all of this, plus lifting in socks only will help

some of the early reps look like the bar's a bit far away from your body, but staying back on your heels should help with that

March 18:

Squats:
2x5x285
1x5x295

ez game. Next time moving up to 3 sets of 295.

OH Press:
3x5x120

Getting there. I'm really glad I'm making gains here.

DL:
1x5x335

I should make another video soon to make sure my form is continuing to improve.

March 16:

Squats:
3x5x285

Bench Press:
2x5x220
1x5x225

Had a guy spot me on my last set. I had 220 on there and he goes "Why don't you just try 225 instead of 220? It may be easier for you since you have all these extra plates extended out on the bar which is making is feel heavier than it is." Physics, Ido. Makes sense. So I tried it and sure enough 225 was easier than 220. Weird. Next time 3x5x225!

DL:
1x5x335

Back not on fire afterwards. Feeling it in my hams/glutes/calves as I do the reps so I think that means I'm doing them better than I was previously!

March 20:

Wasn't feeling 100% today so I was unsure about going to the gym and doing heavy squats. Seemed like a risk but in the end I pushed through and went.

Squats:
3x5x295

Bench Press:
3x5x225

Last rep was hard and I didn't go all the way to my chest with the bar since I didn't have anyone spotting me. Next time I'll ask for a spot and get there.

DL:
1x5x335

March 22:

Squats:
3x5x295

OH Press:
3x5x125

DL:
1x5x345

Here is a video of my workset. Rep #1 was bad I think. I didn't focus when starting it and reverted back to poor form. reps 2 and 3 are a lot better and then it goes downhill again I think.



And here is a video of a warmup set of 275x2. I think my form in this one is a lot better.

March 24:

Squats:
3x5x295

Second set:


I think they look pretty good. Would appreciate any criticisms though. Gonna do 305 next time around. Pretty pumped about almost getting to 3 plates

Bench Press:
3x5x225
1x4x235

ez game. Tried 235 w/ a spotter at the end since my 3rd workset was so easy. Moving to 230 for worksets next time.

DL:
1x5x345

I suck. First and last reps had rounded back for sure. No video but I suck.

not a very good angle to judge anything besides knee cave imo. you should get one from the side. I've put a 10lb plate on top of a 24" box and propped my phone up against it to get vids before.

looked good though as far as I can tell.

yeah, ty. I think they look good as well. My DL form in the videos below is horrible and needs much more attention I think

Squats - I can see your heels moving, indicating that your weight is shifting onto your midfoot/toes at the bottom. Depth might be slightly questionable on some reps. Buy actual lifting shoes, it should fix both issues.

Deadlifts - They're not that bad. Arms should be straight the whole time, you're kind of curling the weight. Other than that, on the heavy set you pull with your butt too high, which makes it more of a back exercise than a lower body exercise. Your rounding is not bad and it seems to be mostly in the middle/upper back, but it looks completely acceptable to me. Focus on keeping your weight on your heels, and drag the bar up your shins until it clears your knees. These two cues will guarantee that you are keeping your hamstrings engaged and not just muscling the weight up with your back.

Squats: I think lifting shoes would help the issue since I'm lifting in worn-out running shoes. They basically have no give in the soles and are flat horizontally but vertically they curl up at the toes like all running shoes. Not optimal. maybe that's why I'm shifting weight.

Deadlifts: not that bad? Really? well that's encouraging. I read over some DL cues again earlier today and yeah, I think think my main issue right now is leading with my hips/butt instead of pulling the weight up with my chest and then finishing with my hips/butt. That sounds like a lot of what you're telling me as well so next time around I hope I can do a better job.

Thanks!

I was looking for the heel movement and didn't see any. but yeah what he said. any heel movement is really bad because it means the weight isn't aligned properly which can mess up joints and stuff and means you're using the wrong muscles etc.

You're probably letting your weight shift forward because you are stronger when you use your quads as the primary movers compared to distributing the work between your quads and your hamstrings. The downsides to doing this are that 1. you're using less musculature so the max amount of weight you can squat this way is less than if you used your hamstrings more effectively, and 2. since your hamstrings are not as "on" at the bottom it makes it easier for your butt to rise out of the hole in the squat faster than your chest, which will cause you to do more of a good morning than you want.

I mean I don't think you're going to hurt yourself. What rounding you do have looks worse because the angle is so low. You're leaving a lot of pounds on the table by making your back the primary mover, as there's a lot of untapped potential in your hamstrings. But you do a pretty good job of putting the weight down without letting your back bend, so I think you've got back strength to spare, so to speak.

Left heel, first rep. Looks like it comes up a tiny amount and pronates a bit too. Indicating his weight is probably on his arches at the bottom.

