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hehe....oops

if the brain's not working....the body probably won't either ;)

i've done that before too man...."why can't i bench this much...i did it two days ago????"

oh yeah. 50 extra pounds on the bar.

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Don't feel bad I think most of us have done something similar at one time or another

LOL, ain't that the truth! I guess we all have our moments.

OK, vids are posted here.

I put several up because I wasn't sure if it would be more informative. There's 3 squat vids...a light 95lb warmup, the first set of 155lbs and the third set of 155lbs. And I also put up two sets of rows because I think it really shows the lack of flexibility I have in my hamstrings and figured it would give some insight into any flaws with the squat. I do have to say that after watching the row vids, I'm definitely going to focus on pull-ups for awhile. Really bad form there I think. :(

Ahh, that link doesn't work unless you're logged in and I can't edit my posts. This link should take you to the Squat warmup vid, and below it should be links to the others...

Squat

For the squats I basically paid the most attention to the warmup vid since 95 pounds should be enough to require proper form....

Judging from that I see nothing worth mentioning. You have your feet splayed a little on the far side and I'll bet you're doing that to make up for some lack of ham flexiblity.

Since you're squatting on carpet take off the flip flops, lol. That's a good way to trip and have a very bad accident. Just squat barefoot in that case. Lot's of people just use running shoes. I squat in chucks.

Anything you attribute to bad form on the 155 pound squats looks more to me like you working with weights that are pretty heavy for you. But I will watch them again a couple times to see if I can add anything....

Ham flexibility should be easy to address. First of all you could start out your workouts with some dynamic leg swings (both ways, front and back) and also some lunges where you focus on getting a stretch at the bottom but in a dynamic fashion. At the end of your workouts do a lower back stretch, and a ham and hip flexor stretch at least.

The easiest and most effective ham stretch to start out with, imo, is the basic lying towel stretch. You lie on the ground or a bench, raise one leg and hook a towel around the bottom of the foot and keep the other leg straight and on the ground (you probalby won't be able to keep the straight leg down at first because of hip flexor tightness). Then just use the towel to pull the raised leg toward you head, focussing on getting a good stretch in the hams. You do not need to have you leg completely straight. Keep a little bend in the knee. It will work better. But once you get to a point of good stretch you can try to straighten out the leg a little also if you want.

The basic raised leg stretch where you bend over it to stretch the ham is just as good as that but the problem is that the lower back needs to be kept completely set or you'll simply be stretching the lower back instead of the hams. But this can be difficult to do at first so the towel stretch elliminates that problem. This can also be done in a doorway.

One last thing. LOSE THE BELT. Not a good idea. You are sacrificing the development of core strength and it could set you up for imbalances...

You had asked before about that and I answered no. I don't think too many here would disagree with me on that and if they did I'd tear them apart in an debate . But perhaps I should make that answer in big bold beautiful letters:

NO

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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

I watched the vids some more. Even on the third set I can't pinpoint anything to comment on like this is a weak link, or your doing this wrong or whatever. I think you're just finding out how damn tough it is to do this routine.

From what I have seen and given that you are not sure you can add weight to the bar but once a week I really don't see the point of squatting heavy three times a week. At this point I think you may be better off at introducing a lighter squat in the middle to get some recovery time. I think that would probably help you. That is if simply eating more and resting more and any number of things wouldn't help but you can never account for every variable and I think it's safe to say that a little extra rest would be more productive here.

You could use a lighter squat in the middle day or reduce the volume. Or both. I would recommend you go to 70 or 75 percent of the working weight at that time and use that....

Front squats for that day may also be helpful if you are interested in them but I acutally prefer just a lighter squat as I disagree that front squats just because they are lighter weight automatically constitue good recovery days.

Another thing I doubt you have considered is you may be only able to add 5 pounds once a week with good form with good form but it could be possible to add, say, 2 or 2.5 pounds thrice a week...which would still be a little faster progress. This is called microloading. There are some discussions of it in one or two of the other journals.

Thanks, but there's one thing I'm still not clear on...should I wear a belt during squats? Just kidding, I'll put it away. Guess it's one of the few bad habits I held on to.

Well it's good to hear that there's nothing horribly wrong with my form. I thought my knees were too far forward and I also thought I noticed a slight rounding of the back one one or two reps at the bottom. So this is a very good review for me. I'll try to bring my feet in an inch or two. Oh, and about 10 minutes after I finished my workout today, my Otomix shoes finally arrived, so no more flip flops. LOL I'm not sure which method would be better for me, but I think I'm going to try to find or make some 1 1/4lb plates and try out the microloading technique first. If that doesn't work, then I'll go to the 75% method. One statement I'm not sure how to take is this...

Are you saying that the weight is too heavy for me? Or that it's just what happens when working with heavy weight?

And lastly, on a serious note, is there any exercise that the weight belt should be used? I use (make that used to use) it on the squat, row and dead. I only ask because I know Rip mentioned the belt in his book, but I forget the details of when to use it.

Thanks again Eric, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out here.;)

I think it will be a while before you will need a belt for anything and that is usually when you are working with some super heavy stuff trying to set a record and things like that.

The second one . Believe me I wouldn't be that ambiguous. If I thought the weight was TOO heavy for you I would say exactly that but there wouldn't be too much point on this format anyway because when things become too heavy for you you damn well no it, lol. Now, that being said, how long you can continue to progress in this fashion is anybody's guess, but just keep the attitude you have and go for it.

I don't think your knees were too far forward. Can you do anything different and still squat down that far? No, I think your kness are doing what they have to do. I didn't pick up on any appreciable back rounding (I will watch again) but it it's there it's probably when your go a little lower than your flexibility and control allows so the lower back relaxes. Mind you I can't tell any of these things for sure from a video. If I was standing right there I might see something but it is certainly nothing glaring.

Again, remember what I mentioned about backoff sets. If you feel bad about the last few reps of your sets or whatever and don't want to end the day on that note then you can lighten up and do some for practice.

Cool on having the Otomix shoes. Let me know what you think of them.

Go to Phil's journal for ideas on microloading weights.

At what weight would you start to use a belt ?

^^^Well certainly not a 155 pounds . I think there have been discussions of some sort of weight limit where after that you should use a belt. I honestly would think that would be up to the individual and the circumstances.

Topshelf I watched the vids another couple of times because I know you want me to give you something to work on (which I think is really a good way to think). And I did notice that you seem to initiate the movement by breaking at the knees first. It's hard to tell but I actually think I detected you knees actually bending before your hips a couple times. That could be the source of your sense that your knees are coming too forward.

Concentrate on breaking at the hips first while lowering the bar. If you break at the hips and go down the knees will follow naturally. If they didn't you would lean/fall forward or at best would be doing a good morning .

Some people like to call this "sitting back into it" so if that helps think of it that way. Although for me I think that creates more confusion because it leads to this belief that you should be striving to keep the back straight up and down. The weight should be over the middle of the feet so make sure it is not being transferred to the front of the feet. Drive up straight throught the heels/middle of the feet but don't think about pushing on the floor or really too much about the legs at all. Think instead about moving the bar upwards. Start with pushing the shoulders into the bar and try to relate to the barbell instead of the floor. Just think about moving it up as hard and fast as possible.

That's about all I can think of at this time.