That is caused by loose hamstrings. It can be a bit hard on the knees and it definitely takes away some power out of the hole when you dont use your hamstrings.

[Update: 12/9/2017]
Bench 150 x 5,5,5
Squat 275 x 5,5,5
Deadlift 255 x 5

Bench - felt too easy.

Squat - felt easier than last time.


Dead - not sure if my hips are rising too much at the start, but this pull position feels so much better than the one where my back is more horizontal. Doing 10lb jumps still. TBH today felt easier than I thought it would.


Diet:
I restarted the program around 193lb, let myself get up to 197 (sometimes hitting 199) which is fine, but I have a 39" gut right now. And from reading some of Feigenbaum's advice it seemed like I should make sure to not gain weight and probably lose a small amount (while on LP).
So for the last week or so I've been eating ~2500cal (recomp according to The Beast charts) And last few days learned about macros, now that I'm eating ~200g protein it's actually hard to eat enough. I had to head to ihop and slam a 2x2x2 just to get 1,000+ calories and hit ~carbs. And I'm still 250 calories short for the day. Will slam a whey shake to hit protein and close a few more Cal's.
Very surprised at how filling these high protein meals actually are.

DLs look good.

Are you DLing in heeled squat shoes?

Thanks, Cha!
Yes, DLing in my adipowers. I see most people recommend flat, some (like Rip) prefer lifted. I don't know which I prefer yet. Maybe I'll try my next pull in socks and see how I feel.

Do you have any recommendations for DL shoes? Just buy a pair of wrestling shoes? Chuck's? Or should I go super hard core and lift in my Adidas Adilette's

idk what Adilette's are. Chucks are fine. I either DL in socks or DL slippers. My gf DLs in Chucks. New Balance Minimus's are good too. I know people who like wrestling shoes. Anything that gets your feet closer to the floor is good.

Getting your feet closer two the floor helps in two ways:
- it makes your ROM a bit shorter
- it allows you to get everything back a bit farther and gets your knees a little more out of the way. This matters because most people get a bit more forward than is optimal when they DL. Staying back helps take stress off the low back and put it on the hamstrings.

[Update: 12/12/2017]

OHP 117.5 x 5,5,5
Squat 280 x 5,5,5
Deadlift 265 x 5

OHP - felt good.
Squat - Felt some ****ery in my left knee on the first set. I don't know how to explain it. It just felt a little unstable / wobbly. Back in the day I would have skipped the other sets over something like this. But it felt better on the second set and I don't think it felt weird at all on the 3rd set. And the squat in general felt fairly easy.
Dead - felt great. Thanks to rips advice of putting the belt on at an angle I was finally able to dead with a belt and it felt fine.
I think this is actually the closest my Dead has been to my Squat. And I still think I can make a few 10lb jumps so it might finally get ahead of it. Forgot to try deading in socks. Will probably try that next attempt this week.

Diet:
Have been doing well getting <2500 cal and getting ~200g protein/carbs. Except for Sunday. Sunday was a baaaaad day (in a good way ). split a mexican pizza + chicken nachos, had way too many drinks including some margaritas (which apparently have infinity calories). I woke up saturday at 195.2lbs (good), and on Sunday for the first time in my life I got on the scale and it read 200lbs
But today I got back to the diet. I actually had to hit ihop again because I was only at 1,100 calories at the end of the day (with 3 decent sized meals). Even after I slam this (double!) whey shake I'm only going to be at 2,080 calories. Undecided if I'm going to eat anything after that to try and get closer to 2,300 or so.

Videos:

Squat 280 set 3


Dead 265

[Update: 12/14/2017]

Bench 150 x 5,5,5
Squat 285 x 5,5,5
Chin 1,1,1,1,1

Bench notes:
I felt good so I jumped 5lbs. Felt great. Nice controlled descent.

Squat notes:
These squats are too damn heavy.
I wasn't quite worried about failing any of the reps -- but a bunch of them were semi-grinders. I definitely let the weight get on my toes in my 3rd set first rep. But the rest of them I'm sure were passable. I'm sure calories are partially to blame here, but more on that below.
I hurt my left shoulder on the first set. I think it's from cranking elbows up out of the hole, which is an old flaw I (mostly) fixed. Apparently this was heavy enough to bring out the old bad habit. I'll try to be more mindful of the cue to keep my humerus aligned with my trunk.
Back in the day this pain would have freaked me out and I would have scrapped the session and probably skipped a few gym days to let it heal. But thanks to the folks are barbell medicine I calmed myself down, assessed the situation, and decided to give the next set a try - and things felt better. A few hours later everything felt fine.
These felt heavy enough that I think I may add in a light squat day in the middle of the week.

Diet:
Soooooo... It turns out I incorrectly measured my waist. I was under the impression that I was supposed to be measuring with a fully relaxed gut (which I actually have to focus to do). But I found a thread where Jordan said not to do that. Upon further reading, it seems you're supposed to stand tall, and take a breath out (not sucking the gut in at all). I re-measured and I was 36.5". So I think I'm going to titrate up my calories. Probably will go with a slightly lower number than the TBAB muscle gain numbers.
I find it hard to get anywhere near enough fiber. So until I get better at cooking, I'm going to rely on extra bowls of Raisin Bran (which is awesome) and metamucil.

