Hi everyone. Doing starting strength, increasing 10-15lbs every training session still because It’s pretty easy still. Had my first hard training session yesterday, and want an opinion on form. Here is me squatting 305x5 yesterday. For any more details, feel free to ask. Critique hard.
Look good to me! the only thing I can recomment is to lower the chin alittle keeping more of a neutral head position. Check supertraining.tv or there youtube page supertraining06 and also superdtv3000. Alot of great stuff on those!
form looks great.
critique 1: you’re taking SO much rest between reps. You definitely don’t need that much rest, and as the weigth gets heavier having it on your back that long is gonna make the squats harder and harder. Come up, take a big breath out, a big breath in, and squat again. The only time you might need to rest more than 5 seconds is between the last rep or so, and even then 15 - 20 seconds is probably gonna hurt more than help.
critique 2: try and move the weight explosively on the way up. Obviously this weight isn’t very tough for you the first couple squats, so try and focus on blasting out of the hole and brining your hips through quickly and explosively. Theres a ton of info out there about how a faster lifter almost always equals a stronger lifter. Control on the way down is great, but work on exploding the weight up.
Otherwise, form looks great, depth looks great, weight doesn’t look hard. Nice nice squats.
[quote]mphulk78 wrote:
Look good to me! the only thing I can recomment is to lower the chin alittle keeping more of a neutral head position. Check supertraining.tv or there youtube page supertraining06 and also superdtv3000. Alot of great stuff on those![/quote]
Pushing your traps and neck into the bar will also help with keeping your elbows a little more vertical I think. Crank the bar down into your upper back with your lats too.
Very nice squats man!
Thank you everyone!
mphulk78; I watch supertraining06 on youtube all the time! I love mark bell aha
N.K.: Yeah I know I have that resting in between reps problem. I do it because my conditioning sucks so bad and after every rep my heart feels like it’s going explode from pumping so damn hard. I’ll try and go faster next time. Thank you very much! I’ll definitely try and explode up on Thursday when I do 315x3x5.
Hastelles; That’s the reason I have my neck in the bar like that, I feel SO much more stable like that, not sure why. Thanks man!
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Tuck chin back to double chin it. Mark Bell as you suggest.
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While tucking the chin, you need to be pulling elbows under the bar, flexing the back, and really making the big chest pop out. Let me say it again, tighten that back hard (probably narrow your hand grip) and pull the bar down, and into your back with the elbows pulling under the bar.
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Walkout is too big. 3 SMALL steps and minimize lateral motion and twisting. Allow the bar to settle after picking it up and before squatting.
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A 5 rep set should not be taking over a minute
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Knees look unstable and may be moving laterally. Really drive the knees out to sit between your legs. Toes of the outside of your foot.
Angle from the front would help with the last point.
Thanks arramzy, means a lot to have someone real strong try and help me.
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I feel less stable when my chin is tucked, is it still better to tuck the chin?
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I’ll try and pull my elbows under the bar but is it normal for my wrist to bend while doing so? I don’t want to sound like those people who just do shit because someone said so, but Rippetoe said to always keep your wrist neutral and your forearm at a 45 degree angle. Rippetoe’s method feels really comfy, but I can sacrifice comfort if your way is better in the long run.
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Thanks for pointing that out, I never realized I was making steps that big.
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I’ll work on making the time between reps smaller.
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My knees were stable on the first 4 reps, but they went slightly inward on the last rep, but I pushed them out.
Thank you very much arramzy.
BY THE WAY. If anyone could help me with this I would be very thankful. If you have noticed, I wait a lot in between rests. I do this because my heart beats REALLY fast after every rep, and I start breathing so heavily, is that normal? Should I just suck it up and try and go through the reps when I feel like this? Is this a conditioning issue? Do I have a problem?
When you’re doing near-max effort strength stuff, it’s normal for your heart rate to get pretty high. Combine than with the extreme pressure of holding your breath while doing a heavy squat, and I would say it’s not really unusual to feel your heart beating very hard and feel out of breath.
HOWEVER, that being said I have never felt it to the point that I felt the need to wait as long as you do between reps. So… perhaps it is a conditioning issue? Or perhaps you have simply gotten so much stronger so quickly that you have not had much time to get used to the feeling of heavy squat, so it bothers you more than it does some other lifters?
Maybe try doing some lighter sets of like 10 reps, and forcing yourself to only take a second or two between reps. This would definitely help your conditioning if it’s REALLY bad, and it will help you get used to the feeling of a tough set of squat without those big rests in between. Just an idea.
[quote]N.K. wrote:
When you’re doing near-max effort strength stuff, it’s normal for your heart rate to get pretty high. Combine than with the extreme pressure of holding your breath while doing a heavy squat, and I would say it’s not really unusual to feel your heart beating very hard and feel out of breath.
HOWEVER, that being said I have never felt it to the point that I felt the need to wait as long as you do between reps. So… perhaps it is a conditioning issue? Or perhaps you have simply gotten so much stronger so quickly that you have not had much time to get used to the feeling of heavy squat, so it bothers you more than it does some other lifters?
Maybe try doing some lighter sets of like 10 reps, and forcing yourself to only take a second or two between reps. This would definitely help your conditioning if it’s REALLY bad, and it will help you get used to the feeling of a tough set of squat without those big rests in between. Just an idea. [/quote]
Man I feel as if I need to wait LONGER in between reps… I didn’t increase strength very fast, I’ve been making 10-15lb jumps on my squat twice a week for the last 2 weeks or so. Thanks.
What happens if you don’t wait in between reps? Do you pass out or does it just suck? That should tell you pretty well if it’s a health problem or a conditioning problem haha
Idk LOL. I’ve never tried because I feel like my heart will explode.