***Gym Exercise Guide, and Form Discussion/Feedback***

mrthingyx said:
No: stretch your adductors and quads and do some glute med exercises because your glutes and hamstrings are probably weaker than a Starbucks coffee.

With your feet close together, you push a lot of the weight through your quads - which isn't necessarily a problem provided you are doing it right... And I suspect you are not.

And besides, 75*5 and 85*3 isn't THAT different - the issue is that your brain is used to squatting with your feet close together and - probably combined with a weak core and glutes - cannot stabilise your thorax where your posterior chain is actually asked to do something.

Take a video from the back and side, please! :)
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Thanks a lot for the advice! Would thrusts be a suitable exercise for strengthening glutes and hamstrings?

You're spot on regarding how my form breaks down
 
Jon33 said:
Suppose my question was pretty pointless as slightly closer together could still be really wide depending on where you started from! :D

My slightly closer together would still be at least shoulder width. Would love to hear drills to find optimum stance width however!
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An easy "test" is the goblet squat: most people (that are not cyclists or runners) should be able to do this with a nice flat back without any real trouble. This is a good mobility test (because most people don't have great hip and ankle mobility!

Assuming optimum soft tissue mobility, you become restricted by skeletal anatomy, so:

- proportional length of femur-tibia-thorax
- depth and angle of hip sockets (acetabulum)

Long femurs mean a huge amount of ankle mobility is required to keep weight over heels whilst trying to maintain an upright thorax; deep hip sockets angles out from your centre line will stop you going ATG no matter how mobile your soft tissue.

The way to work out what works is to do some horizontal squats and find out where your knees should be to ensure optimal lumbar stability... The next is to scour your hip socket by lying on your back and pulling your knee up and close to your chest, moving it from your centre line out and down... You will find your end ROM where your lumbar starts to move as you pull on your knees to your chest. For me my knees have to be around 45 degree from straight ahead to get into an ATG position without lumbar flexion...

So what? This means I have to have a wide stance? Not necessarily. Appropriately mobile soft tissue means I can simply keep my knees out... Which also requires serious glute med work. I could stand wider, of course, but that isn't how I land in the snatch or clean...

There are umpteen different ways to squat, but the real trick is finding out what best suits you and your goals. :) Wide? Narrow? Knees behind/over/ahead of toes? Nobody is the same, ergo no two people should squat the same way.

iBSOD said:
Thanks a lot for the advice! Would thrusts be a suitable exercise for strengthening glutes and hamstrings?
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Start with stuff like cross-band walks and glute med raises (lie on side and lift your top leg up straight with toes up, heels up and then flat for ten eps a piece as a superset. Then get doing dead bugs with weights and with glute bridges. Then do all the deadlifts and Romanisn deadlifts in the world.

And then squat like a boss. :)
 
Hip thrusts are great for hammering the glutes but don't require nearly as much core stability as something like an RDL where you're hitting the posterior chain whilst trying not to dump your core/back out of a braced/neutral position. They can also be a bit of a faff to set up once it gets heavy, and for most people it's not uncommon to put the same kind of weight they deadlift on the bar for it to be challenging. RDLs are nice and simple - grab the bar, soft knees, brace, hinge at the hips.
 
Hi, gym noob here. I just tried some dead lifts & squats after a badminton training session so my quads had already had a good workout. I got up to 60kg on squats but the bar was quite painful across my shoulders, specifically where it crosses my spine. Does this indicate I'm doing it wrong?
 
Amleto said:
Hi, gym noob here. I just tried some dead lifts & squats after a badminton training session so my quads had already had a good workout. I got up to 60kg on squats but the bar was quite painful across my shoulders, specifically where it crosses my spine. Does this indicate I'm doing it wrong?
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Is the bar sitting on your cervical vertebrae? Or your scapulae?

It sounds like it is...

It should sit on yojr traps, so crank your shoulders back and down... and then stick the bar on the squishy muscle-y bit ABOVE your shoulder blades.
 
No, definitely not. I moved the bar lower and lower, below the top of my clavical. But it was still really uncomfortable for a relatively easy weight.

e:
I have bad posture/rounded shoulders so maybe I need to really pull my shoulders back as you say
 
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Dat music

Deadlift: stop looking up, at least for now. Reset on EVERY rep, i.e. let the weight to the floor then go from the floor so it is a DEAD.LIFT. Lumbar also looks a bit round on the first pull.

Front squat: can't really tell, need a taller angle.

BOR: same as deadlift, stop looking up, back also has a curve when you pick it up. I'd watch the video back, you're pulling it across essentially, rather than more up/down, while that CAN work I can see you finding this difficult as the weight goes up, because gravity.

Keep at it though dude!
 
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The music certainly put a smile on my face. :D

I noticed that with my deadlift, certainly something I can work on. So you'd suggest looking at the floor.

BOR has always been my worst exercise, I never know how much I should be bending over. :D
 
Depends how you want to row at the end of the day, there are different ways of doing it so may need to take a look at what suits you best.

Deadlifts, don't look down no, keep your spine neutral
 
Guys, I've asked in the cycling thread, but what lumpy foam rollers are suggested? I've been rolling for a while now and don't really get any pain like when you first start, and use it 3 times a week or so, or after longer/harder rides. Don't really want to spend the earth!
 
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