I never thought I'd be "that" guy

[KIAman]

So I had some leg injuries (unrelated to lifting) that caused me to take a break from working out and to make a long story short, when I started working out again, I took it easy on leg related stuff, especially squats and deadlifts.

I continued progressing on my upper body lifts. My press, rows, bench presses all became stronger, all the while I kept a steady weight and rep on squats and deadlift until I felt better.

So now after all this time, I have no pain in my leg that was injured but now I can't squat worth shit. I don't know what happened but I'm barely repping 135lbs for 5 reps before my quads and ass start to hurt.

My form feels strange, to get more comfortable, I've been moving my feet closer and closer together now they are only 1 feet apart to feel comfortable squatting ATG, anything more and I feel like my inner thigh will tear.

So now I'm "that" guy who works out all upper body and hardly any lower body. You can even see it on my body where my upper body clearly looks bigger and stronger than my legs.

Question to you all is, have any of you ever been in this type of funk? Am I just being a wimp with my squats? I even got a set of lifting shoes (Nike Romalas II or something) to help with feeling comfortable with my squat but nothing seems to help. Squats just feel like shit even with no weight on the bar.

Help!

 

[blackdogdeek]

IANAD, but keep in mind that with age and disuse you'll also experience a loss of flexibility/mobility in addition to the expected atrophy. That's what it sounds like to me.

 

[GasX]

 

[imported_Irse]

What kind of leg injuries did you have?

 

[z1ggy]

I experienced this for a loooong time after my hip surgery over 2 years ago. I was actually pressing more than I could squat and I felt rather embarrassed. I'd say abouuttt 6 months ago, I finally was squatting more than I was pressing, and now the difference is a bit bigger between the two, but still not the "normal" split.

I don't think I'll ever be that guy who double body weight squats just because of that bad hip. Current splits are DL 275, Squat 230, Bench 205.

 

[KIAman]

What kind of leg injuries did you have?

What kind of leg injuries did you have?[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35208195&highlight=#post35208195"]http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35208195&highlight=#post35208195

After I tried to hastily got back to lifting, I realized I had really bad lean. Tried to fix the lean by going lighter and work on mobility by going much lower.

I experienced this for a loooong time after my hip surgery over 2 years ago. I was actually pressing more than I could squat and I felt rather embarrassed. I'd say abouuttt 6 months ago, I finally was squatting more than I was pressing, and now the difference is a bit bigger between the two, but still not the "normal" split.

I don't think I'll ever be that guy who double body weight squats just because of that bad hip. Current splits are DL 275, Squat 230, Bench 205.

Did you just push through it and just add more weights?

 

[SP33Demon]

It sound like a few things.
1) Your nervous system / muscle memory will need to be retrained to squat since you took a hiatus.
2) Are you high bar or low bar squatting? Assuming high bar, your ankle mobility probably isn't where it needs to be yet.

I would take a week or so from squatting with plates and focus solely on the bar. Get in a comfortable stance (i.e. maybe not as narrow if that feels unnatural). With the same consistent comfortable stance, rep it every day 150 times (broken into any type of sets) for a week. I believe it was Eliot Hulse who said that it takes over 1000 reps to retrain a muscle pattern. If the bar is too heavy, use a broomstick or pvc pipe. Get that muscle memory back. Additionally, hit accessory movements that will activate and strengthen the quads and posterior chain. I'd recommend weighted Bulgarian split squats (even if only 5lbs in each hand or more if it feels light) or weighted lunges as well as bodyweight abs and back raises (glute ham machine or 45 deg hyperextensions if you have access to them, otherwise swiss ball stomach down and back of heels against a wall). Once your motor patterns are re-ingrained and your core/quads/glutes strengthened, then you will be better prepared to squat that 135. Also, keep doing the same accessory movements but upping the weight as necessary and you should be comfortably squatting heavier than 135 in no time.

 

[z1ggy]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35208195&highlight=#post35208195

After I tried to hastily got back to lifting, I realized I had really bad lean. Tried to fix the lean by going lighter and work on mobility by going much lower.



Did you just push through it and just add more weights?

I worked on hip mobility and strengthening, and yeah basically had to start over from square one. After my surgery I had to stick to body weight squat for about 6-8 weeks, then I started over from about 115. Took me a while to finally get back to 225+, YMMV.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Where's the 'thumps up' or 'like' button on here.

 

[stockwiz]

Life is short and 10 years just flies by... suddenly the guy in his early 20's posting on the bodybuilding boards in 2005 is in his early 30's and things start to look different... wait until 2025 which will be here equally fast.

