Despite the terrible angle, the deadlift looks at least a thousand times better than the first video.

That said... you still need to work on bracing your torso harder. There are a few things you can try beyond just "big breath and brace your abs". Try lifting your chest up harder in your setup and engage your lats "harder" by pulling your shoulders down (not necessarily back). Some people say "try to tuck your shoulder blades into your back pockets".

Also, and this is probably much harder to get right (at least it was/is for me), you're still initiating the pull with your quads rather than your glutes and or hams. If you watch closely, you can see that the movement is initiated when your knees first extend.

Compare the angle of your back relative to the floor in the instants before and after the bar leaves the floor. The angle of your back becomes *more* horizontal in the instant after the bar leaves the floor. Another way to think of this is that your hips move up before your shoulders move up. Basically what it means is that your knees extend before your hips (raising the level of your hips) which means you are using your knee extensors (quads) to break the bar off the floor, when ideally you want to be using your hip extensors (glutes) to break the bar from the floor.

Essentially it is the same error as you had in the first video, it's just that it's not as exaggerated because now your hips are starting higher. I have a feeling though, if you paused both videos in the moment after the bar leaves the floor, your back, knee and hip positions would look identical.

It's really hard to get this right. You can try lots of things like thinking about externally rotating your femurs (push your knees out) at the start of the movement. Lifting your chest up at the start of the movement. Pulling back on the bar. Pushing the floor away from you rather than picking the bar up... experiment with different cues until you find something that works...

Bonus tip...

Ab wheels are great, but there is also a technical\form component to them. So pay close attention to your lower back when using it. On the plus side, if you get this right, I think it will help your deadlift.

Isn't the degree of quad dominance in the first part of the ROM going to depend heavily on segment lengths? Not saying my deadlift form is the gold standard for comparison, but I feel like at the start my posterior chain is contracting isometrically, keeping my spine/torso stiff to transfer force efficiently from quads to the bar. Then once the bar clears my knee it becomes more of a push and pull at the same time.

I mean, either way, his back isn't set at the start of the pull, so he needs to address that.

What you're saying is true, but I'm not sure it pertains to op. That said, I'm notoriously bad at identifying limb lengths. Either way (as you kind of inferred), he needs to get his back in proper extension and then figure out what the best setup and style will be for him.

op, one way you could look at this is by trying a light (even just the bar) reverse deadlift (i.e. start from the top, unlock your knees, push your hips back until the bar passes your knees, then bend at the knees) and identify at what point your back begins to flex?

How bad do you need to be at identifying limb lengths to be notorious at it?

GL OP, will be interesting to follow.

I just tried the pushing the knees out and it seems to be a good cue to activate the hips before flexing the knees. We will see tomorrow.

Thanks a lot for all the advices everyone, that's really helping.

Monday 10/31 Push


BP: 10x45, 5x5x132

That was heavy. I also have a pretty bad pain in my left shoulder. I'm thinking that my elbows flare a little bit too much. I'll try to work on that coz it was painful.

Pullup: 2x3, 2x2. Push day but I don't think I'm close to overtraining so I'll try to sneak those every workout.

DB Shoulder Press: 5x5x30lbs. Painful shoulder, I didn't want to go heavier.

Inclined DB BP: 1x5 40lbs, 2x10x30lbs. 40lbs was painful so I went for the higher rep w/ lower weight.

Single arm triceps pulldown: Did like 4x10 with those. Good workout, much better than with the rope.

DB lateral raise:
4x10x10lbs. OK

Diet wise, I sort of over ate this week end. I couldn't pass on some bread and delicious cheese.



Ate like half a box of that bad boy and a whole baguette. I logged it as 1.5k calories. I'll have some candies tonight for halloween, tomorrow I'm back on track.

Work up to your bench worksets. 10x45 is woefully inadequate warmup.

Was gonna comment on that as well. No wonder you get some shoulder issues.

I also started doing this before every workout, it really gets the shoulders warmed up very well.

Fair point on the warmup. Yeah, I'm a little lazy with it, racking 10s, unracking them to grab the BIG BOY plates etc gets tiring but I'll do next time in 20lbs increaments.

google "starting strength warmup calculator". i am on mobile or i would link it.

