you have ton of potential in your shoulders/trap/yoke.

you should start doing farmers walks asap imo. idk if you have access to a trap bar but its worth it. dbs can work as well. also strengthens the core

with your forearms/grip you would be able to do some nice numbers.

good luck

Your knees are not vertical enough and the bar is way in front of center of mass. I'm going to guess your toes are pointed too straight ahead and your knees arent out over your toes. Video from a 3 quarter front view and straight ahead view next time.

Nuckolls has a decent guide, and I like watching Pozdeev and Belkin lift.

Eta: squat shows won't help, off brand chucks are decent though

Tom,

Seems like that exercise could have some good carry over to climbing too. I'll look into adding that, ty.


Aidan,

Ty for advice, what you're saying makes sense and I def agree. Will try to make those those changes and see. Watching ppl that know what their doing, their quads seem to lock earlier--so I think my stance (/and toe angle) was probably too narrow, like you're saying. I'll check out Nuckolls guide, I read his whole squat guide and watched that long ass video with him and Omar. Dude knows his stuff.

-------------

Yesterday I decided to take the day off because of the prior day's fatigue. Was antsy about it the whole day and wanted to get in there, but fought the urge.

Today, 5/4/2017, I repeated the squat day from 5/2. I felt much better today. Weights didn't feel too heavy and they moved with fair speed. And no lower back pain.
4x3x245, 2x3x265, 3x275

Here's a video below of the last set @275. Not the assiest to grassiest. I think I'm content with going a bit below parallel but if I'm being honest they look higher in the video than they felt. I may try to widen a tad and angle out toes a bit more.

Squats look tidy imo, you just need to keep working on keeping a neutral spine through solid core bracing. Ensure you're starting with a neutral spine and that you're not over-correcting in to an extended spine. Keep tight through the final part of the descent and the return.

Little things like minimising the stepping on unrack will come with time.

5/5/17
Bench, was supposed to do 5x6x150, 2x6x165, 170x5+. Accidentally had put 165 on and didn't realize it until I was supposed to move it up to 165. Idk why, I knew it felt heavier than 150. Just brain farted. So ended up with 7x6x165 and 8x170. Wonder what the last set would have been if I did the right weights earlier but oh well.
I worked on getting into a bigger arch set up too.

Tomorrow I think I'll pick the 370x2+ for DL major progression. Will do a side video, I feel as my reps with heavy weights continue I tend to lose lat tightness and I round a bit.

5/6/17

MP (major progression) day DL. 370x6.

I was pretty fired up and rushed my initial setup. Didn't get my hips set up high enough so they rose. A few reps the bar came out in front of me, idk prob losing tightness? Could have been bending my knees first on the descent instead of getting my hips back, I tend to dot hat. A little disappointed in the sloppy form, but I know I have decent conv DL form in me so w/e. Overall stoked I pulled it for 6 reps!

Aiden I'm going to get a 3/4 front view for sumo next time.

Going to make some weight/eating notes.
Weight: 178lb. I've been around 177-178 for prob a month now. Prob will start to increase cals a bit. I've been around 3k cals for ~2mo.

Just prior to lifting I was prob averaging about 2300 (at 150lbs). I think I was slowing losing weight at this amt (with the climbing involved) as I kept getting slightly leaner and leaner. I have increased calories fairly linearly and with stalls in gains over the ~5mo.
Ranging from ~2500 (quickly stalled here) for ~1mo
~2600-2700 for ~1mo
~2800-2900 for ~1mo
~3000-3100 for the last ~2mo.

Tbh I'm not sure how I've gained the weight I have eating what I have. Lots of climbing in there too, but less as time's gone on. I'm pretty confident in the approximation of the cals. I did not expect this to be the result.
Even if I overate my TDEE by 400/day which seems on the high side, that's (400*30days*5mo/3700cals)=16. There must be some kind of hormonal effect with untrained body parts? Idk

Weight: 177.4

Front SQ. 4x5x165, 4x4x175. Man these suck! I'm using straps because either my wrist mobility sucks or arm length or whatever. Was challenging to keep core tight. Also I felt like I was pulling hard on the straps to keep my elbows up. It was my first session with them but given how heavy they felt in comparison to LB SQ I guess I'm really hip dominant (as also shown by the gap in the DL) and my quads are a weak point.

Hard to see from the video, but maybe your straps could be more secure. When I strapped FS a few months back, I basically fused my hands with the bar so there was no gap or slack in the straps.

5/9/17, Bench, 4x3x170, 3x3x180, 185x4 (amrap)

Hmm, my elbow positioning looks goofy. Seems like this a problem? Could this be too narrow of a grip? Gonna look into it.

Sumo 5x8x195, 2x6x205, 6x215.
BW: 178.2

Hopefully my form is better this time. Thoughts? #Aidan
On a few sets I noticed a little crankiness in lower back, prob because I wasn't as tight perhaps because of the weight being lighter and just not taking it as seriously.

With my bench I think I was over tucking my elbows at the start ^

Sumo: I think your stance is too wide for your current hip mobility. The general recommendation is for your shin to be vertical when viewed from the side and the front (though viewed from the side is more important, from your last vid they were not), and I don't think you are meeting either in this vid. Keep playing with stance width.

