Yes it can be determined. He sets up with too much space between his shins and the bar. There should be 1in of space between the shins and the bar in order to produce the correct shin angle when the shins touch the bar without moving it. We have found this to be true for 99.9% of the population. In fact if you pause the video at 11sec you can see how his weight is shifted forward. His heels are even slightly elevated. So he needs to get closer to the bar during the setup and start with the bar over midfoot. He also needs to work on getting a better squeeze at the bottom.

THAnks! Paused have tried but don’t do much of.. deficits yes but usually at about 60% load.



Will try getting shins closer thanks! I assume you mean keep same body position but move bar closer only?
Agreed need to get tighter at setup!

Its better to think about getting your body closer to the bar. The correct body position is produced from a correct setup:

1. Take your stance, feet a little closer than you think it needs to be and with your toes out more than you like. Your shins should be about one inch from the bar, no more. This places the bar over the mid-foot – the whole foot, not the mid-instep.

2. Take your grip on the bar, leaving your hips up. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

3. Drop your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

4. Hard part: squeeze your chest up as hard as you can. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR. This establishes a "wave" of extension that goes all the way down to the lumbar, and sets the back angle from the top down. DO NOT LOWER YOUR HIPS – LIFT THE CHEST TO SET THE BACK ANGLE.

5. Squeeze the bar off the floor and drag it up your legs in contact with your skin/sweats until it locks out at the top. If you have done the above sequence precisely as described, the bar will come off the ground in a perfectly vertical path. All the slack will have come out of the arms and hamstrings in step 4, the bar will not jerk off the ground, and your back will be in good extension. You will perceive that your hips are too high, but if you have completed step 4 correctly, the scapulas, bar, and mid-foot will be in vertical alignment and the pull will be perfect. The pull will seem "shorter" this way.

How to fix

You are not keeping your low back in extension. The weight on the bar wants to pull your back into flexion so you have to fight against this by extending(arching) your spine. Squeeze your chest up hard, get a big breath and focus harder on arching your low back. Another way to think about it is when you are at the bottom about to pull, think about pushing your belly between your knees

Can I get some thoughts on this bench, specifically butt coming up?

It feels like when my upper hamstring/lower glutes area get tight it lifts my upper ass off. There is still contact there in between my feet and upper back.

I've read make sure knees are below hips and mine are well below so not sure what to do about it.

Widen your foot position or move to a flat foot setup are both options. Also less aggressively arching of course.

I'm 5'9 155lb and been lifting for 6 months regularly. My routine has been high intensity, volume and lifting until muscle fatigue. I've kind of hit a wall in terms of weight lifted and having trouble progressing, so I've been lifting the same weight until fatigue for past couple months. Any general advice or on my form would be appreciated.

https://youtu.be/kfgl63H9JyM
Squat 225
https://youtu.be/gSz8d9pQsNI
Bench 135

What are your training goals?

I want to get stronger and build muscle without risking injury ofc. I tried benching 165 and could barely do 2 reps. My splits have been back/bicep, chest/tris/shoulders, legs while mixing in isolation and compound exercises.

Of course. But that routine trains the body in isolation when it is meant to be trained as a system. I recommend switching to the Starting Strength Program

By your description it does not seem like you are following an actual lifting routine for strength, which usually does not include "lifting until muscle fatigue" for beginners. I would recommend something like:

I can't comment on your bench, but your squat needs some work. Seems like you are doing a high bar squat (different from SS, but still a good type of squat). If you are trying to do a low bar squat, the bar should be a bit lower and you will need to sit back more. Knees out (possibly a bit further forward to allow for depth), need to go deeper (seems like about 3" high), and I recommend not looking into a mirror - see SS for explanation. No need to follow the eating protocols of SS, but it is a great way to get stronger, learn the lifts, and get your reps in. Do that for a couple of months and you can switch to something like a 5/3/1 variation, a strongman program, a more body building type split, or some type of crossfit type overall workout depending on where your strength/aesthetics goals take you.

While I do recommend SS, I don't think it is fully necessary to follow it to the letter - I changed things up a bit when I went through it. I do think a scheme of 5 reps for 3 sets (1 set for deadlifts) with linear progression would help you out. I would do that for 2 weeks, starting fairly low in weight, without accessories just to get the feeling of how the program works. You will most likely not feel like this program is enough stimulus as you will have a lot left in the tank in the beginning but don't rush the progression. After the 2 weeks start adding in some of your other accessory/BB/HIIT/running/whatever else you would like to do and see how you progress doing that.

I never did any of the power clean and power snatches when I went through it. They may help out but I personally don't think they are 100% necessary unless you want more explosive/dynamic gains. I do think it is good to do squats, deadlifts, bench, and overhead press as prescribed in the SS protocol as long as there are no physical limitations to any of these.

If you do something like this for a few months you will have a bit more knowledge of how you react to this type of training and can continue for a bit longer or start up a different strength program to get you towards your overall goals. I most likely stayed on this program too long in the beginning but I saw I was making progress and didn't feel the need to switch, which may have delayed my strength gains. I still fall back on a 5 rep x 3 set linear progression scheme when I come back from a significant training layoff.

I need help with my front squat! I always thought it looked better than my back squat, but got a bit of a shock after seeing it on video.

Pretty tough to tell anything from this angle

Are you using a thumbs around grip? I found that developing the mobility to use one allowed me to get more upper back extension.

I can take another video. What is thep preferred angle?

I am. I can get my elbows *slightly* higher if I grip it with just two fingers each, but I am using a full grip on the bar now.

Probably something where the camera is more level with your shoulder height and not on the floor looking up.


Also yeah I'd use less fingers if that allows you to have your elbows higher/better thoracic extension.

It looks like you dip a little forward due to that particularly on the last couple of reps.

Form check on this life hack: working from home and impending apocalypse, so yesterday I panic-bought a 20-lb towing chain for the house to exercise with. Decided to wear it for kicks yesterday, and it's been doing wonders for my neck and shoulder tension!

I've been wearing it all day today (+IF), it sways a bit which seems to help keep balance and not slouch forward, and it's like wearing a foam roller. GOAT push-ups.

tl;dr: I think this is my new post-apocalyptic look:

Trying to remember how to do all this stuff. Can I get a form check?

My impression is that in general I think the weight is getting too far forward during the squat. You want it to go directly up and down and stay over your mid foot.

I believe the reason it is pitching forward is because you start your downward motion with too much hip hinge and not enough knee bend (pause the video at ~0:09 and you can see your hip has started to fold but your shins are still almost fully vertical). You want the hip to hinge at the same time your knees bit and in such a way that the bar stays directly over your mid food. In essence you are pushing you butt back too much to start the descent.

The result of the weight traveling forward on the way down is that your hips are shooting up first on the ascent and causing you to have to "good morning" the weight back to the starting position using your posterior chain.

Try to stay more upright on the way down--think "chest up" (and fight the urge to purposefully push your butt back to start the lift)--to keep the bar more centered and to prevent having your hips shoot up on the ascent.

NOTE: In addition to addressing the form mistake, hips shooting up out of the bottom is usually a sign of weak quads. Your body is pretty smart and when hips shoot up followed by your posterior chain doing most of the lift it is a sign of your body trying to involve muscles it feels are stronger. So keep working on quad strength and that should also help some, too, I think.

There is a large lack of information when the set is only 1 rep and filmed from the direct side. Ideal angle is rear 45 degree angle from hip height for a set of 5. Form looks decent from this one rep but need to see more

https://youtu.be/ajY9iUiurQQ

Squats!

High bar or low bar?

Low.