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EricT · 11-28-2007, 10:13 AM

Oh shit, btw, stop looking down! I can't believe I didn't notice that! That's probably leading to a lot of this. I know that you don't look down the whole time but you start out looking down on pretty much every rep then have your gaze travelling upwards. It's almost as if your body is leading your head instead of the other way around. Pick a spot in front of you on the floor about six feet away and keep focused on that the entire time. Don't look upwards or downwards but sorta straight ahead.

At the beginning of the ascent think about driving your shoulders upwards into the bar istead of pushing downwards into the floor. This will not only help with that hip drive and getting out of the hole but will naturally help you keep your back in it's tightly arched position.

Another thing I noticed it you sort of wiggle around at the top getting ready for a rep. Then you stick out you butt all of a sudden and down you go. It almost seems like you aren't starting from a very tight and stable position. It looks like you are tigthening you glutes so that is good. It will of course help force you back into a tight arch. But it also seems as if you exaggerate the arch at the beginning. This does not need to be done. I know many people say to do this but if you already possess good pelvic postioning, meaning a good natural arch then there should be no need to exxagerate it. Hell, if you actually were walking around with an exxagerated lumbar arch that would mean you had some imbalances to deal with! So why the hell would we artificially induce an unnatural and unbalanced position?

Your "natural" arch is fine. Exaggerating it pre-streches your hams so I don't think I need to explain what that does to your range of motion. That time you spend exaggerating your arch would be better spent taking in a big breath into the abdomen and tensing your abs/midsection. Engage the glutes and descend in a controlled fasion.

Besides controlling the descent try prestretching your calves. You can do a sort of dynamic stretch with them which involves a very controlled "bounce" where you work into a greater range of motion in a dynamic but not "ballistic" fashion. The reason I say this is because your toes leave the ground when you descend. I don't really know if it's your calves but it's a shot. I could be the descent being too quick. It could also be your shoes...don't know. But your toes shouldn't be leaving the floor like that. You feet need to remain firmly planted at all times.