OMG!!! MY QUADS!!!! I did the first workout monday and now its tuesday night and (i should be in bed i know) i dont know if i can do it tomorrow!! I can barley walk down the stairs! I looked at the B workout though and as for quad work its only the lunges so....i think i can i think i can.......
I feel your pain....literately. Today is workout B and I'm apprehensive to do it because I'm so sore.
But I think I'll do it!!
I did it and it wasnt soooo bad! It was just the lunges at the end that were tough but i deffinetly feel better sisce I went!! But now im worried about the squats on friday.......
OMG!!! MY QUADS!!!! I did the first workout monday and now its tuesday night and (i should be in bed i know) i dont know if i can do it tomorrow!! I can barley walk down the stairs! I looked at the B workout though and as for quad work its only the lunges so....i think i can i think i can.......
Check out my first thread, entitled "Ow the pain!"
I could not decend stairs. I was essentially crippled by my first few workouts... and I thought I was in okay shape.
I was advised and encouraged by the fo to go ahead and do my damn workout through the pain, but I couldn't walk, how productive would it be to lift?
I ended up taking an extra rest day, and in the beginning, I think you need to just decide for yourself what works. Also, I was introduced to the concept of the "foam roller" and I also use my dog's solid rubber ball to roll over the sore muscles, and it works wonders.
My sweetie has taken to wrapping her yoga mat around her barbell to create her own foam roller, and it's very effective.
The "tiger stick" was also reccommended. I hear the pain comes back every time you advance a stage - but it get's better. I'm not sore anymore the day after workouts, even though I'm pushing myself to the max. It's funny to look back at my charts now.
In a month or two, you'll look back at your charts and gloat - you'll be lifting twice of the weight that's kicking your ass now soon enough.
is it just me or is Workout A a lot harder? I'm only normal sore today, and last night I did my first Workout B to the point my legs were totally wobbly. Or are my quads just really weak in comparison to the rest of my body?
Could it be just one particular exercise? My quads were apparently composed of silly putty before I started squats.
I think it depends on where you're starting from. Whatever workout is hitting your weaker muscles is the one that's going to make it hardest to move around the next day.
My quads were apparently composed of silly putty before I started squats.
ROFL! exactly! Squats and lunges kill me! Plus, it doesn't help that my right knee has been bad since I broke my right leg when I was a kid. It's gotten a lot stronger and it doesn't tell the weather anymore, but I babied that leg/overcompensated with the other leg for a loong time.
Now that I think about it, I used to do the shoulder presses and lat pulldowns in my previous workouts. Plus, whenever i needed to pick something off the floor it was more of a good-morning type movement rather than bending my knees. For my leg workouts I used to do leg presses so I wonder if my hammies were dominating causing my quads not to catch up. They're catching up now, that's for sure!
hmmm. I certainly feel lunges and step ups in my glutes, but not so much with the squats.
I've been paying attention to my back during squats to avoid the "rounding" at the bottom, I'll have to check in with my butt next time I squat.
You're also doing squats with your heels on plates, which might factor into it. Doing them flat might transfer more of your weight into your heels, which might activate your glues more?
oh, i'm definitely not going below parallel. My knees have a very difficult time even approaching parallel. My goal is to get below parallel, but even the depth I do now involves a lot of stretching and straining of everything around the knee joint. Same thing when I do lunges even with only body weight. I feel a lot of tightness just above the knee that is in the back and of course, everything feels very weak and wobbly. The pisser of it is that this is a significant improvement to how things were when I was starting to go to the gym almost 2 years ago.
lol, i went to the drugstore last night and saw this older asian woman squatting atg looking at stuff on the bottom shelf for about 15 minutes. The first thing that popped into my head was that I was so jealous and wished I could do that.
Also, the NROL4W workouts are setup so that you're having a quad-dominant main lift on one day, and a hamstring dominant lift on the other day. So if you have muscle ache on one side, it shouldn't affect your workout significantly.
Ah, this makes sense: "What happens sometimes is people who don't naturally have great glute activation patterns and don't have naturally good muscle balance (ie. Dont have glutes that are naturally stronger than thighs) get in the weightroom and do exercises that SHOULD be strengthening their glutes but they end up strengthening their thighs and their glutes get very little. When you throw them into an athletic environment the body will naturally use the strongest muscles to control movements, so now their quads and other muscles will want to do what the glutes should be doing."
See, I didn't *think* my quads were all that wimpy because a 30 km bike commute doesn't tire me out too much. This makes sense that the stronger muscles are doing the work.
I thought the pictures posted in another thread, demonstrating ATG vs parallel included a comment on how going below parallel puts additional strain on the knees, increasing the chance of injury.
My knees were already protesting the squats, which is why I'm using the plates.
I'll try without the plates but I'm hesitant to go below parallel at this early stage.
or maybe it's better for me to dump the weights I've been lifting until I can do an atg squat repeatedly, flat foot and no knee pain. That's not how the exercise is described in nrol4w, however.
What I'm doing squat-wise is rocking my weight back slightly into my heels so I make sure I'm pushing up through the middle of my feet. (Doing them barefoot helps me tell where my weight is resting). I go down far enough that I feel my glutes engage, but not so far that I'm in danger of not being able to get back up again. I don't think I'm squatting parallel yet but I'm trying to get as deep as I can without fully falling back on my ass. Maybe the weights I'm using are too heavy though.
Flexibility – Hips/Hamstrings/Erectors – if the hip flexors are overly shortened—as they are in office workers, the trainee will feel an overwhelming stretch in the “planted” leg which will rob them of full range of motion. If the muscles of the hamstrings and back are overly tight, the glutes will likely not fire and place more demands on the quadriceps. This is a common mistake, and typically trainees feel it “in their quads”—right above the kneecap. This is a sign of quadriceps tendon stress.
Ding, Ding! that's me in a nutshell.
I've read the link above (do this not that - squats), and while my form is good generally, I cannot go to parallel even with only body weight. I've been doing them with the bar so I get the full-body benefit and I do try to push myself everytime to get as low as possible. So, what should I do? There is also a Squat Machine at my gym where there's a back pad that moves in an arc and shoulder pads that you can add weight to like a standing calf raise machine. I have been able to get to parallel in that machine using good form in the past, but I hesitate to use it because it seems like cheating. Any recommendations?
Did you read through the link above (https://www.enhancedfp.com/training/...-kelly-baggett) and take note of all the pre-hab movements you can do to help with glute activation and flexibilty? There are lots of peeps here who can also help with flexibilty issues.
You can work on flexibility with body weight squats. You can hold on to a rack
or even a door jam to help with balance if you need to and just go down and
hold. Most people should be able to relax at the bottom of an unloaded squat.
You can also do a bw squat, relax at the bottom and use your elbows to push your
knees out and sink a little deeper.
And you can do squat-to-stand type
exercises.
The first link is to some pages from Gray Cook's book Athletic Body in Balance where he talks about squat-to-stand and the photos demonstrate the progression. This is really good. Squat-to-Stand Book
Then I have a site with a video of squat-to-stand that is a little more advanced in that it goes to the floor and not a box. CorePerformance S-to-S
Started Monday Can I do it again tomorrow???
I don't think I'm squatting parallel yet but I'm trying to get as deep as I can without fully falling back on my ass. Maybe the weights I'm using are too heavy though.
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