Thanks, Soulman, that is easy to remember and I will do it next time.

BTW I'm totally certain I tighten up my lower back when squatting. Just because I worry about it so much as it is the most painful part of my body. But abs/etc I think I easily forget.

Ok, cool. Can be hard to see sometimes.

squats: positioning and alignment all look pretty good. get really tight, go faster. Really try to explode during the concentric (up). Slowing things down to work on form is OK, but developing some power in your squat will help as the weights get heavy.

press:
- why not move the j hooks up and walk it out of the rack?
- need a much more stable base. blow out your abs, flex your glutes/legs/etc
- speed it up
- need to get under the bar much faster. The press shouldn't have an around the head / arced bar path. The bar path should be straight and you have to slightly lean back to get the bar past your head and then get right under the bar. It's a slight torso movement. Re-read the SS chapter. Look at any of miles' press vids for a great example.

Is it just me, or does "Hamster" have extremely long femurs relative to the rest of his body. Definitely doesn't seem to help with regards to squatting.

best camera angles I can think of:

squat: from a 45 degree angle to the rear, inline with the opposite leg. example.
This angle allows us to see most of the important things: bar position, grip, elbows, depth, and knees. It's definitely the best angle to check for knee cave.

bench: I'm really not sure. I'm guessing from the side.

deadlift: either the side or from an angle (either front or back). I prefer an angle from the front: me from 45 degrees to the front.
This angle has the advantage of seeing your stance and you still get a good view of the back angle and hip movement. Of course, direct side angles can be used to check on a specific issue.

press - from the side is good for checking the bar path, though big-boy plates can obscure the view. An angled view from the front allows us to still see the the bar path pretty good while also checking grip width and wrist bend.
This is a really good press angle: Miles

oly stuff - not sure.

I think in general, an angled view from the front or back (depending on the lift) gives you the most bang for your buck. Specific views can be used to look at specific things.

ab,

since "ca.wk" is filtered, it's screwing up my DL example. Use this example instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZiGpxIsVKA

Lol wow. Fixed in OP.

subscribed

Agree with the rest, just a few comments.

If possible, get a shot of the squat both from 45 degrees (or rather 30 imo, but whatever) and from the side. Tougher to judge depth and knees from the 45 degree angle.

Bench: I think a front angle is best here as well.

General comment for filming: DON'T film from the floor. Filming from hip height or higher (press, PC) is better for all exercises. This to ensure we can see the entire ROM, as well as making angles more "natural" and easier to judge.

First form check EVER!

First off, it is very upsetting that these videos are sideways lol and i dont know how to fix it. Uploaded them from my cell phone. Please turn head sideways? Or someone explain how i can fix that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oDn4iRnrKQ
A light squat set. I think I'm pretty happy with how this looks. Decent hip drive and good bar speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r4Cw43wFBk
2nd work set of Rippetoe's. Getting pretty heavy towards the end. Hip drive dies down, real slow bar speed. One thing im worried about is that i may actually being going a bit too low for my flexibility, causing my back to round a bit down in the bottom of the hole. I'm pretty disappointed in my squat strength. My current 5rm is at 270 and I've been in this area for a long time (a year or so). Thoughts?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqfE01r_JEc
Pressing 145. I think i'm pretty happy with how this looks, just making sure. current 5rm is at least 165 so this lift wasnt the most difficult.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obXqt_osl4U
Deadlifting 355. I'm not the best at analyzing this lift. I think it looks ok but idk

***Most Interested in This One!***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emr0sLjV1u4
Joining the 8 plate club for the first time. I'll start by saying i am NOT happy with the lockout on the 5th rep, and i know the 4th looks pretty shaky as well. I think part of this has to do with grip (it was a raw lift) but yes i do use chalk. It felt like it was coming out of my hands a bit at the end. I'm definitely gonna make a conscious effort to fix that bit of a jerky lockout. I had no idea it was actually that bad til i saw the video. Anything else though? My DL has gone up a good bit lately (more scooby snax ftw) but i definitely want to make sure i don't hurt myself.


I really appreciate any help and again im sorry for the sideways vid's

Why didn't we have a thread like this years ago? Seems like common sense.

Great thread!

@scooby

yeah sideways vid is tilting.

Press - looks pretty solid. Get under the bar faster.
DL - overall good. Lose a little lumbar extension towards the end of your 405 set. And obv the hitchy lockout isn't a good thing. but your overall setup / lift is good.

squats - you mention a lot of low-bar cues (hip drive) in your self-analysis, but you're doing high bar squats. The bar is up on your traps. Which do you want to do? The cues are a little different. Answer that and we can continue. The one thing I do notice is your stance is a tad wide and you could probably keep your chest up more. For chest up, think tight upper back.

I'm aiming for a low-bar position, so i guess that sucks lol. I feel like i have a flexibility issue getting the bar down much lower, or maybe i just dont know how to do it. even with the bar where its at i'm not able to get my elbows back/up high enough to establish a straight line with my forearm/wrist to the bar. theres not too much angle at the wrist, but i understand straight is optimal

and remind me which bar position allows for a heavier lift? i felt like it was low-bar (shorter ROM) but i feel like i remember OLY competitors using a high-bar position?

low bar is the style used by PLers and for the vast majority of people it's the stronger of the two. Partly due to shorter ROM (most can't get ass to grass in the low bar position) and partly due to greater posterior chain recruitment. oly guys generally train the high bar style, whether that's ideal or not is debatable.

either one will get you strong like bull, though.

