Originally Posted by Spenda

idk we make fun of bench monkeys all the time, should we extend the same lolz to squat monkeys?

Originally Posted by Soulman

Are you leaning forward a lot on the rightmost pic, or do you just have insane APT? Pretty sure you have some hefty APT either way, but looks fairly psycho in the third pic.

Originally Posted by Aidan

insane APT. trying the corrective exercises, but i sit so much that it isnt having much effect

Originally Posted by HalfSlant

I wear my wrist wraps sometimes for very heavy squats, because sometimes the bar likes to roll down just a bit. Enough to make your wrists sore from pushing against it.

Originally Posted by Soulman

Right. Are you trying to be conscious of your posture? I found that it helped quite a bit. You know, just stand up straight as much as possible. At first you need to remind yourself constantly, after a while it gets to be a habit. I don't think it's as easy as Rip says (whose philosophy on APT is "stand up straight goddamit"), but it certainly helps to focus on it. Hopefully you're doing this already though.

Originally Posted by Douglas Funnie

+1. Probably needed the rest anyways.

On the whole what does "weights get hard" mean thing: If you are a beginner/intermediate and you aren't failing squat/bench/press reps on the regular then the weights are not yet hard. I'll leave deadlift out because intermediate deadlift programming should probably avoid failing reps because of CNS fatigue and beginner deadlift programming should probably avoid failing reps because of injury concern.

I've talked about all this before, though maybe it was a year ago or longer. A big part of the beginner stage is learning how to grind through the tough reps. If you are a beginner/intermediate, especially one who lifts alone, you absolutely should be recording work sets every week to keep an eye on bar speed. Your perception of how close you are to failing is almost guaranteed to be wrong, and video evidence that the bar barely slowed down should be enough to convince you to slap another 5 lbs on the bar next time.

And there are a lot of threads where people say "I'm squatting 1-1.5x bodyweight and I'm about to stall, what should I do?" You should add 5 lbs and man the **** up. Prove that you're actually stalling with a video. Prove that you're missing reps because you are not strong enough and not because you quit mid rep. Get mad, get everything tight, unrack that bar with fury, and violently attack every rep. If you still fail, then rest 5 minutes and try it again. Until you've truly missed a significant number reps for 2-3 workouts in a row, you haven't earned a reset or a change in programming, so don't take what you haven't earned.

Just about everybody gets to a bodyweight squat without any issues. But you know what the best part is about getting to where things are hard? That's when you start to see more of the physical adaptations. The first time I did SS I ate lots of protein, slept a lot, and got my 5rm squat from 135 to 255 and my bodyweight increased by around 5 lbs. From 255 to 295 my appetite increased and I gained 10 lbs. From 295 to 335 I gained 15 lbs.

If you think there's a chance that you'll fail the 5th rep, then the weights aren't hard yet. When the weights are hard you are all but positive that you're going to fail the 3rd rep.