Have a few more vid's. They aren't really important lifts but just want a quick form check, thanks guys. 2nd one is bad position, my bad.

9/24/13 Tuesday-

Macros:
2,544 calories
59g fats
310g carbs
209g protein

lol randomly found this clip.. my god, one way ticket to snap city.

Typical low bar squatter imo.

yeah lol that looked painful from the start of the lift

9/25/13- Wednesday (off)
2,574 calories
72g fats
249g carbs
234g protein

Benching tomorrow, pumped. Will keep my ass down do not worry.

Forgot to upload this the other day.. Form check plz, thanks.

I already know my shoulders are weak compared to loco

Get your elbows more forward and snap your head under the bar after it passes your head. Also do that Norwegian sewer butt clenching thing PoW talked about in the LC yesterday if you're not already.

Ty Monte. Will look into that.
I personally noticed my arms shaking towards the end and using a ton of my lower back.

Buddy of mine looked at my deadlift video and told me whenever going heavy it is a must to wear a belt. It will still help support my back. I need to stretch my hip flexors every night. Keep the bar as close to my body as possible and do not look at the mirror on my lift off.

The belt's not to support your lower back, it's to give you something to brace your abs and obliques against.

I'd advise dropping down in weight and working in a range where you can keep your core safely tight for the entire lift (it will be lower than you think). Also, work some speed DLs in too (even lighter weight pulled entirely for speed, 3x3 or something like that).

cha's the DL master, and he's posted most of this advice plus a ton more in other people's logs recently (Snitch is the one that immediately comes to mind).

Are you familiar with the valsalva maneuver? You need to learn to use your natural belt (your core) before you start using a belt.

Take a really deep breath and fill up your diaphragm. After you've taken the deep breath, push your abs out as hard as you can like someone is going to karate chop you in the stomach. That's what you should be doing before you pull the bar off the ground. It will help keep your low back from rounding.

I'd practice pulling like this first (non maximal weights) before introducing a belt. Post videos, fix your set up, and when you've got form figured out and you're ready to lift heavier, then you can start wearing a belt. My opinion, I could be wrong.

Another thing, you can see here



that your wrist is bent back and the bar is not over your forearm. To skip over the physics talk: you want the bar over your forearm for the best mechanical efficiency.

2 other somewhat optional notes:

1. Many people, myself included, have found much improvement on the press by switching to a thumbless grip. This usually causes the bar to be in a better part of the palm, and also allows you to slightly turn the hands in for a bit more natural of a wrist position.

2. It's really hard to see, but at a couple points in the video I thought to myself you may benefit from bringing the grip in a bit. Can you say in words how wide your grip is? I honestly can't tell very well.

If you don't know how to get your back tight and neutral, a belt won't truly fix the problem. It may mitigate it since it may not be possible to round your back so much while wearing a belt, but I dno, I think jdock can and I've never tried to (ldo).

Once you can get tight and keep your back straight, then using a belt and properly bracing against it can help to not worry on maximal reps. But....still, a belt doesn't directly protect one's back or "fix" anything so to speak. It's just an aide for bracing against once you know what you're doing.

That sounds like a good idea. What weight do you think I should use?

No I'm not. To be honest when I'm about to lift I tighten up my abs as if I'm flexing so that tip may help me out some, thanks. I will be sure to post a video end of the week when I do legs again.

Yeah, def can clearly see my wrists going into snap city. I will try the thumbless grip but it will prob feel very awkward. It's approximately the same grip I use for bench. How much more should I bring it in?

Seems that the best bet is to go pretty light until I fix my lower back problems w/o a belt. Every poster seems to agree on that. When you are lifting off for the deadlift, where is your head positioned/ where are you looking?

Aight so after concentrating on my form while benching I came to the realization that I should not go for max weight lol. Almost snapped my chit while maintaining okay form. The second link I post is the one where this happens, will edit my post in a few mins with that vid.

I also went way over my macros today which is very rare for the orange god of nutrition. It happens, at least it was balanced meals since I got 38g fiber for the day.

That seems like a way worse way to fail a bench, compared to the roll of shame.

never had to do the roll of shame, why start now?

9/26/13
1 scoop craze
Thursday: Upper Body Power

Penlay Rows:
115x6 x2
135x6 x2

Pull ups:
15
12
13

Rack Chins:
8
10

Bench Press:
135x8
185x5
205x3
225x5
245x2
225x3

Dips:
15
15

DB Shoulder Press:
60x10
65x8 x2

DB Curls (superset):
40x10
40x8 x2


Macros:
2,813 calories (blahhh)
65g fats
346g carbs
238g protein

Recently got the inner armor casein.. Does it matter if I mix it in with my whey protein isolate? That's what I've been doing.

Moving the bar towards your throat when you know you've failed the rep seems like a great way to get yourself seriously injured or even killed, holy ****. Just lower it on your chest and then figure out what to do, ffs.

lol yeah it was all reaction at that point. I normally could get that up but mid way up i kept telling myself to keep my ass down which clearly threw me off.

I think it's also better to just not fail at this point (especially outside of a cage and no spotter). You're going to get stronger by performing complete reps, not failed ones that tax the CNS unnecessarily hard.

Nope. But why, taste?

yeah I def agree. feel like an idiot but it will not happen again. cns?

well I got it for free and I know there is alot of l Glutamine/aa's in em so I just add half a scoop to each shake I have. usually have 2 shakes a day unless it's less than 200g protein a day then I only have 1 shake or 1 protein bar.