The back niggle could be coming from some spine hyperextension at the top. You don't want to lean back, simply standing up with your glutes engaged is enough. Squeeze your butt.

Bench: Looks like you are over-flaring your elbows off the bottom. You do want to flare your elbows a bit to get a nice backward bar path (B to C below), but you want to do so in a way that keeps your elbows under the bar. Think about pushing backward while pushing up. Widening grip might help as you also want roughly vertical elbows at the bottom



There are things to improve when you set up, as you manage to wiggle around a lot. I think you overpress the bar on unrack which loses some of the tightness you get too. Have a browse of Nuckol's bench guide and self-assess some things to improve, one thing at a time. I'd focus on driving your heels down more too.

Awesome thank you Aidan.


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5/11/17 Rest day.

5/12/17 MP Skwaats day. 6x280. BW: 178.4

Gives a 1RM EST of 335, though that feels like it'd be a bit much. If my 1RM EST are right it would put me just over 1000 lbs, which is cool even if I'm not truly there yet.

Felt about a B energy wise and overall psyched-ness. I forgot to clamp one of the sides, lol dumbass. The weights slipped about halfway down the bar by the 5th rep and I noticed it. But I don't really think it negatively effected the set much.

Reps 1-3 were OK speed. 4-6 were a bit grindy. Good core tightness throughout, no lower back pain.

5/13/17 Bench, 4x5x160, 4x4x175
BW: 177.8

The first sets felt great. The bar path felt right. Later on they felt heavier than I wanted them too. I think I generally fatigue a bit faster on bench, will give more rest in between sets even at these % 1RM.

I tried index finger on the ring which felt OK in the earlier sets, later on I was having trouble maintaining position while unracking (the rack pin or w/e was pretty high on this particular bench). Think I'll try middle finger on the ring for a bit. Overall I haven't felt like my bench has gotten any stronger in at least a month.

5/14/17 DL, 4x4x335, 3x4x350
BW: 179.2

5/15/17 Front SQ: 4x8x135, 3x6x155

5/16/17, rest

5/17/17

BW: 178.0

MP Bench Day, barely got 200x3. Gonna track chins too (+45lb, 6,6,4,4)

I feel this is pretty consistent with my overall pressing workouts lately. Which is a bit of a decrease in strength. I think I've had enough workouts to say that I've taken a step back on pressing. SQ and DL have been fine though.

My first reaction is that Im overdoing training. Perhaps I'm not ready for this kind of freq+vol. Going to look a bit into INOL.

I could adjust by:
-decrease # of days (would help climbing too)
-decrease volume on T1/T2 lifts (Prob not going to do this much, as I think I was stalling before on lower volume)
-decrease accessories (usually 12 additional sets (4 exercises) after T1/T2 lifts)

Sleep-it is what it is, not perfect, but it's ok +naps.
Diet-I really do think I'm in a slight surplus atm at 3-3.2k cals (1g+ protein/BW)

DYEC bro?

I think its normal that your limit numbers might go down a bit after an increase in volume. Hopefully they'll come back even stronger as your body "catches up" a little down the line. But I'd bet you could still make progress with less volume. If climbing is more important to you than lifting, dropping a gym day to make more time for the rocks seems pretty reasonable.

johnny,

I hope thats the case. I think I'm going to break it up such that I'm averaging closer to 4.5-5 lifting days a week, working in more rest days. The program also called for i.e tricep accessory work the day after bench (and CG BP), and shoulder accessory the day after that. I think that's probably playing a roll in fatigue/overtraining. That's also consistent with the fact that my SQ and DL have been fine/progressing.

5/18/17, climbed. In all the sets lately the "v6-7" have shut me down. I feel like they are harder than in the past, probably more correct grading though. But I've gotten basically every "v4-5" (prob 50 problems). The setters are making a much clearer gap these days. Towards the end of the season, at my higher BW, I was able to repeat all the outside 5s and 6s I had previously sent at ~150-155 lbs. So I do think I'm not just imagining the increase in grading difficulty.

5/19/17, I'll write my total workout if anyone has any comments
LB SQ, 3x275, 2x2x280, 3x1x285, 5x4x235. (INOL 1.62)
Front SQ 3x8x145
Leg Press 3x15 ss Wide PU 12,8,7
Leg Ext 3x15 ss Facepulls 3x15

5/20/17
Bench, 3x180, 2x2x185, 3x1x190, 5x5x160
CG BP, 4x6x135
Tri Ext 3x15 ss DB curl 3x10
Cable rows 3x15 ss Dips 3x10
DB press 3x10


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5/21/17
rest

5/22/17

BW:177.0

DL, 3x365, 2x2x375, 2x1x395, 1x425, 4x5x305. 425 moved decent, prob do have 440/445 in me.
BBrow 4x10x145
Lat PD 3x8x145 (hard was warn out)
Facepulls 3x10 ss Lat PD 3x10x100

Regarding eating/BW... Entirely depend on bench gains. I'm willing to run a lean bulk to up 190 if I'm making enough gains there.

How many days a week do you bench press?

I've adjusted my plan in the last few days but going to be doing it 2x a week without leaking accessory related exercises over other days. And incorporating more rest days.

When I started the thread I just moved to a program that was:
-2x a week bench
-much higher in volume than I was doing before
-triceps and shoulder accessory work on days other than bench.
i.e;