Deep enough to pass in competition?
Not quite but think of this training as a range of motion progression. The goal is to get to competition depth without losing tightness. It’ll take time, training with heavy weight, and focus on tightness.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be fighting to gain that mobility. It shouldn’t be easy and you’ll get uncomfortable but that’s fine, it’s how you make progress. When you get your form right, it doesn’t get easier. You have to fight to maintain form as well for heavy sets. Every once in awhile you’ll have a tough set where your form is pushed to the limit. It’s ok to lose some battles since you can learn from them but you need to win more often than you lose to make progress. If you don’t challenge yourself, it’s tough to get far.
[quote]lift206 wrote:
Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be fighting to gain that mobility. It shouldn’t be easy and you’ll get uncomfortable but that’s fine, it’s how you make progress. When you get your form right, it doesn’t get easier. You have to fight to maintain form as well for heavy sets. Every once in awhile you’ll have a tough set where your form is pushed to the limit. It’s ok to lose some battles since you can learn from them but you need to win more often than you lose to make progress. If you don’t challenge yourself, it’s tough to get far.[/quote]
Very true. General rule of thumb is the closer you approx your maximal load, the greater the deterioration in technique. The key is to get strong enough and get technically proficient enough that this deterioration is minimal. Which takes time and effort.
My idea right now is to replace full back squat in training with front squat until i got the technique down.
Front Squat (but seems like even in the Front Squat my butt winks)
[quote]Fleshor wrote:
My idea right now is to replace full back squat in training with front squat until i got the technique down.
Front Squat (but seems like even in the Front Squat my butt winks)
[/quote]
In the video it looks like you can still get more glute involvement. The glutes should be used throughout the entire range of motion from when you push your knees out at the bottom to thrusting the hips forward at lockout where you hips should be under the bar (or closer than what’s in the video).
If you’re willing to commit to a technique overhaul then I suggest you do these three movements every session: 1) front or goblet squat, 2) lunges, 3) seated good mornings. In all three movements you MUST ensure you’re firing your erectors, abs, glutes and hip flexors to some degree. There will be a slight emphasis on each muscle group to make the focus easier. Really brace your abs hard and make it become habit for all movements. Learn to do this at any time, even now as you’re reading this (there should be a noticeable difference between braced and relaxed).
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Front or goblet squat: Keep your torso locked in and place the most emphasis on firing the GLUTES to open your knees and push your hips forward. Making sure that there is even loading on your feet (ball to heel) and your knees are tracking over your toes should get you in the right position. You’ll feel some tension in your hip flexors. Finish by pushing your hips through all the way to lockout. When I do this, the entire time I’m thinking of getting my hips under the bar (although it’s never actually under the bar until lockout).
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Lunges: Your torso should be locked in and you should feel the most emphasis on your HIP FLEXORS. If you want to use body weight, raise your hands straight up. Get your chest up, erectors tight and abs tight.
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Seated good morning: Maintain that arch in your spine to place the most emphasis on your ERECTORS. Make sure to brace your abs to reduce shear load in your spine. Opening up the knees with your glutes can help increase mobility. You should feel a lot of tension in your hips at the bottom of the lift. Don’t go so low that you lose tension in your erectors. Keep your chest up.
Do a starting strength template with these movements for 3x5. The primary goal is to increase mobility while maintaining tightness. Add weight when you feel it is necessary but the goal is to always hit all target muscle groups and increase the range of motion so that you can really make progress when going to the main lifts. Loading the movements will help to stretch and strengthen the muscles. You want to challenge yourself but pushing yourself too fast and ingraining bad habits will have to be undone. If you want even more practice do a bit of body weight sets afterward and on off days.
There is no ideal strength ratio for these muscle groups because it all depends on your squat/deadlift style and your body structure. At this point you just need to train them so that you eventually fire them subconsciously. Learning to generate force efficiently in the hips is a good starting point for powerlifting and sports in general.
Somethink like:
Workout A:
Front Squat
Bench
Lunges
Abs
Workout B:
Deadlift
Overhead Press
Seated Good Morning
Abs
Thoughts:
-Recognized that my abs are simply weak.
-Stretching for hips,glutes and psoas 3 times a week or more.
-Increasing general hip mobility/flexibility.
-Practice Squat technique every day
[quote]Fleshor wrote:
Somethink like:
Workout A:
Front Squat
Bench
Lunges
Abs
Workout B:
Deadlift
Overhead Press
Seated Good Morning
Abs
Thoughts:
-Recognized that my abs are simply weak.
-Stretching for hips,glutes and psoas 3 times a week or more.
-Increasing general hip mobility/flexibility.
-Practice Squat technique every day[/quote]
Well technically the other muscles aren’t that strong yet either since you haven’t trained them all throughout the entire range of motion that you intend to achieve. Using them in isolation can help strengthen them but you really want to learn how to fire all of them in movement patterns involving the hip thrust and hip hinge so that it’s straight forward when progressing on the squat and deadlift.
