Serge's Strength Training Log

You don't have huge mobility issues, your problem is with position and control.

You can definitely hit the right positions and create a nice rep with some thought.

I don't want this to be a matter of contention, either take or leave this advice, etc.:

- Drop far more slowly into the bottom position, aiming to have your knees forwards and out and a very upright torso. You are using too much bounce (in the wrong way too) and its making it hard for you to coordinate the movement.

- Don't let your chest drop on the way up.

If you would like me to expand on these points, ask questions and I will answer tomorrow.
 
You don't have huge mobility issues, your problem is with position and control.

You can definitely hit the right positions and create a nice rep with some thought.

I can with 100kg, but when I start getting up to a reasonable weight, things start to slip. I'm in a state at the moment though so I'll still try and get a video of a working weight set posted when I feel okay.

I don't want this to be a matter of contention, either take or leave this advice, etc.:

- Drop far more slowly into the bottom position, aiming to have your knees forwards and out and a very upright torso. You are using too much bounce (in the wrong way too) and its making it hard for you to coordinate the movement.

- Don't let your chest drop on the way up.

I don't want it to come across as contentious but I do have some questions with regards to your comments that I've listed below.

Firstly, do you think speed at which I drop is the main reason I'm falling forward than then having to good morning the bar up (as seen on my 170kg squat video to a greater degree)? I've always attributed this to a weaker lower back. There's days when I'll de-rack 140kg and it'll feel like 100kg did the week before on my back (before even performing a rep) and vice versa.

Secondly, I know what you're saying about my chest dropping. The problem is I feel as if I physically can't force my chest up in this position at the bottom of the rep without putting a lot of strain (feels like I'm stretching a muscle beyond its ROM) on my middle back. If I do an unweighted squat whilst holding onto my rack for balance and physically force my chest out in the bottom position, I have an accentuated tightness in the middle back region. What could this be attributed to?

Thirdly, I feel as if there is some pelvic tilt at the bottom portion of the rep, if I sit down with my hips as opposed to my knees first, I feel a significant tightness in my hamstrings, could this pelvic tilt be resolved by a more upward spinal position and hamstring loosening exercises?

If it's any additional help, my deadlifts often result in my straightening my legs first then SLDing the bar up.
 
Is it Posterior or Anterior tilt you think you have? As that will determine what needs working on.
 
Firstly, do you think speed at which I drop is the main reason I'm falling forward than then having to good morning the bar up (as seen on my 170kg squat video to a greater degree)? I've always attributed this to a weaker lower back. There's days when I'll de-rack 140kg and it'll feel like 100kg did the week before on my back (before even performing a rep) and vice versa.

The faster you drop the harder the rep is going to be, particularly if you have sub-optimal form and tightness under the bar. (I can't see the videos at work so these are just generalisations).

The weight will bounce you down in to the hole, pull your thoracic & lumbar tightness apart, forcing your chest down/allowing it to fall and causing your hips to rise when you drive up out the hole.

Ideally your back angle, once your hips have been pushed back, should not change at any point in the rep.
 
Is it Posterior or Anterior tilt you think you have? As that will determine what needs working on.

It looks like I have posterior pelvic tilt at the very bottom of the rep. If I try to correct it by force, I end up feeling a stretch in my hamstrings.
 
I can with 100kg, but when I start getting up to a reasonable weight, things start to slip. I'm in a state at the moment though so I'll still try and get a video of a working weight set posted when I feel okay.
I may be misunderstanding your point, but you certainly weren't squatting with the right positions and developing a nice smooth concentric in that video,
I don't want it to come across as contentious but I do have some questions with regards to your comments that I've listed below.

Firstly, do you think speed at which I drop is the main reason I'm falling forward than then having to good morning the bar up (as seen on my 170kg squat video to a greater degree)? I've always attributed this to a weaker lower back. There's days when I'll de-rack 140kg and it'll feel like 100kg did the week before on my back (before even performing a rep) and vice versa.
No, your speed isn't the MAIN reason for falling forward. This is happening because the bar has moved too far forward relative to your heel.

