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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
I just want to say that heavy squats on an Olympic barbell suck. My core got hammered. Ended up using wrist wraps to keep the bar from spinning around but even then, I had a bit of a death grip on the bar and wasn't anywhere near as stable. Give me a power bar for powerlifting every time.
You mean because of no center knurling? I find cheap bars are pretty rough on stability either due to lack of knurling, less rigidity, sticking sleeves etc. A quality oly bar shouldn't be that bad on squats though I guess a crazy smooth bar could make the bar shift around easier on you back with less resistance from your plates.
No center knurling isn't as much a problem. Oly bars, though, are designed to spin and spin very well for the snatch and clean & jerk. Powerlifting doesn't really need that level of spin. It's far too much spin when also trying to squat a 5x5 at 80% of my max. Squatting 315 lbs isn't too bad. I start noticing it at 365 and definitely noticed it at 405. Spent far more effort bracing to keep stable with a bar that wanted to roll down my back.
A power bar, which I'd use in powelifting competition and which most gyms use, does spin but spins much less and is much more stable for heavy squatting. Hell, even one of the employees would just bring in his own barbell to ensure he didn't have to squat with one of the Oly bars.
Yup understood. I’m pretty deep in powerlifting as well I just have never heard anyone have mention spin as a limiting factor outside of strongmen and their axles.
But I suppose I’m also fortunate that I haven’t been in a commercial gym in ~5 years.
I wouldn't have expected it either but damn if I wasn't having a time of it starting to slide a bit on my back. The hilarity for me is that LA Fitness doesn't have this problem. The LA Fitness nearest me has 1 Oly bar and the rest are power bars. The 24 Hour Fitness where I've been lifting more lately has great squat racks and bumper place with deadlift platforms attached. But they've got a good number of Eleiko Oly bars. Fun for doing Oly lifts but everyone scrambles for the power bars for bench and squats. From what others have said, the other 24 Hour gyms nearby also have a lot of Oly bars as well.
I'd love to hit a more proper powerlifting gym but that'll be limited. Most are $100-150 a month.
They can get pricey splitting rent between a small number of members and the environment in the gym is very sensitive to the vibes and personalities of the membership.
Are you training for a competition any time soon? My next meet is end of Feb.
Rebuilding from MCL injury in December. I'm getting older so recovery was a more gradual process even though I was back to training in a relatively short period - doctor said ~4 weeks and that had me at a rather light workload.
Nothing planned just yet.
One more week before deload. Definitely starting to feel mental fatigue of high volume. Last couple weeks have been at 6660/12200/7600 kilos for S/B/D. Stress index is about 14 for lower and upper body which is the highest I've had while tracking. Squat and deadlift are a bit stalled though bench is moving up nicely. Looking forward to a dip in stress and a higher intensity block with volume de-emphasized.
Pretty tired today. A lot of my close friends were in town over the last week meaning some longer a nights. I also don't really drink more than a beer a week anymore and 3 beers over several hours definitely has an impact on my recovery now.