It’s not a limiting factor, how do I explain this. Imagine that you want to train your chest but whatever pressing exercise you do your triceps do 70% of the work. I’m exaggerating but that’s the “problem”.
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This sounds like a technical error to me, because biceps and lats (or any back muscle for that matter) don’t share any functions, even though they have to work together to complete the movement.
With lat pulldown machines you have to bring the humerus down either from in front of or from the side of the body (so extend of adduct from the shoulder joint) those are functions of the lat. In addition to that, you have to bend your elbows, which is a function of the biceps.
So really, if technique stays the same, biceps can’t take over the work that lats are supposed to do. What you can be doing is that you’re having a lot of movement (flexion) in the elbow and rather little in the shoulder: you could be curling the weight down (exaggerated, but you get the point). So what I’d do it focus on driving the elbows (yes, elbows. We just don’t want the joint itself to go into too much flexion) back/down depending on the machine in order to get a lot of ROM in the shoulder joint
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I used to have that problem myself and out of my experience I’m 100% with @danteism. For me it was a technical error. Take a good look at how you are executing your pull and play close attention to your scapular. For me a really good learning experience was to learn how to dumbbell row properly. For that I liked Stan Efferding’s instructions on how to do them. I am sure he explained it in a video in Mark Bell’s youtube channel but I am not sure in which. Can probably be found if you put some time into it.
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How are you doing @Voxel, fully recovered? Managed to get back in the gym yet?
Fully recovered, no. Still in back pain and hip pain, but could squat pain-free today (not during warm-ups) although I admit to feeling “something is amiss” as I trekked back up to my apartment afterward. And that’s just the aftermath from being decked out on the couch. My lungs still feel “scarred”.
In the gym, logging on paper. Not in a sharing mood. I don’t have a plan that I’m following right now. Been meeting up with friends as the gym is the only place still open where it is okay to meet and have tried to be amenable to what other people want to do. Once I have a plan, I feel less fun to train with because I want to follow it.
Designing this was fun though, and bookmarked for later, Nordic Blood: Climbing And Lifting / Lifting And Climbing - #1393 by Voxel
I’ll upload a video of my top-set later.
How are you?
Not great depth but this is pretty much as good as it gets with me. I manage a more upright torso in my earlier videos but that might have been from before my back went boo. Would like to have seen me do this again with a slightly wider stance and allowed more dorsiflexion.
Here’s the thing with depth. I’d love to so an ATG squat but I’m not built for it. I have tremendously long femues so if I stand more narrow I get a correspondingly long lever arm.
I’d like to go an inch deeper but that seems to cause pain without fail. Anyway, it wouldn’t be white whit lights but if I saw myself squat I wouldn’t think “look at this half squatter”. It’s… okay.
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Gyms in Sweden haven’t closed???
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Nope. There was one chain that closed but they reopened. It’s pretty empty though. Normally this would be peak hour and I’d be able to hijack one rack but now the only people are there are the people that would ordinarily be the “familiar” faces.
Another chain allowed people to freeze their membership and they might go bankrupt. They had a hefty warchest though, they can keep operating to october but they are bleeding funds. It’s a shame, I was going to start working there at their climbing hall once every other week.
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No pressure to log man, as long as you’re on the road to recovery.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who gets an element of joy from programming.
It may not be great depth, but it moved pretty easily. How much weight was that?
I’m pretty good man, pretty good. I’ve got a plan and I’m pretty excited by it.
In reference to our conversation in @anna_5588 log, I’m happy. For me, it’s something I can feel if I’m looking out for it, hence I can make it an overriding goal for myself and my life. I’m pretty aware of the more tangible, measurable things that contribute to that and that allows me, personally, to be able to have it as a goal.
Appreciated.
Haha, I’ve written out like two or three different weekly training programs in the last few days. It’s like laying a puzzle. And as far as mental tasks go it’s quite… what’s the opposite of open-ended? The problem space is finite, but leaves a lot of room for creativity. Scratches a particular itch.
Glad to hear that friend-o. SGSS for press, 5/3/1 for the rest, no?
It makes me glad to hear this. Power to you. That’s quite a fortunate thing you got going there.
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That’s 130 kilos.
