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

Upright rows are terrible for your shoulders. Don't do them.

What might have happened here is that your supraspinatus has been twinged as it tried to stabilise your shoulder against the pull of tight pecs. Have a look in the mobility thread, you need soft tissue work for the painful area and your pecs, as well as internal and external rotation stretches.
 
There isn't enough movement to actually cause problems, but that doesn't rule out aggravating something that's already there.

Do you mean literally your spine, more where your erectors are, or even further out?

Possible Pat visit needed.
 
Best reps are between 30 and 40 seconds.

You start the set with your hips too low, and then finish too high.

Also, you shouldn't be trying to be maximally explosive when you're trying to change fundamentals of movement, it will always end up being messy. You're supposed to be feeling the movement and teaching yourself where your effective line is.

Delvis said:
I also don't know how you make your back bend like that dude (35s for instance)
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Stiff t-spine, mobile lumbar and T-L junction that is used to being moved around.
 
Syla5 said:
Cheers, will review. I am loosening up my T-spine as part of my mobility work each night, but i think i havent been focusing on it enough.


How bad is it? or is it a case of easily fixable just keep banging away at it.
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It's far from the end of the world, but it is something that will stand in the way of you becoming a strong, functional monster.

I'd have it near the top of your mobilising/strengthening priorities.
 
mrthingyx said:
Dumbell anything is awesome. :) However, do not hide from a poor motor pattern on barbell bench, as this will only get amplified with dumbells if you are not careful.

Regarding leg raises, my preference is for dragon flags, candlesticks (eccentric part of dragon flag) or rollout a of some description.
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Perhaps a little savage for a beginner! ;)

Leg raises with posterior pelvic tilt are still a great exercise, and more approachable.
Barks said:
Can anyone spot what's wrong with my DL?


It feels OK. I'm not getting any back pains etc but why is my entire body moving backwards at the start of the lift?

I'm trying to keep the angle of my back flat at the initial ascent until the bar clears the knees and then bringing my hips forward. I was under the impression this was correct form.
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Not necessarily. You will end up doing more of first pull movement (olympic lifting term), which is not exactly the same thing as a deadlift. The correct way of describing it is that your back angle shouldn't change negatively, so your hips shouldn't rise faster that your shoulders.

For example, on the warm ups here:

Note that the bar path is completely vertical too. You need to be aiming for the bar scraping up your legs all the way up.
 
Theoretically, there should be a straight line from your mid foot-bar-shoulder, but that's exactly a useful training cue. In my experience, if you keep the bar against your legs and tweak the height of your hips then the rest takes care of itself (particularly after some practice, when you get a feel for the movement). If you post a video correcting the things mentioned previously we can take a look at your hip height, because it will almost certainly change from your last video by then. One thing at a time :)

And yeah, thanks :D, although some of those reps weren't perfect. However speed is strength, train fast to be fast, move explosively to increase potentiation in warm ups, etc.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
Legs:

Chest:

Theres more to be released. Helps that the demo guy is lean as ****!
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mrthingyx said:
Oh, wow - that front squat demo almost had me breaking my monitor...
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iamtheoneneo said:
Actually Really?
It was fine example of a front squat with CG.
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Yeah it was a poor front squat demo.

I've not had time to watch the videos fully, but I wouldn't suggest that anyone use them as a reference. The videos in the OP have been chosen specifically for their high quality.
 
The videos in the OP will help.

Set up with a flat back before you touch the bar.

Don't sit your hips down that low.

Squeeze the bar off the floor rather than yanking it.

Don't rush the movement, feel the positions.
 
Joe,

You RDL pattern is actually pretty poor, so much so that you aren't really even hip hinging. This is due to the way you move around in day to day life. When reaching down to pick something up, you are primarily loading your lower back and not utilising your hips and hamstrings. The same is true of your hip hinge. You're just trying to reach down with a flat back, which is not what a hip hinge is about.

A hip hinge is about hinging at the hip (duh?), while maintaining a fixed relationship between your hips and torso with a braced core and neutral spine, and loading the hamstrings and glutes. Your shoulders should stay roughly over your feet, meaning the most obvious movement should be your hips reaching backwards until you reach your hamstring range. During this movement, your knees should be "soft", meaning that they shouldn't be locked but you shouldn't try to actively bend them. Your knees should not travel forwards at all.

Fix that stuff and you'll be well on your way. This should translate into your deadlift and things should start making more sense.

However, I will repeat a point I made in my previous post. Do NOT try and rush your reps. You goal here is not to move quickly, your goal is move in the right way. If you try to move quickly, you will not be able to control and coordinate the movement.


Andrew,

There are a few problems with that video. I've said it many times in this thread, it is a terrible idea to pick random videos from the internet as an exercise reference.

Edit: I hope you don't take that the wrong way, your points were good! It's just that it's very difficult for people to identify good resources, and there is a lot of bad information out there masquerading in nicely produced videos.
 
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