sking's log

[Rob Israel]

Nice lifting Steve. Wow, those were both quite dramatic!

That's a great total for pressing meet. Hopefully you can get your squat back on track. What happened on the first attempt?

One piece of advice on attempt selection which you probably know, but your first attempt should be a what you can do for a triple.
Last meet I decided to take really big jumps from attempt 1 to 2: 374/407/419 squat and for DL I did 407/440/462(missed). I've seen some of the National level guys do so even more.
Next meet I'll tight that up a bit, but I do like doing a no-brainer first attempt.

[melody]

Your feet were allowed to move all over for your press?

[sking1001]

Nice lifting Steve. Wow, those were both quite dramatic!

That's a great total for pressing meet. Hopefully you can get your squat back on track. What happened on the first attempt?

One piece of advice on attempt selection which you probably know, but your first attempt should be a what you can do for a triple.
Last meet I decided to take really big jumps from attempt 1 to 2: 374/407/419 squat and for DL I did 407/440/462(missed). I've seen some of the National level guys do so even more.
Next meet I'll tight that up a bit, but I do like doing a no-brainer first attempt.

440 was suppose to be a no brainer, ha! What happened on the first attempt was pretty much the same problem for all 3 attempts. My stance was way too wide for the way I was squatting. I had the same problem a few weeks back. Then I fixed my stance and it was way better. For some reason at the meet, I just went back to squatting way too wide and I got forward. More on this later, but I'm fixing that this cycle. I'm going to use the same stance, but I need to be squatting a lot more upright for that style of squat...

Your feet were allowed to move all over for your press?

Yeah, they didn't move all over, but I went up on my toes and rocked back. But you are right that my left foot actually moved forward at lockout. Not my best press, I know. My high squat got passed too, but that won't happen again.

[sking1001]

I didn't have a plan today. I just worked up to squat something fairly easy, working on technique. I decided to do some box squats and sumo deadlift after. My back still feels 100% : )

Okay, fixing my squat. I have been squatting with way too wide of a stance. I thought about this all weekend. I either need to bring my stance in, which was working well (until I screwed it up at the meet), OR I can stay in my hips, and a cue of keeping my chest up is what works for that style. Keeping my hips back and staying more upright also allow me to keep my knees out better and hit depth. I believe I can squat a lot more this way. Also, this is the style I was using when I squatted 500.

Squat
135x5
225x5
315x3
365x2x2
315x5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBsXagw9BRU

10.25" Box Squat
225x5
275x5
Super easy, but really good for reinforcing hips back and chest up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWzWaGdGpqo

Sumo Deadlift
135x5
225x3
315x5
365x5 add belt
Still very easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y1Ya4WfnVU

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

I like this style on you.
Where are you gazing? straight forward? or slightly up?
Your back looks a lot tighter with very nice chest up and you don't look like you are falling forward at any point.

When I gain my ROM back in my left shoulder to get into low bar position, I'm going to give this style a go. I really believe it can clean me up in the squat and get me some "ez" gains once I'm back in PR territory. I'm already kinda doing it with the manta ray but the real test will be when I go low bar again.

[sking1001]

I like this style on you.
Where are you gazing? straight forward? or slightly up?
Your back looks a lot tighter with very nice chest up and you don't look like you are falling forward at any point.

When I gain my ROM back in my left shoulder to get into low bar position, I'm going to give this style a go. I really believe it can clean me up in the squat and get me some "ez" gains once I'm back in PR territory. I'm already kinda doing it with the manta ray but the real test will be when I go low bar again.

The plan was to gaze straight forward, which is pretty much what I thought I was doing. It may just be the camera angle, but maybe I am looking slightly up. I will keep refining it, but this is the style for me. I call it the 800 pound squatter style, heh. The box squats are a great reinforcement too, so I wanna keep doing them. One thing I noticed in the front angle of my 225 box squat (I didn't upload it), is that I ended up gazing down a little.

So this is just the beginning. I'm sure there will be minor adjustments, but chest up and hips back will not change. I may end up pointing my toes in a little bit too, but we'll see how that goes. Keeping knees out still might need a little work, but I feel like this is a good start.

Thanks, Dwayne : )

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

I agree with you...it is the 800 lb squat style. This is a good start...a very good start.

I've been looking slightly up with the manta ray squats and my bar path is so much straighter and its high bar. I definitely feel like my chest is more out and my back is more tight even with the high bar position. All the things that I was concerned about with a different gaze did not happen. My squat did not all of a sudden become a leg press. I still was able to use hip drive. My knees didn't come much further forward beyond what would be expected with going from low to high bar. I think once a lifter knows how to squat (like the guts of it, midfoot, torso rigidity, proper lean, proper use of hips), all the "accessory" parts can be tweaked (like gaze, grip, heel vs. flat, stance width, toe angle). This is where the lifter makes the squat his/her own...some next level shit!

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

I sense big things to come in here soon. I think the meet was just what the doctor ordered.

[sking1001]

I sense big things to come in here soon. I think the meet was just what the doctor ordered.

Yes! I'm really looking forward to getting my squat back on track. I couldn't agree more about the meet. There was a guy there, I'm not sure he squatted very heavy, but I was very impressed that he had legs and femurs the same length as mine, but he was 5'10! Really built for squatting. He squatted pretty wide with a very upright torso (high bar), and his knees tracked absolutely perfect the entire way.

The epiphany I had this weekend after coming home and looking through current and old videos could be summed up more simplistically like this. And I'm only applying this to me:

If I'm going to squat SS style, I need to keep my stance more narrow. If I'm going to squat the 800 lb squatter style, I need to stay wide(ish). I don't have to, but for me I think it's stronger.

[sking1001]

TnGo Bench
135x8
135x10
185x6
205x4
225x15 +F - PR
135x15
High rep touch and go with an arch...ouch. My back was more distracting than anything...almost mid-back. I didn't count the reps but reviewed on video to find the count. Maybe would have done better with less of an arch.

Accessory
EZ Curl - 3x15 w/75
LTE - 3x12 w/75
Wide Pullups - 5, 5, 6

I felt sick after all this.