Coming out of the hole...

[coffee-guy]

ok foghat i had time at work to smoke this over and all the dribble bout how a meet works was i guess a way to show it takes the sum of parts to make a whole .ok heres where im at ,its obvious u have been sqauttin and i mean old school style and that makes me old heart feel good,but the squat can only take it so far and by that i mean your core needs a bit of slammin to ..bear with me here..ok take a line just below your chest and go cross ways,that is the line that defines the lower body in a heavy squat and when i say lowerbody i mean in order abdominals(stability),spinal erectors (stability)and not but not least upper glute tie in .ok with that being said u gotta ask how do i strengthen those?well i can tell ya just by your stats u are close to me although a tad taller and a bit more heavy and what makes us shorter people crank out more than our taller and more gangly counter parts...leverage and more to the point our shorter bodytrunks which in the lifting game is a advantage.trust me u have not hit a stickin point in the squat,it is that u gotta key on the drivers that make the squat work hence the core lower body babble..ok i sumo light on heavy squat days and squat light on heavy dead days,u work a slightly different angle on the lower trunk and those areas that get hit on heavy squat day get a little break on light dead day and those areas that get slammed on dead day get a lil break on heavy squat days...anyways keep it old school .

You rock man - I really really appreciate this advice - I'm not a powerlifter but I love old school so thanks for the upbeat message. I've been working on pinpointing my issue with this stuff the past week or two and I *think* I've narrowed it down to the fact that I have a serious issue in flexibility. The "butt wink" that Nekrawulf was referring to is where I seem to be having the most issues - I can tell the second my tailbone dips that I lose all sorts of power/strength (and if I remember from my schooling it's also a dangerous position for the lower back to be in once the tailbone drops etc). I'm going to take a rounded approach to this and try...

Working on my flexibility, sticking with the old school methods of strength training/exercises and quite simply learn to be patient - I think patience is my biggest obstacle in this game :mad:....

[coffee-guy]

I don't know how much you weigh, but 365 ass-to-the-grass for 15 reps is very good. I can do it with 315, but I honestly don't know if I could do it with 365 right now.

Have you mastered romanian deadlifts? That's an excellent lift for strengthening the glutes and hams as well as increasing hamstring flexibility. You have to get your form down though.

What size box are you using for box squats? Is it a parallell box? You might just need to get a shorter box and start working your way down.

I'm just going to list some of my hip/glute/erector/ham lifts - they're all what I workout with - never really anything less than 8 reps and often times up to the 12-15 mark. I thought maybe if I listed out the lifts I usually rotate into the mix for my first exercises you could possibly point out any glaring weaknesses (like maybe the low weight on good mornings etc?). That and maybe you can point me in the direction of some lifts I'm overlooking or something of that nature.

I typically do rdl's/rack pulls with anywhere from 545 to 635 and a few times at 675 when I was feeling my best

Sldl's usually with 275 to 315

Wide stance lunges ranging from 225 to 405 depending on whether or not I'm on the smith or free standing (not alternating though - I haven't mastered anything "heavy" with an alternating pattern - YET that is :D)

Front squats I can usually hang with 275 to 315 but I know I could go heavier if my shoulders would just cooperate

Standard deadlifts I can typically pull anywhere from 455 to 545 but I'm convinced that's only because I don't do them quite as often as I "could" (although I try to change things up ALL the time so it's hard to handicap myself like that IMO)

Good mornings with 135 (to be safe although this is almost ALWAYS a finishing exercise and not a starter)

I was on a push/pull routine with one day on and one day off throughout the early part of the fall - in November I switched to a Monday,Tuesday, Thursday, Friday routine but incorporated 5 workouts into that 4 day timeframe so I was only hitting the same workout every 7-9 days (I hope that makes sense) - and then in January I hit up a push/pull/leg routine with something similar to a 2 day on 1 day off program BUT I would occasionally resort back to the 4 day a week on a 5 workout routine just because I missed it :P....

[buell1965]

You rock man - I really really appreciate this advice - I'm not a powerlifter but I love old school so thanks for the upbeat message. I've been working on pinpointing my issue with this stuff the past week or two and I *think* I've narrowed it down to the fact that I have a serious issue in flexibility. The "butt wink" that Nekrawulf was referring to is where I seem to be having the most issues - I can tell the second my tailbone dips that I lose all sorts of power/strength (and if I remember from my schooling it's also a dangerous position for the lower back to be in once the tailbone drops etc). I'm going to take a rounded approach to this and try...

