Yeah, if I didn't want VFF's for outdoor stuff, chucks would have been good enough but I didn't want to buy those on top. Socks were ideal until a douchey employee flipped on me because it's a "safety hazard." But Rob, I doubt you'll be disappointed in your purchase, I love them and they hold up shockingly well even if you beat the dog shit out of them.
Socks weren't an option: that was one of my very first questions when I joined this gym. The trainer kind of made a funny face and asked, "Why in the world would you want to squat without shoes?" She had a phenomenal ass, though. So I wasn't about to give her any pseudo-lectures about how much better it is than the alternative. At any rate, I'll still get much use out of them. I plan on using them when I do my weekend sprints, as well as taking them out when I play disc golf with my friends (don't laugh, that shit's more fun than you'd think). I used to go straight barefoot, but with all of the burrs, snakes, broken glass and used condoms along some of the trails, it wasn't worth it.
Okay, now I'm confused. I've long been under the impression that squatting without running shoes (those with huge heel supports) is all-around healthier and makes one less prone to injury, no? I can't comment on weightlifting shoes specifically, because I know so little about them that my knowledge of them increased 500% from that article.
You have to realize that site, especially at that time has a very strong bias towards competitive powerlifting. From what I can tell Rob is more interested in athletic transfer, and for that barefoot is usually a better path.
I can only speak from my own experience but switching from running shoes to those exact shoes you linked has made a world of difference. I was experiencing pain in my feet with any weight exercise that put pressure on them when I was wearing running shoes; as soon as I switched to the Vibrams the pain completely went away and all was right with the world.
Squishy shoes bad, barefoot better, solid weightlifting shoes best. The heel can also help you hit depth if you have limited flexibility. I was responding to the general statement of squatting without shoes being better (an argument I've seen people try to make when comparing Vibrams with actual squat shoes). I fail to see how this is the case. If you get the right pair of squat shoes, they will help you get stronger quicker. I can't think of a sport where you wouldn't want to be stronger.
This is correct. I plan on getting involved in intramural basketball in the fall, and I already have a storied history of ankle abuse due to the sport. I want to do everything I can do to keep my joints healthy. Not that I wouldn't want them healthy anyway, but you know what I mean.
Just realized that I fucked this up. Those ratios are for 1 rep maxes. (Mine are better because my bodyweight is approximately that of a large chipmunk.)
No worries. I was thinking about it and I realized there was no way they expected a novice lifter like me to be able to clean rep 370 5 times for DL's.
Trail running is definitely a lot easier on the body in my experience. After run/walking(when necessary) Mt. Baldy with a friend and spending 4.5 hours on the move, I felt less stress than I'd get from a 2.5 hour run on pavement.
This is, bar none, the best pre-squat-stretch I've tried yet. I wish I'd found this months ago, when I was complaining about my psoas and whatnot. Brb, unfucking my hip flexors. http://www.californiastrength.com/v...s-for-the-lower-body-in-olympic-weightlifting
I am actually amazed this went up so easily. Hit 425 on a box squat on a lark. No belt or wraps. Smolov really gave me a lot more power in my squats.
Anyone (FreeCorps?) have any tips/suggestions to make sure I'm not push/pulling uneven and cheating on things like pull-ups/lat pulldowns and assorted presses? The whole unbalance in my hips/glutes has made me hyper-aware of my body on stuff like that. Obviously you have a dominant side, but I wonder to what extent. I know I can do unilateral work with dumbbells, but I've always preferred barbells to dumbbells and less isolation work.
Are we talking strength or tightness/mobility wise? If it's strength there's always a chance when doing bilateral work that you might be compensating slightly to one side over the other. I would try to do supersets/giant sets with unilateral work first and see if one side clearly burns out before the other. One movement I like that will clearly show favor is doing imbalanced pullups. Take a towel and wrap it around one end of a pull-up bar so that you hold it in a neutral grip, and your other hand will be in a regular pullup position. Do pullups. Profit! I mean, wait, no. If you are really weaker on one side it will show.
I think its strength over time as a result of tightness. When I first noticed the feelings of imbalance, I did a body self check, and my right glute is noticeably larger/more muscular than my left. Which leads me to believe I was favoring it for some time. So as I'm moving forward trying to sort that out, it just got me thinking that I want to make sure I'm not doing it anywhere else. That exercise sounds good, I'm definitely going to try it this week.
Question about a chronic, nagging injury: The diagnosis: I have an imbalance. My PT diagnosed it as an 'in tone' psoas muscle on my left side. My chiro thinks something different. He thinks my left glute is tight, which is pulling my leg out of alignment. What hurts: The pain manifests in the front where all the muscles meet: As well as in the dead centre of my low back, right where the spine meets the pelvis. When it hurts: The groin pain is always there, but it's particularly pronounced if I bed my knee to my chest and do an anterior rotation, so rotating it inward. The low back pain is also always there. Changing position helps temporarily. Other symptoms: My PT did this: he had me lay on my back with my legs hung off the table. He pressed on my right knee, and I had to resist him. It went fine. When he repeated the move on my left, there was nothing. He pushed down on my leg and I couldn't stop it at all. Also, when he probed my abdomen the right side (to me) felt fine. As soon as he pressed down into the area where the psoas was it felt like rock. The chiro was/is able to alleviate the pain by applying heat to the left glute and the laser to my front groin area. But it always comes back. The PT couldn't touch it. Traction didn't help. Foam rollers and tennis ball rolling didn't help. So, does anyone have any advice on what to do to make this go away? Any exercises or pearls of wisdom?
Have you tried going to a real doctor? No offense. I've heard stories of herniated disks that press on nerves, causing pain in exactly the areas you're talking about. I have no idea if you did something to throw your back out. Other than that, just sounds like chronic muscle tightness and tight hip flexors to me. I have pretty much the same deal. I have to do a solid 20 minutes of dynamic stretching (see the link I posted above) before I can hit depth on a full squat. On another note, these suckers just came in: Spoiler Adipower Olympic weightlifting shoes. Expensive as hell, but it's my graduation present, so fuck it. Easily the prettiest shoes I have ever bought, and they fit like a dream. I spent all of yesterday morning puking my guts out (don't take fish oil while hungover, kids) so I can't wait to squat and clean in them.
In that situation, I think she's better off going to a PT. Most doctors, especially GP's, don't know jack shit about stuff like that and would just refer you to a PT anyway. You're better off skipping the doc and going straight to a PT or a good sports massage therapist.
Depends on your PT/insurance, but it might be better to go to a sports medicine doc or something of the like first so you can get a direct recommendation/prescription for PT. For example, I have decent insurance, but my out of pocket cost is less than half of what it would be if I had just went to a PT directly (also helps to have a PT who has no qualms about honestly talking about the costs associated with everything). Just a thought