is doing singles a big deal? I thought it didn't really matter

Its not written as a cluster set for a reason.

You need to work on your mobility, you might have really tight hamstrings for some reason. You should probably cut weight and take a bunch of videos on an off day of doing DLs until you get the form right. You don't have to post them, just watch them yourself and try to focus on doing different cues.

As it is, they're lol bad.

don't worry about doing singles or a set. if anything, the wrong patterns are so ingrained in you that you probably won't be able to do consecutive, correct reps as part of a set in at least a year, if not ten. it's that bad.

exactly, you don't know. so why, instead of sticking with expert advice, are you trying new triple pulse action before you pull? did you smoke pot again before going to the gym?

the videos you posted when you tried to follow the steps were tons better than this last mess. in those ones, yes, you seemed to ignore "chest up," but at least rip admits that's the hardest part. it's almost like you didn't even watch the last video before posting it.

I have exactly the same body type, and the DL is a bitch for me as well. Keeping the back straight sucks.

I have found that I probably need to set hips slightly lower than Rip recommends since my arms are sort of short (as Rip so hilariously disses in the thread named T-Rex arms and power cleans). Gonna put up a vid as well for people to flame so take heart my short-armed brother

Anyway, as long as you actually follow the instructions you should have a shot. What is so hard about that? Legs 1 inch away from bar, shins to bar, straight arms etc etc. And like Thremp said, keep reviewing vids.

is there a different cue that can be used besides chest up?

obv follow the setup and work on your flexibility, but I wonder if there is a different cue that he may be able to use since he obviously has trouble feeling that his chest is not up and his back is not in extension. am I making sense?

I hate ****ing stretching. I'll read up on it

I smoke pot before I do everything, going to the gym is no different afaik. Anyway, you're just hating b/c I'm going to be pressing more than you soon. I mean, how hard could the last 50 lbs be?

Thanks for the solidarity. I'll go back to the rip-approved set up. I have to ask again though...how do you guys get the bar to stay still when you're using round plates?

Next time I go to the gym I'm going to pull ~380 lbs once for glory and explode my back, so the whole issue is moot anyway

I have too many cues already, that was sort of the impetus of the "just walk up the bar and lift" approach I've been trying. I don't think there any new cues left

s my d Aunt Yoga

You very probably need to stretch, sorry. That's just how it is. Check out Magnificent Mobility, all the cool kids are doing it.

You're literally ramming your shins into the bar before pulling it. If you calm down, grip the bar before bending your knees, then lean into it until the shins touch, it shouldn't move at all. Between lifts, just use your traps to push it gently back into your shins to reset the position.

Foam rolling and dynamic stretching has improved my lifts and performance on the baseball diamond significantly. And I used to hate "stretching."

If you can't remember if you smoked pot or not before going to the gym, you probably did imo.

squat
3x5x250 pretty hard. I haven't failed yet but I feel my form breaking down. Should I reset or wait until I actually fail, regardless of form?

press
3x5x130
on the last rep of the last set I really lost tightness and struggled to get it up, flopping all over like a fish and straining my lower back in the process. So I skipped the cleans. Plus, had to get home for the office ldo

1x1 chin
1x1 pullup
1x1 cin
1x1 pullup
1x1 chin

all standing, trying not to jump

tighten the upper back

no lifts today b/c I'm dying of the flu

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what kind of workout I should aim for on Tuesday? I was pretty sick all weekend, am definitely on the mend today but not 100%.

I was thinking about just doing a light workout A and working on form. Otherwise I'd be going for PR's in squat and bench press, which doesn't seem like the best idea given the fact that I've been subsisting on Gatorade, green tea and jelly beans for the last several days.

Okay so I fought off the super flu that most mortal men would have succumb to, then I didn't lift for another week and half while eating ~2000 calories a day of processed sugar and flour based food products. I lost quite a bit of strength.

