Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

[Zappey1]

Hey Michael quick question: If you had to pick one lift that you love the most what would it be? No judgment from me on your answer.

[Soule]

I’ve noticed that you have a pretty upright back angle in your low bar back squat and your knees travel forward all the way to depth. This is the type of squat that feels natural to me as well, but I’ve had some advice in regards to getting my hips back more and knees forward earlier so that they don’t keep moving forward all the way to depth. I agree that my knees could get forward sooner, but pushing my hips back more is fucking with me big time.

Obviously you squat very well with the upright angle, as does lindley. I’m Curious as to what you would advise a long torso lifter to do in regards to the back angle?

[Soule]

Heres the 3rd set of my last 5x5 for reference.
YouTube

[Michael Wolf]

Hey Michael quick question: If you had to pick one lift that you love the most what would it be? No judgment from me on your answer.

It changes from time to time, I don't have one that is always my favorite. I'd say squat has generally been the biggest technical challenge for me; sometimes that's made me like it more, other times less.

I’ve noticed that you have a pretty upright back angle in your low bar back squat and your knees travel forward all the way to depth. This is the type of squat that feels natural to me as well, but I’ve had some advice in regards to getting my hips back more and knees forward earlier so that they don’t keep moving forward all the way to depth. I agree that my knees could get forward sooner, but pushing my hips back more is fucking with me big time.

Obviously you squat very well with the upright angle, as does lindley. I’m Curious as to what you would advise a long torso lifter to do in regards to the back angle?

Part of it is that we both lift a decent amount of weight and, at least in my case - not sure about Chase - I don't have long femurs or a short torso. Regarding the latter - I have proportions that are "pretty good" for all the lifts without being eye-catchingly great - or bad - for any one.

Regarding the former, I thought it made sense by COM over BOS analysis that all else equal the heavier the weight, the slightly more upright you'll be. Mysquatmechanics.com agrees - I input rough estimates of my own numbers, and then show what happens to the torso as you add more weight. It gets slightly more upright - as the system COM gets closer and closer to the barbell, a very slightly increasingly upright back angle is assumed to stay in balance/midfoot.



So it's not so much that I'm purposely squatting with an upright back angle as it is a combination of not-long femurs and a not-short torso, plus enough weight to make me slightly more upright. There is probably also a small amount of subconscious guarding I do of my low back, since it has been tweaked a lot, though I suspect the first two are the bigger factors.

This is why we don't coach a specific back angle. If you look at the ultimate forward-most position of my knees at the end of my squat, they aren't very far forward in a way that would suggest an especially upright torso. They're slightly forward of my toes, within the normal range of a low bar squat, and the resultant back angle is an artifact of anthropometry + weight on the bar, methinks. I'm not so upright as, say, a baby-femur'd Karl Schudt (who squats similar weights to me); but also not so bent over as a giraffe femur'd Niki Sims (even though she squats much less).

[Soule]

Thank you for the detailed response. Even at 365, which is light for you, you’re still more upright than i am in that video at a similar weight. This leads me to believe i need to practice a more upright torso angle at that weight, which comes more naturally to me then trying to force my hips back more. Knees moving forward throughout the entire eccentric also feels more natural to me as well and i don’t think i really display knee slide despite the continued knee movement.

[Michael Wolf]

I ended up taking Friday off too - with the neubie session Weds and a massage on Thurs, my whole pec/front delt area needed another day to recover. So I did some of the work I would've done Friday, today, and just skipped some in service of the deload.

Squat: 4" belt + sleeves
Up to 455x1 @6.5
Notes: REALLY happy to be able to low bar squat again, not feel hamstring at all, work up to a heavier single than I've done for almost a year, and have it move like the first rep of a solid set of 5. Kept volume super low, just testing things out. I did get forward onto my toes a smidge, so will need to work on that; on the other hand, it's encouraging that even at 455, that barely registers and I can just power up through it without a slowdown.

I also used the combo rack with the arms angled in for the first time, so I could take a wide grip. It was way more comfortable for me, on both elbows and wrists, and didn't require a bunch of warming up before I could do it like the narrower grip does these days - BUT there was also a learning curve to the unracking, racking, and bar position that I'll still need to work on. I didn't feel as balanced and mid-foot stable while unracking, I felt like the bar wanted to roll down 1/2 an inch lower than it should with the wider grip and looser upper back, and then re-racking was a bit trickier too. None of these were major issues at 455, but will need to tighten them up if I'm gonna do 150 lbs more.

Deadlift
495x1x2
Notes: No belt, and hamstring felt fine here too. Silver lining with pecs is that at least I can squat and deadlift again unmodified, comp style.

455 squat and 495 deadlift on IG.

Tandem DL Practice
365x2x2, then singles at 495, 635, 725, 815, 855
Notes: Doing a tandem DL comp for fun on Weds, so my partner and I practiced a little today. 855 still moved like a warmup. His max pull is 585, mine is 701 but being cautious just coming back from the hamstring strain, so our plan is to max out at about 1050 even if it's still moving easy.

Press: Sneakers, no belt
175x5, 195x5, 205x5 - EZPZ

Cable Row - Medium Neutral Grip
195x8, 210x8x2 - was able to do bilateral again, hammy was OK.
Bench Press
45x10, 95x8, 135x8, 185x8
Notes: Could still "feel" pecs but not painful. The most sensitive spot is currently the left upper pec and right near the humeral insertion, so may be tendon related as well. Interestingly, the first day or two after the initial tweak, the right side was much more sensitive. Now it's almost completely gone on that side.

