what will it do for him?

serious question obv.

watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eZ1HzoH0Rw#t=3m54s

and read the book.

help teach him how to keep his lumbar extended while loaded, and help correct any pelvic tilt issues if he has them. teach him how to dig in and push from his heels also(you have to or you fall over)

tyvm for the link Miles. I definitely see the difference.

Now when I go for my next workout and do the low bar, I'm going to want to start at a lower weight presumably, right? How much lower should I go you think?

i kept on waiting for the hot girl in the background to do some lifts. she looked like she might have been doing some non-girly stuff but unfortunately she was on her ipod the whole time.

Duke, she was deadlifting, with form waaaaaayyyyy better than mine. And her butt was magnificent. I posted something in General Gym Observations about some douche PT trying to mack on her. And she was there with the dude who picked up my camera when it fell over. She's pretty much the tits.

i agree swings will get him on his heels but i'm wondering mainly about the pelvic tilt if he has it. mainly if they'll help if his pelvis isn't tilted forward but backward. supposedly posterior tilt is weak hip flexors, weak erectors and tight abs/hams.

How about using a sumo-style for the deadlifts instead? Like miles said, your back is really nowhere near extension..

I'm open to anything that will help me complete the lifts as good as possible. Having said that, I think it's probably too early to totally abandon the normal style, as these are my first videos, and I'm totally willing to drop weight in order to get the form right so I can move up in weight doing things the right way. I'm going to post as many videos as I can, and I will try and keep working on doing everything way better.

Next session I'm going to work on bar positioning to get a low bar squat, as well as keeping my heels on the floor, I'll definitely try to get those videos up. As well as press for you guys so you can tell me how hopeless I am at that too.

But thanks, I take this as constructive, and I look forward to working it all out. I do appreciate Miles and Soul and KPC for your help.

Ran 40 minutes this morning before work. My legs feel so much better running than they did before I started doing SS, so that's very pleasing. Not so pleasing would be the hot fire burning in my throat and chest during the run that caused me to walk out one lap.

Regarding your comments about not knowing when to use a belt...

What I did was just wait until +5 pounds per workout on squat was getting really brutal and I was starting to dread the intensity of my squat sets. Then the belt acts like a little boost to make things easier for a while.

For me that was at 235 (lolz?). The belt made it pretty smooth sailing up to like 265.

What kind of belt did you get?

I don't know if I'm quite at that point yet. And obviously I really have to work at my form and that's probably going to be done at a lower weight so I'm not going to need one in the near future but it's something I imagine I will be getting at some point.

The first one I got was the $20 or w/e Gold's Gym belt from WalMart, because I was stuck out in the sticks.

It was actually quite beneficial but it also really cut into my gut at the bottom of the squat. Super painful. Seems to be a function of being too narrow in the front.

Later I got an Inzer. Much better in regard to comfort.

Malucci,

it's not like a belt does anything harmful to your squat or is cheating. I don't get why you're so skeptical. See what Rip says on the matter e.g.

Exactly the same thing happened to me and it was at about the same numbers. Belts are srsly underrated by some people on this board. I don't know where the idea came from that using a belt before having a 300lb squat would block out the sun and give your whole family cancer.

Hah, I'm not like "soooooo skeptical" about it, I don't mean to create that impression. I just don't want to go get a weight belt now, for no real good reason. What sort of things should you be looking for when shopping for a solid belt? And do you just use it squatting, or do you use it for DLs also? Way back when I was in HS and doing squats with football coaches yelling at me I did use a belt back then, and I'm pretty sure it was helpful in stabilizing (I don't really remember that so much, and I'm sure my form was worse that it is now).

I have another question, when you're going to do a 1rm on an exercise, how do you warm up for that? Like how many sets/reps of what percentage of your worksets before you try whatever number? And how do you decide on the number that you go for in a 1rm?

Belt: the Inzer belts get all the nods around here afaik.

1RM: I was gonna ask the exact same question in the LC thread just now, weird. Go ahead

I thought for 1rm you do standard warmups for your 5rm, then do 1 rep of 5rm weight, then go 1rm.

