With knees of a height with your hips it looks like you aren't getting much leg drive. Also if you were sliding down the bench with feet forward, but not with your current setup, is that not an indication that you were getting better leg drive? (Actually asking.) At my gym, the yoga mat is a necessity. You could also put a couple of resistance bands around the bench vertically to get the same effect.
Obviously all that with the usual caveats that I'm also struggling at bench and do not have all the answers.
As a fellow tall, feet behind me (I.e. towards my head) is the only way I can get adequate leg drive. Putting my feet far enough forward/wide enough to keep my knees below bench level gave me essentially no drive. YMMV of course.
As a fellow tall, feet behind me (I.e. towards my head) is the only way I can get adequate leg drive. Putting my feet far enough forward/wide enough to keep my knees below bench level gave me essentially no drive. YMMV of course.
Noted. Will see if I can get some more miles out of it.
Squats went better this time. Reasonably straight bar path except for last 2 reps which were a bit forward. 6 reps on week 3 amrap seems good for first cycle.
I thought I was screwed after rep 3 was such a grinder but rep 4 felt easier so kept going. Maybe took a little long between reps tho.
DL's gave me a huge lat pump and also have some shin bruising so that's a good sign wrt to tightness and keeping the bar close imo.
Try to get your elbows down and in instead of up and out. You should be doing a lat pull down motion rather than a rear delt fly if that makes sense
Elbows high will push the bar up your neck and forward when you start grinding and engage every muscle. Elbows down should actually help with the tough reps getting forward that you mention
OHP fine, probably had at least one more. Form looking reasonable too imo.
Bench I tried feet forward and out as far as my mobility allowed. Yoga mat works great for not slipping down the bench but now grip on the floor was a problem. I had shoes on and had no grip with my worn out Vans. Barefoot was better but only just about enough to get some leg drive. Needs some more grooving tho but drive on some reps looks pretty ok, other reps not so much.
DL's felt good but I'm not sure they look as good as they feel. I think lumbar is looking safe at least but I'm not sure. Upper back is not looking as tight as possible. How do these look to you guys?
Tried putting elbows more forward on squats, felt fine. Feel a bit more upper back tightness but looks like I'm extending lower back a bit more as a result. Something to look out for. Maybe a tiny buttwink on some reps. Bar path solid, depth on point.
Back looks fine on deads. You're fairly tall, right? I ask because for me I would aim for starting with a more vertical shin angle and possibly higher hips... but that's obviously going to depend a bit on your proportions.
I guess you could call 6'4"/194 fairly tall
I just do the Rippetoe approach, bar over middle of foot, bend knees, shin touch bar and keep your hips there. When I set my back I do sometimes drop my hips a bit though, I should probably try to prevent that.
If you watch closely, you can see the bar roll forward as you bend your knees and your shins come forward. That said, you're probably right. At 6'4 it's probably going to be hard to get in a starting position without a bit more shin angle and then kind of starting by squatting it up.
Slightly disappointing only to get 10 reps with 175, was shooting for at least 11.
Tried this foot position in my lower sets and that felt great but by the looks of it didn't get as much leg drive as I thought.
Yea probably. I'm not yet used to sets longer than 5-6 reps. I also need to work on staying tighter throughout, notice the difference in arch in rep 1 vs rep 10.
Re: tightness, I re re-emphasized the "pull the bar apart" cue on my incline bench sets today and it helped a lot. Big difference between being mindful of keeping your shoulders pinned and actively cueing yourself to do so constantly throughout the lift.
Have you watched So You Think You Can Bench on youtube? I watch it every few months.
Relating to what I was talking about earlier, your upper back/traps/scaps should be cramping/sore at the end of a set. And BPA is right that you're not tight; resetting things every rep just means you're loose, and I agree you're getting little to no push from your lower body.
Have you watched So You Think You Can Bench on youtube? I watch it every few months.
Relating to what I was talking about earlier, your upper back/traps/scaps should be cramping/sore at the end of a set. And BPA is right that you're not tight; resetting things every rep just means you're loose, and I agree you're getting little to no push from your lower body.
I have, a couple times. I'll watch again. That's where I got the feet way back position from before. I think I'll go back to that, I got the most out of that position I think.
I'll also keep the pull-apart cue in mind. Or try at least. I know of the cue but there's so much **** going on in my head already I keep forgetting, lol.
But really, a lesson would be awesome. I'll find out if there's even such a thing around here but I doubt it tbh.
Squat went reasonable. 10 reps with 250, I'll call that a win over 7 reps with 255 a while back.
Only thing was bar wasn't sitting well on my traps, tried to adjust after 5 reps but didn't work so just kept going. Also struggling with tendency to let my elbows drift back.
I live in FL. Found a USPA certified PL coach in Tampa. About an hour away from me.
I have a before video posted in my log...Cha watched it and was like lol terrible. That's when I decided to get the lesson set up.
There was a lot to the lesson. But, most impacting was getting in an arched position that was super tight, incredibly uncomfortable and required me to stretch out my quads to be able to do it. Then, driving heels through the floor all the way to lock out. Which was the leg drive that I shoudl have been doing and wasnt. And it was painful when I was driving my heels down. Need to get better mobility but still it's the intensity of doing it correctly that is mostly responsible.
I worked up to 3 sets of 225...I was was wiped out after it.