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I would say if anything, look straight ahead. Seems like the most natural position for you to be in.

IronWorker

Anuj,

Like dropping the head, or simply not nooking up/ahead? I think that "down" is rather ambiguous. I'll have to go check some of his squat form vids to see if he mentions it. Poor old coach Rip has been getting kicked around a lot lately. I don't know the guy at all, but he doesn't strike me as the idiot that people think he is.

Look at this video, when he corrects the person to look down he is just adjusting the head into a neutral position, not forcing his head DOWN.

I'd like to clarify something I said. I think it should be fairly obvious that putting the head down is bad advice. I don't remember Rip saying to put the head down of course but as far as looking down I'll take Anuj's word for that. But what I really meant to say is that the body will tend to follow the EYES. I.E. I meant where you are looking is where the body will want to go. No matter whether it is a high bar or low bar squat or in between you want you upper body to stay high and tight as much as possible...you look down the shoulders tend to come down and the whole torse will follow. So don't look down. Or up, lol.

That vid..I don't know. I think it's important to differentiate between lumbar extension, hip extension, and THORACIC extension. You're not "lifting" your shouders as you should be trying to maintain that T-spine extension to some extent. That is going to help you matintain that tight lumbar extension which is going to ENABLE you to use those GLUTES and hams the get out of the hole. Way too much emphasis on hams for my book anyway...the glutes are the big movers in hip extension.

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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 agree with the eyes thing. However I think that you tend to get a lot of people that lead with their head too, and that isn't a good idea either.

Honestly I think coach Rip just has a weird way of explaining things. I don't get the sense that he is screwed up in his thinking or that he is trying to reinvent the wheel, just comes off weird. Kinda like Mentzer... though Mike was admittedly a little goofy later in life. Maybe Coach Rip has held his breath one too many times while lifting

So the general consensus is to look straight ahead, or just look naturally. Sounds good to me. I don't think Rip is an idiot, more that I don't always follow his explanations.

And Eric... ha, I never understand your anatomy terms anyway, but what is thoracic extension?

And why wouldn't you take ibuprofen? It's not a pain killer so much as an anti-inflammatory (although it does work well on pain)... I just take it to help the healing process. Not a good idea?

Actually, before I answer that, have you watched the Dan John vid? I just stickied it.

great video...well worth the 50 minutes.

50 minutes? Wow. Sounds hella informational. Thanks Eric!