What happened to your hair!? How do you like the new style? It too suits you.
How narrow is your sumo stance? How big is the difference to your conventional?
Haha I needed to "clear my head!" It feels much better. I don't have hair in my mouth every time I bend over to take a it of something! My stance is just outside of my grip width so pretty narrow. More narrow than most. The difference is actually not large. Sometimes I PR with my sumo and sometimes with my conventional. I think I like lifting heavier on sumo more though because my back is never sore after heavy sumo's and I like that I can use my legs more. I end up back-lifting heavy conventionals way too much as it's hard for me to get in a good position with my long legs. however a very narrow stance and flared toes helps with this in conventional, as I can push my knees outwards without moving my grip wider so my hips are closer to the bar.
How are you feeling btw @Antti ?
I can understand your point about the hair. I haven't had scissors or such touch my hair in what, 17 years or so? But it's inevitable that the day will come.
It can be a good thing to have the deadlift stances close to each other, more carryover that way. Have you tried a very wide sumo stance, like toes to the plates? How much worse are you that way?
Me feeling? Thanks for asking. It's starting to feel like the flu is pretty much gone. The fever got really bad on a day or two but maybe it made the bug pass quickly. I'm not yet at 100% but likely not far. I think I'll try to get a couple of exercise sessions this week, just get the body used to lifting again, doing stiff leg deadlifts, pause squats, behind the neck presses, flyes, hammer curls, face pulls etc that stretch, mobilize and invigorate me. Hopefully back to real training after the weekend. I have liked my new cycle and the training method, learning to strain, if that's the right figure of speech. I'm still uncertain if it will prove fruitful or not and what would be the best training plan for the future. I'm still in the dark on how much time I have to train with work and family so I'm afraid to commit to any long term plans. I also don't know when my next meet will be. There's a bench only meet in July that I will likely go to, I believe I'll pass on a local meet that's less than a month from now, it's too soon and I've competed four times in five months or so; maybe it's time for a break.
Great work man!
I think it's also fun to go from one extreme (long hair) to another as it shocks everyone and it feels like a major novelty change. I haven't as it seems it would be painful and not my strongest. have you done super wide sumo? I feel I wouldn't get much power at all to be honest and I don't think my hips would like it very much at all. I did wide stances squats once and I was much weaker and my adductors were sore for like over a week, probably strained, so I steer clear of heavy loads in such a stance.
Glad you are feeling better. The flu is a major bummer...but getting back and moving again is definitely a good step, as long as you don't overdo it! Those exercises seem very tonic inducing, as I like to say. I like BTN Presses because they seem to "open" up the chest area, which I feel really clears the body a bit. It's hard to know what will and what won't work in training, but I'm sure your decision to on whichever path you choose is based on sound reasoning. You'll find out and if something doesn't work, you know for later and can make the necessary adjustments. It's all about learning.
I open my foot angle a lot in the sumo lifts, both squat and deadlift, so I don't think I am that far from the plates as it is. I believe I have the mobility to go all the way without odd aches or strains. I don't know if I am stronger in that position. I will try to go wider some time in the future. Maybe learn the current width first and see where I go naturally. Wider would mean shorter range of motion which would be an advantage in competition. The local elite powerlifter thought I could well be better with sumo and my next step to improve my form would be to go as wide as I can.
Good job! The squat progress should keep pushing your deadlift numbers up too. I think the low bar back squat is the king of strength exercises.
Nice job on the squats! Good weight for lots of reps. You managed to keep your upper body nice and tight. To be perfectly honest I think they were lacking a bit in depth. But that's no problem, just go deeper.
Your plan on cutting the deadlift volume and letting the squat drive it sounds like a good plan. I did a cycle just like that and I made great progress.