You can see you do pause the last rep, you sit more upright and the bar is more over your heels, but as soon as you drive up you shift the bar forwards and send your hips back.

This pattern unloads the quads and loads the back. So you're essentially relying on your back rather than your legs, which means they are weak. If you continue to squat as you are, your back will continue to take the load and you won't be able to muscle your way of your poor form.

As I've said before, this is absolutely not because of a weak lower back. To assume this is to be completely blind to the mechanics of the lift.

Your speed into the hole is a technical fault. Your shape as you begin your descent isn't good, and you don't have the positional awareness of a good bottom position to be able to stabilise it. Dropping in a that speed means you have no chance of controlling your squat, and just ends up being a slightly redundant way of adding kilos to the bar as a result of the bounce.
Secondly, I know what you're saying about my chest dropping. The problem is I feel as if I physically can't force my chest up in this position at the bottom of the rep without putting a lot of strain (feels like I'm stretching a muscle beyond its ROM) on my middle back. If I do an unweighted squat whilst holding onto my rack for balance and physically force my chest out in the bottom position, I have an accentuated tightness in the middle back region. What could this be attributed to?
This is a bit of a none issue. The "accentuated tightness" is just you squeezing those muscles more than you normally would.

Similarly to spoffle, your thoracic spine caves slightly because the is resting too high on your spine relative to the amount you are leaning forwards. Fix the lean and you don't have to worry about it.

Thirdly, I feel as if there is some pelvic tilt at the bottom portion of the rep, if I sit down with my hips as opposed to my knees first, I feel a significant tightness in my hamstrings, could this pelvic tilt be resolved by a more upward spinal position and hamstring loosening exercises?
Again, proper pelvic control at the bottom of the rep will happen naturally once you correct your other problems.

However, you reminded me of something I forgot to mention initially:
- You are initiating the squat by breaking into over extension in your lumbar. You then get pulled back to neutral as you hit depth, which is not good at all for the health of your spine.

You should maintain a neutral spine at all times.
If it's any additional help, my deadlifts often result in my straightening my legs first then SLDing the bar up.
This is another sign of weak legs and hips, relatively speaking.
 
I may be misunderstanding your point, but you certainly weren't squatting with the right positions and developing a nice smooth concentric in that video

Ah, I got the impression from you that my form wasn't *that bad* from your previous comments as listed below. I'm now assuming that you meant that my form is currently awful but I *can* hit the right positions and create a good rep with some thought. Not that I *have* in comparison to my 170kg squat video.

You don't have huge mobility issues, your problem is with position and control.

You can definitely hit the right positions and create a nice rep with some thought.

I wanted to illustrate that it deteriorates (naturally) with a heavy weight which would make my problems more pronounced and therefore easier to diagnose and fix.

No, your speed isn't the MAIN reason for falling forward. This is happening because the bar has moved too far forward relative to your heel.

You can see you do pause the last rep, you sit more upright and the bar is more over your heels, but as soon as you drive up you shift the bar forwards and send your hips back.

This pattern unloads the quads and loads the back. So you're essentially relying on your back rather than your legs, which means they are weak. If you continue to squat as you are, your back will continue to take the load and you won't be able to muscle your way of your poor form.

As I've said before, this is absolutely not because of a weak lower back. To assume this is to be completely blind to the mechanics of the lift.

This makes sense, I'm going to try and slow my reps down nonetheless in the interests of stability. Any small benefit I gain in lift strength from the bounce at the bottom (I can concentrically press very similar amounts of weights for some reason, I often mix pauses into my working weight sets.) would be re-instated in eliminating my lower back overload and stabilising the lift.

Your speed into the hole is a technical fault. Your shape as you begin your descent isn't good, and you don't have the positional awareness of a good bottom position to be able to stabilise it. Dropping in a that speed means you have no chance of controlling your squat, and just ends up being a slightly redundant way of adding kilos to the bar as a result of the bounce.

What's wrong with my shape specifically and how do I correct it? The same goes for your comment about my poor positional awareness.

Similarly to spoffle, your thoracic spine caves slightly because the is resting too high on your spine relative to the amount you are leaning forwards. Fix the lean and you don't have to worry about it.

