Lifter's Lounge

Should sit-ups be daily or take rest days?

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Anybody dealt with patella tendonitis? I've started using the stretch below which is bringing some relief and I'm managing to train through it, but it's got to a point where even using leg drive on the bench press is becoming really painful. Doctors I've been seeing haven't got much of a clue. Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JawPBvtf7Qs

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@Godfather Dust

The core is one of those muscle groups that you can train daily.

Unless you’re hitting 1RM weighted situps or something.

@Kieran

Roll out your rectus femoris - if you’ve been slacking on recovery and flexibility your quads are probably a part of the problem. That muscle group can get so tight it starts to pull the patellar tendon off the bone (Jumper’s Knee).

Roll out the quad, release the triggerpoints, then stretch the muscle tissue. After stretching, you can apply cross-fiber pressure to the patellar tendon to promote blood flow and repair. Cup your knee with the same-side hand, gently dig your curled fingers into the side of the tendon, and jiggle it back and forth for 90 seconds. If you know how to self-massage, hunt down tender spots and wiggle’em out.

Here’s a dry video that explains the technique.

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Cheers, I'll start rolling and attempt some massage. I'm noticing some relief already actually. Been doing the variant of the couch stretch I posted above 3 times a day which puts a tremendous stretch on my quad. I think tightness is probably the problem because I notice that my unaffected leg is a lot more flexible. I've also been doing a lot of bodyweight full squats, and squats sitting back holding a door frame throughout the day to get blood into the area.

In the gym I've been using the trap bar deadlift as my main movement because I can use some proper weights without pain, and get some quad work from them, and then follow them up with lighter volume work on my squats and Romanian deadlifts. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to some kind of heavy squatting in the near future.

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Added daily situps to my routine (lift 3x a week.) Did 100 today might do some more.

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Don’t forget to put on an ice pack if your face is a little puffy.

Something I forgot to mention is that you’ll eventually want to diversify your ab work outs. Sit-ups are sort of bogus (unless you’ve got a decline bench to knock them out on) - they stress the uppermost fibers of the rectus abdominus without recruiting much of the rest of the girdle. Overdoing it (thousands) can start a kyphotic curve at that thoraco-lumbar junction, the 8 pack starts to tilt the ribcage down toward the pelvis.

Rather than shoot for hundreds of sit-ups, add in things like cross-crunches, Russian twists, torture twists, leg lifts, etc. to stress the obliques and the lower rectus bellies.

If you can manage the work load and recovery, there’s nothing wrong with wrapping up your gym sessions with weighted ab training.

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Situps are arguably the worst abdominal exercise. Do crunches at least.

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Thanks for the tip, just did a set, yeah I feel the crunches in the abs a lot more.

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(05-20-2019 01:27 PM)godfather dust Wrote:  Thanks for the tip, just did a set, yeah I feel the crunches in the abs a lot more.

Yes, because situps and hanging leg raises target mainly illiopsoas muscles, i.e. they are mainly hip flexion.

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My personal favorite abdominal exercises are decline crunches (usually weighted because I hate doing 30+ reps/set just to feel a burn) and ab roller.

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Is ab training actually necessary? They are, after all, heavily involved in every compound lift. I barely see my abs (need to shed some bodyfat) but I sure can feel them and they're hard as stone. I dont do any isolation ab work, only heavy barbell lifts.

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Direct core work never hurts, and this is also goal dependent. If you want to have a nice and visible 6-pack, then 60% of it is getting low enough body fat to see them and the other 40% of it is having abs big enough to see. There are guys with 15%+ BF with visible abs because they have so much mass in those muscles. I do direct abdominal work on my lower body days, partially because a stronger core makes for stronger lifts, and also because I sit a lot in my day job and having a tighter core counteracts my anterior pelvic tilt and ever-tight low back.

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You do ab roller from knees or toes? I do from the knees, no shame admitting that, exercise is fucking brutal and I hope to hit same sets and reps this year but using it from toes and not from knees.

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@GeneralStalin

Weighted decline situps!



Train your 1RM to build up resistance to death!

& @Zagor

“Is ab training actually necessary?”

Yes and no. Compound lifts certainly train the core to maintain stability - if all you’re looking for is static strength and an awesome ab aesthetic you can get by with squats and deadlifts alone if your insertions are decent.

The problem with this method is you’re completely ignoring the fact that that girdle is how we rotate and launch the kinetic whip. You may have tremendous strength, but you’re losing out on power because the internal and external obliques have been trained to stay still. If you do any sport (or want to keep your body balanced) you need to incorporate some kind of twisting motion.

@Sterling_Archer

You’ve got to hit it from the toes. The problem with, say, rolling out just the hamstrings is that if your calves or the bottom of your feet are tight some amount of the slack you create in the hammies gets sucked up by the calves. Your calves can actually get tighter over time if you just pass over them. Same thing with the quads and the anterior compartment of the lower leg.

I need to drop a datasheet on foam rolling and mobility work.

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(05-21-2019 02:37 PM)sterling_archer Wrote:  You do ab roller from knees or toes? I do from the knees, no shame admitting that, exercise is fucking brutal and I hope to hit same sets and reps this year but using it from toes and not from knees.

Knees, I'm not that strong or conditioned to go from toes and I don't personally know anyone who is hahaha

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(05-17-2019 02:02 PM)Kieran Wrote:  Anybody dealt with patella tendonitis? I've started using the stretch below which is bringing some relief and I'm managing to train through it, but it's got to a point where even using leg drive on the bench press is becoming really painful. Doctors I've been seeing haven't got much of a clue. Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JawPBvtf7Qs

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2971642/

Added an article discussing this at length, but the main idea is dropping intensity on knee extension exercises and working back up over a 2-3 month period. Takes time unfortunately, as tendon blood supply and thus regeneration is poor.

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(03-30-2019 03:20 PM)Poker Wrote:  I need some advice from you guys.

For years I was training at a subpar gym that didn't have a squat rack, only a few smith machines. The reason I went there was due to the cheap price, but more importantly, it was very close to where I live.
I just used the smith machine and leg press for years.
Anyway, this gym closed down for good, so I have been forced to attend a new one, which fortunately is very good and has a squat rack.
Now, the result of not having access to a squat rack for years is that my main lifts are heavily out of balance. Here are my one max rep stats:
Overhead press: 65kg/143lb
Bench: 100kg/220lb
Deadlift: 150kg/330lb
Squat: 80kg/176lb

I currently squat twice a week (5x5 & 3x5) and have seen some steady improvement. In my opinion, the solution is just to spend time under the bar, be patient and make up for lost time. But I thought it would be wise to see if there is anything else I can do to speed up the process. Thoughts?

I hit a 100kg squat yesterday which is a big step forward for me.

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