Slight to moderate forward lean into and out of the hole. Does it feel like the bar sometimes comes over your front foot? Not a huge issue at these weights (SHATS!), but it will be difficult to keep your chest up on the rebound once the weight gets heavy. I have the same issue and have only recently started to see a straight bar path over my midfoot. When the bar falls forward, for me even a 25lb heavier weight goes from K to **** that's hard/impossible.

It does feel like I'm a bit forward at times, but when I concentrate on the chest up cue that leads to me doing the flexion->buttwink dance that I was doing before. I've been unable to get a straight up/down bar path for essentially forever, and given I think it's unlikely I'm going to be working up to even semi jellydick weights on the squat in the near future, if ever, is it something I need to be super concerned about? I honestly don't know.

Oh I see. I would say maybe mix in some light weight high bar or front squats to work on staying upright with a straight bar path. The thing that helped me tremendously was doing slow paused squat singles as my warmups before I did work sets.

But otherwise it's not a huge leak, just noting how it might limit your realized strength when you're working at the upper limits of your squat, which is independent of the numbers. My jellydick is someone else's max, etc.

I'm doing 5x5 front squats on DL days (starting light) and trying to work back up to 5x5x185 or whatever it was I was going last summer (I think I'm at 5x5x145 or something).

Paused squats as a warmup to squatting is an intriguing idea, though; I'll give it a try next week.

I missed that you're already doing front squats

I hope the paused squats help. Even if it doesn't help you correct the bar path, ime they're the bees knees for warmups as a @9 paused single makes work sets with a rebound feel like cake.

1/18: 186.4

C2 Row: 5500m in 22:00
Walk: 3.0 miles at 4.0/5% incline (45:00)
HLR: 4x8
Pallofs: 4x12
Farmer's Walks: 3x50 sec x 75lbs

Rowing WoD: Pre-set the monitor for 22 minutes. Row five intervals in a pyramid of 2-3-4-3-2 minutes, with two minutes of rest in between each piece.

2 minute overall pace with eight minutes of light pulling mixed in is pretty k. Checked the drag and dialed the damper on the new C2 down to 4 and it felt less choppy.

Made surf and turf last night at the request of the minis: reverse seared prime sirloin steaks, lemon garlic shrimp, smashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus. Minis and I both smashed and there are leftovers. Was nice.

How do the minis feel about overt culinary indoctrination? Side question, does this make Soulman their godchef?

The minis actually love being in the kitchen with me; we have these cheap little footstools that they've appropriated so they can be high enough so the counter is at waist level or whatever, and they like to watch and "help". Small stuff now like pressing garlic or juicing lemons or whatever, but more as they get older I'd assume. It's good bonding time that also doubles as the good kind of indoctrination, plus if they're hungry I'll chop up some bell peppers and cucumbers or something in addition to crackers or whatever snack type thing they may be plowing through at the time.

To your second question, no. They aren't allowed to even joke about Europe.

Haha awesome

1/19: 186.4

A
Incline bench (5/3/1): 115x5, 135x5, 150x11 4x10x115
DB Row: 6x10x85

B
DB Bench: 4x9x75, 1x10x75
One Arm Cable Row: 6x12

C
Arnold Press: 5x9x40
Machine Rear Fly: 6x12

D
Cable Upright Row 4x12
Cable Front Raise: 3x12

E
Lying DB Skullcrusher: 3x10
Lying DB Tri Ext (externally rotated): 3x10
Seated DB Tri Ext : 3x10

Pretty happy to hit 11 on the AMRAP set; been trying to be conscientious about the calories being not quite so poverty so maybe that's helping? Upped the weight for DB row, which was more challenging; will work up to 12 across over the next six or so weeks and re-evaluate. Upped the weight on DB bench and probably could have gotten 10 across had I thought too, but I'll get it next time and then move up to 80s. Another rep on the Arnolds too. Bro stuff fun. Did the entire thing in 75 minutes, so work capacity is increasing. Good times.

1/20: 187.8

A
DL: wu, 5x5x235

B
Front Squat: wu, 5x5x145
NG Chins: 8x10xbw

C
Leg Ext: 4x15
Leg Curl: 4x12

D
EZ curl: 4x15x50
Calf raise on leg press: 5x12x200

E
Hypers: 4x12xbw
Zottman curls:. 4x12

Diet still fine, so I'm either getting my period or pregnant. Fingers crossed either way. DL and FS fine. Happy to get 10 across on chins; another set next week I guess.

