Alright so I posted somewhat regularly on here ~4 years ago. I’ve been many things in my fitness journey, but never either strong or aesthetic. That said, I’ve run a sub 5 minute mile and been a damn good bike racer, so...

Now I’m probably my weakest and least aesthetic, though still blessed with hummingbird metabolism. Been lifting again since January with ~ 3 week break in May. Currently running Greyskull LP. Trying to get strong and get a physique that will turn heads. 6’4” and about 190. Was around 170 in Jan. Trying to slowly bulk till next April to like 220 then cut to the head turning physique for summer 2020.

Current lifts: bench:205x8; ohp:125x10; squat:tbd, deadlift:315x6

I have just adjusted squats from low bar to high bar, because my plan is to do oly after growing tired of greyskull. Am going Ass to grass. For some reason, I have way more knee cave high bar.

Anyways, today:

Bench: 2x5x205, 1x8x205 (failed 9th rep)

Ohp: 2x5x125, 1x10x125

Chins: 1x8xbw, 2x6x45

Squats: 2x5x230, 1x10x230

Ghd: 2x20xbw

Planks: 2x2’

Cable crunches: 3x10x95

Here are some vids:

Squats 230x10


Ohp 125x10

Ohp 125x5

Bench 205x8

Bench 205x 5

Lifting Wed, Fri, Sun at the moment, doing super easy fasted jog at about a 10 minute pace for 20-30 minutes. Wed, Thurs, Sat, Sun, and doing HIIT Monday and Wednesday (as finisher to DL workout) with Tuesday off completely. Sometimes replacing fasted cardio with unfasted mountain bike ride or rock climbing session, or sometimes sports

Any and all input welcome.

Just watched the squats. Knees are really caving in. Try to keep them out.

I'm sure some of the more experienced lifters here will give you better input than I possibly could. You may try posting all the vids in the form check thread also. People who may not read your log might see them there.

I’m trying a lot of things I’ve learned but still caving. Will post futures in form check thread. It’s disappointing cuz I feel that if you put a gun to my head I could do like 25 reps at that weight and the form is already not very good

Diet for the day:

3 eggs, 1 cup oats, 2tbsp butter, liberal amount of brown sugar

1 scoop whey

~6oz pasta, 1 chicken breast, ~ 2 tbsp olive oil

Bratwurst on bun, pita chips, 2 craft beers (stout, coffee brown ale)

2 bud lites

2 scoops whey

Well on the bright side, once you get the form dialed in, you should be able to lift a lot more.

Do you cave at all weights?
Get your form locked in before you put on any real weight (probably even lighter than something you believe you can do 25 reps at, because in absolute terms it's still reasonable weight).

I'm far from an authority here but that amount of knee travel with any real weight seems like a future trip to the disabled list.

Once your form is locked in, increase the weight again. When you get close to max and close to exhaustion, your form will of course fail. That will tell you where you're weak and need to get stronger. It's possible/probable right now that your problem is exactly that - that you're too weak to properly squat those weights with correct form. But it's also possible your mental cues are bad.

Personally I'd start with some air squatting with a rubber band just above the knees.

I wrote a research paper on the issue of knee cave during squats for my kinesiology class. If you are interested I can send you some research articles I used for it but here's a condensed version of the possible issues you may need to fix:

1. decreased gluteal activation or strength- you will want to strengthen your abductors and glutes (particularly glute medius). lying leg abductions, clamshells, single leg glute bridge, lateral banded glute walk, unilateral leg work, etc all should help with this

2. overactive adductors- you may need to stretch and foam roll your adductors (inside of your thigh)

3. decreased ankle dorsiflexion: you may want to try squatting in squat shoes or an elevated heel if you aren't already

good luck, PM if you want more info

My guess is that the problem is mostly bolded because of how easy he is getting those up. Most people who have the weakness issue cave just as much but the squats are much more of a grind. In all likelihood it's some combo of both. It certainly could be mostly a weakness issue. I'm really just guessing here.

Maybe it's just how you squat. I'd just work on the mental cues and get stronger. As long as you aren't hurting, a little valgus should be no big deal.

not sure why my post is getting grunched when I've actually studied this issue and you guys are continuing to guess (in melk's case) and give poor advice (in Renton's case). You are correct that a small amount of pain-free knee valgus is not a huge deal, but if he's already demonstrating knee valgus during lighter sub-max sets, it is only going to get worse when he gets to harder sets, so it's probably something he should address now. Mental cues will work for some people, if the issue is minor. I have trained several people who could not keep their knees out even if I reminded them every rep. If that is the case, he should be trying one or all of the three things I mentioned in my previous post.

My offering my take wasn't a tacit disapproval of yours.

That said, I think a lot of people with your credentials would argue that foam rolling and isolation exercises of purported weak muscle groups is less effective than just squatting with better cues. Perhaps with a band, or with a slow concentric tempo. I think its hard to know how bad his issue is until he gets stronger.

OP, I think GSLP is an ineffective squat program for you if you choose to go the route of beeschnuts, i.e. fixing your squat form before the weights get heavy. It is a linear progression and those are meant to be pushed hard in order to get strong as quickly as possible. You're probably better off doing something like I'm doing, a 3-day Sheiko template with lots and lots of short submax sets. An average day will have you working up to 5 or 6 sets of 3 with 80% of your max, about 245-250 lb.

My main issue with your post was saying " get stronger" and a little knee valgus isn't a big deal. I watched his squat video again and he's actually demonstrating pretty significant knee valgus throughout the set and it gets worse later in the set. This is with a 10 rep sub max set. This means it is already a pretty significant issue for him. If he did a 5rm or anything close to max effort at 80%+ his knee valgus would be much worse and likely dangerous.

I don't agree with your statement that squatting with better cues is more effective. I recommended the three fixes because that is what the research recommended. Tempo squats MIGHT help, but they are never mentioned in all the studies on the issue. Using a band around his knees might help as well, I'm pretty sure I've seen studies that using the band can increase glute activation.

Two things about the isolation exercises/stretches. First, I would not dismiss them as ineffective. I have used them with clients in the past and helped multiple people with this issue. Even when fixing other muscle imbalance issues such as anterior pelvic tilt, I used stretches/foam rolling on hip flexors and isolation/activation exercises on glutes and core to fix that issue. It doesn't happen right away, but normally takes a few weeks. Second, I also suggested unilateral leg work in my first post. I would recommend adding the adduction stretches and glute activation stuff (unilateral glute bridge, abductions, clamshells etc.) as part of his warmup and then do some unilateral leg exercises that can strengthen the glute medius (Bulgarian split squats, lunges, single leg squat, etc.)

wu,

Obviously listen to beesch and accept any offers he makes to review, coach, etc you? That's the remarkable thing about this board is free advice from experts who you've never met who have no reason to be personally invested in you but are anyway.

I posted once on Reddit and got nowhere near as much free expert advice, and swallowed up by other posts. It’s why I came back here despite not having played poker seriously since a little after Black Friday.

Upon reflection, I’m pretty sure it’s this. I don’t think other parts of my leg are necessarily weak, but I definitely think I tend to put more emphasis on that part of the leg. Anyways, should I strip more weight off the bar in addition to the other steps? I dropped from 275 in the lp to try to fix it.

Already using weightlifting shoes

I understand that you may think it is just your adductors, but it's about the relationship between the adductors and abductors really. If your adductors are tight, yes you should try to stretch/release them, but you will also need to increase glute activity to balance this issue and prevent internal rotation. Read the excerpt below again from the study I sent you.

One study found that it is not necessarily the glute activity alone that prevents knee valgus, but rather the glute activity to adductor ratio that is needed to limit medial knee displacement. “The relative coactivation between the gluteus medius and gluteus maximus with the hip adductors may contribute to MKD (medial knee displacement). Greater hip adductor activity that is not balanced by gluteal activity may permit greater hip adduction and internal rotation (Mauntel, et al., 2013, p. 1813-1823).

In addition to the warm-up changes, I would either do Bulgarian split squats as your main squat movement for a couple weeks OR if you really want to continue BB squatting, just use a weight that you can do with zero or very minimal knee valgus and then do the unilateral work after.

Here are some low bar squats from a while ago for comparison. I don’t recall if those are 25s or 35s, so weight is either 280 or 300. It’s a worse angle for seeing the knee action too so maybe not much to be learned from this, but thoughts appreciated. I really noticed the difference when I switched to high bar but it may have been evident the whole time

Also, I bought a house with a 2 car garage. I close on that in two weeks, and I’ve already bought all the equipment I need from fb marketplace for a home gym: ~650 pounds of metal plates, squat rack w/ pull up bar, two barbells, two benches (one flat one moveable), heavy punching bag, platforms (which I was going to build myself but homemade ones were thrown in with the squat rack.) Gonna buy the Rogue dumbbell handles and a couple bumper plates as well. Also think a couple kettlebells are in order, and the guy I bought the plates from has a ghd machine for $250 that I would like. All told I’ve spent $900 so far.

Anyone here have a home gym? What else might I want? Seems like I might be throwing tons of money its way in the future. Putting a bball hoop in the driveway and a ping pong table somewhere, possibly in garage.

Today:

.5 mile wu at 10 min pace

For time: 400m, 75 hand release push ups (one set), 400m, 75 flutter kicks per side (2 sets but tried for 1), 400m. Time: 8:52. 400s were in the 1:10 range. Had like a 40 mph headwind on back stretch and 40mph tailwind on front stretch so probably not as fast as I could do I’m good conditions, but faster than the same workout last week where I did two sets to complete the pushups.

Cool down: 400m walk

Diet: bfast: 1cup oats, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup whole milk, two scoops on whey all in pancake form

Lunch: 4 pieces toasted sourdough, ~4oz deli turkey, bell pepper, 1/2 avocado, 2tbsp hummus, sriracha, 2 slices cheddar cheese, drizzle of oil.

Dinner: chicken breast, ~6oz. Pasta, organic jarred pasta sauce

Off.

Diet: 2 Taco Bell xxl stufft chicken burritos, 1 whole dominos pepperoni and mushroom pizza, chicken wings.

Grunching, just read the op and watched the vids.
I for one am against this 220lb gain nonsense. You look just FINE the way you are.
The weight is too heavy for you squatting and there is something that isn't quit right with your OHP. If you could do a vid without a shirt, I could have a better idea of what it is.

And lololol at the crotch view bench press.

Today: rode bike to and from work. About 50 minutes of what should have been steady state cardio but in reality was more like hiit due to being almost late and 1200 feet of climbing total (there and back).

Gym: bench: 2x5x207.5, 1x6x207.5

Ohp: 2x5x127.5, 1x8x127.5 supersetted with hammer grip chins 1x6xbw, 1x6x25, 1x6x35, 1x6x45, 3x6xbw. Took vids of chins

Squats: 3x5x235. Could have done many on last set but held off till form locked in. Many videos of working sets+warmups to come

Ghd: 1x20xbw, 2x15x25 supersetted with hanging leg raises 3x15xbw

Looks like a lot of back (i.e., lumbar) movement on these reps. I'd be more worried about that than the knee cave as far as injury risk. I could be wrong, though. I'm definitely no expert. Definitely post your next set(s) in the form check thread.

I don't think the lower back is an issue in those reps. He's just going from hyperextension to neutral. There's a difference between that and the "squish" effect where the lumbar collapses in the hole under heavy loads.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I thought the ideal was to be neutral the whole time. I used to think hyperextension was OK, but I because convinced after some convos in H&F that hyperextension is bad also.