Agree.


Must be the bear meat, which we of course get from wrestling polar bears bare-handed. And thanks.

lulz You know I'm just joking right? It looks beastly to a guy that lifts 10pounders as his max effort.
BTW with bench press you need to grip the **** out of the bar and try to stretch it apart to really activate the lats in the hole. Squeeze shoulder blades together too if you aren't already doing that.

ldo, re: joking.

thanks for the bench tips, hadn't really thought of that.

"You should be pretty damn uncomfortable when you grip the bar." -Dave Tate

2009-11-03


Squat
Nope, still not ready to go. Sigh. Tuesday or Thursday.


Bench
4x67.5 (149 lbs), 4x67.5, 5x65

Video of 2nd work set. Appreciate any feedback, especially on weaknesses from last vid (grip width, leg drive, arch).

1st set felt a twinge in shoulder and skipped last rep. 2nd set, the one I videoed, the last rep wasn't even close to going up. Will repeat next time. Fractional weights arrived yesterday, hallelujah. Microloading on bench and press from now on.

Btw, the 'squeeze shoulder blades' tip is awesome for getting a proper arch. Both brother and gf had good arches for the first time using this tip. Gripping the bar hard kinda got lost in the shuffle though I think :/


Deadlift
Decided to reset a bit lower and increase more quickly to make sure form is passable.

5x90 (200 lbs) - noticed shoulders were too forward when setting up, causing bar to travel inwards when doing the rep.

2x90. Looking in "mirror" to make sure set-up is ok - my hips are lower than the std position so using the mirror at first as a learning aid to unlearn (unlearning stuff is hard). Still need to work on lower back extension obv, but is this good enough to not injure myself while working on it? Other comments?


Rack pull-ups
3x10


I need to get me some sweats, way too cold in the gym during winter months.

Oh for the record I skipped Thursday's session due to being out of town on a business trip wed-fri.

I would do rack pulls if I were you. While it's not a certainty (or even particularly likely) you'll injure your lower back...it sure is a higher chance than someone with better mobility.

Bench grip looks too wide.

SmileyEH is probably right about your grip, but other than that it looks like there aren't any glaring errors to my (semi) untrained eye.

As far as DL goes, I think your 2nd rep is a lot better than your first. Again, just a guess.

Sigh...you're right that my back is still prolly too rounded for DLs to be safe. I'll go ahead and ask Rip what he thinks. Getting an appointment with my manual therapist is probably not a bad idea either (he's not clueless afaik).


Argh, lol. First too close, now too wide. Brother said forearms were vertical at the bottom, which is the cue Rip uses in the vid. He needs to watch more vids imo.


yay


Guess you're referring to the bar path and slightly jerky movement? If so I agree.

arms wouldn't be vertical at the bottom if you tucked your elbows more, which it looks like you need to do.

Yeah the jerky movements, specifically in your hips I think it is. Whatever it is, it's not there in the 2nd rep.

And what does he say when you lockout on your first rep? Sounds something like ah-lay-bed-rah

the stretch it apart cue is something I always forget about. I do try to squeeze the life out of it, though.

just watched the bench vid: tuck your elbows. How much is up to you, but I think they're pretty winged out even by SS standards.

Are you referring to the angle between arm and torso? In the book, Rip says "Your elbow position is therefore related to the bar position, and to your individual anthropometry." I don't find this very helpful, but I try to keep about an 80 degree angle between arm and torso - i.e. not completely in line with the shoulders, but almost. Are you saying I should lessen the angle, and if so, why?

I don't think you're referring to adducting my shoulders properly, but it still caused me to review the book and finding on page 89 that I don't actually keep my shoulders adducted at lock-out. So that was useful no matter what

Edit: also @ kidcolin - why do elbows need to be tucked more? Rip even says in the vid that elbow at 90 degrees is the most efficient position, were anatomical safety considerations not important.

Haha. "yeah that's better" - he's referring to the bar not traveling backwards at start of the set. It did on the previous one due to me having a slight forward lean, i.e. the scapula was not positioned properly above the bar.

Edit: "Ja det er bedre" in Norwegian.