progress is looking sturdy…
Pittsburg can be brutal in the winter, spent a few months out there prepping a show.
Pittsburg was once , one of big towns for theatrical set building.
depression is a pain - my brother and father have it, I got off with ADD 
Snapper, trust me, humility is no stranger to me, especially in the gym. I’ll post vids of squats this weekend.
kmcnyc, thanks. Yeah, I kinda noticed Pittsburgh can get a bit nippy. You’ve worked in theater? Cool - my sister’s done some semi-pro drama stuff. I’ve worked in film & video, even taught a bit.
Sorry about your family. Do your father & brother have it bad enough to where they can’t get anything done? That’s how my dad was. ADD, that’s attention problems, right?
Time for bench and upper body. Maybe it was bulldog’s vids of Stewie on Steroids that inspired me, but feeling not half bad:
Bench 45x12 95x10 115x5 135x3 135x3 Got every rep to the chest, too.
Dumb presses 25x12 30x10 35x10 40x10
Cybex Pec Dec 4x12 5x10 5x9 5x8
Rope pulldown 30x20 50x15 60x12 70x10 80x6
I have GOT to build up some arm strength.
OK, here we go. Got my new toy working and recorded squats. Warmed up with 115 lbs, but forgot to remove the lens cover so it’s blurry. The rest came out fine. 155x5:
Hmm… don’t know why the first vid came out so big, I took the res down. Anway, here’s the next set of 185 x 3:
And here’s 205 for a triple:
Hey, making vids of your lifts is going to help you a lot.
For the squats, there are a few things to work on.
Can you make a video of you squatting just the bar and getting lower? Try and get your thighs at least parallel to the floor and keep your chest high throughout the movement. Make your descent slower and more controlled.
Thanks for the vids! Like I’ve said, video is the greatest training tool.
Git is right. You need to lower the weight and work on form and depth. We’ve all had to do it at some point. I think you would really benefit from box squats to learn how to sit back, hit depth, and fire outta the hole without folding up your chest like a GM.
I also noticed that you carry the bar very high on your neck. Try to work on lowering it on your back a bit.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
Thanks for the vids! Like I’ve said, video is the greatest training tool.
Git is right. You need to lower the weight and work on form and depth. We’ve all had to do it at some point. I think you would really benefit from box squats to learn how to sit back, hit depth, and fire outta the hole without folding up your chest like a GM.
I also noticed that you carry the bar very high on your neck. Try to work on lowering it on your back a bit.[/quote]
Some good thoughts here.
There might some flexibility (tight hip flexors, ankles) issues which are contributing to the tendency to pitch forward. This should show up with deep squats with light weight.
A few other things that have helped me:
Don’t worry about getting it right the first time. But start with lighter weights. Your low back is at risk with your current form.
Firstly, well done for posting the video, I know it takes guts to put it out there for all to see.
I agree with all the great advice given already and would reiterate that at this stage you should be doing sets of 8-12 with light weights for some volume, not heavy sets of five and triples. Once you have your form issues sorted then you can start piling on the weight.
And the way you keep playing with your back worries me slightly, no one wants to see you injure yourself.
Flexibility wise you seemed able to drop into a deep squat after your last set when you hung on the bar, so I don’t know.
So do some box squats to depth with an empty bar and film and post again.
Thanks for the observations, folks. To be honest, I was horrified when I saw the vids, I look like a weakling who never stepped in a gym ever.
Didn’t realize I was leaning forward so much, but I think I know what’s going on. I’m trying to get low, and it’s probably a subconscious cheat which makes it feel lower than it is. One thing I did years ago when getting back into squats was to grab a pole, keep arms straight, and squat bodyweight. That might be good to do again to relearn the form.
Yes, git, I do tighten my abs and pull my shoulders back on set up. I’ll check on tightening the whole back. And snapper, I’ll look into the bar height.
Here’s the vid of my warmup set, 115 lbs. Forgot to remove the lens cover, so it’s blurry, but you should be able to see what’s going on. I do go lower on lighter weights, although could make it lower still. In the past, I was so determined to go up on weight that my form suffered.
Hi, Brett, didn’t see your post at first. When you say playing with the back, are you referring to the bit I do just before getting under the bar? What I’m doing is tightening the muscles around my scoliosis to keep it as straight as possible. I’ve exercised my lower back for years to firm up the area.
Also, reason I hang from the bar at the end is that squats wear me out and it gives me a chance
to catch my beath. Yes, I breath during the set.
Site must have gone down last night, couldn’t post.
Feeling good last night, plowed into the deadlifts:
135x8
185x5
225x3
255x3
255x3
265x1
Form good, didn’t feel like I was ripping out the spine or anything.
machine bicep 55x12 70x8 70x8 70x8
cable row 80x12 90x10 90x10 90x10 90x10 90x10
Definitely stronger. Would have done more, but wanted to get home in time to watch Jeopardy. This is the week the IBM computer is mopping the floor with the human champs.
Weird session at the gym. Most of the other guys (and a gal or two) are bigger and stronger than me. This time, one skinny guy was benching less weight than me and his partner had to help him with that. Then I saw a pretty good sized fellow being taught squats. He was huffing and puffing with 135 lbs, when he got down to parallel, had to dump on the power rack pins. Even though my form needs work, 135 is so easy for me.
I know a lot of you folks get inspired by people lifting more than you, but I often find it intimidating. I’m actually inspired when I can out-lift someone else, it proves I’m making progress.