The slight tweaks I would make are:
Workout A:
Front Squat
Bench
Seated Good Morning
Rows
Abs
Workout B:
Romanian Deadlift
Overhead Press
Lunges
Pull Ups
Abs
This will provide more balance between posterior and anterior chain work. Since it looks like you want a complete program I threw in the two pulling movements so that you have push/pull movements in the vertical and horizontal directions. I swapped out the deadlift for romanian deadlift because at this point you still need to practice and strengthen the movement patterns and muscles before worrying about your competition lifts and maxes. Again with RDLs, focus on creating full body tension, especially in the core area and including your lats. Don’t go down so low that you lose tightness. Forcefully increase your range of motion over time without loss in tension. Increase grip width if you want a little more trap involvement.
With the upper body movements you’ll also have to learn to create full body tension for those lifts as well if you want to maximize strength potential. But don’t worry about that now because you already have a lot on your plate. This is a good starting point. Learning to create full body tension for sub-maximal weights make the reps harder but it makes the maximal weights feel better. You might as well stick with this until you eventually hit a 5RM on front squat and RDL before going back to the competition lifts. Good luck and keep us posted!
Thanks man…you’re really helpful with just a few post’s.
Will start the program on monday.Totally hyped to make some progress and blow my pr’s through the roof.I think i’m going to log my workouts here.
Pr’s so far:
Squat:150kg
Front Squat:125kg
Deadlift:220kg
Row:100kg for 6 reps
Bench:112.5kg
Overhead Press strict:77kg
Push Press:90kg
Not a bad idea, but I think you might be getting a bit too concerned. Your squat looks decent enough to work with, so you should take a long look at what you’re planning and then decide how to proceed. Front squats are a great addition but IMO you would probably be better off using them as an additional assistance exercise given your squat is not too bad.
[quote]MarkKO wrote:
Not a bad idea, but I think you might be getting a bit too concerned. Your squat looks decent enough to work with, so you should take a long look at what you’re planning and then decide how to proceed. Front squats are a great addition but IMO you would probably be better off using them as an additional assistance exercise given your squat is not too bad. [/quote]
I agree that the OP shouldn’t be too concerned. He is definitely not a beginner and is already strong. But from his videos it looks like he’s losing out on strength if he isn’t developing his lower erectors and glutes proportionally to the primary movers. He might be able to get to a 400 lbs squat without getting much out of the glutes and erectors but if he wants a chance at 500+ lbs then he should be getting more out of all the muscles. He currently stalled on squat and taking a bit of time to focus on front squat to bring up weaknesses while still doing posterior chain work likely won’t set him back.
[quote]lift206 wrote:
[quote]MarkKO wrote:
Not a bad idea, but I think you might be getting a bit too concerned. Your squat looks decent enough to work with, so you should take a long look at what you’re planning and then decide how to proceed. Front squats are a great addition but IMO you would probably be better off using them as an additional assistance exercise given your squat is not too bad. [/quote]
I agree that the OP shouldn’t be too concerned. He is definitely not a beginner and is already strong. But from his videos it looks like he’s losing out on strength if he isn’t developing his lower erectors and glutes proportionally to the primary movers. He might be able to get to a 400 lbs squat without getting much out of the glutes and erectors but if he wants a chance at 500+ lbs then he should be getting more out of all the muscles. He currently stalled on squat and taking a bit of time to focus on front squat to bring up weaknesses while still doing posterior chain work likely won’t set him back.[/quote]
Very true, very true. Maybe something like front squatting two to three times a week with heavy squats once a week would be a good approach, and also including GHRs, good mornings (maybe), etc.
Did the first Session today.Started everything very light to make sure that i keep the technique as perfect as I can:
Session A:
Front Squat: 60kg 35
Bench: 70kg35 (I always pause every rep on Bench)
Seated Good Morning: 40kg 36
Rows: 70kg 38
Abs: 4*15 (did Roman Chair Sit Ups here)
Some Videos to show technique:
Front Squat:
Seated Good Mornings:
Did them the first time.I have only done standing Good Mornings here and there.
Did Deadlifts today.
Last Set of 140kg 5*5
Suddenly everything feel´s right.
Great work. Keep it up.
Looking good! Nice work.
Squats from today:
Did highbar Squats . I still keep the weight low to work on technique.
First Set
Last One
Seems like I get it slowly . Only a little wink there…
Hey guys…
Did some Low Bar Squats today but I only see little progress in my form…
Still a wink there…
Low Bar Squat
[quote]Fleshor wrote:
Hey guys…
Did some Low Bar Squats today but I only see little progress in my form…
Still a wink there…
Low Bar Squat
[/quote]
The high bar set from 6/12 looked good and I think you were becoming overly critical. If you feel like you’re getting loose at the bottom, then stop the rep at the point where you can still keep everything tight. This is important when you go heavy.
For the current low bar sets, I don’t think mobility is a problem at all. Your squat stance might be a tad bit wide for you to fully engage your gluteus medius which will help control your hip angle at the bottom of the lift. Move your stance inward slightly and play with your feet angle to get the most tension from your hip flexors and glutes throughout the range of motion, especially at the bottom. Eventually you’ll just go by feel instead of visually looking for very tiny amounts of lumbar flexions.
Keep up the good work. Don’t get too critical about the recordings. Just focus on keeping everything tight and thrusting your hips forward. Keep adding weight.
They both look fine (low and high bar). You’re too hard on yourself. Your technique is easily good enough to work with, get stronger and you’ll probably see technical improvements as you go.