Quote:
Originally Posted by Megatron96
I hear you about the getting old part, lol. I'm pretty careful, maybe too careful, about how I lift these days as well. Doesn't help that I don't have anything like a regular partner/spotter right now since my trainer friend decided to go and get pregnant. Woman has no sense of priorities,  .
I've had so many lower body/leg injuries over the years that I decided this year that I was going to go back to the fundamentals and focus on rebuilding my lower back, glutes and quads, before going back to heavy squats. So right now I'm doing a lot of Bulgarians, something called ATK stretches, those side squats, farmer's walks, etc. Lot of body weight and/or low weights. And a crap ton of stretches. Takes up a ton of time, so a lot of leg days I don't even get to quad extensions or hammy curl machines.
But just last week I finally started to feel more balanced, I'm able to drop deeper into squats, particularly in those side squats (brainfarting the actual name right now). I can finally get to the right depth, and my upper torso is still relatively upright, something that was impossible just a couple months ago.
Side question: is anyone using those workout programs I keep seeing on my FB feed? Is there one or two anyone would recommend? Looking to try something different than my usual. |
I just got into barbell squats (odd to say after having worked out consistently for like 4 years now, but did bodyweight stuff before, then some dumbbell squats along with several that you mentioned) after an unrelated c2-c3 pinched nerve a while back and just being overly paranoid, mostly (and partly due to equipment availability/consistency)... and those are currently kicking my ass, but in a good way. Current gym only has Smith machines, which is perfectly fine... working on form and depth.
In some ways I've gone full circle, as I did a lot of compound exercises for ~18-24 months, followed by isolation workouts, and then I've started shifting focus on some things I hadn't really done in the past (such as side delt work that used to really aggravate a tennis elbow)... but now find myself substituting in some compound stuff so I'm not at the gym for 2 hours.
And as a side note, I worked with a guy who swore by farmer's walk... I should throw them in somewhere.