Optimal strength training for runners
- Thread starter Abide
- Start date
Yah, good idea. Or I can use the cinder block I've been using for my plyo jumps.
Don't forget to post a link to those Bruno strap exercises when you have a chance.
Thanks, a lot of those I was already aware of, and were described in the little flyer that came with my WOSS suspension straps. But the inverted rows are new to me, and look especially promising. I have trouble attacking my lats well, so anything to supplement my regular rows and pull-downs/ups is appreciated.
Funny, the shrug/trap bar came yesterday and, although the picture doesn't show it, it actually does have a low handle right below the handle in the photo, on the same plane as the rest of the bars. It's nice. You can invert it and used the raised handles as a stand while you load the bar. My 25-pound plates are just a hair shorter in radius than the height of the bar while inverted.
I tried a few lifts after this morning's run. It felt pretty good, although my legs were already too tired to get a really good feel for it. It really is kind of like the child of a squat and a deadlift. I didn't feel it nearly as much in my lower back, which may be a good or bad thing, depending on what one is after. I guess on my "Bottom" ST days, I'll start with the deadlift, then the trap lifts, then the squats. It'll be interesting to see if I can do more weight with the traditional barbell deadlift or with the trap bar. And of course on my shoulder and lats days, I may even use it for its original purpose, to do shrugs.
OK, it would be good if everyone would take a break from recommending new pieces of equipment. It's getting hard to give my wife crap for buying clothes and shoes all the time, with all the recent additions to my home gym.
Alright no more recomdations. I think the trap bar is working for me, I hit pretty close to a 2x bw regular dead lift yesterday. It came up pretty easy too. Also getting closer to benching 225 x 10 a goal of mine for 2013, lets see if I can squat 315 too.
Yes a child version is a good way to describe it. It should be beneficial to both. My sticking point in the squat is pretty much the starting point of the tbdl and the upright torso mimics that point as well.
I can dl more than I can tbdl, I think it depends on which is your stronger point, legs or back.
I can dl more than I can tbdl, I think it depends on which is your stronger point, legs or back.
Thanks for the recommendation! Just put it on the list.
I was just kidding of course. I always appreciate your thoughtful input. You and Nick are about the only guys I know of on this site who know their way around free weights, and I appreciate Sid's restless enthusiasm for the more exotic. I don't participate on any other sites, so this is as close as I get to gym-rat esprit de corps.
Ha, way to go. You're way ahead of me. I'm still working my way back to 225 single rep. Last week I did 195 2-3 reps no problem, so I'll try 215 today and see how my left shoulder does with that. Seems completely healed, but I'm taking it slow. I'm also keeping my deadlifts 50-100 lbs less than I could probably do, in the 225-275 range, as my left MCL still feels a little sore after each run. Once that is completely healed I'll start pushing it over 300 again. Squats are up to 175 now, but I'm still waiting for the MCL to feel a bit better there too before pushing beyond that. If I could get 30-50 percent better on the lifts, and 10-20 percent better on the press, I'll be happy. Should have a better idea of what this aging body can do by the end of this year, if every thing keeps going well.
My sense is that it's my legs, but maybe I'm just overly cautious about the back. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Should be a good way to speed up my gains in the squat in any case.
NickW
Guest
I had to take a break yesterday. The ankle muscles were sore from all the walking I had been doing this weekend and focusing on walking right. It is getting easier to walk right, but man this is going to be a long process. Not gonna get my hopes up for a quick fix on this, likely it took a couple of years for me to get to this point so it may take a while to undo all this.
Nope, I'm going to swap out my back st workout tomorrow for the bottom st workout just so I can have a go at the trap dl. I missed my bottom st workout on Sunday because I had to make up a run that I missed on Saturday. I try not to miss any runs, so I sometimes have to nix an st workout to make up for a run. I don't like to ever go more than two days without a run. Today's another run day. Could've done the Bottom ST yesterday, but then that would've meant doing the Front ST tomorrow, two days before the Top ST on Friday, which would be a lot for my shoulders to deal with. There's a lot of tricky accounting involved in fitness sometimes.