Anyway, after my first set of squats today I decided that I'd just do one work set and call it good. I was weak like a kitten imo

Squats:
1x5x235(245)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN-fyaK6mPI
I feel fine with these although reps four and five were hard. I'm going to do this weight again on Tuesday before going back to 5lb increments . I wasn't even going to tape these today but I wanted to get the guy doing power rack curls lol. I didn't even feel kinda bad that he had to unload 400 lbs of some other slapdick's weight before he could start

Bench:
1x5x190
Bench on the other hand felt easy. Since I've involved my lower body they have been feeling light. I think I'm going to do 200 on Thursday

Deadlifts:
1x2x185
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpFJEtKpuTM
1x5x225
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGUUnxGyTPE

do these look okay? I rewatched the DVD before I went so I had lots of good cues in my head, but mainly what I kept trying to remember was ass up ass up! And I know I've said it before, but the NorCal tshirt girl and the Redhead in the powder blue shirt in Rips DVDs are both smoking. Anyway, I'm just going to swallow my pride and start making 10 lb jumps from here.

Squats don't look bad.

I think it's time to think about subbing rack pulls for dl's.

noted, but I'm not going to do that yet. I just started doing some hamstring work and I want to see if that makes any difference. not ready to admit defeat quite yet. I thought my lower back looked fine in the videos from today, is that not the case?

I think lower back looks pretty decent. There's thoracic rounding but it's not too bad and it stays consistent throughout the lift, unlike previous lifts where you rounded out a lot off the floor.

fwiw I'm fairly certain I was engaging some differnt muscles w/that last deadlift workout, as my lower back and hammies have been smoked since then. Anyway, the hamstring stretches are showing results already. When I started I was probably 3 inches away from being able to grab my toes in a one leg hurdle stretch, now I can grab them easily. The change from "Jesus dude how can you walk" to "OMG you are as flexible as a 130 year old man". Progress!

Tonights lifts will be:
Squat:
3x5x235

Press:
3x5x125 or 130 if I'm feeling strong

PC:
5x3x130/135 depending

I'll video the power cleans to give you all some good comedy

near disaster tonight while squatting...I'm not 100% sure what happened, but during my second set my bar position didn't feel perfect but since it was a pretty light weight I just went with it, and as I went down I lost balance, kind of took a stager step back and it was one of those things where for a split second I was like "holy **** I'm about to seriously injure myself". Fortunately, and thanks to all my nice new stabilizer muscles, I was able to somehow control the bar and get it re-racked.

I was pretty damn happy with myself for getting back in and finishing my last two sets, as I have a feeling that if I had given in to what my initial instinct was which was to just quit, I would have developed a complex. Anyway, the moral of the story is to always make sure you are 100% happy w/where the bar is and your feet are before you start to go down. that's what she said.

Anyway, then I did 3x5x125 press, which was pretty easy.

PC I did 5x3x133, which was a PR. Here's my second set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBmZiiPPem0
they could be worse?

Here's what I ate today:


I feel like I'm going to die, but **** it. I've decided to get really strong. I think all the people that post her a lot should just devote this winter to getting fat strong. Except the fatties, of course

i really do feel like I'm about to die lol ;/

Missed my workout yesterday but I missed it to make sex for the first time in several months, so we're going to go ahead and call that a win. I'll do today, Sunday and then back on my normal schedule by Tues

Squat:
3x5x240(250)
no near death experiences this time

Bench:
3x5x200 5RM PR roar, pretty easy too

Deads
1x5x235
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1G_pLhm5Jc
pretty decent imo. I think I've got the lower back pretty much fixed...as far as the upper back, I don't know. I'm a sloucher, I think it will take some work to get that straightened out, if it's even possible. I'm definitely going to keep up the hamstring work, as I think that's really helped.

this is sick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9I70...eature=related

this video is not good, correct?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-O_MT72rck

deadlifts are better, but there's still a tad of thoracic rounding, which i'm not sure is a big deal. First 3 reps are pretty good. 4th a little worse. 5th a little worse than that.

tonight
squat
3x5x245(255)

press
scheduled to do 3x5x130, but I've been eating like a horse and feel really strong so I think I'll attempt 3x5x135 and will probably video for lulz

pc
5x3x138
should be another PR, I've still got lots of linear progress left on these