I know not very helpful. Life goes by about twice as fast as there is time to get everything done.... that's why today 30 and 40 are the new 20. Too much time in front of a damn computer!

 

[KIAman]

Wow, hahah. I don't look like that pic at all. My legs and hips are still huge compared to my arms and shoulders, just not as veiny/muscular looking. I can still 1RM 315lbs squat.

The problem is I used to feel very comfortable squatting and it felt almost natural. I had my feet width and angle perfect where when I squatted down, I felt like a natural spring and most of the weight felt like it was right on my stomach and glutes when I was in the hole.

Now I just feel really uncomfortable. When I squat down, all the weight feels like it's on my quads and glutes when in the hole (it's hard to explain) and I don't feel anything in my stomach anymore and I feel a lot of strain in my inner thighs. So much so, that I have started to bring my feet closer and closer to reduce the inner thigh pain. But all this adjustment and discomfort leads me to quick exhaustion where doing any sort of meaningful reps (even at a low weight) completely exhausts me.

Deadlifts aren't as bad but I no longer feel the pressure on my stomach just a lot of pressure on my quads and back now.

Now my upper body has been making noticeable size gains, especially my triceps and shoulders but I'm not even close to the guy in that pic. I've been able to push my OHP to 185lbs and bench to 260lbs but have made 0 progress on squat and deadlifts.

And doing squats and deadlifts to the extent I used to before, I have no energy left to do the rest of my lifts so I've been doing only a few reps and sets of each.

In summary, I think I'm just being a wimp and I just need to push through the pain an exhaustion of doing legs more seriously again.

 

[Donanza]

This might sound weird but I have never seen a guy who had a big upper body and no muscles in his legs. Like if you are into physical training, you go through all of the exercises.

 

[KIAman]

It sound like a few things.
1) Your nervous system / muscle memory will need to be retrained to squat since you took a hiatus.
2) Are you high bar or low bar squatting? Assuming high bar, your ankle mobility probably isn't where it needs to be yet.

I would take a week or so from squatting with plates and focus solely on the bar. Get in a comfortable stance (i.e. maybe not as narrow if that feels unnatural). With the same consistent comfortable stance, rep it every day 150 times (broken into any type of sets) for a week. I believe it was Eliot Hulse who said that it takes over 1000 reps to retrain a muscle pattern. If the bar is too heavy, use a broomstick or pvc pipe. Get that muscle memory back. Additionally, hit accessory movements that will activate and strengthen the quads and posterior chain. I'd recommend weighted Bulgarian split squats (even if only 5lbs in each hand or more if it feels light) or weighted lunges as well as bodyweight abs and back raises (glute ham machine or 45 deg hyperextensions if you have access to them, otherwise swiss ball stomach down and back of heels against a wall). Once your motor patterns are re-ingrained and your core/quads/glutes strengthened, then you will be better prepared to squat that 135. Also, keep doing the same accessory movements but upping the weight as necessary and you should be comfortably squatting heavier than 135 in no time.

Thanks for the advice, I started doing only bar and working on muscle memory. I didn't realize it at the time but my squat was different every time I went down. I really focused on going slow and tried to feel what muscles were firing and where I was spatially. I focused on doing perfect squat form with just the bar repping 100 times. I got comfortable enough to start upping the speed (going from a 4 second squat to a 1 second squat).

To keep my body strong in the meantime, I did good mornings and bulgarian split squats.

I'm going to keep on this for another week than I'll start adding weights again.

 

[edro]

I had a similar experience with squatting (and lifting in general).
I lifted 3-4 days a week for 8 years, then slowly faded away and didn't work out at all (besides soccer) for almost 2 years.
For the last year, I am back at it heavy, 3-4 days a week with a diet to match.

Initially, all exercises were tough and squats were noticeably tough and I had the same stiff, weak, weird feeling.
I just kept repping 135 until it felt better. I had to remember to keep my core and ass tight.
I am back at 225 now (3x10), which was always my main rep weight.
I didn't have injuries, so that could be the difference.

 

[edro]

Also, while I find those pics of meat heads without legs hilarious, some people just cannot develop calves.
The guy above doesn't have much size in his quads either, but the angle is bad also.
He has no calves at all, but again, I see lots of guys like that.
Not everyone can build monster calves.

Who needs giant calves anyway? You don't need big calves to walk or run.
Big arms, chest and back are used much more in daily life.