Squats: Yeah I think you've nailed it actually. I feel like sometimes I do a rep that just feels vastly stronger than my others and it's probably when I find that balance between hams/quads. Maybe I just need more time and I'll find that balance more frequently. I've only been at this for a month and a half so barbells/balance is fairly new to me.

Thinking "weight on the heels" the whole time is a good way to to get better hamstring activation, though depending on mobility you might find it harder to hit depth. If that's the case then stick with it and just make sure you are appropriately warming up and/or rolling your hip flexors, glutes, and hamstrings and it will improve.

If you're where you're at after only a couple of months then you have the capacity to put up some huge numbers. GL.

March 26:

Squats:
3x5x305

OH Press:
3x5x125

DL:
1x5x345

March 28:

Squats:
3x5x305

Bench Press:
1x5x230
2x4x230

Man, 230 was a lot harder for me today than 225 was.

DL:
1x5x345

Getting better form I think. I feel like I'm using my hams/glutes more than I used to and I'm actively keeping my back tighter and straighter through the lift. Not sure when I'm going to up the weight but for now I want to focus on improving my form.

April 1:

Squats:
3x5x305

OH Press:
1x5x130
2x4x130

DL:
1x5x355
1x3x355

Had some more juice in the tank so I finished the day with 3 more reps. I really want to get my DL up.

April 3:

Squats:
2x5x305
1x5x315

OH Press:
1x5x130
2x4x130

DL:
1x5x355


April 2:

Bench Press:
2x5x230
1x4x230

Then did other stuff. Shoulder, biceps etc

Subscribed. We're pretty similar height, weight, BF, and where we are in our training. You're a bit stronger, though.

Cool, got a log? I'm currently bulking so I'm getting heavy (208 atm) but plan to cut next month. Hopefully I can continue to see small gains in my lifts but I'd be pretty happy with staying where I am when I stop bulking.

Log

Yeah, I just bulked about 6lbs in March (now 203), and plan to start cutting soon. Feel alright about my lifts, but Summer is coming, so feel some pressure to cut. I also think it'll make me feel less of a need to pump up my numbers, and I can really iron out form issues.

How long are you doing SQ + DL every session? Seems intense.

Nice, yeah we have similar goals too.

That's a question I was contemplating earlier today actually. I feel like right now it's intense but I'm getting through it reasonably well. Squats aren't a problem for me (I must have naturally strong legs or something) but my DLs get to be tiresome. Today, for instance, I did DLs but felt my form slipping in my last 2 reps of my ws. Going into today I was a little sore from Monday's DLs so I'm thinking about moving to a schedule where I always give myself at least 2 days of rest between DLs. I reallllly want my DLs to go up so I want to work it hard, but I need to do it right.

Yeah, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure you're way beyond the initial period in SS where you can DL every workout. Rip warns some of overtraining, so I'd just watch out for that. I think a lot of people move to DL once a week at the point you're at. Doing every workout seems like something to do when it's still easy.

If you don't want to do chins/pullups or power clean, maybe you could alternate with halting DLs and Rack pulls. That way you keep working on DL without taxing yourself as much.

On another note, your dedication to getting to the gym puts me to shame.

I thought I responded to this a couple days ago but I guess I never did. Anyways..

Yeah I feel like every other day is way too much DLing. I feel like I can squat every other day w/o issues but I think I need at least 2 and probably more like 3-4 days rest between DLs. Perhaps even once a week but not sure. Do people that DL once/week add 5-10lbs each week?

My biggest goal right now is to get my DL up to 2x bw. I'm happy w/ a 1.5x bw squat right now (and want it to continue to go up of course) but DL is what I want to improve. So, maybe moving to twice a week or once every 4-5 days would work. I would hope that I would be able to add 10lbs every other session. Sound reasonable? If I could do that then I could get a 405lb DL in about a month.

I don't mind pullups/chins. I can do a fair amount of them. Well, I could before I started bulking. I probably can do like 70% of what I used to be able to do due to the weight gain but I haven't tried in a while.

I'm thinking of moving to a schedule like this:

Monday:
Squats
Bench Press
DL

Tuesday:
pullups
ab stuff
shoulder stuff
bis/tris

Wednesday:
Squats
OH Press
????
??

Thursday:
???
DL
???

Friday: day off

Saturday:

Squats
Bench Press
???

Sunday: day off?

I dunno, it's a work in progress. I need to figure out a schedule lol

Looks reasonable enough. I think move up 10lbs until it gets close to failure or form is getting messy, and then slow it down.

What do you think of rack pulls and halting DLs? Seems like if you're serious about DL that would be a good way to work on it. They won't be as taxing as DL, so you can rotate them in and keep working every other day or whatever. And if there is a particular part of the pull you're weaker on you can target it.