For belt criteria there's a whole chapter in SS about it. Basically, you want one that's the same width all around. Most belts are tapered so they're wider in the back and the front is thin. This is bad and dumb, since the whole point is to give your abdominal muscles something to push against which will help stabilize you and enable you to use more weight. The first time you squat or dl with a belt, you will definitely notice some ab soreness. You want a belt that's 10-13mm thick, 13 is the maximum you can use in powerlifting competitions. There are leather, suede, and velcro belts. I believe the velcro ones are more specific to olympic weightlifting since they're a tad less heavy and you have more mobility but a little less support. The suede Inzer belt is the standard, it costs about $50 shipped.

You'll use the belt for squatting and deadlifting definitely, and possibly benching and pressing as well. I find it really helps engage your abs during the press. During the bench it can help you maintain your arch, but it's less helpful on the bench than the other lifts. You probably won't want to use it on powercleans.

You'll want to wear it pretty tight, as tight as you can get it while still being able to fit 2 fingers inside of it. You'll see lots of brotards wearing a belt around really loosely for their curls and lat pulldowns, it's a mystery.

As it so happens, the 70sbig.com front page is on belts today. They also had 2 more sections about why to wear a belt and what kind to pick.

www.70sbig.com

Thanks String

Okay went to the gym right when I woke up this morning starving hungry because I didn't eat enough last night. Probably a mistake, but I'm not citing it as an excuse.

Squats 3x5 135. Yes, this number is buttsauce pathetic. I worked on the low bar grip and for some reason it was really bothering my left wrist. I put 185 on the bar after I did a warmup set of 135 and as soon as I unracked it my wrist was in pain, so much so that I thought I would drop the bar going down, so I reracked and dropped the weight. I really need to work on the grip. I feel like the bar rolls back in my left hand with heavier weight and I can't keep it forward. Even with 135 the bar was trying to like roll back in my hand. It's an issue that I'm just going to have to keep working on until it's right, anyone who has any experiences with this or advice on how to fight this, I would appreciate it. Also, I worked on keeping my heels on the ground and feel like I did a much better job with it than in the videos. New videos will come as soon as I can get my brother's camera back.

Press 3x3 115

Assisted chins 1x5 70 1x3 70 1x4 70

Swiss ball crunchs 4x25

I'm guessing you don't lift your elbows, since you're not used to doing that from doing high bar squats. This would cause the wrists to take too much of the weight, and they're not known for their supremo strength. Lift your elbows, keep wrists straight, work on shoulder/upper back flexibility, widen your grip if necessary. It's a very common problem. Review book/DVD on this part.

Lift elbows? How high? I'll definitely look into that, thanks Soul.

Squats 3x5 185 Really worked on my wrists, especially the left one, it was a little better, but I still feel the bar rolling back in my hand on the left side and carrying too much of the bar's weight. Really need to focus on working the wrists, raising my elbows or whatever. Also, my right hand like in my thumb went kind of numb at some point I think in the 2nd or 3rd set, and my right thumb stills feels numbish now. It's very weird and unnatural. I did keep my heels from lifting too though. I just hate how I'm doing this lift at a weight that's so easy for my legs to lift but not at all easy for my arms/wrists to keep up. Very frustrating.

Bench 3x3 205. Asking women for spots from now on. I asked a guy for a spot on the third set, and his hands went down with me on every rep, touching the bar some on every rep and not really letting me do the weight like I should be. So disappointing. Asking people for a spot is a way bigger crapshoot than I remember it. R-tards.

Dumbell chest presses 3x8 40. I did this exercise for two reasons. After I finished benching the area where I would deadlift was occupied by people doing exercises. And I'm not really pleased with the way my chesticles are developed so I would do an old standard bro exercise to isolate them a little bit. I've actually been meaning to work these in for a couple weeks now and finally I was motivated enough (or forced by my station being occupied) to do them. They were insanely easy too btw.

Deadlift 1x3 205. Really focused on keeping my back extended during warmup sets and into this work set. I feel like my form has to be way better than it was on my last videos. There was certainly much less lower back rounding than last week. I really need to get that camera back and get some new videos out so I can keep working on this (and the other lifts too).

Except they are f*cking expensive.

But they are FOREVER, so I think buying something expensive that lasts FOREVER is ok.

Malucci, elbow lifting is covered in the book/DVD.