If you're getting the weight forward and you're grinding them out, its not too heavy. Stay back and it will feel a lot lighter.

Thanks, Cha.
Actually, it was only for that one single rep. But I'm not planning on de-loading any way. I'm still going to add weight to the bar.

At some point SSLP programming calls for adding a light squat day in the middle of the week to allow for better recovery. I'll need to re-read the section in the PP book, but I believe it's supposed to be around the time you start getting close to or actually failing your last rep last set or so. Definitely feels like I'm close to there. But to be fair I was eating around or very slightly under maintenance most days last few weeks, so I guess we'll see what happens when I eat ~3k cals now.
One bias in my mind is that in the PP book, Rip shows the log of what he calls an "outstanding former athlete" where they started adding in light-days after 275lb squat.
For now I'll just see how the next 2 workouts go.

[Update: 12/16/2017]

OHP 120 x 5,5,5
Squat 290 x 5,5,5
Deadlift 275 x 5

OHP:
Easy enough. I'm not doing a great job of using hips/bounce a la 2.0. Not sure if it's a problem but I also get the feeling I need to focus more on staying tight (in all lifts, tbh)

Squat:
So, uhhhh, after all that complaining last update, these squats felt pretty easy. Like first rep of first set I was pretty sure I'd nail all 3 sets. For sure had 2-3 in the tank on very last rep.

Deadlift:
Made another 10lb jump. This time it felt heavy enough that I think I'll 5lb from here on out.
I attempted my work set and got 1/5th a rep, but it felt too heavy or something felt wrong so I dropped it.
I used to just give up if this happened in the past. Afraid that I was going to hurt myself. This is why my deadlift has always been so weak and far behind my squat. Deadlifting is just the easiest lift to quit on, imo.
But this time I took 30 seconds, pumped myself up, told myself I needed to get this lift, and went out and lifted that mother****er. And my form looked better than I've ever seen.
Feels good.

Diet:
Right at 3k Cal's. And hit macros. Even got to sip on some Angel's Envy.

Nice lifts, although curiously the links to your videos are broken. I have the same problem with deadlifting, for whatever it's worth; much easier for me to grind out a tough squat rep.

I've never had Angel's Envy; worth it I assume? I had some Russell's Reserve last night; pretty tasty.

Thanks. I am really looking forward to squat/deadlifting 315+ and becoming a real adult male.

Which videos? From this post? I didn't link any. Oh wait is this sarcasm? Or the last one with a YouTube link? Should be working fine.

Angel's Envy is great. There's other Bourbons that taste better to sip imo, and are cheaper, but it's the only bottle I have around because it's part of my favorite mixed drink (1oz Angel's, 2oz Disaronno, 4oz ginger ale, 2 luxardo cherries).

Yes, sarcasm.

I'm hoping to get to a 315x5 squat set eventually; it will have been a long time coming.

I took a trip in the Bourbon Trail with my old man last spring; we hit six distilleries and I still have a bunch left: Willett Pot Still Reserve, Maker's 46, Russell's, Four Roses Small Batch, Eagle Rare, and Woodford Double Oaked. Pretty cool trip if you're ever so inclined.

Montecore,
- Ah, well I have a video for you this time.
- Getting closer and closer to those 3-plates. 295 felt good today
- That sounds awesome.
--------------------------

[Update: 12/19/2017]

Bench 155 x 5,5,5
Squat 295 x 5,5,5
Chins x 1,1,1,1,1

Bench:
Made another 5lb jump. Felt WAY too easy. Will do another 5lb at end of week.

Squat:
The weight was actually relatively easy. Was sure I had all reps at the first rep first set again.
I tried to adjust some things after getting some feedback in the SS Coaches QA forum. But I'm not sure I did such a great job improving on them.
- Cranking head on ascent. Eyes looking at the right spot, but they have to look down to do it. So I need to focus on keeping chin tucked.
- Knees likely aren't pushing out enough. Mostly the left knee -- mild scoliosis and hip shifts a bit to the left.
He also mentioned lifting chest early, which I tried to improve but I just don't have a good enough eye for this to be sure what good and bad look like.

Here's a video of my Squat 295lb 3rd set - compared to a 4x squat from Austin Baraki that's a close enough angle.
Besides his knee being out more, and head position being better, I can't really tell (because I don't know what to look for) what important things are different.

[Update: 12/21/2017]

Squat 300 x 5,5,5
OHP 125 x 5,5,5
Deadlift 280 x 5

Squat:
Getting less and less confident in my squat. My knees have been feeling a little sore lately. After this session my knees feel pretty warm. They don't hurt, they just feel uncomfortable and sore. Probably due to knee slide or not shoving out the knees enough. Or both. I may have to de-load to focus on form.

OHP: Decent grind on both 2nd and 3rd set last reps.

Deadlift: Felt fine.

