I was told that it was more than likely just gas escaping and if it doesn't hurt then don't worry by a physio, although he was sacked a while back so I am not sure whether or not to take his advice. Strangely though I rarely get it when deadlifting.
yeah i think contary to popular belief, cracking knuckles and knees etc doesn't cause arthritis - it is just the gas/air escaping from between joints.
I picked up a new pb on Monday night at 180x1 at the end of my working sets as still I felt strong and made it up easier than I thought!
Over the past year I've rediscovered my love of the gym after breaking my back in 2006 playing Rugby. I've gone from a body weight of 129/130kg down to a gnats over 100 and am making good progress towards my end of year targets of 200 squat (180), 150 bench (140), 220 dead (200), 115 log (105). I've started a new cycle of strength specific training for the next 12 weeks, which is what I enjoy more than the conditioning stuff.
sounds good.
what is your current routine?
It's been primarily (99%) strength based with sets of no more than 10 reps (for key exercises), even the conditioning part has been strength based, tyre flips sledge hammers, prowlers and strongman events. The biggest change has been in my diet which has been pretty good all year round and that's where most of the progress has come from.
The programme at the moment is based around heavy compound movements wth accessory movements that compliment it. It changes every week as we're trying to push everyone through pb's and the size of our group varies a lot. We always finish with a freestyle core session where we each pick a core exercise for reps/time but normally until last man standing!
Using this week as an example I tend to rock up before my mates, warm up with Mrs C before she starts her PT session starts normally doing stuff like Oly lifts, log, front squat, GHR, hip thrusters, pull ups or a core circuit, it depends on what the focus of our session is.
Mondays went
Front squat warm up
Built up to 10x100 over about 8 sets
Squat
8x120
6x140
4x160
2x170
1x180
Leg extension
10x14 - single leg continuous as this movement hurts my knees
Leg press
8x160
8x200
8x220
Leg curl
10x50
10x60
10x70
Calf raises
20x88 - normal foot stance
20x88 V feet (heels together)
20x88 ^ (toes together)
Hack squat
10x40
10x50
10x60
Pulse squats to fail
41x60
Last night
Log
5x80 floor to over head
4x85
3x90
2x95
1x100
1x100 - fail
1x100 - fail
2x100
Deadlift - Fast
8x100
6x140
4x160
2x180
Lateral raises
3x10 @ 15kg
Strict press
10x60
10x70
7x80 failed 8th
Barbell row
10x50
10x60
10x70
Strict EZ curls
3x12 @ 30kg
Shrugs to failure
20x120 too light
13x160
8x200
Friday
Warm up
Close grip bench
Bench with bands
Muscle ups
Bench 8,6,4,2 - Possible 1 if feeling good
Skull crushers 3x10
Incline flyes 3x10
Weighted dips 3x10
Cable cross over 3x10
Push ups to fail
Saturday - Normally when I work on my weaknesses but taking it easy due to Leicester Vs Northampton Rugby so a day on the lash!
Deadlifts with bands or chains
Reverse hyper
Log cleans - I struggle with the "easy" part and find the press easier
Heavy shrugs - My favourite, the bigger my traps get the smaller my neck looks!
Farmers walk
Stones with Mrs C to finish
On a normal Saturday I'll do more moving stuff like prowler runs, sled pulls and tyre flips as they're my kryptonite!
Hope you've not fallen asleep through all that, is was in the process of recording everything so I had it all to hand and you did ask!data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
did my weekly arm session today - i felt ok at the end of it so carried on and did a lot more, now i hurt haha. i am seeing a nice bit of progress in the size of my arms with what i am doing, but might try and up it to twice a week.
Nice one, what sort of stuff do you do in your arms sessions?
It's a few superset sessions with a minute or so rest between sets
4 sets of each:
6-8 reps of close grip bench press then straight into
6-8 reps of barbell curls
8-12 reps of barbell hammer curls. Straight into
8-12 reps of skull crushers
20-22 reps of machine curls, then straight into
20-22 reps of machine tricep pulls downs.
The idea being you do a set of bicep work followed straight away by some tricep work.
My forearms feel huge after and the pump in my biceps is nice as well.
I don't feel as ruined after these sets now so I continue with a few more tricep pull downs and some bicep isolation work to get as much as I can out of them
You're already pretty damn strong then. I can see my dead getting higher but I really struggle with bench. Going to keep going though.
This is almost embarrassing to admit now compared to some big units on here, but my squat has now increased from 100 when I started the thread to 107.5, so it's improving at least.
Improvement is good, no matter what, that's the point of the game not everyone is the same or has the same goals. There's a couple of power lifting record holders and a fair few competitive strongmen at the gym I train at, when you see those guys throwing big weights around you can't help but be inspired! They also use fractional plates more than anyone!data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Benching is as much about technique as everything else, having a good arch and keeping everything tight is really important.