How were my squats? Video again in case you missed it in my sea of words http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3oJCyMi2y8

Hm slightly better I think. However, you're still not going back enough and your lumbar is still in flexion at the bottom. You initiate the movement by dropping down. You should be able to see a distinct backwards kinda sitting down in a chair movement as you descend. You can tell you're not going backwards enough by tracing the bar path - it moves forwards. And your knees go forwards all the way to the bottom, in front of your toes.

You've prob seen me say this in other threads, but try this. Before you descend, take a HUGE breath, tighten the everloving **** out of your lower back and abs, then consciously reach back with your ass. Make sure your knees stay waaaay out and keep them there. Of the three people I've coached, this has worked for all of them. Much easier with a guy there who tells you in real time of course...

If that doesn't work, I'd consider trying box squats, I've seen other people recommend it in your situation.

Thanks, Soulman.

I didn't go yesterday, got absolutely no sleep prior night and was basically a zombie all day. I got 9.5 hours last night which was great, and I still felt really tired in the gym(napping between sets.

I switched to a HBBS and filmed myself. No need to host it, they were really bad. Everything looks fine except once I get to a certain point guess what my back turns in to a McDonald's arch just like before.

I take a monster breath in and I know how to flex my lower back and I do that, too, but it still doesn't help. I need to buy a corset.

I talked to my dad about it, and mentioned that I was pressing somewhere between 155-160 and struggling with squats at basically any weight. Turns out my dad was a bro and my dad's dad was a bro and I actually come from a very long line of bros. I was shocked and then sure enough, my dad rolls up his sleeve and shows me his barb wire tattoo and says "It's a code you don't just live by, you die by."

In other news chinups were pretty hilarious, 7/3/3. I forgot to eat anything yesterday until 10pm and when I realized it there wasn't much I could do. Ate 440 calories of soup and a 65g protein shake.

This morning I had an extra meat roast beef from Subway with no cheese, and mustard but I was still really ****ing dizzy in the gym.


Press was: 160 lbs 1x4, 1x2, 155 lbs 1x5

Sorry for no grid or colors and ****, kinda in a crappy mood. If I'm not too busy tomorrow I might just go to the gym and do nothing but HBBS and film myself and see what I can do. My knees go forward all the way down and I don't really know what to contract to get rid of that.


Squatting is ****ing gay, and if you're good at it, so are you.

Rofl'ed.

FYI it's ok for your knees to go forwards when doing HBBS. Youtube squatrx for form tips on the HBBS.

Diet:

Half a rack of ribs, 3 thick slices of a huge beef brisket, a chicken leg, probably a half pound of baked beans(with a pound of bacon added in to the mix) and three spicy sausage links.

Oh and 4 smores.

lol pasta salad, lol grilled fish

Only page 2? das wassup

HBBS	Pullups	Press
3x5@215	9/7/6	160:3,4,4

Squat	Press	Pullups
3x5@97.5	9,7,6	72.6:3,4,4

Still derpcurving back on HBBS, only going to parallel, I don't get it. I watched my other video and I didn't really start to curve until past parallel, but stopping at parallel I guess my mongoloid brain decided to just start curving my back against my will earlier. zzzzzzzz


Press: I'm giving one more shot at 160 before resetting. I was pretty bummed about not getting 3x5 but I came insanely close to 5 on the second set, and pretty close on the third set. These are really all about rhythm for me.

Pullups: Real happy with these, 9 felt easy but 10 was a gasser. Would've been ecstatic with 9/7/7 but whatever.

Bodyweight <213/96.6 kG

****in barbecue kinda screwed me up. Shouldn't be more than a day or two before all this fatty meat is out of the house, but in the meantime....



Also


optimal warmups?

Ya warmups look fine. But wtf is on that plate? Looks like some super thick rare bacon.

That's because it is some super thick, rare bacon.

Dinner is served bitches.

Now, I like my bacon a bit bendy, but yours looks a bit too limp, i.e. raw, for my liking.

Please explain/elaborate on your preference re: bacon doneness, or lack thereof.

Genuinely curious.

How much have you experimented with grip width for squats?

I tried a narrow stance to experiment (heels well less than shoulder width apart) and found really destroyed my back. I changed it up to slightly wider than shoulder width, did a bunch of hip mobility work to allow me to shove my knees out in this new bottom position and really focused on huge breath in and everything tight. My back woes have resolved.

Tldr is try experiment with width.

