Oh for the record I skipped Thursday's session due to being out of town on a business trip wed-fri.

I would do rack pulls if I were you. While it's not a certainty (or even particularly likely) you'll injure your lower back...it sure is a higher chance than someone with better mobility.

Bench grip looks too wide.

SmileyEH is probably right about your grip, but other than that it looks like there aren't any glaring errors to my (semi) untrained eye.

As far as DL goes, I think your 2nd rep is a lot better than your first. Again, just a guess.

Sigh...you're right that my back is still prolly too rounded for DLs to be safe. I'll go ahead and ask Rip what he thinks. Getting an appointment with my manual therapist is probably not a bad idea either (he's not clueless afaik).


Argh, lol. First too close, now too wide. Brother said forearms were vertical at the bottom, which is the cue Rip uses in the vid. He needs to watch more vids imo.


yay


Guess you're referring to the bar path and slightly jerky movement? If so I agree.

arms wouldn't be vertical at the bottom if you tucked your elbows more, which it looks like you need to do.

Yeah the jerky movements, specifically in your hips I think it is. Whatever it is, it's not there in the 2nd rep.

And what does he say when you lockout on your first rep? Sounds something like ah-lay-bed-rah

the stretch it apart cue is something I always forget about. I do try to squeeze the life out of it, though.

just watched the bench vid: tuck your elbows. How much is up to you, but I think they're pretty winged out even by SS standards.

Are you referring to the angle between arm and torso? In the book, Rip says "Your elbow position is therefore related to the bar position, and to your individual anthropometry." I don't find this very helpful, but I try to keep about an 80 degree angle between arm and torso - i.e. not completely in line with the shoulders, but almost. Are you saying I should lessen the angle, and if so, why?

I don't think you're referring to adducting my shoulders properly, but it still caused me to review the book and finding on page 89 that I don't actually keep my shoulders adducted at lock-out. So that was useful no matter what

Edit: also @ kidcolin - why do elbows need to be tucked more? Rip even says in the vid that elbow at 90 degrees is the most efficient position, were anatomical safety considerations not important.

Haha. "yeah that's better" - he's referring to the bar not traveling backwards at start of the set. It did on the previous one due to me having a slight forward lean, i.e. the scapula was not positioned properly above the bar.

Edit: "Ja det er bedre" in Norwegian.

It helps a ton.

kyle can probably give a more scientific explanation, but having your arms flanged out like that can be very stressful on the shoulders. Basically, your last sentence nailed it: anatomical safety is important.

Also, in the tucked elbow position, the bar path won't be vertical, but it will be straight, and should be close to orthogonal to the chest if you get a decent arch.

Also, something I just thought of. Go up to a wall. Push it with your arms perpendicular to your torso (elbows out). Now put your arms down and push up into the wall, ala a lineman blocking. Which feels sturdier?

to elaborate a little further, I'm just theorizing here, but it seems Rip is looking at the situation in a pure physics standpoint, making an assumption that the force generation in the two positions is roughly the same. However, I think our musculature produces a stronger force in the tucked position. This is all just hearsay, but maybe someone with some actual knowledge can back me up.

Soulman needs to stop ****ing around and do his USA TR properly.

he's kind of independently talking about the shoulder joint when he says stuff like this. so yeah, 90 degrees leaves no lever arm for the shoulder, but who cares? the bench press isn't only a shoulder exercise. look at what happens to the pectoralis major as you move your humerus away from the torso and closer to 90 degrees. since the bench press is primarily a chest exercise, i think this lever arm is way more important than the lever arm he talks about.

Can't flaring your elbows produce weird issues with the shoulder capsule?

All I know is ultra wide grip dips ****ed me up good. lol waiting in line themeparkaments.

Soulman,

how tall are you? To be perfectly honest, when you get up in the latest DL video, you look like you aren't really tall (like 1.70m, maybe?) and have relatively short arms. Maybe you should try sumo deadlifts.