Seems ok. 5x5, even at this weight, is more tiring than I expected. Felt my right SI just a hair in the 3rd set (just felt it, didn't feel it pull), so I'm interested to see if I'm sore tomorrow. May start ramping down to 5x3 or something if this ends up being too much volume, which would be sad. Another injury would be worse, though.

Do you feel your back at the top at all? Curious about the small amount of lean back and whether that's a factor. Don't be too aggressive on the lock out as long as you're squeezing your glutes. Also, Im not a programming wizard but 5x5 deadlifts recovering from a back injury seems suboptimal

Aidan,

No real feeling on the lay back, but I do notice what you're saying.

Re: 5x5, I was looking for an easy way to get a lot of volume in, but maybe now is the time to dial it back to 5x3 or something . . . I feel like <more reps than normal> at <lower than normal/relatively easy weight> is kind of what I should be going for here, but beyond that I'm open to suggestions.

Agreed in keeping it easy. Was going to say any rep/set range at low rpe should be fine. Seems like you've got a handle on it anyway

1/21: 187.4

C2 Row: 6086 m in 20:45
Walk: 2.5 miles at 4.0/5% incline (37:30)
HLR: 4x8
Pallofs: 4x12
Suitcase Carries: 3x50 sec x 70lbs

C2 WoD: 3 minute warm-up plus row four 1000 meter pieces. Row for two minutes at light pressure between each interval.

All four 1k intervals under a two minute pace; rest periods got me a bit of extra distance. Felt decent. Dialing down the treadmill as the C2 increases. Ab stuff fine.

Weighed myself upon waking; interested to see how much the morning dump/cardio lost me in fake LBM.

Displaying saw-esque aspy tendencies. Not a good sign for your weight loss bet

Harsh but fair. And 185.2.

Both vids of squat and DL show you jerking (DL) or jumping (BS) the weight at the top.

I don't recall if you had an actual medical finding on your SI. But, the SI pain is not likely to be your SI, it's much more likely to be a disc issue that you are aggravating that is then shooting out your SI. Or, it is your SI and what you are doing is aggravating it.

Either way, there is no reason to aggressively lock out either lift and doing so will definitely aggravate existing and/or cause disc issues.

Hmmm, thanks. I've been trying to make sure I finish the lifts with engaged glutes at the top, but seems like I'm overdoing it? I'll take it down a notch this week and we'll see how it looks.

Good news: this is the easiest thing in the world to fix

Bad news: as soon as you fix this, we will find something harder to nit it up over

fakeb,

We'll see, but MASTS though.

Saturday night ended up being bad diet wise. Sunday good.

1/16: 188.4

A
OHP (5/3/1): 3x95, 3x110, 9x120, 4x10x85
Facepulls: 6x15x47.5

B
DB Incline Bench: 3x9x65, 2x8x65
Seated Cable Row: 6x15x85

C
Dips: 4x6x+45
DB Pullover: 4x11x65
DB Hammer: 4x11x35

D
Single Arm Cable Tricep Pressdown: 4x12
Lateral Cable Raise: 4x12

E
Lying DB Skullcrushers: 4x12
Single Arm Cable Curl: 4x12

Everything pretty k. Happy with the AMRAP. Triceps kind of quit during dips though. Also adding frequency pushups, something like 8x15 daily to see how it goes.

1/24: 187.2

A
5/3/1 Squat: 3x160, 3x180, 8x200, 4x5x115 (paused)
Pullups: 8x9xbw, 1x8xbw

B
Leg Press: 5x12x240
Calf Raise on Leg Press: 5x12x200
Parallel Grip Lat Pulldown: 6x15x90

C
Leg Ext: 4x15
Leg Curl: 4x12

D
Hypers: 4x12xbw
Spider Curls: 4x12
KB Swings: 4x12

Decided to take fakeb's advice and do a few paused reps on the warm-up sets, and I think it helped. Also worked on engaging the glutes without over-extending. Just picked up 5/3/1 where my next work set would have been and decided to do volume paused squats for assistance afterwards; felt good. Video shortly. Cut off the AMRAP more than a few reps short, which will probably be SOP for a while.

Probably need to go ahead and either buy some shorts or get some non-hammer pants for workouts.

Must suck to be 8" more than average male height but 5" of it is tibia.

It looks like your bracing breath between reps is a little shallow. I find that I do best when I take a few shallow breaths then a really deep one before I go down.