As above, how do I correct this? I assume you missed "bar" from your paragraph. I have tried lowering the bar position but it feels quite uncomfortable and causes me to lean forward even more (in addition to thrusting my hips back and coming up with my lower back from the bottom), which wouldn't be conducive to improving my form given the issues you have already highlighted.

However, you reminded me of something I forgot to mention initially:
- You are initiating the squat by breaking into over extension in your lumbar. You then get pulled back to neutral as you hit depth, which is not good at all for the health of your spine.

I'm not sure what you mean specifically by this; can you please elucidate and advise on a solution?
 
Ah, I got the impression from you that my form wasn't *that bad* from your previous comments as listed below. I'm now assuming that you meant that my form is currently awful but I *can* hit the right positions and create a good rep with some thought. Not that I *have* in comparison to my 170kg squat video.

I wanted to illustrate that it deteriorates (naturally) with a heavy weight which would make my problems more pronounced and therefore easier to diagnose and fix.
Yeah I think we're on the same page now. I can understand it getting worse, but the problems are already visible on lighter weight.
This makes sense, I'm going to try and slow my reps down nonetheless in the interests of stability. Any small benefit I gain in lift strength from the bounce at the bottom (I can concentrically press very similar amounts of weights for some reason, I often mix pauses into my working weight sets.) would be re-instated in eliminating my lower back overload and stabilising the lift.
Exactly :)

The benefit of the bounce is hard to quantify. It isn't as simple as just "I can do a pause squat with similar weight so it isn't adding much". What about for reps? How does the form look? Etc.
What's wrong with my shape specifically and how do I correct it? The same goes for your comment about my poor positional awareness.
As I said, you aren't upright enough for high bar.

There may be other problems we encounter, but this is literally step one of the basics of high bar.
As above, how do I correct this? I assume you missed "bar" from your paragraph. I have tried lowering the bar position but it feels quite uncomfortable and causes me to lean forward even more (in addition to thrusting my hips back and coming up with my lower back from the bottom), which wouldn't be conducive to improving my form given the issues you have already highlighted.
It's not that you need to lower the bar. It is an option, but one that would mean changing other aspects of your squat.

You fix it by being more upright and driving more with your legs. This means keeping your knees forward as you drive up.
I'm not sure what you mean specifically by this; can you please elucidate and advise on a solution?
Look at what you do with your hips/lower back before the first rep on the side view. This is you over extending your lumbar.


In summary, the fix is to squat as I advised in my first reply to your videos ;)
 
I'm splitting today's training session as my training bag is in the car, which is currently in use at the moment so I'll list what I've done for bench press (already done) and then my squats once they're done.

I've had a few days off bench and it's definitely done me some good, despite the fact that my calories are down. As such, I felt like going heavy today.

Bench Press:
60kg x 8 (warm up)
100kg x 3 (warm up)
120kg x 3
125kg x 1
130kg x 1
135kg x f (I found an SKS on DayZ whilst having a break after 130kg and felt obligated to guard it until Spoffle arrived to collect it. He took *time* to log on so I logged off and gave 135kg a go, this was 15 minutes or so after 130kg so I was doubtful that I'd get it as I'd cooled down a fair bit. I gave it a good push though and got it above half way before my triceps failed.)

I didn't really feel much after this with it being low volume so I decided to finish up with some higher rep work.

100kg x 5
110kg x 5
115kg x 4

My chest and triceps feel nicely smashed now, no niggles or tendon issues whatsoever, I feel quite warm and supple, like a beautiful Chinese gymnast.

Squats to come.
 
135kg x f (I found an SKS on DayZ whilst having a break after 130kg and felt obligated to guard it until Spoffle arrived to collect it. He took *time* to log on so I logged off and gave 135kg a go, this was 15 minutes or so after 130kg so I was doubtful that I'd get it as I'd cooled down a fair bit. I gave it a good push though and got it above half way before my triceps failed.)

Good, good. The only thing that would have been better is if you'd failed so hard that the bar kilt you dead.
 
