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Those squats at 315 looked really good. No rounding of the back, good deep breath at the top of each lift. Remember to hold your breath through the entire lift, and brace your core and lats extremely tight under the bar.
Thanks man. Testing maxes today. So fucking nervous.
Don't be nervous. The key to 1 rep maxes in any lift is 10000% confidence. Visualize the lift, know it's going to be heavy, know you've prepared properly all cycle, and know that the bar is going to move. Any doubt or fear will open the door to failure.
I didn't get a chance to shoot a video but I did get some PR's! The gym was crazy packed and I let a dude work in with me. He was starting Starting Strength and he was asking me about his squats. I think I wasted too much energy explaining to him movements and form as he was slightly at parallel. I don't want to coach but I HATE seeing bad form so I focused a lot on helping him. I even videotaped him.
My squat only went up 10lbs. I didn't do a set after to fail but I didn't feel I could hit anything higher safely. Next go around I'm going to do more 5x5 days to get used to having heavy weight on my back. This go around I only had one week each of 3x5, 4x5, 5x5, and 3x3. My 3x3 weight was easy and I had already overprogrammed the weight that was recommended. Plus my 3x3 weight was 50 lbs under my max. I think before I attempt another max I'll do more weeks at 5x5 and more at 3x3.
As for my deadlifts holy shit! My max went up 50 lbs which was 10%! I just surpassed advanced status per the original post as a deadlifter. However my deadlift is now 110 pounds higher than my squat. I think part of my squat issue was that it honest to God didn't click formwise until maybe 10 weeks ago. Now that I have the form down I just need to progress and lift heavy with it.
Now let's talk where I go from here. As tempting as it may be to continue to get stronger, I was actually considering scaling back some weights and adding some metcon stuff so that I'm not living at the gym. I was thinking of:
Monday/Thursday work up to a 5-6 max. That means warm up 3-4 sets 5-8 reps each set and hit a 1x5-6 for each. I estimate that'll shave some time off but still progressing as long as I increase weight when possible each time. Then work with the rower or whatever. I think for Tuesday/Friday (when possible) similar concept as legs; bench sets of 8 because my chest seems to respond to volume, swap out bb rows for pullups, ohp sets of 8. Shorten breaks from 3 to 2 mins. Then more metcon. If time permits add some back extensions. The idea is also to rest the CNS/joints/tendons etc for maybe 8 weeks.
I didn't get a chance to shoot a video but I did get some PR's! The gym was crazy packed and I let a dude work in with me. He was starting Starting Strength and he was asking me about his squats. I think I wasted too much energy explaining to him movements and form as he was slightly at parallel. I don't want to coach but I HATE seeing bad form so I focused a lot on helping him. I even videotaped him.
My squat only went up 10lbs. I didn't do a set after to fail but I didn't feel I could hit anything higher safely. Next go around I'm going to do more 5x5 days to get used to having heavy weight on my back. This go around I only had one week each of 3x5, 4x5, 5x5, and 3x3. My 3x3 weight was easy and I had already overprogrammed the weight that was recommended. Plus my 3x3 weight was 50 lbs under my max. I think before I attempt another max I'll do more weeks at 5x5 and more at 3x3.
As for my deadlifts holy shit! My max went up 50 lbs which was 10%! I just surpassed advanced status per the original post as a deadlifter. However my deadlift is now 110 pounds higher than my squat. I think part of my squat issue was that it honest to God didn't click formwise until maybe 10 weeks ago. Now that I have the form down I just need to progress and lift heavy with it.
Now let's talk where I go from here. As tempting as it may be to continue to get stronger, I was actually considering scaling back some weights and adding some metcon stuff so that I'm not living at the gym. I was thinking of:
Monday/Thursday work up to a 5-6 max. That means warm up 3-4 sets 5-8 reps each set and hit a 1x5-6 for each. I estimate that'll shave some time off but still progressing as long as I increase weight when possible each time. Then work with the rower or whatever. I think for Tuesday/Friday (when possible) similar concept as legs; bench sets of 8 because my chest seems to respond to volume, swap out bb rows for pullups, ohp sets of 8. Shorten breaks from 3 to 2 mins. Then more metcon. If time permits add some back extensions. The idea is also to rest the CNS/joints/tendons etc for maybe 8 weeks.
