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

[icecold]

From the side you look pretty awesome, I'd rather your back angle was a little more constant as you got deeper but that's pretty nit-pick-ey.

Your glutes are quite weak which is causing your lack of knee control, but luckily one of the best ways to fix this is to squat and focus on pushing them out.

If you have access to bands then you get to look ridiculous and do this:

...either as part of your warm up or at the end of your workout.

 

[LiE]

That looks good ice, I will give that ago, maybe a bit hardcore with the green band though lol

 

[Deception]

That looks good ice, I will give that ago, maybe a bit hardcore with the green band though lol

That's the only band I got too. This should be interesting

 

[icecold]

I'm sure it can be done, just carefully

 

[richjs]

Had a feeling my glutes were weak as I never seem to get much activation - clearly this is why.

Hopefully they'll have found the bands and I'll get on it tomorrow!

 

[Djdom56]

You will really struggle with the green, might even be impossible. The only real way to do that is for high reps so it is pointless reaching failure after 3 .

 

[LiE]

Yea tried the green and it wasn't really suitable. Going to get a red at some point.

 

[Djdom56]

I find that even the red isn't great some times, the tiny one would be fine for most people IMO.

 

[Deception]

I used the green one last night and managed to get quite a few reps out of it (im short at 5" 6, so didnt really have to pull it far to get some resistance). Can feel it today too.. Nothing like getting weird looks off the Girlfriend while side stepping up and down the front room

 

[richjs]

Good news, they'd found the bands (red and green).
Blasted 2 sets of the glute exercises out before squats and 2 sets after as well as the mwod from the mobility thread:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gwgm3s2EQ0

After all this I was able for pretty much the first time ever to break parallel by quite some way with bodyweight squats. My upper body did come forward horrendously but normally I would fall over even with this.

Definitely going the right way

Right the reason I uploaded this was to see whether I'm positioning the bar correctly for low-bar squats. To me they feel much less natural than high bar. It also felt like it was putting more pressure on my back to hyperextend when standing up and not in the actual squat. Wondering if I'm doing something wrong.
The 2nd video I threw in at the end just to see whether the bar position was correct - I was already knackered so form's not great.

 

[Syla5]

Dead lift:

http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd482/rG-tom/New Album/?action=view&current=4a873740.mp4

Squat

http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums...New%20Album/?action=view&current=2663ec19.mp4

Phone ran out of memory on the squat but you get the idea

Feedback is welcomed.

Form looks good from what can be seen, better angles would help.

The most obvious bit of advise I can offer is to take off those shoes while you squat and Deadlift. Also your stance on squat looks a little narrow, but it's very hard to tell from this angle.

 

[LiE]

Thanks for getting the videos Tom. I can spot some things in the lifts that need work on, but not too bad. I'll post some stuff in the morning unless ice or Dom get on the case.

With some tweaks you'll have a more powerful squat and deadlift. You're using your lower back to move the weight on deadlift for example

 

[Delvis]

Things I notice are feet positioning and the negative on the deadlift. Looks like the feet point out a fair whack on the deadlift, and your negative seems slow.

But that's just me

 

[LiE]

OK Tom so for your deadlift I'm not seeing much glute and you're using the lower back to pull the weight. Have a look at the videos at the start of this thread for instruction. Essentially from the floor you should be pushing the weight away from the floor with your feet, then when the bar reaches your knees, you bring the glutes on full to snap you upright. At no point should you be pulling the the bar with your back. You also need to work on bracing the core and locking everything in before initiating the lift. This will be covered in the videos.

For the squat your not quite getting to parallel. I suspect this is due to not pushing the knees out and sitting back enough. If you could get a video from the back that would really help. Again have a read at the start of the thread.

 

[rG-tom]

Thanks for the input guys really appreciated.

Will work on this and report back soon

 

[Morba]

Things I notice are feet positioning and the negative on the deadlift. Looks like the feet point out a fair whack on the deadlift, and your negative seems slow.

But that's just me

Nothing wrong with his negative, nice and controlled tbh. This is for reps and clearly a weight that he can move around nicely.
I'd add to LiE's comments - don't be so quick at the top of the rep, take a moment and enjoy having done the hard part, admire yourself in the mirror with that weight in your hands lol

 

[Delvis]

EDIT: Nevermind

Canny be bothered to argue

 

[Morba]

Argue? I missed the pre edit so have no idea what you are on about

 

[Delvis]

It seems every time someone posts a deadlift video, the negative speed is always commented and recommended differently.

No need to worry

 

[Morba]

It seems every time someone posts a deadlift video, the negative speed is always commented and recommended differently.

No need to worry

For me it comes down to what you are trying to achieve. If you are going for reps with a nice weight (rather than really exerting yourself) then control the weight.
If you are doing the positive side only for reps then get to the top and drop it.
If doing singles, close to max then a faster negative while still under control is acceptable