Enough philosophy, here’s my bench:
45x15
95x10
115x5
135x4
135x3
95x13
Actually went up a rep on the 135, will take it as progress.
Rope pulldown: 50x15 60x15 70x12 80x8 90x8 90x8
Cybex pec dec: 4x15 5x10 6x6 6x6
dumbbell press: 30x15 40x8 40x10
Switched the order from last time, so was caught unprepared by the dumb press, was harder than expected. Clearly was worn out from the previous sets.
Hey cav, I havn’t been lifting long enough to offer advice so encouragment will have to do…keep gettin after it man, your doin great.
Thanks, Greg. You might not have been lifting long, but you’ve certainly got strong from it.
EDIT: Greg, it’s interesting you say you’re not qualified to give advice. I saw your video, and while your deadlift form isn’t all that good, you’re still way stronger than me. You’re picking up almost 400 like a small sack of groceries. I’ve noticed that about a lot of people in the gym, they get really strong for no obvious reason in a short period of time. It just seems to happen. Which may be why you weren’t paying attention to form, you just didn’t need to. Of course you’re working on it now, but my point is that I never went through a strength surge. I’ve had to fight tooth and nail for every sliver of gain. Now I have to go back and relearn my squat because my strength didn’t keep up with the poundages and form suffered. Yech. I just keep fighting.
OK, here we go, working on my new squat form, bending legs, not hips. Turned out the bench was a bit too high, will have to find something else. Experiment with form, then try it with empty bar:
OK, now try with weight on bar, total 65 lbs. Working harder than expected:
Another couple of sets with 65. Working harder than ever. I can’t belive I actually hit failure - well, I did. Quads felt like rubber afterwards.
Followed up with leg curls, seated calves, and leg extensions. Wanted to punish my legs and the extensions did a fine job. Expect legs to be aching tomorrow.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
Thanks, Greg. You might not have been lifting long, but you’ve certainly got strong from it.
EDIT: Greg, it’s interesting you say you’re not qualified to give advice. I saw your video, and while your deadlift form isn’t all that good, you’re still way stronger than me. You’re picking up almost 400 like a small sack of groceries. I’ve noticed that about a lot of people in the gym, they get really strong for no obvious reason in a short period of time. It just seems to happen.but my point is that I never went through a strength surge.I’ve had to fight tooth and nail for every sliver of gain. Now I have to go back and relearn my squat because my strength didn’t keep up with the poundages and form suffered. Yech. I just keep fighting.[/quote]
I truly don’t believe that picking up something heavy qualifies me to give advice especially when it comes to proper form on certain lifts. I’m not trying to claim that I don’t know what I am doing…I have far more time trying to learn how to make my body bigger and stronger than I do putting all that information into practice. I am one of those that acually believes that less than 5% of total training is done in the gym…The other 95% is what your doing between workouts.
I also don’t believe anything in life “Just seems to happen”. I’ve worked construction my whole life so my body is plenty used to picking up, carrying and setting down heavy things and it responds well to training. Previously I spent a little over 2 years in the gym, 6 days per week, 3-4 hours a day training but that was from more of a BB approach. Everything was about size so things like depth of my squat didn’t really matter to me that much.
I can’t really comment on your gains…don’t know what you do with the other 95% of your time.
“Just keep fighting” is all any of us can do. I am your polar opposite in one area though…when I see someone lifting more than me it drives me crazy. That’s what originally attracted me to this site…I will never be the strongest person here so there is an unlimited source of motivation for me.
Anyway…keep working hard. We all have our reasons and I support anyone who puts in the hours!
Cavalier,
I wanted to respond to what you said about having to “fight tooth and nail for every sliver of gain”.
I’ve been looking over your last 6 weeks of training and here are some thoughts that I have…take them for what there worth…which may be nothing.
I don’t see any volume…most of your workouts only have 45-55 reps every two days. Thats only around 150 reps per week. I personly couldn’t see myself making any sort of progress with this volume.
If I was only doing Squat, DL, Bench…I wouldn’t do them in that order. For me, squat day is the most taxing on my legs so I try to keep at least 72hrs between my Squat and DL. If your gong to continue with this split I would change it to: Squat, Bench, DL. This should allow you to add much more volume on squat day and be plenty rested for DL day.
You need to figure out how to get more accessory work into your routine. If your goal is overall strength, your core lifts alone will not get you there. I find that my accessory lifts are where I build a lot of my strength and my core lifts are where I use that strength to train my CNS.
Please don’t take me wrong…I mean these things in the most supportive way.
Edit: If I only lifted 3 day/wk I would try to do something like this:
Day 1: Squat
Squat - warm up to heavy single (not max) then 5x5
RDL - 4x6-8
Leg Press - 4x6-8
Cable Row - 4x6-8
Lat Pull - 4x6-8
Bicep curl - 3x10-12
Ab crunch - 3xfail
Day 2: Bench
Flat BB - warm up to heavy single (not max) then 5x5
OH Press - 4x6-8
Incline press - 4x6-8
Front raise - 4x6-8
Rear delt - 4x6-8
Lateral raise - 4x6-8
Hanging dip - 3xfail
Tri ext (press down, skullcrusher, or?) 3x10-12
Day 3: Deadlift
DL - warm up to heavy single (not max) then 5x5
Front squat - 4x6-8
Leg curl - 4x6-8
Hyper ext or GM - 3x10-12
Face Pull - 3x10-12
Pull up or Chin - however many sets it takes to get 25 reps
Leg raises - 3xfail
Volume = Approx 600-700 reps/week