It sounds like you don't quite understand the low-bar position though. Do you own SS? Read up on this part. In the low bar position, your arms aren't supporting the weight. you're merely pinning the bar to your back. Thumbs should be over the bar. If flexibility is an issue, you can simply widen your grip.

It should look something like this:

With the weight lower on your back, you'll naturally have to sit back more into your squat to keep balanced, and from there is where you'll really develop hip drive.

kidcolin, thanks for your comments, but I don't feel confident about my form yet to start going faster. I think it will come with time.

Yes, you are not the first person to say that. I think it means that for me, knees going ahead of toes a bit is normal and to be expected.

hmmm ok. i always have used a thumbs on top grip, but i think the issue might be that i have my hands way too close together. i was doing this to create a tighter back and better "shelf" for the bar, but it doing so it may have prevented me from getting the bar down low enough. very much appreciated. thanks brah!

You can 5rm deadlift 405 and 5rm press 165 and you have been stuck at 270x5 squat for a year? This makes no sense at all. And looking at your video I cannot see anything blatantly wrong with your squat. You could probably fix little things but overall it seems to be a very passable high bar squat. Your relative weak squat is very strange.

i train with a guy who benches close to 3 and pulls over 5 at ~200lbs. He struggles with getting 315 for 1 rep in the squat. Some people just have weird developments.

yeah idk. its ****ing embarassing lol. at least i get low though...

one possible issue may be that i have been squatting 3x a week for almost a year and half now. maybe something like 4 months on Rippetoes and the rest on Madcow's 5x5 (one of the madcow squat days is a light day). I have done deload periods, but maybe i just need a bit more recovery time than that...idk. I probably have 3-4 more weeks of progress on 5x5 and then I'm gonna give GST a shot. The split will only have me squatting once every 7 or 8 days, and there will be some supplement exercises as well. I've definitely been more of a full body strength routine guy, but i think this is worth a shot at least.

The reason i still have progress to make on 5x5 is b/c i'm recovering from a wrist injury i had in early fall, and was unable to do any upper body training at all for 2.5 months. so i want to get my #'s back to where they were at least, but it looks like im actually rebounding stronger than before.

Love the idea for this thread, inspired me to finally get some videos up. Would love any feedback, it's been too long since I've checked in with people who know how to lift.

2 sets of squats from tonight from two angles, here and here.
3 sets of PCs tonight from different angles, here here and here.

Should have got presses up too but camera battery was meh. Next time.

the squats are two different people, right?

first set is pretty good. Could focus a bit more on shoving the knees out. They're caving a tad. Get better shoes.

set two has some issues. Flexibility towards the bottom of the squat seems to be an issue. Depth isn't quite there and what depth is reached seems to be achieved by rolling a little in the lower back. Knees out helps with depth. I can't tell how wide the stance is either. The wider, the harder depth is. Really sit back into it.

I'll defer to others on the PC.

Yup, my bad on that. Was trading vids with someone else, I'm the second haha... appreciate that though, I'm not very flexible but the form checks I'd had up previously passed on depth, although I've added a lot of weight since then. I think my stance is if anything too narrow, because I feel it a bit in my groin/inner thigh if I go any further out and I decided to avoid that.

Hey guys, finally have videos up for the first time ever. Any tips I could get would be greatly appreciated.

Squat - 255

Brought the bar down lower on my back for the first time, was doing a weird low bar/high bar hybrid before.

Side view
Quarter view

Deadlift - 315

Was a little sloppy after taking like a 2-3 week break, but was pretty glad I could do 315 again.

Side view

EDIT: thanks for the tip kidcolin that was me. I have noticed that my knees do cave in, any way to fix this other than just focusing on it and making sure I don't do it? Also yea my shoes suck, I'll get better ones soon.

im not an expert on the PC but a few things stick out to me. first off your starting position needs some work and i think that'll help to straighten out some other parts. i think youve got a bit too much knee flex and your back should be much straighter (edit: the knee flex might actually be ok, but your back and arms definitely need to be much straighter to tighten up this whole starting position). the starting position is supposed to be much "tighter" than that with straighter arms and the bar going straight down through from the shoulders and over the mid foot. if you have unusually long limbs or something it might make it more difficult to get in this position, idk. but your first move off the floor is supposed to be more of a tighter pull or tug, it looks like you're starting with too much slack and its a little jerky at first.

you also need a lot more hip thrust into the bar. this will greatly improve your jump and send the bar much higher which will help you to rack it in a better, higher position because honestly your elbows are way too low at the rack point and this is going to seriously hurt your wrists once you get up to higher weights. rotate those elbows under the bar and get them high!

take a look at both these two and compare them to yours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tXcS0Xp1aE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUmi...eature=channel
look how high she racks it
side note: i dont care how young she is it is so ubelievably sexy to see a girl PC this well. a proper squat gets me too omg