Press (with increasingly better form, I hope)
About the elbows, I think I need a wider grip (hindsight). But it also makes my shoulders feel weird
I really want to help you mane and get you better and better but what Iāma need is some proper video material to work with.
Angles: Front, side and everything in between is needed cos one view alone can completely miss stuff.
Quality: If possible donāt film with a potato and upload to Youtube in better quality than 144p lel i dun care if it takes 50 minutes.
Also worth considering when trying to improve technical is to go one lift at a time. I dunno about you but when I really need to pay attention to something it helps if I focus on one thing at a time or lift. Keeping training everything else tho just pay attention one lift but make it some good quality attention.
Iāll get to each lift sooner or later but where would you like to start?
Sorry about shitty video, and Iāll take more angles.
Also, it says videos are 720p?
Iāll see what I can do about a camera
Take a look at the squats first, thanks
*Edit- a camera. not the camera
Conditioning
Shoveling snow, ~25 minutes
video quality wasnāt great on the squats, but that being said, they look pretty good. Definitely no huge issues. Better quality video might help me break down form a little better, but the overall squat looks probably good enough for your age and training age.
Youāre not getting it on the press. Iām going to make you a video showing what you did, and what you should be doing. My words arenāt getting my point across.
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before I do that, Iām going to try one more approach.
You should only be feeling a portion of the weight in your hands when you are in the rack position with your press. Your body should be supporting the majority of the bar weight, not your arms/hands. You have 100% of the weight in your hands, right? The bar needs to literally rest on your shoulders and upper chest.
@flipcollar a video of you pressing would be great and Iām sure would help a lot of people. I think my pressing is pretty solid but I know that I would probably learn from it.
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My press is relatively strong, particularly my strict press, but it is flawed in that I press too far in front of my body sometimes, because of my lack of shoulder mobility. I actually havenāt pressed a barbell in at least 6 months either, hahaha. I do all my work with logs and axles. Should be fun 
But that being said, if Iām not demonstrating a max or close to it, I think Iāll be able to get my points across. Particularly with the rack. I may actually video the differences between the 3 implements (log, axle, and barbell). I donāt think Iāve ever seen a video that outlines all of that together.
also, if anyone wants to see any of my work, you can follow me on IG at tiptonstrong. Itās mostly strongman stuff on there, but itās always nice to see TNation people outside of these forums.
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Nice one, will find you on IG, Iāve only just started looking on IG but itās hard to filter out all the crap.
learning the shoulder shelf position done wonders for my pressing, feels a much stronger starting position. Takes time for it to feel natural and I find myself not doing it from time to time!
Iām sure OP would very much appreciate a vid.
so like a front squat? (potentially stupid question)
Until flip makes a vid CT talks about it here.
not a stupid question. Itās definitely closer to that. Keep in mind, when an athlete performs a clean and jerk, they are front squatting the weight up before they jerk it, and essentially maintaining the same grip while the bar is in the rack position.
so more like this? @flipcollar
In for OHP tips
btm w2d2
Deads- 3x5 @ 205 lbs. felt heavier than expected
Bench- 5x5 @ 85 lbs
BB row- 5x10 @ 85 lbs (took a pause ~rep 7)
Rest pause curls (eventually into cheat curls) 5x(10+10)
Itās high quality low quality footage lel. I can see the pixels when the vid is set to 720. Probably bump up the frame rate too. Donāt need 60 but I use GIFs with better frame rates then youāre vids lel. Might be something to do with the shitty lighting or whatever youre using to upload vids
Letās get into squats then:
Next time you squat get us a video directly from the side. Maybe a back angle if you want to take a look at your back set up.
Usually higher % 1 RM and higher RPEs are better for formchecks because they show form break down if thereās any and also probably where/how youāll end up failing a rep. If you wish you can throw on another 45-50lbs and do a single with it. Shouldnāt mess with the rest of your training much.
Anyways weāll start um at the start I guess with your equipment i.e. your rack set up. Itās not the most ghetto set up Iāve ever seen but if you are anything close to serious you should improve it. Iām sure you didnāt choose to squat out of a bench press rack set up and Iām assuming that buying a sexy Eleiko combo rack is not an option but itās not like you canāt make it better.
The ways things are now at best it is/will be holding you back and thereās a fair chance that youāll injure yourself somewhere down to line.
Maybe throw something under the legs of the bench and raise the whole rack up that way. If you are into wood work thereās squat rack designs you can find online. Up to you. Do whatever the fuck you wanna.
Oks before we even squat we have the set up, the unrack and the walk out (these are all complicated by your weird as rack but I digress.
For a set up we need a tight back/solid shelf for the bar and a rigid braced torso. From what I can see which is about 10 pixels itās looking alright. Then again this is light weight baby. If you throw on another 100 lbs and it looks the same then I think youāre good to go. Still itās worth watching a few vids and trying to improve on what you already have.
We can split the setup into breathing/bracing and a tight back. Iāll start you off with these vids but thereās lots more resources available if you want them.
A good set up pretty much guarantees a good unrack but remember that even tho you should be unracking with purpose/aggression you shouldnāt over do it and have the bar bouncing around on your back and loosening up your set up. Before you take a step and start the walkout let the weight and your body settle. If you rush things and start walking out ASAP there ends up being lots of side to side movement and even rotation and youāll later have to spend/waste energy countering/stabilising these.
Note: if you choose use a grip width that requires you to readjust your hands during your setup/unrack/walkout I think the best time to do this would be immediately after youāve unracked and allowed the weight to stabilise and before you take your first step. When you are walking out thereās already a lot going on never mind adding in sliding your hands around too.
For your walkout donāt rush. Let the weight stabilise and then try to make it maximum three steps. If you want to go walk about then take 6-7 steps but for the purposes of squatting more weight we are looking to be more efficient.
Aight thatās all for now. See you next time for Form Check Fridays
I use a grade school provided chromebook and free recording software. Donāt think that I can do any of the above.
serious question, what would that do?
gg then. I just take a vid on my phone, edit out the bits at the start and end I donāt want and upload to YouTube in HD. Dont need anything fancy
You donāt have to do a pin squat to start every set
last I checked, which was admittedly a while ago that was ~my 1RM
But itās the second?
ok. Will wait after unrack
I could go wider. I thought the narrower (without pain) the better though?
ok. will do tomorrow
Will watch videos tomorrow too. Thanks for the long ass post
no phone. asian parents
probs will be a form check saturday. but ok
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