There's a difference between a valgus collapse because of weakness compensation then moving through a pattern that results in the angle we see when he stands up.

But valgus collapse occurs for a few different reasons but even the Glute Guy believes it is mostly due to weak glutes because in a deep wide stance the glutes come into it more on the initial 'out of the hole' - and glute engagement is lessened by adduction which turns more to the quads for power.

Stance does seem a bit wide, but long legs and being able to squat between them demands it I guess.

Silly talls.

Do I have a valgus collapse?

Or as you say it's just a pattern for my standing up?

Your knees caving in like that is called valgus collapse. It's not terrible though.

Collapse does suggest something bigger though.

Grunch: you're stance is too wide by quite a bit. It needs to come in 2-3" a side at a guess, basically a width which your pelvis can get between but at which you can keep your knees out over your toes. This will likely require a substantial reset in weight and some trial and error, but keep videoing and posting.

Trying to knock some rust off my deadlift as I'm a little out of practice. No back pain from today's session at least. It feels a lot heavier once I get over 400.

Deadlift 5x365:


Deadlift 5x375:


Deadlift 5x385:

The bar is getting further and further away from midfoot with each rep, and its causing your hips to get too low and making it more difficult for you to get and keep your lumbar spine flat. 1" away from your shins while standing up, set your back by squeezing your chest up hard (not by lowering your hips)

Thanks, I see that now but can never spot it on my own!

x-post from my log.

I tried some light pulls from the floor after having trained block pulls exclusively for a few months. How do they look?

A stance any width is fine as long as you keep your knees in line with your toes. If you are a powerlifter and want to reduce your ROM, wider is better unless it ****s up your hips. The reason most good raw lifters dont go super wide is because that beats up your hips over time, similarly to sumo DLs. If your hips can handle being wide, its a fine stance width now imo, but only if you fix the knee cave issue.

Its fine to play around with different stances to see what is most comfortable, but this looks to me like a strength issue that needs to be addressed.


bobboufl11 - In addition to what Aidan said, work hard on your DL lockout. It sucks in those vids.

I have nAturally wide hips pretty sure. Not sure how that affects things?

I filmed my Friday squat session @272.5 with a slightly narrower stance and there was some significant knee cave. Then today I squatted 275 a little more wide (still think not as wide as original video) and I felt less knee cave.

My right knee still does cave a bit and I do think it's a mechanism that helps my strength (almost like a slingshot? Or something idk). But I plan to just keep adding weight while I can

I'll post the embarrassing knee cave video later

Any comments on my deadlifts would be appreciated:


I know the pauses between sets are rather long. I'm trying to do them quicker, but I also want to do a controlled descent, which makes deadlifting very exhausting.

I think those look pretty darn solid. Something a little off timing-wise between knees locking before lockout. Hard to diagnose from this angle and it's fairly minor. Might just be that you're pulling off of pads and that will affect start position slightly. If you have another one of those pads laying around try standing on that.

You have to accept that knee cave is:

1. inefficient and will limit the ceiling of what you can squat
2. high risk of injury (especially with prior acl injuries)
3. symptomatic of strength imbalances

Additionally, the lack of depth of your squats is further developing the strength imbalances.

Bringing your stance in wasnt ever going to cure your knee cave. But it will allow you to learn to squat correctly AND develop the appropriate muscle balance to do so over time. There isn't a quick fix here.

Do you deadlift? Why are you attached to lifting more weight?

They look super solid - only thing might be to squeeze your glutes hard for a beat more at the top.

I'd add it looks like extra lean at the top but since it cuts off hard to say

Dont fool around with your stance. Go with what feels most natural.

This^^

Really focus on the knees out cue on every rep of every set you do. Take videos of all your warmup sets and watch them. Pay attention to how well you keep the knees out with lighter weight. I would hammer the **** out of a weight you can do without knee cave - do about a dozen sets of triples with it every time you squat. Hit depth on every rep and dont let your knees cave at all. If you see any knee cave on a set, lighten up the weight a little before you do your next set. When you get good at keeping your knees out all the time, start adding weight.

First 200+lbs deadlift after right knee surgery.

It felt really light but kind of awkward.

Namely I had issues clearing the knees (especially on way down) while keeping back/core fully engaged. Not sure if it's psychology, incorrect setup, flexibility, or just light weight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcqoqP9lt6E

Overall seems very tidy - you could improve your head position to make it more neutral and avoid the shrug you're doing at the top of some of the reps. So i'd say its just taking you some time to get efficient at the movement again after a layoff, more reps while concentrating on even pressure with both feet and core bracing technique will get you there.

I got a new tripod and it looks like there is indeed some extre lean:

Seems to come more from pushing the hips forward than drawing the shoulders back, but still seems excessive.

still kinda awkward trying to start with hips higher but lose the rounding in my back. Also correctly timing my breathing while doing this has been tricky.

Are you intentionally doing that chest out thing? It looks kind of weird to me, its also appears to be what is causing what looks to me like way excessive backward leaning. 355 pause at :16 and 370 pause at :12. That backwards lean looks wrong to me.

Also anybody elses YouTube embeds not working?

bobboufl11,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYN3UGCYisk

This video describes and explains how to solve most of your form problems.

Looks like the bar gets away from you (forward of midfoot) in the first one vid but not the second. You should probably not be rolling the bar as part of your setup method, and the video goes into some detail about why even super-elite lifters probably shouldn't be using the roll method.

At 6:58 he describes the "lifting the chest up" step, a.k.a. "pulling the slack out of the bar", probably better described as "pulling the slack out of your body." IMO it's good to think about this from the perspective of your arms/upper back as well as your legs/hips. The whole system should be in a state of pulling the bar / leg pressing the floor quite hard for a beat before the pull even begins, and then the pull is just turning the dial up to 10, instead of exploding off the floor the way you do.

I think you're also making the mistake described from 8:28 to 9:08.

brahs, powerlifting style bench press. Halp.




I haven't done this in about 2 years, but I'm regularly doing incline bb, incline db, flat db, and pushups.

I have nothing useful to add but I definetely see potential there.

Just make sure you do your fives and eat like you mean it.

Bring your grip in 1-2 inches maybe. Your forearms should be more vertical at the bottom of the press.