KSH Log - 10.23.02

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

6.5 (4) / 58

AM Workout ­ marathon bench

Warm-up

RPE ­ 4 Duration ­ 55 minutes

PM Workout ­ Deadlift

RPE ­ 4 Duration 30 minutes

What can I say? the comments on my mishmash workout got me fired up and i had a good day.

What kind of ab work are you doing, if any?

Looks like he did bench press, partial deadlifts, deadlifts, and good mornings on that single day.

I was wondering if he did any specific ab work. Maybe I should have added that. Smartass

I'm going over some issues of my own that I think are a result of ab weakness. I'm wondering if relying on squats, dls, and variants might neglect the abs a bit to much (this probably only applies to some people), as they seem to favor low back and only work abs isometrically. Thats where my question was going.

He's not being a smartass and those exercises are 'specific' ab work. Maybe you mean 'isolation' ab work. Why bother? Keith is training for a sport. He needs ab strength in a very specific way and gets it by using his abs to support those lifts he uses in his sport.

Most people probably don't need to do crunches, sit ups, leg raises, etc. if they're doing heavy compound lifts such as what Keith did in this workout, imo. Isolation, foo-foo stuff is over rated. Muscles don't work in isolation.

Yeah, I meant isolation. You'd bother if it was a weakness in your lift - the same way you'd do bench lockouts or JM presses or tri isolation stuff if they were a weakness.

Maybe most people don't, and I'm a rare case.

I agree that isolation for the purpose of isolation is over rated. Isolating for the purpose of correcting a weakness, OTOH, is different. Note these comments are from the perspective of a 'person who trains like a powerlifter'. If you're a bb'er, go ahead and do your concentration curls. Its all you man.

How are they a weakness? I don't think I could help you out, but maybe if you describe your problem some of the more experienced pl guys could make suggestions.

When I'm lifting heavy, I have a very slight problem at the start of the dl, and coming out of the hole in the squat. Basically during the ascent my ass is coming up before my shoulders. I usually catch it immediately, and end up correcting by muscling myself straight again with either my low back (squat) or mid-upper back (dls). As tight as I keep my abs, it seems like they may be 'collapsing'.

I've read lots of posts that say it could be a low-back weakness, but I don't think this is the case. Now I'm not doing rounded back power-curtsies or anything, in fact you probably wouldn't even see me correct if you were watching me lift. I really dont think its a form issue - more of a weakness issue.

Any thoughts?

I should have said here that there is more of a 'transfer' from my abs to low/upper back - there isn't actually an 'active correction'. If that makes any sense.

For me it was weak hips. I now concentrate on pushing my knees out when squatting (and am doing sumo deads so the bar pretty makes forces me to keep the knees out...). It's done wonders for me. Downside? My hips at the front have been pretty sore after squat day...