Gym and fitness (173 Viewers)
- Thread starter HelterSkelter
- Start date
Which leads to the question... would you do? 
On a different note, I've been doing l sits three nights a week to help build the associated muscle endurance to put them into my core work out and I can hold it for 15 seconds but after the second one I get a load of lower back pain. Is this an issue of form or building strength/endurance do you recon? I do them on the dip bars because there are no rings at my gym.
I'd suggest a mix of form (ie. back rounding) and of the hip flexors being not quite strong enough, and the hamstrings not having enough flexibility... Do you do much stretching? Pike stretches will be helpful for hamstring+glute flexibility. Seated, flat back, leaning forward to try to touch the toes. Make sure you only go forward as far as your back stays straight, and work to improve that.
Rounded back isn't necessarily terrible for the l-sit, however, if the back is rounded out of hamstring tightness and lack of hip flexor strength, causing overcompensation by the spinal column it is pretty bad. I'd scale them back a little. Can you keep your back flat while doing them, or does it round? I'd scale it back a little if you cannot keep a flat back, with shoulders open instead of rolled forward. As in, don't try to max out time for now. Say, instead of going for 3x15 seconds, take it a little more gradually. Go for 3 x 8-10 seconds, or whatever amount of time doesn't cause any back pain whatsoever. And make sure you stretch your hamstrings with the pike stretch mentioned above after each L-sit workout, possibly even very lightly before the L-sits to loosen those hammies up.
Another possible addition is active flexibility strengthening in the form of compression exercises in both straddle and pike.
IE.
1. Stretch your hamstrings for 30s
2. Arms straight, hands by your knees.
3. Pull your knees up to your face straining your abs as hard as possible.
4. Hold 10s. If you feel lots of cramping in quads when you first start you’re doing it right
5. Repeat 1-4 about 3 times.
If you can get knees to face basically, move your hands closer to toes. You don't want to lean back in order to lift legs, so it will be a very minimal lift at first in all likelihood.
Rounded back isn't necessarily terrible for the l-sit, however, if the back is rounded out of hamstring tightness and lack of hip flexor strength, causing overcompensation by the spinal column it is pretty bad. I'd scale them back a little. Can you keep your back flat while doing them, or does it round? I'd scale it back a little if you cannot keep a flat back, with shoulders open instead of rolled forward. As in, don't try to max out time for now. Say, instead of going for 3x15 seconds, take it a little more gradually. Go for 3 x 8-10 seconds, or whatever amount of time doesn't cause any back pain whatsoever. And make sure you stretch your hamstrings with the pike stretch mentioned above after each L-sit workout, possibly even very lightly before the L-sits to loosen those hammies up.
Another possible addition is active flexibility strengthening in the form of compression exercises in both straddle and pike.
IE.
1. Stretch your hamstrings for 30s
2. Arms straight, hands by your knees.
3. Pull your knees up to your face straining your abs as hard as possible.
4. Hold 10s. If you feel lots of cramping in quads when you first start you’re doing it right
5. Repeat 1-4 about 3 times.
If you can get knees to face basically, move your hands closer to toes. You don't want to lean back in order to lift legs, so it will be a very minimal lift at first in all likelihood.
I do lots of leg stretching on my leg day, mid week, but not before I do l sits. I try to keep my back straight, but there is no mirror so I can't really check. I will try for less time to build up the associated strength, I think that's a common issue for me, I go too hard too fast and don't build enough associated strength and fuck up my forearms and shit.
I have the very same issue. Always trying to push the envelope in terms of how fast I can progress. I have maltese cross trainers, that give support on the forearm to reduce the immense load on the shoulders, chest, and elbows. Somehow, this afternoon, I thought it'd be a good idea to try to jump from the 3rd support pin to the 6th pin, and see how that went. Needless to say, there was much discomfort in the pectoralis minor, and anterior deltoid. The burn felt pretty intense and pretty damn good, but I ended up having to take anti-inflamms and ice both shoulders after.