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Yes, kinda. I’m very hesitant to call it 531 since I’m only using 531 progression for one lift, and even then I’m using 5s PRO which I consider diet-531. I have to admit to being slightly worried by the weights though, even with a very conservative TM. It’s a long time since I’ve squatted heavy.
I look forward to moving 130kg that easily.
Not fortunate, that’s about 30 years of being moody, until I slowly figured out how not to be.
Squatting, beyond a certain weight, never feels okay to me. I mean, for this session when I did the top-set of 130 I thought 80 felt heavy but I know that’s my body being a coward. I just put more plates on and go for it. I know how to jump out from under it if I need to, and I could always set pins and squat inside the rack.
Doing the leg press challenge last week opened up my eyes somewhat to when my body says enough and when enough is actually enough.
If you missed it, that’s when I loaded the leg press with what I thought I’d do for 10 reps and went for 50.
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I’m one of those lifters where either it moves with okay bar-speed or it doesn’t move at all, seemingly. Those long grind-y reps that others have I do not.
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That makes it harder, but not impossible. If that is what you want because outside of powerlifting, there are no “rules” about how deep one has to squat.
Let’s break this squat down a bit, not necessarily because of depth.
Initiation:
It’s hard to tell but you don’t look completely braced and tense. Deep breath into your diaphragm and push your abs into the belt on all sides. You initiate the movement mainly by breaking at the hips. You do break at the knees as well but don’t push them out far enough (in line with your toes). Plus get a good belt 
The descent 1:
Bar seems to be still above mid foot, that is good. Back angle also good. To me it still looks like we are missing sufficient opening at the hips (knees out!)
The descent 2:
I urge you to watch this part in 0.25 speed because now things are getting interesting. Your knees aren’t out enough (mentally draw a line from your knees to the ground. You will see that they are not in line with your feet/ toes.)
That is the one thing. The other is, that your knees don’t continue to go further forward. Your knees aren’t going anywhere anymore, so to reach depth you drive your hips back further and the weight shifts forward.
The ascent 1:
Your knees shoot back at this point and your hips rise. This means your knee angle is pretty open, while your hip angle gets closer. To get the bar back over the center of gravity, you need to use a lot of back and posterior chain at this point.
The ascent 2 (lockout):
The knees are nearly locked out, the bar is still in front of your center of gravity and hip angle is still somewhat close. Now the joint angles are favorable so you still have a pretty easy time locking out the weight.
Main pointers:
- hips not opened up enough
- knees aren’t going forward enough
- tension is lost in the bottom position
- force distribution between anterior and posterior is way off in favor to posterior
I had 100% the same problems as you are showing here (and find myself back there every now and then. I think we have a comparable build (long femurs), so that is part of the problem but not all there is to it.
Suggestions
- work on your glute engagement
- work on your bracing because this is the be all, end all!
- work on opening up your hips (paused squats may help here, possibly with a band around your knees). Even box squats could be helpful but I am not sure I would implement them yet.
- implement front squats. Preferably paused. It can help to really get the motion down.
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I’ll write back tomorrow as I’m just about to tuck in but before I did I wanted to put my thank you into text. Thank you. I very much appreciate this!
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You are most welcome
Dude, I know who I’m coming to for my next form breakdown.
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Haha, happy to help! 
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This is probably correct. Bracing properly on the squat is hit-and-miss for me even though I know several different ways to cue it. I get my best bracing on bench for some reason.
Yay, one correct thing!
Never noticed I wasn’t managing this, I think I’ve been focusing too much on screwing my feet into the floor so I forget to push them to the side. Thank you for mentioning it. I’ll see if I can’t be more mindful of that next session.
Ordered a single-prong pioneer belt yesterday!
What will this cause?
Oooh, yeah I can totally see that.
But I’d want that, yes? Nevermind, saw this
I don’t follow how these points relate together,
but maybe with glute engagement you mean that if it were engaged properly my knees would be out?
I will, soon! Once I’m back to having a dedicated squat day. Front squats with multi-pauses were great for me in the past. Might do a few during my warm-ups.
Need to find my light band. I have a few heavier ones but they are too heavy to separate the knees properly. In lieu of that, I have shin-boxes.