It prob takes me 15-20 minutes from the time I arrive to the gym until the first bench workset.

This is probably a bit much unless he's got some specific structural issues, but something like 2x10x45, 5x95, 2x115 leading into his 135 worksets should be more than sufficient if he does a bit of band stuff before or in between sets and stretches out his shoulders/pecs in between sets.

All of the squat/DL technique advice posted earlier was obviously good, and I'm glad to see it's taking

ETA: I didn't see anyone comment on the bench video, so you should work on leg drive (shoving your butt a few inches further up the bench towards your head might help with that, although depending on your goals you may not be interested in a gigantic arch) and work on pinning/tucking your scaps. It's kind of hard to tell but it looks like you're a little loose in that region. Take a look at the "So You Think You Can Bench" series of videos on youtube (by Dave Tate). Also peruse Aidan's log, as he went from being a pecless wonder struggling to do 185 for reps a few years back to knocking on the door of doing paused singles at 315.

FWIW that was including my general mobility warmup. I'm prob only occupying the bench for like 5-8 minutes before starting worksets.

Wednesday 11/02 Legs

Yesterday was holiday duh and didn't pay attention to the opening hours. I had to skip pull day.

LOL, like that would ever happen. Obviously I skipped legs. I'll do them on saturday, I promise.

Good workout. I felt very guilty about skipping yesterday's workout and eating/drinking way too much. I probably averaged over 3k calories everyday since saturday. I didn't log most of it since I wasn't the one cooking and it would be awkward to log every shots onto MFP when partying.

Now I'm back on track until mid december.

Today's workout: Pull

Ab wheel, 3x5. Yeah, I believe you when you say there is a lot of form to it. I did it starting on the knees. My lower back did funky stuff when I tried to go too far. I think I got the hang of it by the end. I'll take a video tomorrow so you guys can give me some input.

Some dynamic stretching.

DL:
5x45
1x5 132
2x5 175

Went OK. I still have issues with breathing and making the movement starts at the hips. I'll post a video next time.

BB row off the bench rack:
5x10 45
1x5 90
1x7 90
1x6 115
2x5 132

DB Row on a flat bench: Much better than the BB variant for me. I could feel the back working at the very top of the movement (when my shoulder blades are almost touching) which is hard for me to replicate with the BB. I felt my abs and core activate a lot too to stabilize the DB at the bottom of each rep.
4x10x40

Pullup neutral grip:
1x1.5 lol, probably too much volume to squeeze the good old pullup in. I'm thinking of ditching the BB row next time.

Hammer curl:
1x10 22lbs

Seated curl:
4x10 25lbs

Shrugs:
3x15 25lbs

I ordered resistance bands off amazon. I receive them tomorrow. I'll use them to stretch the shoulders and to help with the abductor for squatting/DLing as per rAv's advice.

Thursday 11/03 Push

Great workout despite some shoulder pain but I'm not too worried. See below.

- Some resistance bands warmup. Too bad they are a bit too short for the full BP rom but it's still warming up the shoulders good.

- Abs wheel 5x5
Second set:


Pretty good workout for the triceps too.

- BP

10x45lbs
5x66
5x88
5x110
2x5x132
1x5x138 Fairly easy. A PT was walking by and I asked for a spot.
1x1x138 Lost tension in my back without spotter
1x5x132
1x4x143 Close one! I almost had it.

I read articles wrt leg drive and omg that's a world of difference. Well, first, it's much easier to keep my core tight and secondly, I just focus on pushing my feet to the ground as hard as I can and it makes the pushing part somehow easier.

Montecore, thank you so much. rAv and Renton as well, no shoulder pain what so ever. I don't know if that's because I took extra steps to get to my worksets or the bands, probably a mix of both but it allowed me to have the best benching session ever.

Here is where it went worse but I'm not too worried. I had to skip DB shoulder press and inclined DB BP because of a pain in the shoulder. I had only done the horizontal stretching with the bands and not the vertical or oblique movement so it started right away. I also didn't warmup with lighter DB before so yeah. Lesson learned anyway.

