Did a mock meet fairly recently, thought that since I’ve got footage of some near maxes I may as well see if anyone has a any comments.
Particularly interested in what people think of my pulls, specifically where you think I need to focus my assistance work.
As a note, I’m changing my bench form at the moment to flat footed since it’s a requirement in the feds in my area, so this video may or may not be relevant.
Extra deadlift video from about a month before this meet. Back is very noticeably rounded here even though it was fine IMO on the 222.5kg. Different belt might well explain it.
Thanks guys. sorry that the angles aren’t great for the squats an pulls.
I love the ?guy? watching you on the squat with the camo leggings!
with your squat it looks like on your way up you let your head look down when you come up which is probably contributing to the falling over thing and hips shooting back a little. focus on chest up…driving your head into the bar…pushing your hips though(which ever works best) when you drive up. High bar squats and front squats with some single leg work and ab work would probably help a bit.
That is a massive arch you have on the bench. as long as your switching to flat foot try to decrease the arch a tad otherwise eventually your back will give out. other than that the biggest problem i see is that when you pause you kind of just lose all position and the bar just seems to move all over the place on your chest. you probably need to learn how to use your lats to stabilize the bottom portion. with the massive arch you can get a false since stability.
your back really isn’t all that rounded. looks straight enough to me. the problem is you leave the bar out in front of you for the whole lift. set up looks good but you move the bar forward before you start the lift and it just stays there. you need to learn to pull back. might want to check out how to lift with a ‘relaxed’ upper back.
[quote]badwolf42 wrote:
I love the ?guy? watching you on the squat with the camo leggings!
with your squat it looks like on your way up you let your head look down when you come up which is probably contributing to the falling over thing and hips shooting back a little. focus on chest up…driving your head into the bar…pushing your hips though(which ever works best) when you drive up. High bar squats and front squats with some single leg work and ab work would probably help a bit.[/quote]
Yeah, I bring my hips into the lift very late. The head thing is me trying to pack my neck back, which I saw recommended somewhere instead of “head up”. I’ll give looking up a try for a while and see how it works.
Is the rationale on high bar/front squats to do with me needing quad strength, or needing to learn to squat more upright?
Is that a thing? I’ll try to get some footage of my new setup, but it’ll be a bit later in the week.
With you there - especially on the 115kg rep. I’ve only recently started trying to stay tight throughout my pauses, and it still needs work.
Do you contract your glutes when you bench? I squeeze my glutes and feel a stronger contraction when having my knees and toes pointed outward. This engages my abs and increases tightness in my entire back. I have found I can use my lats better by doing this.
packing your neck is probably better than looking up but with that your neck should be packed before you start heading down, its not something to start half way through the lift. i was always told chest up and head up but when someone told me to push my hips through it all got a lot better. and yes my rational is getting stronger leg and core strength, never seemed to hurt any one before.
your back giving out of the bench will totally happen if you kept benching that way. if you can get stable in that position its great for moving max weight but eventually your back won’t take it any more. it might take a little while to get the bottom end strength back up since you’ll have to move the bar further but that just means you’ll get a bigger and more powerful chest
over all not quite as sweet as camo leggings but you have some good lifting going on
[quote]badwolf42 wrote:
packing your neck is probably better than looking up but with that your neck should be packed before you start heading down, its not something to start half way through the lift. i was always told chest up and head up but when someone told me to push my hips through it all got a lot better. and yes my rational is getting stronger leg and core strength, never seemed to hurt any one before.
your back giving out of the bench will totally happen if you kept benching that way. if you can get stable in that position its great for moving max weight but eventually your back won’t take it any more. it might take a little while to get the bottom end strength back up since you’ll have to move the bar further but that just means you’ll get a bigger and more powerful chest
over all not quite as sweet as camo leggings but you have some good lifting going on[/quote]
If he’s using the muscles around his spine correctly and he has no pain in his spine then I wouldn’t see it being a problem. With that being said, that’s the reason why I asked if he uses his glutes properly to create leg drive because using the glutes and abs limit the amount of anterior pelvic tilt, which usually can lead to injury when you couple hyperextension with no muscles absorbing the load.
I would lean towards your opinion that there’s a bit too much hyperextension but I would need the OP to clarify. I used to do the same thing thinking that a super arch was important but it’s more important to get the right muscles involved.
Leg/glute drive isn’t something that I focus on a lot, so I can’t really say much on whether I use my glutes. Will get some bench video on Tuesday with flat feet.
My arch is big, but I think a lot of it is coming from my thoracic spine and hips. I definitely lose a load of it by having my feet flat and further forward.
I agree with the wolf, back was straight, lift would have been white lighted. Spend some time squatting on your heels, you’ll correct the forward lean to some degree and strengthen the quads. Your back strength is there.
[quote]MaazerSmiit wrote:
Leg/glute drive isn’t something that I focus on a lot, so I can’t really say much on whether I use my glutes. Will get some bench video on Tuesday with flat feet.
My arch is big, but I think a lot of it is coming from my thoracic spine and hips. I definitely lose a load of it by having my feet flat and further forward.[/quote]
powerlifting mechanics isn’t my area of specialty but back mechanics are(i’m a DC). you are getting quite a bit from your hips and tspine but by far the majority of it is coming from your lumbar and specifically your T/L junction. the effects can be offset a bit with proper muscle activation but in the long run its just not good for long term back health.
play around with the flat foot forward placement. you’ll find a placement that feels the most comfortable and you should be able to get better leg drive from that position.
4 reps at 97.5kg today, maybe not heavy enough to be useful yet but you can at least see how I’m set up. I touched a bit high on the first rep. No noticeable leg drive yet, just not used to using it a) on pause reps, and b) with this foot position.
