Okay, so today was my first workout with the new information I've learned about my awful form and my first day starting starting strength. Obviously I've done these exercises before during stronglifts. Today I lowered the weights and really focused on form.

Squats
5x45
5x95
3x5x135 I think my form is greatly improved from the last video I posted. Really worked on keeping my chest tight and breathing in before each rep.

Bench press
5x45
5x95
3x5x115 My form got better with each set. I have a video from my first set which was better than the last video but still pretty bad. Need more advice apparently.

Deadlift
5x135
5x185
5x235 Now these I kept progressing on because I think my form is good. I did five reps fairly easily and felt like I could have added more but didn't want to push it.

Overall I really like starting strength compared to stronglifts. Stronglifts for me was ONLY about adding pounds to the bar, whereas SS is about form and technique. I felt awesome through the whole workout, and obviously it was less taxing because of the reduced weight. I will post videos once they are uploaded.

Videos from yesterday
Squat -
Bench -
Deadlift -

If someone could give me form advice on these lifts, it would be greatly appreciated.

Refer to the OP in the form check thread for advice on angles to film at.

Squat:
- Bar placement too high, should be on top of your scapula
- Thumbs over bar
- You come off your heels at the bottom. Try to lift your toes next time and actively drive up with your hips
- Stance and knees look ok
- Need an angled view/side view for more


Bench:
- looks like you're not tight enough based on the bar path which is all over the place


DL:
- looks pretty good, but try to set your lower back better/harder
- Delay bending your knees on the descent so the bar doesn't need to go around them

Thanks for the advice.

For the squats I really need to focus on bar position. Low bar feels super uncomfortable for me, but I have to do it that way. Ill focus more on my hips.

For the bench, that was my worst set but none of them were good. I need to remember to 'pull' the bar apart, I think that will help a lot of the bar path issues.

I'll work on my knee bend in my deads. Thanks for the critique. I'll post more today.

Gripping the bar hard as **** and really, really pinching your shoulders together is more important. Also, try to get your feet really solidly planted to get good leg drive.

Pretty standard for low bar to feel uncomfortable to novices. You can use a wider grip to alleviate this somewhat. Remember to also keep your elbows up.

I've got two videos of my 145lb squats I did today. I did six reps on the second video for absolutely no reason other than I can't count.



Next up was the press. I did presses during stronglifts. I hate presses, well I don't hate them I am just not very good at them. Also my gym doesn't have a open rack so I have to do my presses in a squat rack. I hit the top of the rack with the bar, but I feel it's at full extension anyway. Is this a problem?


And finally we have power cleans. I've never done power cleans before. I read the SS wiki and decided to give them a go and not be a pussy about them. I practiced for about ten minutes with just the bar and then I decided to add 10lbs to each side. Do I need to jump with this little of weight? I do not feel comfortable with these at all.

take the bar outside the rack and power clean it then press it

it's also entirely possible that you could move the hooks outside the squat rack, but it's tough to tell from the video if your rack has that capability

This..

Squats look high and looks like your knees travel forward quite a bit. Try and focus on shoving them out.

And those aren't power cleans.. They are pretty much reverse curls. The bar should fly up when your knees and hips extend without any arm pulling and be kept close to your body. Check out the tutorials at californiastrength.com

Its not possible for me to move the hooks outside the rack. I guess I'll have to power clean it even though it's such a small margin. Could I try to lift barefeet?

I felt like my form sucked in everything I did today except for deadlift. I can't figure out wrist position in squats, and I'm just a moron when it comes to applying things I've learned about the bench.





Apparently I need to eat better and not drink milk as evident of my huge belly in the deadlift videos. Also I dl'ed my bodyweight here!

Squats felt the best they have felt probably ever today. bad video.


OHPS also felt amazing. Today I cleaned the weight off the floor @100lbs, so when I did my cleans I used 95lbs as my workweight.

Power clean, I felt these were better. I obviously still need lots of work and the third rep in this video I'm using wayyyyyy too much arm to get the weight up. This was the first or second set and the other three were way better after watching this video.



squats 3x5x165
OHP 3x5x100
Power cleans 5x3x95

Can someone please give me advice on power cleans? PLEASE?

Worked out today. Really haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately, with the new baby. Well I get a lot of sleep compared to my wife, but not a lot of sleep compared to a normal functioning weight-training human being. I still feel my performance is getting better every time I go to the gym. For some reason I did four sets of work weight squats today, should this effect my performance or recovery? I doubt it, I've done this weight before (175lb) when I did 5x5, so I'm not too worried. Just obviously scatterbrained.

squat 5x4x175
bench 5x3x120
deadlift 5x1x265

Deadlifts felt great, I'm a little worried about doing 15lb jumps every time I dl though. I think since I was using 10lb jumps before, to introduce 15lb jumps at this level is going to make me stall earlier.

arms are bending too early, the weight moves upward mainly via hip extension with some help from the shrug

Yeah looking back over some form videos, i realize my shrug is almost nonexistant.

Fail on last two vids.

You still have a job to do on the squats. You plop right down without taking a big breath and tightening everything. After you get in position, take as big a breath of air as you possibly can (should be very audible), tighten everything from your upper back down to your knees, then squat leading with your ass.

I guess you can't see in the video, but I am taking breaths with every rep. I'll focus more on it next time.

^^this is my first set^^ I watched it and brought the bar out a bit more on the later sets.

Also wife trolled me hard in the car today. I have a tendency to be very sporadic when it comes to programs (as evident by my switching from stronglifts to starting strength), but it's way worse than that. In 8 months I've gone from the four hour body to paleo to primal to weightlifting where I just eat everything. I have talked out against a lot of things that basically I have just read and treat as gospel. So anyway were in the car and I tell her once she feels better I want her to do SS. She goes by that time you'll be onto something different. Saying **** like "barbells give you cancer. THe body wasn't meant to move all that weight." she just owns me unrelentlessley.

Bench looks better, you can see your setup being tighter. Next time, I'd try to setup with your head almost off the bench, then scooch down like Tate does in the vids. This will give you a bigger arch and a tighter setup still.

Thanks soulman, I'll try that on monday. Thanks for your input all the time actually.

No prob

Your wife sounds pretty awesome.