has been edited by hoxy: Jun 25 2011, 09:09 AM

I love mixed grip Makes gripping stuff so much easier.
I havent tried hook grip though, scared my thumb might hurt if i use too much weight.

my poundages stuck for deadlift, can i lay it off for a while and do rack pull to improve my poundages on deads? lol


Chow

@Hoxy

Thanks for sharing the article on irradiation. I know now why we are often advised on keeping everything tight. On false grip and lat involvement, what exercise were you referring to? Deadlifts or pull ups? Or that applies to various exercises?

Actually I'm still trying to find out whether pulling with a mixed grip leads to a bicep tear even with arms fully locked out. The lifter in the first video seem to be lifting with a straight arm, but whether it's locked seems unclear to me.

Well, I'll let someone else open a thread on deadlift, squat or any of the powerlifts. There are lots of stronger, more knowledgeable and experienced lifters here in LYN than me. I can never learn enough, and I just learned about irradiation today, thanks to you

@Bata

What issues are you facing on the deadlift? Why stuck? The deadlift should never be replaced by assistance work like the rack pull. Instead, it should be supplemented on top of the deadlift. But yeah, adding rack pulls sound like a good idea. Works the grip and lower back better with heavier weight.

This post has been edited by Vbs: Jun 26 2011, 06:17 PM

@Vbs, I'm referring to pull up (Pavel only refers to this technique only on pull up).

@Vbs : how should i know the issues? LOL...i jz cant pull heaver wieghts


Chow

same boat tried with belt, didnt change 1 bit. hahaha

I think by issues, Vbs means something like, which portion of the lift is preventing you from getting the weight up, ie the initial lift, middle portion or the lockout. I think.