Bench grip: It looks kind of wide and not very tight. A closer grip will increase tightness. Rip seems to have little against pretty flaring elbows, while Tate demonstrates the opposite in his video. You should certainly think more about the position of your elbow in relation to the bar and how you stay tight.

Thanks guys, good explanations for why less flare is good. Rip basically says more extreme angle = higher chance of injury, then proceeds to set up one guy at 70-80 degree angles in the vid...but miles' explanation in particular was kind of an eureka moment. More tucked elbows it is.

colin, I felt way more stable in this position compared to my earlier one...but then the grip was way too close and my arch sucked, so that's probably why. Will report back come Thursday.

benz,
my brother is sitting down filming that - I'm 1.83. My body is definitely not very well proportioned for deadlifting though - short legs, long torso, short arms. I've considered doing sumo deadlifts instead, I'll put that out there to Rip as well. Besides, sumo deadlifts look cool.


I'll be sure to grip the **** out of the bar next time I bench

And stretch it apart <- ->

it was for me too when i looked at the anatomy diagrams!

2009-11-10 (posted wrong date on last log entry)

Squat
Thursday it is. Bit scared to see how weaksauce my lift will be :/


Pressaments
3x5x47.5 (105 lbs)

Holla. Haven't pressed in a week (due to skipping Thursday + benching again Sat with my partners), but still advanced 2.5 kg with no probs. Fixing my form here (mainly proper elbow and wrist position + tight core) has helped plenty. Switched to pausing at bottom instead and preferring that - easier to hold form.


Chin-Ups
4, 4, 3 (unassisted)


Back Extensions
3x10x30 lbs

Still kinda sore in lower back after deadlifting on Saturday and doing stretches/mobility stuff every day, lololol tired after the last set of these.

2009-11-12


Squat
3x5x70

14 days since I last squatted, dropped down 15 kgs to practice form. It sucked, my hip drive is still ****. FML. Drastic measures need to be taken.


Bench
3x5x65

Fixed grip, prolly about 2 inches closer. Filming next time. Bit harder due to closer grip and tucked elbows. Think my form is pretty decent now. With all the new fixes I pretty much forgot about stretching the bar until the last set and was pretty surprised at how much I felt it in the lats.


Deadlift
1x5x90

Ah yes, my beloved deadlift. Filmed it again to see if back was any better. 1st rep it felt like I was able to set my lower back a bit...but nah, video says otherwise imo. Can't really say I see any improvement from last time. Sigh.

Anyone think there's any point to posting this to Rip, or will he just lol and tear me a new one and not bother helping?

Also, I notice I tend to completely relax my lower back at the bottom of each rep. Does that matter, should the back be super tight all the way down?

try taking a wider stance and pointing your feet out more. keep your knees out at the bottom (there will be some pressure between your knees and arms here), and you should be able to squeeze your lower torso down between your legs better. that is basically some world class butt wink, which seems to also happen in your squats. now in the squats it doesn't look extremely bad, but it looks like you have a pretty vertical torso in your squat because your upper body is really long. with a more vertical torso, it should be pretty easy to keep the lower back in good extension at depth, but yours definitely tucks under quite a bit.

i searched for "stretch" in your log and there are a couple mentions of stretches and stuff, but i would really, really stretch the **** out of my hamstrings every day. pavel's relax into stretch, standard hamstring stretches (keeping back in extension), and even light RDLs held at the bottom imo. you have to do some major work on those bad boys.

I would post the video and tell Rip that you realize your lower back is rounded and no matter how hard you try you can't force your back into the proper position. Hamstring stretches seem to be one good way to fix this, and maybe Rip will have some other suggestions. If you just post the video and don't say anything he will assume you don't realize your form is bad and he will just tell you it sucks, change it.

To convert kilo's to pounds approx, multiply by two then add the first two digits.

Eg.

65kg becomes 65x2=130 +13=143
140kg=280+28=308.

Sorry to hark back to the first page. Also date = day/month/year anything else is extremely dumb.