agree with KC wrt PoJo's dl. i think the lumbar loses extension not a little bit.

Crap! ****s hard yo

thx. def noticed that im not going deep enough compared to my warmups

i re-watched the rippetoe squats video and my wrists were a lot better today. but i notice that after a squat or two the bar will roll just a bit and my wrists will **** back. i guess squeeze the bar against my back more?

Hey everyone... stalling real bad on everything right now so I'd love to see if my form is alright. (If my form is alright, I suppose I'll change the programming). Any feedback would be awesome.

Form checks: would really really appreciate a look given that I'm stalling on everything:

Squat:Set 1 (Fail), Set 2
Bench: Set 1, Set 2 -- touching too high on my chest?
PC: A set, another set

(Aware that the squat fail is ugly because I accidentally had the rails one notch too low). Thanks in advance.

Is this amount of knee cave/movement acceptable? This is the heaviest set of 5 I have done

weird, I was positive you were gonna make the set. is it possible you just lost tightness somewhere? also it's hard to tell, but are you breathing out before you get to the top?

i couldn't see anything wrong with your form.

also before you go changing anything about your programming based on whether or not your form is good, it'd be useful to evaluate the whole program: what are you doing, how often are you doing it, are you getting enough sleep, are you eating a diet that fits your goals, etc.

Yeah, doing basically greyskull at a slight surplus w/plenty of sleep. Things were going ok for a while but I've failed my first set of squats past two attempts after making 3x5 clean at 230. Not sure what to do... as far as being tight, I'm not really sure. I take a big breath at the top and try and get tight, and end up exhaling on the way back up...

I think your form is okay, though you lack some tightness.

To be honest, you seem to lack intensity. Which is kind of a polite way to say that you need to man up. This is a solid post on attacking the rep (you can't really learn intensity by reading a post but I think it gives you the right mind frame).

http://www.70sbig.com/page/2/?s=attack

Ok, that's a fair observation, thanks. I was pretty gassed at the gym today for some reason but as a product of being careful with certain aspects of form and generally just not manning up I can see how intensity might be an issue. I have two more workouts before I'd begin to consider switching up the programming so I'll try and go in with a bit more attack next time. I guess general lack of WIM might explain stalling on everything at once...

By the way, any thoughts on bench/PC? Better angles needed?

Aaalrighty, here we go again...

I feel bad because usually I'm such a good student. But I feel like I'm just not getting this movement down right and not improving. I assume I'm still jumping (even though ALL I'm thinking about during this exercise is thrusting my hips forward and keeping my toes on the ground). Also I'm bothered by the fact that I'm not landing solidly because I'd like to squat clean eventually for an assistance exercise. I tried front squatting after a few reps today but my weight was on my toes because of my poor hang clean landing.

Getting very frustrated with this damn exercise. All thoughts are super appreciated.

http://youtu.be/CTtXpF8PEj4 (sets 2 and 3 maybe)

bluefox,

I hate your elbow position. You're jacking them way up. That's probably part of the reason your wrists aren't straight.

As far as the depth. You could try bringing in your stance just a smidge. And you need to actively force knees out as hard as possible. Your knees aren't caving, but it's something everyone can get better at. Knees out = room for you to get between your legs and not get blocked by your hips.

Fix those things and get back to us.

Re: deadlifts. They look OK but you aren't very tight and you lose your neutral spine by the end of the set. Everything just needs to be tight as **** before you pull.

Squat form check please: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wierl...apzsnLGjW4Wd_c

1st workset. Looks to me like I don't go deep enough and my first rep is a it fast on the descent?

Depth is close on all the reps. The angle on the feet is too severe...toes should be more forward. You ate doing a pretty good job of shoving knees out but I'd do it harder/faster.

If anything I think your descent is too slow on all reps. You want to remain in control but fast enough to get a nice bounce off your hamstrings. A different angle might be helpful.

i did that after watching rip's squat video. i def might be going too far with the elbows up part... but that's the best my wrists have looked and i didnt have any wrist pain afterwards. will having them up that far f anything else up?

my wrists before were practically an L.

thx.. will do. ill take a video tomorrow as well. are the angles good on the vids or do i need to make adjustments? it's kind of cramped in the garage but i will throw **** around to make room. i rly want to squat correctly.

rgr. thanks again!

zinna just wondering but don't you find it difficult to squat with somebody trying to "spot" you like that.

seems pretty ******ed imo. like if you fail a rep wtf is that guy going to do? looks like a good way to get yourself (or both of you) hurt if you actually do fail a rep, particularly with the limited space behind you.

Deadlift form check, plz.

Squat check please! Apart from the less than ideal setup, anything else I should be focusing on?

Cheers!

irishiain,

your knees are going too far forward - sit back and push your knees out (not forward). don't go straight down, sit your ass back, and then lift the weight with your ass - mentally picture your ass is lifting all of the weight.
when you drop straight down instead of sitting back with your ass you are letting the weight sit infront of your foots center, this is why on some reps your heels are coming up (never a good thing) the weight should ALWAYS be in the heels.

your low-back is rounding way too much - you're getting more than deep enough, you shouldn't go for depth at the expense of losing tightness in your back. go a little less deep and keep that back tight - bounce out of the bottom.

and your chest is much too horizontal, you should lift with your ass but your chest should be raising and nearly the same pace as your ass - right now your ass goes up and your chest is going up much slower, resulting in a nearly horizontal chest (with a horribly rounded back) on your way up.

pretty sure im gonna die from squats and/or drop the weights on my car. **** squats imo.

Awesome, thanks for the detailed response!

Long time lurker of this thread. Truly appreciate it. I've been doing Bill Starr's 5x5 for about 10 weeks now and it's starting to get difficult. Coming from a BB split background where I didn't squat or DL with any kind of regularity.

Squat workset: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05jheh9jBn8
Two DL rampups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ROKG-ouyY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9AQsw8AIrs
DL Workset (felt it really broke me down the last couple reps): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnkLLNRnjb8

Any thoughts appreciated.

My latest 5rm squat attempt (355lbs at 180) . The third rep threw me a little and the last two are bad, losing back extension (if I ever had it ). First part in real time, second part same set in half speed. Any input?

I think you could tell a lot just by watching the bar path. I realize the camera is slightly behind 9 o'clock, but there seems to be a lot of moving away from vertical.

Looks like your knees go too far forwards. But it looks like you're sitting back properly - do you have very long legs?

I don't think so, I think im a fairly averagely proportioned 5' 9". I obviously need to get tighter and work on my flexibility to be able to maintain back extension at the bottom (i find this hard even with no weight).