Working on my flexibility, sticking with the old school methods of strength training/exercises and quite simply learn to be patient - I think patience is my biggest obstacle in this game :mad:....

thanx for the flower..anyways the butt wink and tail dippin has a lot to do with what i was sayin ,u can feast at the squat table of the gods but u gotta tend to the little guys so when i say core, i mean your quad horsepwer is dam good its the other groups that throw in to make it happen..ok just skimmed your other post and glad to see the lunge in there(and rest in mind its not a just chick thing and i my self can and will puke myself into a frenzy doin them (major ham stress)..soo i know u get the abs and other such things but in addition try after the sqaut and deadlift session burnin out on hyperextensions and trust me nothin freaks the lower trunk out more than that .so do take care of the back cause u never know what will be hitchin a ride on it in life and in the gym....and by that i mean my background has been a huge help in makin ma money..Rock On

[buell1965]

lol @ buell - when are you gonna get back over to general chat :D

thanx mrs brat, its just that i know a little bout liftin and have a need to keep our young bulls away from them dam machines.anyways again thanx(a belt on a chick that reads ..yes i am the other fuckin princess)kills me and if that is not on your belt i will just throw it in and call it over....oh i know its old but...rock on

[FitnessBrat]

thanx mrs brat, its just that i know a little bout liftin and have a need to keep our young bulls away from them dam machines.anyways again thanx(a belt on a chick that reads ..yes i am the other fuckin princess)kills me and if that is not on your belt i will just throw it in and call it over....oh i know its old but...rock on

Them darn young'ens :evil:...

[buell1965]

Them darn young'ens :evil:...

ding dang whippersnappers..but i gotta tell ya this is a fun bunch yall got here and if i may say some sharp cookies. i get a real kick when i stop bye ..anyways RO.

[Control]

15" is working pretty well - should I just lighten things up and go ahead and jump to a 12" or what though?

Yeah, you want the box to be well below parallel. I'm 5'11" and I can easily squat to a 12" box.

[coffee-guy]

Yeah, you want the box to be well below parallel. I'm 5'11" and I can easily squat to a 12" box.

Thanks - I'm gonna have to work on that asap - I haven't done legs in almost three weeks now due to some injuries though :mad:...

[Control]

Thanks - I'm gonna have to work on that asap - I haven't done legs in almost three weeks now due to some injuries though :mad:...

Make sure you start off real light...

[bigscott]

Okay guys - I could really use some experienced powerlifters or other "experts" advice on this subject (preferably folks who have actually "done" this stuff)....

What do you guys do to specifically increase this portion of your lift? I squat ass to grass "most" days but the weight I can move is questionable at best when compared to when I do box squats to focus on hip movement and sitting into the squat etc. I have tried simply focusing on "coming out of the hole" as well but that hasn't done as much as I would like it to. On a good day (and where I've eliminated supersets etc) I can load up at least 5 plates on each side with a box squat for 12-15 reps but taking it to the floor (literally) leaves me looking at maybe 3 1/2 plates per side for 12-15 reps simply because the lowest portion of the lift "sticks". I'm willing to try bands or whatever - I just need some pointers. If someone wants to send me to a powerlifting site as well I'm more than willing to do whatever it takes to learn. I would *like* to consider myself fairly strong for my size but of course the need to move more weight is always on my mind - I'm a firm believer that heavy weights make for a better everything - I just need some help in getting past this particular issue :(

fog - remember this -- the guy standing next to you onstage could give a fuck about how many plates you squat !!!

if 3 and half plates per side is hitting your quads good no worries -- i have squatted some heavy fucking weight in the past but my leg development still lacked -

steve stone told me to stop worrying about the weight -- the guy standing next to you could care less -- 315 to 405 is what i mainly squat at now -- i like high rep though - 15 to 25 -- since doing this my legs got much better development -

just my 2 cents bro

[coffee-guy]

fog - remember this -- the guy standing next to you onstage could give a fuck about how many plates you squat !!!

if 3 and half plates per side is hitting your quads good no worries -- i have squatted some heavy fucking weight in the past but my leg development still lacked -

steve stone told me to stop worrying about the weight -- the guy standing next to you could care less -- 315 to 405 is what i mainly squat at now -- i like high rep though - 15 to 25 -- since doing this my legs got much better development -

just my 2 cents bro

I agree but I would be lying if I didn't say that the exhilaration of moving some serious weight around with my body wasn't where my true passion lied...

[Control]

You try those 12" box squats yet?