The key to doing both is understanding how volume and intensity affect strength workouts. If I do a workout of 10 500m row intervals I'm not going to squat worth a damn the next day. This is why I like the Texas method, because you can do longer workouts on volume days, medium on speed/recovery days, and go hard as crap on intensity/heavy weight days. Airdyne, rower, sled pushing, and burpees are all great movements to focus on as they won't destroy you for your strength workout if done responsibly.
Yeah that's why I said it only went up 5 pounds. It was 325 11 weeks ago and now 330. BTW after this set I went for 330 and failed but my spotter kind of fucked up and set me up too low. I got it the second time after correcting that.
So would this be a good tool for determining where you should be as far as your major lifts? i.e. if I can bench x, I should be able to squat x ? If that makes any sense. I want to keep things proportionate
I guess you can say that but there's so much more that goes into it. For example certain body types can deadlift more because of leverages given the length of their limbs and torso. Some people have freaky upper body strength and can bench almost as much as they can squat. It's very general but certainly not a bible.
Yeah at like a 45 degree angle. But if you're bracing your core, your back will be fine. And you can't be a dead horse when it comes to squats. That shit is in art that is tough to master.
The key is to make sure the bar stays over midfoot during the squat. There are a couple ways to do this; keep a vertical torso and allow your knees to come more forward, or keep shins more vertical and allow your back to come to a 45 degree angle. Each way will change what primary muscles are used (first example will be quad dominant, second will be glute and hamstring dominant). I find it good to train both, but for my own goals in getting better at Olympic Weightlifting I do the vast majority of my squats with a vertical torso as it translates better to my sport.
This is why it is STRONGLY recommended to not start stacking on weight till you have your form down on squats. I keep reading "Oh I can squat again after my knee surgery". Chances are improper squatting lead to that. FORM FORM FORM. Ego lifting is
This is why it is STRONGLY recommended to not start stacking on weight till you have your form down on squats. I keep reading "Oh I can squat again after my knee surgery". Chances are improper squatting lead to that. FORM FORM FORM. Ego lifting is
Absolutely!!! I am by no means perfect at squatting, but before I really studied it and received hours of coaching my knees hurt and my back would hurt.
Yeah if I'm not focused while squatting I'll slack and my back will start hurting like crazy. I feel bad seeing how some of these people squat. But if I reach out, I'm the asshole meathead.
Here's a quick clip of my deadlifting just for a form check. Sorry my ass is in your face but I had to make sure my posterior was doing the right things.
So I got a belt and wow what a difference. Takes over when my belly is too tired from bracing. I even forgot my roller at home but didn't need it since my lower back wasn't getting crushed. Looking forward to more squats.
My buddy was there and he asked if he could put wraps on me. I said ok and that was the scariest thing. They get on there so tight that my bottom legs were numb. I did feel like my legs wanted to stand right up like a slingshot but I wasn't crazy about it. My friend wanted me to jump 50 lbs from my work sets to do it but I jumped 30 and did 1 rep. I already wasn't 100% used to the belt so definitely out of my comfort zone.
I've been borrowing a friends cheapo belt for squatting and deadlifting. Not quite used to it, but I like it. It has made me notice that when I deadlift I don't have my lats engaged as much as I should be.
im gonna need to pick up my own belt soon as the one Im using isn't very good (it's a training belt vs powerlifting belt)
This is the one I got. Honestly I didn't shop around and do a ton of research that I usually do. I trust my friend as he's pretty knowledgable and did the research for me. They say not to cheap out on belts and supposedly Valeo is shit.
Very nice! What I love about my belt is that it helps me push from my hips for even more power. My max last year I hit for 3 reps last week and my form felt great with the belt. It really helped me figure out how much I needed to open my legs too.
I think I'm cured from my gout. New max and probably could've done a little more since I got this 2 sets of 1 each. Finally happy for the big 3 lifts to reach advanced. Elite is soooooooooo far away.
05-05-2016, 08:06 AM