The knee thing could be coming from adhesions in your quads.

[Update: 12/23/2017]

Bench 160 x 5,5,5
Squat 245 x ~5 x 4
Chins 1,1,1,1,1

Bench:
Felt fine/easy.

Squat:
Dropped to 4 sets of 245 to work on form / not further upset knees.

Chins:
I think I'm not even closing out a real chin (chest to bar) so I think I'll need to start doing rows again to build that up. IDK.

Knees:
I think it might be the quad tendons. Feels fine normally but if I squat down past 1/3-squat it feels like DOMS from the top half of the patella up a few inches.
- Day after 295lb squat they got sore.
- Night of 300lb squat they got uncomfortably warm/tight/sore. Next day were sore.
- Leading up to this 245lb, they were sore. After warmups they felt fine. Were mildly sore next day.
It's now ~72hrs later and I think they feel slightly better, but it's still there when I squat down. Feels fine if I'm not squatting down.

Gym was closed for xmas, so I just did push-up/chins. I will probably skip squats Wednesday. If knees feel better Friday I will de-load and start squatting. If they still bother me, I'll look into what to do (pin squats/isometrics/etc most likely from what I read).

Again, they don't hurt. But for them to feel this way for this long I get worried that I'm going to cause some longer-term problems that take even longer to fix.


Here's a video of 12/23 245lb form correction squats. I was working on keeping knees from going too far forward / sitting back more. Also was working on keeping the chin down.
Thoughts?

How much do you weigh? You don't look like you're heavy enough to not be able to do one chin-up (back-handed compliment there, but I mean well).

edit: skimmed and saw you're about 200. Are you going to cut? I tried doing the slow-cut/maintenance type deal when I started out and eventually I just gave in and cut. It was a very very long cut but it's something you only need to do once and get it over with. Might be worth considering. I think if I could go back I'd have cut from the very beginning because I had really lackluster results lifting at a slight deficit at >30% bodyfat. Not sure how sound the science is re: hormones but it really seems better in a lot of ways to be leaner when going for a recomp result.

Squats look good to me. I do squats from the pins (Anderson squats) and like them just fine though never heard of them for knee pain treatment.

Re Chinups; if you want a good back exercise then rows are great. If you actually just want to build up chinups, then probably better off doing lat pulldowns and chinup eccentrics--use a step to start in lockoff position at the top and hold for 3 seconds (or as long as you can hold it), then lower slowly for about 5 seconds. Repeat for 3 sets of 5, and you should get stronger quickly.

Watched a video stating recent studies show negatives/eccentric work really just help you be better at lowering yourself, not pulling yourself up. It was on the internet so gonna assume its true.

I like band supported chins. You go through the actual range of motion and can progressively remove assistance. Jumping chins could be helpful too if your struggle is the lock out at the top and not the bottom half of the movement.

Negatives got me from 0 reps to doubles really quickly. Anecdotally they were much more effective than assisted.

Knees are feeling better. I still get some aches in certain squatted positions. Will proceed with plan to skip squats tonight, and reassess on Friday.

Renton,
After I realized I was measuring my waist all wrong, I decided to just gain a little weight while doing SS LP. Maybe I'll recomp/cut with intermediate programming. Not really thinking about that yet.

Holliday,
Thanks! I think I still need to improve a few things, though.
I've heard (from Baraki and a few others) that progressively lower pin-squats and also isometrics (and iirc tempo squats) can help with healing the tendon/ligaments. Need to read up on it, though.

Holliday, Spenda, ibvalvy,
Thanks guys. I'm strong enough in the biceps to lift my chin above the bar, but my upper back isn't strong enough to lock out and get my chest to hit the bar.
I've seen SS and BBM coaches recommend rows and lat pull-downs as most effective methods.
I'm sure any of the methods you guys listed here will help and eventually get me there. But rows and lat pulldowns sound sexier to me than negatives or bands.

Or losing weight would help.

My last post on the topic as I'm sure many here would disagree, but I strongly believe it's not a great idea in the short or long term for someone who's 40 pounds overweight to intentionally gain weight in pursuit of novice gains. You can make great progress while maintaining or even slowly losing weight.

This is almost certainly quad adhesions. PM me on FB if you want to discuss it. I'll discontinue offering my opinion on this if you dont want it.

Will shoot you a message.

[Update: 12/28/2017]
Bench 162.5 x 5,5,5 (pretty much a PR since my old 165 PR was bouncing the bar off my chest )
....

Something came up and I didn't do a good job of eating enough last few days. Bench felt much harder than I think it would have, but it was still not near failure.
I messed around with some super light deadlifts (95lbs) for practice and did some isometric squat positions to get a feel for them if I need to do them in the future.

Yesterday my knees felt some ache. But today they feel pretty much fine. As I'm writing this I took a break to air squat and I can't even find an uncomfortable position.
I think my plan will be to squat somewhere between 225-275 tomorrow, depending on how I feel. If all goes well, 10-20lb jumps until 300lb. Between now and then I need to see if I can figure out any improvements to make on my form.