You know, you may be right. Looking back I think I was using the counterweight to cheat some.. I go slow on the down movement but not so much on the crunch movement. I'll try doing them slower next time and add a counterweight if I need to. I also find staying tensed at the bottom makes 'em harder, ie legs not past parallel. I do agree they burn when done right.chewybaws wrote:coroho wrote:I might switch to something else from the crunches soon, I don't know how much they're benefitting me and I haven't advanced since I dropped the counter weight.
I've always thought the reverse crunches were quite effective, I get a major burn off them. I'm still using a 5kg plate. I find they're as hard as you make them. The slower you do them the better, so you're not using momentum. And concentrate on your core pulling your legs rather than using the counterweight. Something that completely changed these for me was putting something inbetween my thighs and calves to ensure my legs were in a closed position all the time. Made them much harder - no cheating!
What do you eat on a typical day?
Let's see. I pretty much have some meals basically the same each day
Oatmeal - Oats, peanut butter, banana, bread, orange juice
Smoothie: Various fruits, usually some frozen, soy milk, oats, 15g protein powder
Salad: Spinach, beans, seeds, avocado, sprouts, etc w/ olive oil, salt (good salt)
Shake: Multigrains (oats, wheat, barley, rye), soy/almond milk, other 15g protein, wheat germ, granola, banana
Then the other couple meals I actually cook like black bean burgers, pasta, stir fry or I might eat out (tho rarely). Throw in some more fruits and nuts and peanut butter sandwiches/whatever and that's about it. I can eat more on days when I get a lot in early on. I'll have hit 4k and about to go to bed but still be hungry. Lots of oats and carbs I know
And no you're not being a pussy. If your leg hurts everytime you go to do them because it hasn't healed, you need to rest it. If you're not sure, start off light and add weight gradually to see if the injuries still lingering. I'll be able to tell you soon if deep squats are making a difference for me
Hopefully it does. I've been thinking about doing some front squats in the meantime, but I think those are supposed to use your quads more so we'll see. Did you change anything besides the bar position to start going deeper?
Front ones felt fine tho but I quit after 2 sets cause my wrists kind of hurt and I wasn't that confident in my form. Think I mainly need to work on racking it better then I can take the weight up. Tied PR on deadlift but I think I can still do more. Hit 10 pullups for the first time. I swear B days work the calluses good between those two exercises. It's cool tho 
I kinda miss peeling them off though haha!
His youtubes are basically giving you exercises to do if you have such and such problem as far as I could tell. Lots of them too. So that's pretty helpful. Might give you some good ones for the ol' groin 
I cut it pretty short after that, but in the end he took about 15 minutes of my time.