Form Check II

Just in case my other thread was slowing down anyone’s computer from so many vids on it, I’ll start a new thread for form checks. I’d do this in my log, but it gets so little traffic.

255

275

295

I felt like my legs and core had 315 in them, but my upper back despite any amount of effort was caving in.

Nice. Looking good. One thing I always found with front squats, the faster I force myself to descend they faster they come up. Looks like that 295 shouldn’t have been a fail, but you were pretty slow into/out of the hole and just got stuck in a nasty spot. It’s really hard not to slow the descent as weight goes up, but as I said when I FORCE myself to be fast into the bottom it is always an easier rep. Don’t know why this is especially true with front squats, but it is.

Squats (365)

Deads

445

475

475

I’d suggest doing good mornings to improve your thoracic extension. Your upper back is still rounding a lot. For deads a little bit is acceptable (to a degree), but you yourself admitted your upper back was caving too much on squats. Its a problem you definitely want to fix

Hey man, great stuff. Your squats are great, and at this point, you’re going to always be your best coach. It’s only going to be small things, finding different ways to get tighter and tighter, shoulder blades more pulled together, hitting that perfect spot in the hole where your knees are forward, but you’re on your heels. It’s just practice from here on out, repetition over and over learning to feel little things that only you’re going to get.

Keep at it bud

[quote]Mathew Bertrand wrote:
Hey man, great stuff. Your squats are great, and at this point, you’re going to always be your best coach. It’s only going to be small things, finding different ways to get tighter and tighter, shoulder blades more pulled together, hitting that perfect spot in the hole where your knees are forward, but you’re on your heels. It’s just practice from here on out, repetition over and over learning to feel little things that only you’re going to get.

Keep at it bud[/quote]

Thanks! You and others have helped me get to this point a lot.

Any tips for my deadlift? I find that I can keep good form until about close to 90 percent at which point my back just rounds more and more the higher the weight goes.

I find I am similar with the deadlifts. Once I start hitting single rep territory, I start to round my back. I’ve read plenty of times on here, through the articles, that hitting max effort stuff, that you’ve gotta expect some form break down.

Just watched your pulls, getting closer to 500, so I know this will be a big bitch to hear, but you really need to slow it down, and work your form with 385-415 for lots of sets of triples, and you’ve gotta make them perfect. I know it sounds light, but try this workout.

try this for a few weeks:

week 1
day 1
deficit deadlift 60%x3x2 sets
deadlift 70x3x2, 80x3x2, 85x2x4 sets

split squats weighted 3x10
abs

day2

deadlift up to knees 70x3x2
deadlift off boxes, knee height 90%x3x2, 100x2x3

week 2
deadlift 70x3x2, 80x2x6 sets

walking lunges
abs

day 2
deadlift up to knees 70x4x4
deadlift from boxes 95x3x4 sets

week 3
deadlift up to knees 75x2x5 sets
deadlift from boxes 85%x4x4

day 2
deadlift off boxes 80x3x5
sntach grip box pull, slow eccentric 65%x4x4

week 4
deadlift 80x3x3, 85x2x3

day 2
deadlift to knee 70x3x2, 75x2x4
deadlift off box 85x2x3, 95x1x3 sets

Do that for a month, then see how your form looks, it really uilds a deadlift

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
Any tips for my deadlift? I find that I can keep good form until about close to 90 percent at which point my back just rounds more and more the higher the weight goes. [/quote]

Think on that a sec… Your form is good because the muscles holding you there are strong enough to do the job. When you add weight they can’t do it any more. For training, stay in the weight range that allows you to keep this good form, then beat yourself up with accessory movements to strengthen the weak areas. I know you know this. There’s no magic bullet to circumvent getting shitty near your max. Most of us suck in that territory to some degree.

Think of your body as a machine, say a truck. If a Pick up truck could haul 60k pounds there would be no need for Peterbilts… Sometimes things are just too heavy to move well given our current strength capabilities. keep chipping away at it and soon your form with your current weight will be good.

It’s a lot better than my 515 lift a couple months ago, I’m just not sure that it’ll look any better than that attempt if I go over 500 again.

For reference:

starts at 40s.

I can’t tell if I’m rounding that much because my legs are weak and my back takes over or if it’s because my back is weak and I can’t hold my back flat because of it.

I really wanna hit that triple bodyweight pull soon, 545.

I think I know now. I didn’t take any videos, but I did some sumo deadlifts and I totally sucked at them. I had 455 with sumo when I was at my strongest with them and now 385 is a really hard triple. I think hammering some sumos and box squats somewhat like Louie preaches will be the cure.

Thanks for the program Matt, but I really like the conjugate method. But I will give that weight range a shot after I do my squats with Prilipen’s table. Since it only happens in the 90ish percent range and up, I’m fairly convinced it’s a muscle thing.

And from my other thread as far as the pin squats, I know I’m using box squats for speed now. I haven’t used them in conjunction with free squats so maybe they’ll be good for me in combination.

hey man, way more than one way to skin a cat, but try working in some pulls to the knee, they’re harder than you think, lol.

I’ll start working in deads in lower percentages in a couple weeks, but first I’m prepping for some maxes so I’ll know where to reset my percentages.

I tried some slightly different form and it felt a lot better. I flared my toes some and pushed my knees out hard. I think I got some more speed and less rounding granted there is still some. Sure it’s less weight but I did two more sets than last time too, this after taking a few squat singles at 90% keeping the speed as fast as possible.