Tricep
Rope: 130x10, Straight Bar, 130x12
DB Curls
50x8x2
Notes: The tricep rope actually flared up my left pec more than anything else did - the scrunching together/flexing of that position is exactly what ticked it off, so I switched to the straight bar after the first set. It was too easy even with 2 extra reps but whatever, just trying to avoid significant detraining here, not actually achieve any real forward training stress.

I wanted to do conditioning today, but was already in for over 3 hours at this point, mostly due to the tandem DL practice and all the loading that entailed. So I called it a day. Walking the dog 3-4 times a day will have to do for the moment.

[Michael Wolf]

Thank you for the detailed response. Even at 365, which is light for you, you’re still more upright than i am in that video at a similar weight. This leads me to believe i need to practice a more upright torso angle at that weight, which comes more naturally to me then trying to force my hips back more. Knees moving forward throughout the entire eccentric also feels more natural to me as well and i don’t think i really display knee slide despite the continued knee movement.

It's hard to tell for sure, but at a glance it looks like your femurs are relatively longer compared to your tibias than mine, and your knees look a little more forward than your toes at the bottom than mine - again I'm not sure but it looks that way at a glance. Both of those would suggest it's at least partially anthropometry related.

It's true that for a given anthropometry you can adjust how upright vs bent over you are to some degree, by varying your knees-forward vs hips back positions. Your limits are dictated by anthropometry but within those limits, you have some wiggle room. Without knowing more about your squat, I'd hesitate to give specific advice that you should specifically try to make your knees go more forward to get more upright than you currently are. As you know, in general we see a lot of way too upright squats and need to get them to lean over more than they want to. But of course some people - fewer, but some - overdo this and actually lean over too much.

Alright, I'm caving and going to do a quick form check for you even though I generally don't do this on my log and we have specific places to post these elsewhere. But you piqued my interest just enough along with a history of good comments.

You're sitting back first, instead of breaking hips and knees together. This is probably some of the cause of the your knee slide, along with general loss of tightness into the hole. I wouldn't tell you to sit back MORE, I'd tell you to coordinate your hips and knees initiation better so they happen at the same time and evenly, instead of sitting back first and knees having to desperately play catch up. That leads to them uncontrollably shoving forward as you get towards the bottom. So fix that, and control your descent a bit more - slow it down - instead of "falling in" the last bit. If you do those two things, I suspect you won't need to worry about back angle and it'll take care of itself.

[Soule]

Thanks for that, Mike — I really appreciate it!

[Michael Wolf]

Pretty happy with how things went today. Though I missed a press PR attempt at 320, it felt light in my hands and I just botched the execution. It was also an audible, I'd planned to just do 305 but was feeling great and decided to go for it. I missed my first shot at 315 the same way last year: an audible after feeling good working up, then missed the 1RM attempt despite it feeling good on the unrack and getting a decent throw. Then I hit it twice a few weeks later, so if the same thing happens here, no biggie.

And I hit a new 5 rep press PR afterwards, and my pecs felt noticeably better than even just two days ago, Saturday. So feeling great about how things are shaping up heading into the home stretch.

Press: 4" belt + gangsta wraps
285x1 @8 - belt only. This was so hot, despite the lack of wraps, that I decided to go for the 320 PR here, even before doing 305.
305x1 @9.5. This wasn't so hot, but it was 100% due to poor execution on my part, not a strength deficit. So I went ahead with 320.
320xF - felt light taking her out and got a good throw but just wasn't braced hard enough and wasn't ready for the delt to tricep transition which is my dead zone since I have no layback. Wasn't upset or disappointed afterwards, since it was an audible and not something I'd even planned to try for a few more weeks.
265x5- PR! @10 - Got way off balance on the last rep here, turning it from @9 into an all out max. But I corralled it back in and got it.

265x5 Press PR on IG

Bench Press
Worked up to 300x3.
Notes: Didn't feel pecs at all till 275x3, and even at 275 and 300 it wasn't pain or even discomfort, just a little tap on the shoulder saying "Hey dude, we're here, remember us?" Quite happy with the progress. I will be reducing frequency from 3 to 2 bench days a week from here on out - I was pushing hard to make up for lost time when I was sick and likely just overdid it a little. I could probably have sustained 3x weekly benching with a slightly reduced speed of progression and a slower ramp of tonnage, but I thought I could handle it. And hell, the results were fantastic. It was just a bit too much for these old tendons. Thankfully it was pretty minor, as I'm back over 300 only 9 days later. In my past pec tweaks, I've been back at something like 155-185 x10 a week and a half later.

Lat Pulldown: Wide grip supinated
180x10, 195x10, 210x10x2
Notes: Though I can only feel my pecs twinging a tiny bit on pulldowns when taking one of my two usual grips, I figured even less is better - and barely I felt this grip at all, so used it. Kept weight a little easier too.

Cable Tricep Straight Bar Pushdowns
150x12, 150+10 x12
Plank
40s x3
Notes: Triceps were too easy, the rope is challenging at 140-150 but I'm gonna avoid that position till I don't feel it at all. Not sure if I'll get back to EZ Curl bar and DB LTEs before the meet or not, will play it by feel.

[Soule]

As a small token of appreciation for the form check, please feel free to visit lifetime downtown on my guest pass. It’s not exactly a lifters gym at the moment, but a change of scenery is nice every once in a while.

We currently have an awful setup with those stupid flat edge plates, but we’re renovating and will have 5 of the latest generation of eleiko platforms with bumper plates, hammer strength racks, eleiko bars etc. renovation finishes by the end of march.