[QUOTE=KPowers;28576773]Only page 2? das wassup

HBBS	Press	DL
225:4,2	160:5,4,4	1x5@250

Squat	Press	DL
102:4,2	72.6: 5,4,4	1x5@113

Bacon: I like it crispy or soft, but this takes less time to make. It was really ****ing good. Tried wide stance squatting, it was easier but I still quasimoto'd the **** out of it. Also, should your knees feel kinda sore after squatting? It's been going on for about 10 days now. No sharp pain really just a dull ache. I wonder if I might be pushing my knees too far out?

I kept forgetting about it until today, when I deadlifted. Are your knees supposed to cave outward a tiny bit? It's how I get the bar past my knees, maybe I'm keeping the bar a touch too close to my shins on the way up? The pain was a little worse after this session than usual but still nothing major.

Squats were insane. Even coming down the weight felt really, really heavy and I struggled like hell with every single rep.

Press SO GAY AAAAAAAHHHHH The upside is I'll obviously crush 160 on Saturday, and when I fail 165 on Tuesday I can hope to get it on Thursday, and if I don't I'm definitely gonna start microloading. Every rep was a speed rep except the 5th rep on set two and 4th rep on set 3. Really, really gay.

I have videos but plugging my phone in is for losers.

Bacon is clearly meant to be crispy (and somewhat burnt). My wife yells at me for buying Wright Brand Bacon at like $9/lb but its just so ****ing good.

You probably should have started microloading already on the press. No biggie...its just the one lift that being patient pays huge dividends imo.

Why's that?

No, that shouldn't happen. If it hasn't happened before and only happened once, chances are you did something silly on one rep. If it's constant, form issues are more likely. Prob the best thing you can do to avoid knee issues while squatting is to make sure your knees and feet are lined up and don't let them cave, ever. Angle pointed outwards shouldn't exceed 30 degrees if you're squatting Rip-style.


You're talking about knees going out a bit on the descent? If your toes are pointed a bit outwards, that's fine. Remember to actively break at your knees going down though, don't just bend at your back, that's a nice way to get a back injury. And no, you pretty much can't keep the bar too close to your shins.

Nah it's on the way up during DL

Basically my knees are past the bar and I have to make it work so it's either crooked bar path or move the knees out a bit.

9/11/11

HBBS	Press	Chins	Bench
1x5@225	160:3, 155:4,3	8,6,5	3x5@185

Squat	Press	Chins	Bench
1x5@102	72.6:3, 70kg:4,3	8,6,5	3x5@84

Despite all these numbers I actually had a surprisingly good day.

Squatted 1x5. I did a billion warmup reps for HBBS, my back felt ****ty from them so I tried going back to LBBS at 225 for work sets. These didn't feel good either and I've basically resigned to the fact that I'd rather have "weak" thighs than a destroyed back. On the plus side my back doesn't feel nearly as bad, and I actually didn't completely hate squatting despite the rerack failure you can watch here It's most of my reps from yesterday in one nicely condensed video.
After this I was pretty pissed and watched a Rip squat video on my phone, couldn't see the guy doing anything different from me, WTF WTF WTF.

Bench: I wanted to see if my hand would still hurt from benching, loaded up 135 and just tried some reps. Did five and it didn't hurt at all but benching felt really good. I eventually got up to 205 and did three and realized I wasn't going to be able to do 3 sets of this and with no spotter for miles I didn't want anything to happen. I was pretty disappointed, thought for sure 3x5@205 woulda been EZ but whatever. My chest is absolutely on fire today.


Press: I didn't plan on benching but whatever, didn't want to not press. These didn't feel much harder or easier than usual. If I had more air I could've gotten the 5th on the second set. Whatever no big deal. Time to drop down to 135 I guess? =\

Chins: wowwwwwww I had tons of WIM on these which is weird because I always hate chins, I did them last, and I was disappointed by everything else so far but who knows. I only pulled 8,6,5 but the 6th on set 2 and 5 on set 3 were hardcore.

I was feeling pretty pissed off and decided to reverse freeroll myself and go stand on the scale knowing there was a 20% chance I end up driving home on the sidewalk GTA IV style.

208 mother****ers! 94.3KG I was ****in shocked. I wasn't especially dehydrated, I checked the scale 3 times and made sure. Hell I was fully dressed. Justtttttttt over 208, too. Felt awesome. Ended up cripwalkin out of the gym.


In other news I applied for a job at the gym today. They had some weird questions that I wasn't sure how to answer. Under "Personal achievements" I just put "press 155 for reps" and under "relevant memberships that would make you a good member of our team" I just put "I have a gym membership here."