How do you guys do reps for strength training ? Slow negative slow positive , slow negative explosive positive , pause after the negative or anything else ? I am doing the first right now , if i had to do one of the other 2 i would probably need to lower the weights a bit because i can't manage to go explosive up with current weight .
Strength athletes during the offseason rarely go over 70/75% max, at wich you should be able to get some speed in the lift.
Depending on the excercise, controlled but not to slow negative, and as fast as possible positive, whilst keeping perfect form
Pauzed movement are something to improve form and abdominal pressure. They should be mixen in between.
For example Squats. On RTS you squat 3 times per week. Once a regular squat. Once a pauzed squat cause it forces you to ascend with perfect back shape and knee positionning. And once a frontsquat, cause it trains you from resisting to lean forward.
On Sheiko protocols they have days in wich you first do frontsquats or pauze squats, then go do some benchpressing, then return for regular squats. But sheiko is quite brutal.
i'd recommand for any level of development, to have at least 1 regular squat, and have a second day in wich you rotate between fronts and pauzed.
Same story when it comes to conventional/sumo deadlift, pauzed deadlift and deficit/box deadlift.
or benchpress, pauze benchpress, boardpress/floorpress/incline press/military press
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I used to do that, and all i'm getting is a very strong erector spinae, but significant stress on the central nerve system
What you should do is work with no more then 75% for a few reps, and work with very short pauzes
example : 4-6 sets of 3-6reps 75% 120 sec break.
i'd advice to follow some kind of schedule for that tho. Controll your overload and deload
Depending on the excercise, controlled but not to slow negative, and as fast as possible positive, whilst keeping perfect form
Pauzed movement are something to improve form and abdominal pressure. They should be mixen in between.
For example Squats. On RTS you squat 3 times per week. Once a regular squat. Once a pauzed squat cause it forces you to ascend with perfect back shape and knee positionning. And once a frontsquat, cause it trains you from resisting to lean forward.
On Sheiko protocols they have days in wich you first do frontsquats or pauze squats, then go do some benchpressing, then return for regular squats. But sheiko is quite brutal.
i'd recommand for any level of development, to have at least 1 regular squat, and have a second day in wich you rotate between fronts and pauzed.
Same story when it comes to conventional/sumo deadlift, pauzed deadlift and deficit/box deadlift.
or benchpress, pauze benchpress, boardpress/floorpress/incline press/military press
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I used to do that, and all i'm getting is a very strong erector spinae, but significant stress on the central nerve system
What you should do is work with no more then 75% for a few reps, and work with very short pauzes
example : 4-6 sets of 3-6reps 75% 120 sec break.
i'd advice to follow some kind of schedule for that tho. Controll your overload and deload
I tried a new training routine last week and i would like to hear your oppinions about it , main objective of the routine is strength
Monday
Squats 5x5
Bench Press 3x5
Barbell Overhead Press 5x5
Lateral Raises 3x8 (3 sets 8 reps)
Seated EZ French Press 5x5
Tuesday
Squats 5x5
Deadlift 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5
Pull ups 5x3 (5 sets 3 reps)
EZ curl 5x5
Repeat as above on thursday and friday . Wednesday , saturday , sunday are rest days .
For squats i was thinking of doing 2 heavy days and 2 light days . Is it better to keep same reps and sets in light days or change something ? Also how much should i increment ? I was personally thinking of always incrementing squats while for bench press and rows increment them 7.5 kg every 2 weeks .
Monday
Squats 5x5
Bench Press 3x5
Barbell Overhead Press 5x5
Lateral Raises 3x8 (3 sets 8 reps)
Seated EZ French Press 5x5
Tuesday
Squats 5x5
Deadlift 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5
Pull ups 5x3 (5 sets 3 reps)
EZ curl 5x5
Repeat as above on thursday and friday . Wednesday , saturday , sunday are rest days .
For squats i was thinking of doing 2 heavy days and 2 light days . Is it better to keep same reps and sets in light days or change something ? Also how much should i increment ? I was personally thinking of always incrementing squats while for bench press and rows increment them 7.5 kg every 2 weeks .