The bench press is ever a struggle for me, but one thing I can point out is that you should probably place your feet farther down the bench (heels flat on floor) or farther up the bench (heels up). Most bench setup vids on youtube advise having your knees be lower than your hips to get good leg drive.

Squat @ 107.5kg for 6. Fairly confident with my squat from but I want to keep on top of it. Any advice is appreciated


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Form check for OHP please!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF-yBkSn38I

21ss,
The only things I'd say is that your descent is a bit too fast, and there might be a bit of knee cave (of course the latter is impossible to tell from this angle.)

Renton, I think you helped a lot. My top sets still look like ****, but I think the warmups were alot better. Hips still shooting up, if I can combine "hips up" with "back straight" maybe I'll be saved from a hernia.

Edit: Last set was at 265 (~85%). sorry for the ****ty camera work also.

Yeah it still just looks like you aren't getting your back set before you pull.

Also, you're rushing. Each rep should take you several seconds to set up, and once the rep is over you should start over and reset. At least this should be the case until you get better at them. Doing all your warmups as perfect as possible is really important for getting the groove down during your top set.

As to getting your back set, try the superman stretch and try doing Romanian deadlifts with moderate weight (95 lb) to feel what it's like to have a tight back/glutes/hams under load. Once you set up to deadlift, think about squeezing your chest up and putting your shoulder blades in your back pockets. Just as you initiate the pull, your glutes and hams should feel tight, your air tight against your abs, and your lats engaged.

Shump, i think your bar path could be more vertical and I'd be interested in seeing a dead side on video with the path tracked. It looks like your losing it slightly forward on the way up.

Jonny, how's your ability to engage your lats? THey're helpful for keeping the bar close. You're also moving the bar away from you with your shins in the setup

I haven't posted a bench press here for a while. I'm mainly interested in what I can do to optimize this in this situation when no spotter/handoff is available. I live in Cambodia and I just can't depend on the locals here to even know what a handoff is, much less do it correctly.

The second hooks on this bench are far too low. There is a second bench that has hooks that are slightly higher, such that I can unrack from the second hooks. The primary downside to that bench is that the hooks are much deeper, and the top hooks are too high for me to unrack without protracting completely.

Hey renton, check out this unrack technique at 6:20 in this video. I've been trying to do it myself (with limited success).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji5ieq8JdnQ

I don't even know how to judge my ability to engage my lats, so I think the answer is that my ability is not so good. The only thing I've being doing is trying to turn my elbows in a bit, which gets them tighter.

And good catch on the second point, I never even noticed that myself. I guess I'm setting up a little too closely? Also, should my shins be completely vertical?

You could be on to something there as I did feel the weight shift towards my toes for a few reps of that set. I thought I did a better job of counteracting it at the time. I'll keep an eye on that


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No, not completely vertical, but not too bent that your pushing the bar forward of mid foot off the floor

Hang cleans:




I think these look (slightly) better than the previous ones, right?
For being able to self-assess more accurately in the future, this is what I am looking for right?
On the left a still which shows no full hip extension, on the right we see something that approaches full hip extension.



Front squat:


Are my knees travelling too far forward?

you look like you understand the idea of extension you are just out of sync. You can see it in that pic on the right your arms are already super bent at the top of your extension.

Right now you are lowering the bar to your hang position and trying to explode from there.

what you want to do is pull back all the way to your standing tall position then explosively extend. the bar should be hitting your thighs in the same place as where it touches them when you are standing tall locked out before you ever lower into the hang.

knees on front squats are fine

A well executed frontsquat with a very upright torso will always go paired with knees traveling forward and will require great ankle dorsiflexion flexibility.

If your flexibility there is limited, your shins will end up having a move vertical angle and your torso angle will be more forward causing you to be in a less efficient position to (front)squat the weight up.

Squat 110kg x6:

What did I do wrong here? Never done this before. Am I extending my hips too much at the top? This was my third set and I was fatigued but I've never dropped the bar before after completing a rep


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LOL I have never seen that before, xpost to ggo or lc thread imo.

as far as form goes, there is absolutely no need to fire your glutes and hips through at the top like that at all, let alone far enough that you start leaning back and drop the bar.

Why is firing glutes and hips at the top bad? (Forget that I dropped the bar here for a second!)


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I think he just means exaggerating it. The lockout is all glute, but a lean tends to mean you added English to 'finish' it

Got it


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21SS,

Stop doing that pelvic thrust at the top. Very bad move and injury waiting to happen. The reason you dropped the bar is because you are throwing your pelvis forward and creating a rolling effect that your upper back and shoulders dealt with by rolling back.

You want to keep a stable, neutral, natural back position through the entire range of motion.

will do

Hey all, it's been a while since I posted. Over 2 years! Seems like everyone is doing pretty well. I browsed a couple logs and it appears most of H&F has avoided major injury and Cha is now going to qualify for the Arnold, which is badass. And I apparently missed another thremp popup/burnout by a couple days.

Can I get a quick form check from a couple recent sessions? Every squat session my form feels different. I am trying to squat more high bar than used to. My bar path is pretty wonky in the side video (but it feels a little better in the one in my basement.)

Great looking squats CP. If I'd have to nitpick I'd say you could do a better job of standing up tall before you initiate the rep, with your head more neutral and your thoracic spine a bit more extended. It will help keeping the balance over your mid foot. Right now your head is a little in front.

But really, they look great.

Thank you, nitpicking is good. I don't really think about my head/neck/thoracic spine because I've been focusing on other cues and trying to stay more vertical. I know I have a habit of looking down because of low bar squatting . I'll try to implement the next couple sessions.

It looks generally good to me. Bar travel and acceleration are good, as is shin position. I think you may consider raising your shoulders a bit (you look a little slumped in the upper back). And, keeping your head in a neutral position rather than looking up will surely be more comfortable as you go up in weight.

It's hard to tell how much your back is doing vs your arms, but that will self-correct as you move up in weight, practically by definition (i.e., it's hard to muscle up a couple hundred pounds or more with just your arms...your back will automatically recruit to try to pull the weight).

I've been working on my Pendlay rows for a bit, recording them to find opportunities for improvement. I found a lack of acceleration off the bottom, knees bent too much, and stuff like that. I posted these in real-time in my log as I sought to improve. I think my most recent ones are getting there, though I do see opportunities still, of course. This is 235 lb X 3: