Conditioning later this afternoon. The only good thing about a pandemic is having an even more flexible work schedule.
It was raining too much, so no hill sprints. Did 12 jumps (tuck and broad jumps) and then ran 4.5 rounds of this. Sort of hard to tell, but it’s a mix of stairs and flat ground on the way up.
120 cal assault bike 14:40
Tomorrow will be interesting…
BtM W3D1
100 pullups
Press
35x6
45x3
50x5
57.5x5
62.5x5
50x15
Squat
35x6
85x5
105x5
120x5
135x5x5
77 dips + 30 pushups
100 band pull aparts
Thank god that’s over. I think the squat TM is too heavy – I’m glad I’m challenging myself, but the rest times were not great. And of course my technique sucks. Felt like I was taking my 7RM for a 5x5… not easy. The number on the scale scares me a little, but the fact that I can still manage a set of 8 pullups is nice.
Are you open to unsolicited advice?
Go for it
There’s a couple of things wrong with your squat. Your hips shoot up first and it quickly becomes a squat morning pattern. Lowering the weight and investing time to fix it will go a long way despite the perceived set back. You’ll thank yourself years down the road. Also, your head is cranked waaay too much in cervical extension. It may not be a problem, but neutral is typically where you’ll want to be in
These are good to start
These two knuckleheads can help you out a lot too @guineapig, @dagill2
I absolutely appreciate the tag but I am 100% not the person to ask for form advice, this is definitely piggys area of expertise.
I’ll also tag in @Koestrizer and @garagerocker13 who are also pretty sharp on this stuff.
My 2c is that you just aren’t tight enough or bracing well enough. I’ve been criticised for this advice before, but paused squats always seem to help me fix this issue. The good news is that if you can fix the tightness and bracing, your legs are strong enough to move much more weight.
While we’re offering unsolicited advice though, I notice you don’t start all your presses from a front racked position. If you can, I think it would be beneficial for you to do that.
Anyone who can commit to Building the Monolith gets plenty of respect from me by the way, awesome work.
Your very first rep in the video actually looks pretty good. After that it just looks like you’re losing tightness in your upper back and core.
It looks like your bar position is pretty high which will cause you to fatigue your core quicker and lose that tightness. It also means it’s easier to let the weight travel forward in front of your feet which will make you good morning your squat. Given that your elbows are directly below your hands, you probably have plenty of shoulder mobility to get the bar lower on your back. Maybe try and get it down to where it’s resting on your rear delts. You’ll have to pull hard on the bar - think like you’re trying to break the bar across your back - to keep it in this position. I’d imagine that would solve the tipping forward issue without much other work.
You’re a lot stronger than your form allows you to express and are doing some great work in here. Keep up with the videos and the ass-kicking and we can try and help 
Also, I second the point about starting your presses from a rack position rather than holding the bar in your hands. It’s made a huge difference in my press.
I like the idea of putting the bar further down your back. Maybe also try to make your squat more hip dominant in the first place by sitting back more and opening up your hips (pushing the knees out).
On the press it looks like your lats aren’t nearly tight enough and your elbows shoot back a little when you descent the bar. You should have the mobility to start from a rack position, which will make it easier to ‘pack your lats’ and create a strong base to start from.
I like the video suggestions so far. @whang
I didn’t follow the log up until this point, so I have no idea how your program exactly looks like. Two of the best accessories (in my mind) for the sub optimal movement pattern we are seeing would be goblet squats and box squats (I know this is as controversial as it gets but for me personally there was nothing better to teach me how to involve my glutes and keep myself from getting folded over).
Keep it up and good gainz going forward!
Hi I’m Pig.
There might be a fair amount of stuff to cover but I’ll just respond to whangs post and your latest squat vid for now and comment on other things as we go along with your strength journey.
@whang linked some useful vids. The overall squat pattern im seeing is a hip dominant one where on the ascent one shifts the load to the posterior chain ASAP. Thing is for powerlifting purposes / more weight on the squat it’s mechanically inefficient and technically inconsistent. For general strength purposes it’s neglecting the quads which are one of the biggest strongest muscles in the body and super functional.
If you can fit it in your program sub-max work is great for building strength and getting in practice for technique. Assistance work will be useful also if it can be fit into your program to develop more leg strength relative to your posterior chain strength. If you’re lifting in lockdown like me equipment might be a bit restricted so we can brain storm a bit.
This squat pattern might not be something you can completely get rid of but at least it can be made less severe, mitigating the disadvantages while still getting stronger.
Oh and forgot to ask the important question of how does your squat feel? Hard in any particular part of the movement. Do you feel that balance wise the weight shifts forward/back? Any thing that doesn’t feel “right”?
@whang Yup, I’ve always had this problem. I try to watch these sorts of videos to help me and also have tried different things like front squats and single leg work, but nothing really seems to help. Thanks for these videos though. I’ll check them out this week.
@dagill2 I think bracing is part of the issue for sure. But I also think I have really weak legs, quads namely. The difference between my squat and deadlift is already laughable, but if I fail a deadlift, it’s always off the floor.
@garagerocker13 I have long legs, so low bar might suit me better. The problem is that the higher bar position feels so much more comfortable for me 
I can probably get tighter on the press, but I don’t really feel like I’m “holding” the weight either at least. I feel better about that than the squat haha
@Koestrizer I used to do goblet squats a lot actually! Those and front squats. But I never got much out of them with respect to fixing my quad weaknesses, because I think my back still takes over during those movements. I would think that a box squat would reinforce the bad movement pattern, no? Either way don’t have access to either of those things now that I’m lifting at home. I’ll keep these things in mind though, thank you 
@guineapig I’ve seen the first two videos you link but probably due for a rewatch. Def agree that my technique is not ideal at all, and my quads have always lagged behind. I feel okay about the other 3 lifts, but I hate squatting, and my form is so bad whenever I rewatch. I never have any pain squatting this way, even when the weight is very heavy or when I do high rep sets. I can sense my posterior chain dominating on the ascent, but I don’t feel my upper back is getting crushed by the weight either. I also never feel like I good morning the squat as much as the evidence shows, though I imagine others with this problem would say the same
Thanks for all the comments though. I always struggle with squats. I’m wondering if I should maybe jump ship and try a program with more frequent, submax squatting? Over the past couple years I’ve always stalled around 135-140 on squats… my other lifts improve, and it’s been long enough that I’m probably not in a rut even if I’d like to think I am
Isa not the worst thing the in the world tbh. Plenty of lifters do well and progress in such a squat pattern but that’s more a product of having plenty of posterior chain strength to get away with it. If you find that technique cues aren’t doing the job for you it’ll come down to doing to lot more work in whatever movements you feel your quads working in the most even if that’s something horrible like AMRAP bodyweight squats.
Certainly a good idea even if just for squats so if we are smart about it you can run a seperate program for squats while continuing with whatever enables you to progress on other lifts. You can always come back to 5/3/1 after building up a lot of work/volume in another program. Kinda having a wide base means you can build the pyramid of max strength up
The bad pattern isn’t that you’re doing a hip dominant squat but the hips shooting back part. I don’t really think it’s an issue of the quads being too weak but rather an issue of the wrong muscles being activated. The box can help to teach you how to involve your glutes better to initiate the ascent.
Depending on how tall you are a case of beer could be a good squat box, haha.
Anyways it all comes down to practise! Try the different suggestions we gave you and see what works best and if you can get something put of it.
Edit: also forgot to mention that I am not talking about a box squat like you see at Westside etc.
@Frank_C has an epic quad blaster. @dagill2 also did a pretty nasty one. 1-10-1 of squats, lunges and push-ups
It’s definitely tough switching away from what’s comfortable, I feel you there! But comfortable isn’t always good, ya know? I’d bet that you would get used to a low position quickly if you fully committed to it (big difference between “trying something out” and committing to a change). Long legs means long moment arm which means you need more force to move the weight. High bar means long moment arm which means you need more force to move the weight. Going lower would mean you have one less long moment arm making the weight feel heavier. Since you’ve done a lot of the suggested corrective assistance work, I’m even more sure that changing bar position would improve your squat significantly.
1000%
@Bagsy if you can, maybe try doing some kind of squatting every day, even if its 1 set with 50% paying very close attention to form. Eventually the brain just remembers the motor pattern and gets efficient. Also, make every rep count. One of my biggest mistakes was not taking warmup reps seriously.
@guineapig Yeah, maybe I’ll try to find something to program just the squat differently. Not a bad idea. I can still feel my quads using this technique even though posterior chain takes over, so I’m not sure anything will ever “feel” super wrong to me even when a video suggests totally otherwise 
@garagerocker13 Maybe comfortable is the wrong word here – I hate squatting and don’t like it anyhow! But I get your point. I’ll watch some low bar tutorials and see how it goes this time around