Was able to do 195 x 5 bench yesterday, it's getting easier again. Will try 215 next week and see how many reps I can do, maybe go for 225 x 1 rep if it feels good. Hopefully I'll be up to 2-3 reps at 225 by the end of this month or next. That's always a nice base weight for the bench press. I'd like to get up to 10 dips too. I love those. Right now I'm doing 5 reps.
Yah, mos' definitely take it slow. Do you think your duck walk has anything to do with recovering from your back surgeries? I wonder if you tried to alleviate some pressure or tried to compensate for lesser mobility in your back or something.
NickW
Guest
I really don't know Lee. It may have started very minor back then. I really think being a night student and stay at home dad during the day has played a huge roll in it. I sit in a way a lot here at the house that would over time teach the muscles to hold that leg slightly twisted to the right. I think that has way more impact than my back surgery did for that. The back surgeries did play a major role in my weight gain, but I don't think they really messed with my leg a whole lot, if at all.
OK, did the trap lifts yesterday afternoon. First I did some deadlifts at 225. I was going to do 275 but decided to ease off since I didn't know what to expect for the trap lifts, which I did next, at 245, then I did squats at 175 max. My initial impression is that the trap lifts are more closely related to dead lifts than squats. Maybe the two lifts are brothers, and the squat is the trap lift's son, making the dead lift the squat's uncle. Or perhaps the squat is married to the trap lift and the dead lift is her husband's brother, that is, her brother-in-law. In other worlds, the trap lift felt like a variation on the dead lift, kind of like bench flies are a variation on the bench press. You're working the same area but with a different grip so somewhat different muscles come into play. I think I felt it more in my upper back on the initial lift-off, and today that area is a little sore, so perhaps my form is off and I'm not getting enough burst from my legs. I'll have to look at some videos on YouTube. I tried some farmer's walks too, but the space in the garage where I work out is too confined to really do them well. May have to take it outside on the street and give my neighbors something else to talk about.
Overall, a welcome addition to my routine. I'll use the trap bar again tomorrow for shoulder shrugs.
Overall, a welcome addition to my routine. I'll use the trap bar again tomorrow for shoulder shrugs.
So Abide, do you still do barbell deadlifts? If so, in what proportion to the trapbar deadlifts? I've been doing both, but that hogs a lot of time at the beginning of my "bottom" st workout. I've been thinking of either alternating the two kinds of deadlifts, one one week, and the other the next week, or at least only doing max weight on one of the deadlifts per workout, to speed things up a bit. Yesterday I didn't get to any of my plyo or mobility stuff because I spent so much time on the deadlifts. Thoughts? Of course, I could just start earlier/allow myself more time.
I do both once a week. I have been going with three day a week lifting schedule and I do an upper and lower lift each day plus back and whatever random assistance stuff I feel like. Something like this:
M - TBDL / Press
W - Squats / Bench
F - DL / Press
M - TBDL / Bench
W - Squats / Press
F - DL / Bench
etc...
I think it would work fine doing one one week and the other the next week. Actually I think you might get more out of it than doing them both in one session. Deadlifts are pretty taxing and lower volumes seem to work a little better. You could also add the plyos in between DL sets.
I like the way you got it down to the essentials. I've toyed around a bit with that idea by sometimes choosing to spend more time on the heavy stuff at the top of my workout, and cutting or spending less time with the lighter stuff. Mostly I just go by feel. Sometimes I feel like pushing the bench or lifts a bit, sometimes I just go through the routine in orderly fashion. Lately I've been feeling good and have been pushing things a bit more, and getting some improvements as a result.
I've never combined upper and lower body stuff, but that's an intriguing approach. I think at my age though, I prefer to give each body area more time to recover.
As for the trap versus barbell decision, I don't think I have it in me to do deadlifts twice a week, so I'll experiment with the two kinds of alternation I mentioned and see what feels best. I've attached yet another tweaking of my st routine in case it's of interest. Basically I'm doing the three workouts in reverse order, Bottom>Middle>Top, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I like doing all the plyo stuff at the end, when my legs are already tired. I seem to get more benefit that way. Plus I don't want to tire the legs with plyo stuff while I'm still doing the heavy lifts.
