Hang cleans: You need to lower the bar quicker and make more use of the stretch reflex. You're more or less doing them from a dead hang atm which is not desired. I think your arms are bending a little early and the bar is travelling too far away from your body. Try and brush the bar against your chest as you pull it up.

Good work pulling it up as quick as you can and rotating your elbows into the rack position. Also good discipline un/racking the weight. I think if you keep adding weight and keep these things in mind you'll have it nailed soon.

(I'm self taught and have never really had anyone look at my form but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm misleading you gl)

Pummi, BP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QnwAoesJvQ

All righty. Thx a lot, both of ya.

pins are too high on the bp.

also record from the crotch angle and check your grip width, the forearms should be vertical at the bottom of the lift, right now looks like they may be pointing in a bit.

Yes, that's something I noticed myself too.

A'it.

Thx.

this^ is good. This is better (same guy): http://articles.elitefts.com/article...e-series-here/

& this^

& this:

Don't lower the bar so fast. Bring it down slower, then push up as hard as you can after it touches your chest.

It looks like your shoulder blades are not pulled down & back. That's a huge problem when the weights get heavier. The pins being set too high are going to make keeping your shoulder blades tight nearly impossible.

Watch all those Dave Tate videos, practice all the stuff he talks about, then watch them again. That dude is a BP expert.

Okay, I need to check out that article before next bench-workout.
Thx for the link and advice.

Pummi,

just FYI the Tate-style of benching in those vids is different from SS. I agree it's probably better (I use it myself), just wanted to let you know so you don't confuse the cues.

Yeah, I actually watched the vid in the first link and thought to myself "Hmmm, this guy prolly knows what he's talking about but that doesn't sound/look similar to what I read/saw in SS-book/dvd".
Anyhoo, I'll watch the rest next, I believe it's good stuff.

Form check on squats:

255x5:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZckXbPnbKI
275x5:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdaRk0acal0

I have a few concerns. Depth might not be sufficient on some of them. Also, in the 255 video, my knees either don't stop moving forward or they move forward at the bottom of the squat. I remember something from Starting Strength suggesting that means the hamstrings are loosening at the bottom and it will cause hip flexor tendinitis.

In the future, I'll try to use the 45 degree recording angle suggested in the initial post.

Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

they look fine to me.

Get some new shoes though.

Spoke with my Dr. today about my blood pressure issues while DL. Because I am now on BP meds my body does not have the ability to control my BP as it normally would. The meds are doing that. So when my BP drops my body will not compensate as it normally would. All I can do is adjust the exercises to compensate. He said to make sure I was well hydrated. Hopefully when I get in shape I can get off the meds. High BP runs in my family when getting older but then again so does being out of shape. I go for a stress test on Thurs. I am sure everything will be OK.

I will be working out in a little while.

Bad form incoming...

I posted a couple squat videos a while ago when I first started SS, and my form needed a lot of work, but I never kept up with the videos, and as a result my form on my lifts probably need some work.

This was my first set (I think) @ 265
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts3hxYrL1Gs

I'll work on the camera angle for next time. I have set 2 and my deadlift form video to upload later, but I have to go to work now.

your wrist position looks bad. it's as if you are supporting almost the entire 265 with your palm/elbow.

Log x-post:



Thigh cramped up on first setup, so I had to start over. Actual benching starts at 0:45.

Only thing I notice is I should plant my legs first and set up without moving them.

It looks to me like you are performing a fairly sound high bar squat with the bar in a low bar position, which makes things kind of awkward/difficult.

i've never taped myself benching but i've been stuck a while so i figured it was a good time. i've watched dave tate's videos so i know what to do--whether i do it is a different story. i've noticed two problems (not sure if you can tell in this video): one is that i let the weight too far forward, making it really hard to get back up. how do i avoid this, and where should the bar hit--the highest point in my chest?

second, my right side tends to lag sometimes. any common cause of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YACUVjcuJ_0

thanks in advance.

That bench looked rather easy, just make sure youre not bouncing it.


Squats!



Knees are sliding and even worse, I keep losing the weight forward, esp on later reps. Sometimes I seriously end up almost parallel. Dont have the worst cases on video, but what do I need to work on to fix this?

X-post from my log.

A couple of videos from yesterdays SS-workout #10.
I had to spend 10 days w/o squatting/dl'ing so I dropped the weights a bit.

Squat 45kg / 99lb:



Deadlift 75kg / 166lb:



As always, any critique/advice is very much appreciated.

i've been working on shoulder/wrist flexibility and the wrist position for my squat. can i get a thumbs up/down? also, there might be slight lumbar rounding/just above parallel. hammies/flexors pretty tight yesterday. :/

sylar, those look a lot better than when I saw them in person. Pretty solid, but yeah, some lumbar rounding which should be avoided. Knees out hard, maybe cut them off a tad early until you get the flexibility.

Stance maybe a tad wide for sylar there?

thanks. i am slowly realizing how knees out helps keep the back from rounding.

sm, i didn't really think stance was too wide. i usually can't get comfortable on the first rep, and adjust the stance a tiny bit after it, like in the first vid.

Squats from today, including 4-second rep:



My thoughts: iffy depth on a few, some knee cave, a little leg pressy at times.

Would really appreciate some feedback.