HOT new avi 
Solid work in here!
Your new avi is awesome - love the hat!
You squat way better than I do so all I have to say is very hot avi.
Wow you are doing smolov. That is awesome. I want to run it in the future sometime.
continuing to impress lady snapper. Great to see everything getting better.
i am trying to adopt a more olympic type squat myself. after seeing vids of some of those guys hitting 700, I’ll never hit that, but i figure i’m less like to get injured that way. or not.
For the record, I’m 5’4".
Last day of Smolov Jr.
Squat
8/45
5/75
3/105
10/3/125
Again, no trouble handling the weight. But I got a bit fatigued by the last rep of the last few sets. Sniff, sniff. I was actually feeling a bit sad on the last set. Funny me.
After I finished, my coach expressed concern that I’m holding the bar so high and possibly compressing C-something or other. It could become a problem as the weight gets heavy, he said. So, he had me unrack the bar with a much lower position across my back. Yowsie. This felt really weird. Would take me some serious practice to hold the bar to squat like this.
1/115 with really low bar
Then did walkouts to train the CNS. My walkouts consist of unracking, stepping into place, locking knees, holding for a five-second count, and then re-racking.
Walkouts
1/135
1/145
1/155
1/165
Then for fun I de-loaded to 135 and did a nice squat. Felt so light after holding 165 on my back.
I won’t squat again until next Monday. I’m planning to start up a 5 x 5 program using knee wraps and increasing a wee bit each week. In conclusion, I highly recommend Smolov Jr. for anyone struggling with being comfortable squatting or needing to drive up their 1 RM in short order.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
Do your shoulders show any appreciable or visible difference or unevenness?[/quote]
Absolutely. I can see why I feel unstable unracking in the cage. But I will adapt. I’ll put up a pic when I get a chance. It saddens me a bit from a vanity standpoint because my shoulders used to be one of my fave body parts. And the one that was surgically repaired looks like the delt was removed. Very flat. But I’m so grateful my shoulder is working. That’s way more important.[/quote]
Interesting you can see a physical difference in your shoulder, I was wondering if I would, but all I’ve got is a couple of pits you can feel in my tattoo, front and back. Even right after surgery I couldn’t see anything but stitches. Any thoughts what’s causing it? Awesome squat videos snap! I’m just now feeling the urge to get something up on my shoulders.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
The avi is for a limited time only. I’m really not a poser.[/quote]
Poser isn’t the right word for you. It seems harder for you to show-off the sexy, but easier to show off the strength. But yet your fans appreciate both!
Good job finishing off Smolov Jr.
I agree with Farmer Brett and also Ms. Alaska. I think your squat looks great, and I think your 145 squat video was awesome. But I don’t have a powerlifter’s perspective.
Nice new avi, was it photoshopped?
Kidding of course. In my objective opinion, I think you have quite the set of model-ly legs. And I’m going to guess that you are/were quite the athlete.
Great job finishing Smolov Jr.!
congrats snapper! I don’t have enough self hatred to do smolov. hee hee.
if you are intent on moving to a low bar position squat, i was thinking that you might need to do some work on erectors hammiez and glutes. Do you currently have good mornings in your program? doing moderate to heavy good mornings with a low bar position made it a lot easier for me to squat with a low bar. You might want to check with your coach on this. weighted back raises will hit your erectors without hitting the glutes and hammiez as much as good mornings, if you feel the need. but i have always been one to pimp the good morning.
I think the low bar gm’s helped me because you have to hold the bar solid from vertical to horizontal. now that I think about it, it also taught me to keep my upper back tight, which i had never done.
all hail the good morning.
great squat vid and very nice looking ass too 
145 lbs squat - you’re already on my number Snap.
and very nice Avi - I’m a big fan of the timer.
[quote]mjnewland wrote:
Do you currently have good mornings in your program? doing moderate to heavy good mornings with a low bar position made it a lot easier for me to squat with a low bar. [/quote]
This is a great idea. I regularly do GMs but dropped all assistance work while I was doing Smolov. I usually do GMs after squatting and will definitely try the lower bar position. Thanks for the great suggestion.
Today was upper body.
Flat Bench
8/45
5/55
5/60
2/8/65
1/7/65 (my shoulder fatigues so fast)
Close Grip
2/10/52
Bentover BB Row
3/8/65
Also did some shoulder rehabby stuff. And seated rows and pec dec and rear delts.
Okay. Kimba has inspired me. After seeing her bench vid, I decided to vid my own flat bench. I’ve never done this before, and boy was it educational. My coach has been telling me I have no arch, but I really felt like I did. Nope. I don’t. I really, really suck at this lift and will post the vid later for your amusement. I am pleased, however, with the tiny progress I’m making each week. Last week I could only do six reps with 65 lb. and this week I could two sets of eight reps before hitting failure.
You gotta love benching at all after the last 6 months!
I’d say do more reps with lower weight - gotta rebuild the stamina and base
also doesn’t look like enough pull to the push, maybe add some dumbell rows in addition to the BB rows?
Benching.
Bench looks good. I am far from being an expert but might I suggest that is appears you may be too far forward (towards the foot of the bench) by the time you’re set up. Perhaps get the arch, set the shoulders,then push back with the feet. That may keep you right under the bar and tighten up and raise the arch a bit. At least this is what works for me.
I am also no expert but I can see what ruglayer is saying. Your initial set up when your feet are on the bench and you’re pulling on the bar gets you a fairly decent arch. The 2nd phase where you push off the uprights does increase your arch a little bit, but does shift you down the bench an awful lot. Maybe start the process further up the bench? then you won’t have to reach so far back for the bar.
Great benching though. Very impressive.
Is it the camera angle or is that bench quite low?
EDIT: Are your clothes made of shiny fabric? That wont help hold an arch.
Being far forward isn’t a big deal as long as you have an adequate hand off person. You could simply pull yourself through the the uprights further than you do when setting up. Many of the folk I train with have their whole upper body practically off the back of bench at one point in set up. But that is very individual. Looks good all in all.
I see some arch but your it’s mostly transfered to your knees - they move forward like Rugger mentionned. Still not bad and you get bonus points for that spider-like set up:) I’ll have to give that ritual a try to see if I can get a bigger arch.
I think your set up looks fine with respect to position on the bench. Like Pete mentioned, you just get a hand off. Your legs are pulled back far and feet are flat on the floor which should set you up for a nice arch. It may just be a flexibility issue. Although as FB said, if your shirt is slippery, you’ll slide a bit. Try chalking your upper back and see if that helps.
I just don’t see you pop out a big arch that flattens so you may want to work with your daughter when she does gymnastics. I’m serious. Most people our age don’t have a ton of back flexibility but it certaininly isn’t unattainable.