Triceps: 3x20

Declined pulley BP: 3x10

Pullup: 1x3

Tomorrow I'm going with a gym bro. The guy is a beast. Very knowledgeable and science focused. He is just a wise buffed dude. Excited to learn some new exercises for pulling.

Oh, weight this morning was 89.4kg or 197lbs. It's fine, lot of water weight from monday's night binging. I'm in it for the long haul, cierto?
Week 1: 87.5
Week 2: 89.4 (+1.9)

+1, glad to hear the tip on leg drive helped.

An aside: especially on lower body days (i.e squat or DL), but probably regardless, I'd move the ab wheel to the end of the workout. Pre-fatiguing your abs, especially when your next lift is the deadlift and you're still trying to dial in form, is probably sub-optimal.

Friday 11/04 Pull

I went with my buddy. The workout took 2 hours and I left completely tired. I guess we did it right.

We did:

BB row 6x6: Up to 175lbs. I had a belt which made things easier.

Low row machine with a lot of focus on the eccentric part 4x4 + 1x4 on 1 arm.

Seated inclined DB curl: 3x12x18lbs

Face down against a inclined bench lateral DB raise (no idea what the actual name is) 3x12x5lbs

Stretch curl w/ pulley 4x15. Meh, didn't like that exercise. The angle was awkward. I won't do it again.

Saturday 11/05 Legs

I couldn't come up with an excuse to skip leg day.

Some stretching and resistance band work. I get in a squat position with a band across the knees so to force myself to keep my knees out.

Squat: 1x5 air squat, 1x5 45lbs, 5x5 66lbs. Went good. I'll try the mighty 90lbs next week.

Third set:


Leg press: 1x12x210

Single leg press: 2x12x55lbs

Leg extension: 1x15x88, 2x15x77

Leg curl: 3x15x77

Adductor: 3x20x88

Abductor: 3x20x132

Ab wheel: 3x5

Monday 11/07 Push

Some band stretching.

BP: warmup by 22lbs increase from 45 to 110. Then 5x132 and 3x5x120. Shoulder pain is back I have a doctor apointment on thursday. I'm thinking of shoulder tendinitis. **** me.

DB Shoulder press 5x8x25lbs

Skipped DB inclined BP. As soon as my elbow goes past the shoulder the pain starts.

Triceps pulldown: 3x12

Ab wheel: 3x10

IMO if you can't bench your warmup weights without pain, then you need to warm up more, and if that doesn't fix it you need to stop benching for the day. And potentially start looking for a bench press alternative like dips, incline, DB, etc.

Renton,

Yup, I looked up rotator cuff exercises. I also have a doctor apointment on thursday. I'll take that very seriously from now on.

Tuesday 11/08 Pull

3x15 shoulder exercise with very light weight (2lbs iirc). I felt a pretty big burn but not a painful one.


Some dynamic stretching

DL: 5x132lbs, 5x175, 5x200lbs. On friday I'll take a video of it.

Pullup: 5, 4, 4, 3. Pretty big improvement when I do them before other back exercises.

DB row: 3x10x40lbs

5x10 different biceps exercises

2x10x10lb DB lateral raise

3x10 ab wheel

I wonder if a Trump victory qualifies as a valid excuse for skipping leg day. **** me.

Wednesday 11/09 Make Leg Day Great Again

Good workout.

Stretching.

Squat: 5x45, 5x66, 5x77, 5x82, 4x82, 5x70, 5x70

For the last 2 sets, I had that explosiveness going out of the hole. Great feeling.

Pullup: 3, 4, 4

Leg extension: 3x15x75

Leg curl: 3x15x75

Leg press: 1x12x210lbs

Single leg press: 1x12x26lbs wtf, even then it was tough.

Adductor: 3x20x88

Abductor: 3x20x130

Ab wheel: 3x10

Doctor diagnosed a shoulder tendonitis. ****. He gave me 3 weeks off the gym and say to avoid any exercise except for cardio. I'm thinking of doing legs 3 times a week. Maybe some pull exercise. Does anyone have any experience with a tendonitis? What can I do?