As a continuation, by the time I got my belt, I decided to do some deadlifts in lieu of squats as I haven't bothered since I boosting my squat up by 30kg.

Deadlifts:
100kg x 5
140kg x 5
170kg x 3

Unbelievable how easy 170kg felt in comparison to when I last tried it. I had plenty more in the tank but a nasty callous stopped me in my tracks mid set. Strange as I usually don't have major problems with them when I cake my hands in liquid chalk but I suppose I haven't done them for a good while so perhaps my hands are getting a little soft. Main thing I've noticed is a greatly increased hip/leg drive coming into play since I last deadlifted.

I left it there for tonight but I'm looking forward to giving 200kg+ a good go after recovery.
 
Pretty productive training day today, still got chest fatigue from my last session so I thought I'd take it easy and wait until I've fully recovered. I really felt like doing some more deadlifts though, and I only had very minor erector spinae fatigue so I thought why not.

Deadlifts
60kg x 5 (Warm Up)
100kg
x 3 (Warm Up)
140kg x 3 (Warm Up)
180kg x 4 PB- Massive jump in strength on my deadlift, really pleased with this compared to 170kg x 3 last session. It's amazing how muscles respond when you haven't trained them directly for a while. Looking forward to breaking 200kg for reps.

I wanted to do some maintenance/technique work for squats after this as I was still feeling pretty energetic so I did the following.

Squats:
67.5kg x 5 (Warm up with weight left on from my girlfriend's 5x5)
100kg x 3
140kg x 5 - Really focused on technique for these, had a 3 second descent with a one second pause at bottom. Back felt great after deadlifts despite the fact that I thought that would start causing me issues.

I haven't trained my biceps properly for a good while either (my lightbulb is in the way of my pull-up section on the power rack so it's awkward for me to do pull-ups at the moment) so I did:

Barbell Curl:
55kg x 5 x 5

Kept them all nice and strict except for the last two reps of the last set.

Looking forward to bench again.
 
Another okay session today although I didn't do too much

Bench Press:
60kg x 5 (Warm-Up)
80kg x 3 (Warm-Up)
100kg x 3 (Warm-Up)
110kg x 1 (Warm-Up)
125kg x 1
135kg x 1 PB

I tried 135kg last bench session and failed it as detailed above. Weirdly, 125kg felt pretty heavy compared to the last time I tried it so I'm really pleased that I managed to get this. Frustratingly though, I don't quite think I have 140kg in me at the moment despite not trying it. I may only be a few kilos off but I really wanted to hit it before I toned benching down a bit. As such, I've decided to try and skip 140kg and run the 12 week Ed Coan bench program. I haven't ran this before, but after doing some digging, I feel it could be perfect to boost me to 150kg. I'd like to stop at 150kg and work on my standing overhead press which is lagging at around 75kg at the moment. I don't think heavy 1RM work as it currently stands is going to be sustainable as I have managed to fry my nervous system doing similar things before, so taking advantage of the low %1RM lifts from the first few weeks of the program will work nicely as a de-load for me. I haven't really wasted my chest today so I'm going to begin the program a day late tomorrow. If anyone has ever ran this program, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on it.

For those interested, a link to the program can be found here.

Deadlift:
140kg x 3 (Warm-Up)
170kg x 1 (Warm-Up)
190kg x 4 PB

Really amazed at bringing my deadlift from 170kg x 3 to 190kg x 4 in just under a week. 190kg actually felt easier than 180kg did and I was surprised at how well I managed to maintain form. Deadlifts have been the one lift that I've always been okay adding strength on to but never like this. I'm not sure what's going on but I'm going to keep adding 10kg a session until I can't do so anymore and then de-load. I'm wondering if I have the big 220kg in me yet. If not, I can't be too far off. It's amazing how little stimulus you need to introduce for deadlifts to gain strength on the lift. No way would I be able to add such strength by doing a single set of working weight squats. That being said, I'm not really sure how to progress once deadlift gains inevitably slow from the brute 10kg marathon I'm doing at the moment, perhaps Icecold would be able to suggest something.

All in all, pretty happy with my progress. I shall soldier on.
 
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