I attended a local meet yesterday.
I was extremely pleased with the last deadlift wich also was a 10kg personal best.
Look at the end of the video.
Please feel free to critique all my lifts!
I am 28, trained 6 years, 182cm, 96.4kg
Good lifting. Your bench press attempts seem kinda close together though (135kg and 140kg) Any reason?
Nice meet. Since you asked for feedback, here are a few things.
Work on your abductors as your knees wanted to buckle in the squat.
For bench press work on your raw bench, 3 board press, and the pause on the last attempt was not long enough for it to count even if you had successfully completed the lift. Also it is hard to tell from the video angle but you might be bringing the bar too high on your chest, closer to your neck. It should be at the bottom of your sternum, at least for most people.
Finally nice effort on the last deadlift. You may find that as you keep hitting the heavier weights conventional style suits you better. It will help you get the weight off the floor at least. Try deadlifting with 35 lbs plates or on a raised platform of 1-3 inches to work on your start on the ground. I have never been a fan of the divebomb style where you just shoot down and grab the bar but if it works for you great. You may want to try it without doing that and see if you like it any better, it is easier to get set the same way every time without it. Often preloading yields better results than just prestretching.
Not trying to picky but just give you some tips for future success. Again, nice job with the meet. Good luck with your training.
[quote]nptitim wrote:
Work on your abductors as your knees wanted to buckle in the squat.
[/quote]
This is actually a sign of weak adductors and is often misunderstood to be a weakness in abductors.
Good looking at the meet. Real solid effort on the last DL.
You make some awesome noises, dude.
For real though, great intensity.
[quote]wressler125 wrote:
Good lifting. Your bench press attempts seem kinda close together though (135kg and 140kg) Any reason? [/quote]
Yes, in my last meet i was close to get 135kg, so I made this my opener this time, and sucessfully lifted it. I knew I did not have much more in me, so I attempted 140kg, as 145kg or 150kg, would be totally impossible. 135kg was a 5kg personal best for me. I only mentioned the personal best in the deadlift in the first post because this was what i was most pleased with!
[quote]nptitim wrote:
Nice meet. Since you asked for feedback, here are a few things.
Work on your abductors as your knees wanted to buckle in the squat.
For bench press work on your raw bench, 3 board press, and the pause on the last attempt was not long enough for it to count even if you had successfully completed the lift. Also it is hard to tell from the video angle but you might be bringing the bar too high on your chest, closer to your neck. It should be at the bottom of your sternum, at least for most people.
Finally nice effort on the last deadlift. You may find that as you keep hitting the heavier weights conventional style suits you better. It will help you get the weight off the floor at least. Try deadlifting with 35 lbs plates or on a raised platform of 1-3 inches to work on your start on the ground. I have never been a fan of the divebomb style where you just shoot down and grab the bar but if it works for you great. You may want to try it without doing that and see if you like it any better, it is easier to get set the same way every time without it. Often preloading yields better results than just prestretching.
Not trying to picky but just give you some tips for future success. Again, nice job with the meet. Good luck with your training.[/quote]
I appreciate your comments! Conventional style has never worked for me, so Sumo it will be all the way. 
The bench press is the lift I have to work on the most, thank you for good observations, i will take those into consideration!
[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
You make some awesome noises, dude.
For real though, great intensity.
[/quote]
Yes, hehe. Hardcore man.
Good job man ! I was pulling for you to hit that last dead. I was actually yelling ‘c’mon finish !’ at the screen lol.
[quote]alfuh wrote:
nptitim wrote:
Work on your abductors as your knees wanted to buckle in the squat.
This is actually a sign of weak adductors and is often misunderstood to be a weakness in abductors.
Good looking at the meet. Real solid effort on the last DL.
[/quote]
When the knees buckle in (move toward each other) it means that the abductors are weak. If they buckle out (move away from each other) it means that the adductors are weak (pretty rare). You always move towards your strength. From my perspective it appeared that his knees wanted to buckle in at the bottom of the squat, a common problem. The adductors are made up of a group of 5 muscles that are pretty strong so it is usually a weakness in the abductors. Hope that makes more sense, happy to hear your point of view if you thought it is something different.
[quote]nptitim wrote:
alfuh wrote:
nptitim wrote:
Work on your abductors as your knees wanted to buckle in the squat.
This is actually a sign of weak adductors and is often misunderstood to be a weakness in abductors.
Good looking at the meet. Real solid effort on the last DL.