I have an interview tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc2rzNN08sE - video of the day. Not sure how funny this one is but before this the guy was going crazy in the gym after 1/8th squatting 405 with his partner, insanely loud, banging fists in the wall, etc. etc. etc.

lol, solid ass touching all the way there. I know I'd want an ass spot if I was failing 1/8th squat reps.

I think the best thing you can do for your squat is probably to get some coaching, if at all possible. Solid answers to the questions imo.

Oh yea my hips have been hurting last two days and I noticed a lot in squatting. I looked for hip stuff in the sticky and it was all referencing to pay videos. What can I do to make my hips crazy good?

To be honest, I think I'd rather be able to do a split than squat 3 plates anyways.

Lots of mobility work. Foam rolling. Rinse and repeat.

9/14/11

LBBS	Press	Pullups
1x5@235	3x5@135	8,6,5

LBBS	Press	[b]Pullups
1x5@106.6	3x5@61	8,6,6

BW <211 95.6kg

Pretty good day. Presses were basically speed reps, did better on the last set of pullups than I would've expected, and the squats weren't miserable, either.

Bodyweight definitely pissed me off, though, but whatever.

Switching to a Wed/Fri/Sun schedule for a while. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the three slowest days at my gym so if I can get not one, but two sessions in on those days that should be pretty damn nice.

LBBS	Bench	DL
1x5@245	3x5@200	1x5@265

Squat	Bench	DL
1x5@111	3x5@90.7	1x5@120.2

Bodyweight: 208.0/ 94.34



Felt really nice to crush 15lb jumps on both bench and DL. I noticed my hamstrings(especially left) cramping during the bench. I kind of remember this happening before. Gonna go to 10lb jumps from now on.

DL was ez, minus breathing, took a 30 sec break before last rep just to get some air but it came up no problem whatsoever. Gonna do another 15 lb jump there.

Squat: lol heavy, 5lb increments from now on.

Was crazy glad to see weight back down to 208.

Pretty brolic on diet today, too. Too chicken breasts, a protein shake, and a bowl of chili. Basically I have 400 calories at my disposal and I don't need *any* protein.

LBBS	Press	Chinups
1x1@250,2 more at 245, 1x3@245	3x5@140	9,8,7

LBBS	Press	Chinups
1x1@113,2 more at 11, 1x3@111	3x5@63.5	9,8,7

Bodyweight: 208.0/ 94.34

Pretty good day. I decided I was gonna go to 3x3 on squats and 250 was really, really hard on the first rep. Jumped down to 245 and had no problems. After my second set I sat down on a bench and my knees started hurting really bad. It's been getting worse and worse but I just ignored it, today they just started yelling at me. Gonna have to switch to RDLs for a while, because my knees hurt all the time now. Not to bummed about it, though.

Press: Speed reps all day

chins: I found some stupid apparatus called a core blaster extreme, no idea what it does but it let me get to the chin grips easier. Was really happy to get what I got and they actually felt fairly easily. I guess taking the 7lb weight out of my waist helped a lot.

thread needs some media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shxzlTRK44 song of the dayyyyy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTYaM3_wJpg droppin anvils like the weather motha****a

BDL	Bench	Pullups
3x5@225	210:5,5,4	10,7,7

BDL	Bench	Pullups
3x5@102	95.25:5,5,4	10,7,7

BW 209 94.8kg

Sweet day. Woke up and just decided there was no ****ing way on earth I wasn't getting at least 10 pullups and that's what I did. No pussykipping either.

Bench was pretty crazy and on about half the reps the bar just crashed from lockout to chest but getting it up wasn't too bad. I was a little surprised that I didn't get 3x5 but whatever. Definitely doing 5lb jumps from now on. This is the first time in a long time that I failed a set and it had nothing to do with catching my breath. Feels good.

RDLs: Was gonna film these but honestly it felt really easy to execuse these without much injury, and it was really obvious if I was rounding my lower back. I tried to go really deep which meant a nice hamstring stretch. These are fun. Absolutely murderous on your hands, though. Especially going really low. I really think that I'm gonna have to start using a mix or hook on these really soon. --Do mix and hook promote grip strength as well as double over?

In any case, feels good to walk out of the gym without feeling hurt.

Couple questions:

Elbow bubbling on the bench. This hasn't happened since I was a teenager, used to feel it in push ups. It doesn't hurt at all but it feels like a tingling, almost like bubbles are popping in my elbow. No numbness or pain at all, and it was only happening on the left side.

How much harder are incline and decline benches than a flat? Like if I can do 3x5@225 on a flat I can do 3x5@___?