Friday Thoughts 19
Happy Friday. Here’s this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share helpful Instagram posts I saved over the week and sometimes work out new blog ideas. Enjoy.
A couple months ago I followed a program called Easy Strength, where for every workout you do 2 sets of 5 repetitions of a movement (or two or three or four movements) and keep the load at a weight that feels easy. As you accumulate these frequent sessions, you slowly put weight on the bar, essentially upping your max by raising your base and getting a lot of practice. I had a ton of success on it, and this past week two members hit big PRs by following the similar plans. Jeff bench pressed 300, which, not many people have done at GAIN (definitely not me…yet), and Riley squatted 200, which even less have. Both have been on the program since before Thanksgiving. Neither missed a scheduled training session and slowly built the weights up over the weeks.
This post from Meg Squats was timely, leaning during splits squats had come up a couple of times this week, many of you might find this demo valuable. The more upright you are, the more they’re going to target your quads. If you lean forward, thus keeping the shin more vertical, the movement will target your glutes more. This is helpful if you’re trying to rehab or build strength in a certain area, or trying to avoid movements that hurt, i.e., split squats hurt your knee, but if you learn forward to make the more hip dominant, they no longer hurt your knee.
I’ve been wearing a belt more frequently and it has definitely helped my bracing. For me, what it does most, is give me feedback to expand my brace into. I breathe into the belt to create pressure. Far too often I see people crank belts as tight as they possibly can, this has a negative effect, and while it might feel supportive, it’s actually preventing a proper breath and brace.
This was a great video.
See you next week!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