When the knees buckle in (move toward each other) it means that the abductors are weak. If they buckle out (move away from each other) it means that the adductors are weak (pretty rare). You always move towards your strength. From my perspective it appeared that his knees wanted to buckle in at the bottom of the squat, a common problem. The adductors are made up of a group of 5 muscles that are pretty strong so it is usually a weakness in the abductors. Hope that makes more sense, happy to hear your point of view if you thought it is something different.[/quote]
I agree with you about the wobbly knees being a common problem with heavy squats, but I was saying that the abductors are not the problem, its the adductors. Here is a portion out of the book “Starting Strength” from the chapter on coaching the squat. Hopefully this will clear things up:
[quote]
The role of the adductors in the squat is a bit more difficult to understand. A good understanding of the anatomy here is important. Note that all these muscles essentially originate in the groin area and insert on the medial femur area. As such, their function will be to shorten the distance between these two points. When you squat, or simplay squat down, notice what happens to the distance between these two points - it increases, as can be easily demonstrated by placing oe finger on the origin in the groin area and another finger placed on the inside of the knee. As you come back up, the points get closer together, defining the role of these muscles in the squat. The adductors function in the squat when the knees are out, and thus contribute to the movement; since we are trying to strengthen more muslce and lift more weight, it makes sense to use the adductors during the squat. One sure indication of weak adductors is the inability to keep the knees out during the squat, a symptom that sometimes gets interpreted as weak abductors, the muscles on the outside of the hip.[/quote]
pg21-22
[quote]alfuh wrote:
The role of the adductors in the squat is a bit more difficult to understand. A good understanding of the anatomy here is important. Note that all these muscles essentially originate in the groin area and insert on the medial femur area. As such, their function will be to shorten the distance between these two points. When you squat, or simplay squat down, notice what happens to the distance between these two points - it increases, as can be easily demonstrated by placing oe finger on the origin in the groin area and another finger placed on the inside of the knee. As you come back up, the points get closer together, defining the role of these muscles in the squat. The adductors function in the squat when the knees are out, and thus contribute to the movement; since we are trying to strengthen more muslce and lift more weight, it makes sense to use the adductors during the squat. One sure indication of weak adductors is the inability to keep the knees out during the squat, a symptom that sometimes gets interpreted as weak abductors, the muscles on the outside of the hip.
pg21-22
[/quote]
Thanks for the post, I appreciate you taking the time to find that. I agree with the first half of the paragraph but disagree with the second half. I do agree that as you spread your legs wider you recruit your adductors more. However, if your knees drift in or want to buckle in I see that as a result of weaker abductors. I think a simple analogy makes the point more clear.
Imagine you had a tree that was starting to lean, so you tied two ropes around it to balance it out, one going in each direction. If the ropes weren’t equal tension, and the tree leaned to one direction, would you go and further tighten that rope? I would not, I would go tighten up the opposite rope.
So if your knees buckle in, the muscle attempting to hold them out is your abductors, therefore that is the muscle that is weak. I guess I would need to see further evidence that a weak muscle would make the bone pull toward it, but I will try to research it more. Thanks again for the post.
Alfuh
Here is a qick quote from Eric Cressey on his article about the Adductors:
“Please note, however, that this program is contraindicated if you find that your knees tend to buckle inward when squatting. If that’s the case, you’d be better off with a program that emphasizes stretching the adductors and tensor fascia latae/IT band while strengthening the gluteals, core, and vastus medialis”
Also if you look under NASM stuff they indicate that knees buckling in are a result of weaker abductors, although after searching admittedly there isn’t that much stuff that just jumps out on the web, at least that I found. Hope that helps some, let me know if you find anything else on your end.
I questioned that passage from Starting Strength as well. It doesn’t hold water, in my experience.
Excellent lifts man. There is one thing I am wondering about. With the noises you’re making, it seems like you might be shortchanging yourself. If you stall on a lift, like the bench press you didn’t hit, you’ll keep producing the noise, thus losing your air. While that “technique” might work well for lifts you can just explode through, I wonder if it might hinder you where you have to grind a lift out. But excellent work nonetheless.
-MAtt
[quote]Matgic wrote:
Excellent lifts man. There is one thing I am wondering about. With the noises you’re making, it seems like you might be shortchanging yourself. If you stall on a lift, like the bench press you didn’t hit, you’ll keep producing the noise, thus losing your air. While that “technique” might work well for lifts you can just explode through, I wonder if it might hinder you where you have to grind a lift out. But excellent work nonetheless.
-MAtt[/quote]
Thanks. Yes this is most likely true. I have also got this message from another powerlifter - i will take this into consideration. Thanks a lot for your comments.
Also very insightful to read all the comment about adductors and abductors regarding the buckling of the knees.
On the deadlift, best grunts ever.
“ARRRRRRRRRRAYEAYE AYE AYE YAAAA”
I love your setup for the deadlift too, it looks like you are about to break into some tai chi, way to harness your chi bro.
Good stuff.
[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
I questioned that passage from Starting Strength as well. It doesn’t hold water, in my experience.[/quote]
The way I understood it was that it wasn’t that the lifter couldn’t hold his knees out during the lift, but that he couldn’t lift that heavy of a weight while relying on his adductors to assist him. So to get out of the hole his knees come in and he uses his quads to get the lift going.
Then again you’re smart and I’m not
Oh and Eric I’m about to shoot you an email on something completely unrelated that I need advice specifically from you on. Thanks!