Failing lifts extremely early NLP

[RfromB]

20yo healthy male here. Started NLP 1 month ago at 176lb with no previous gym experience, and generally a very physically inactive lifestyle. Currently at 185 and still gaining. I get around 200g of protein a day, with 3500 calories. I drink a lot of milk, eat a lot of eggs, as well as meat bread and pasta with some veggies. My sleep is good, 7-8 hours a day, I generally wake up feeling well rested. My lifts have progressed as follows in this month:

Squat: 55lb -> 105lb (started very low as I wasn’t able to hit depth with anything higher, this lift is where my problems are)
Press: 40lb -> 66lb
Bench: 55lb -> 88lb
Deadlift: 110 -> 187lb (this is with a 10% deload recently because my form was getting really bad, and I didn’t want to hurt my back)

My problems started recently, my squat progress has stalled badly and every time I raise the weight I simply can’t push myself out of the hole. This has lead to repeated failures in lifts that leave me feeling crushed, and make the rest of my training harder and worse. I’ve tried working on my hip drive, and I’ve attempted to cue exactly according to the book (looking down, keeping myself tense, driving my hips up as if against an invisible force before engaging my knees). I don’t have a trainer or anyone more experienced to ask about this though, so there may be a lot of issues with my form I’m not realising. (Video attached). Another point is that I’ve not yet moved on to phase 2 of the NLP due to this stall with my squat, which I’d like to get resolved first. My deadlift doesn’t feel heavy or taxing enough yet to feel like a problem yet either. In terms of how I’ve progressed my squat, it’s essentially followed the NLP to the T starting at 55lb and moving up in 10lb increments twice, then in 5lb increments from there. All was fine until I hit the 90lb mark and I started failing lifts. Today was particularly bad, as I retried a weight I did last session and failed on the 3rd rep of the first set, and after that even after 10 minutes of rest just couldn’t get myself to not fail subsequent sets. This doesn’t feel like a mental block, as I get to RPE 9/10 trying to force myself out of the hole, but I just can’t.

I’m really looking for advice, what do I do to get myself out of this? Do I drop the weight by a lot and restart? Is there something badly wrong with my form? I’m at a loss here.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Post a squat video.

[RfromB]

Post a squat video.

Had trouble attaching it on the forum, here’s a vimeo upload of my most recent attempt (and failure). Sorry about the angle, but I have to be pretty inconspicuous about filming as it’s strictly banned in my gym (silly rule, I live very rurally and this is the only place I can go with a squat rack).

https://player.vimeo.com/video/987589498

[AndrewLewis]

Had trouble attaching it on the forum, here’s a vimeo upload of my most recent attempt (and failure). Sorry about the angle, but I have to be pretty inconspicuous about filming as it’s strictly banned in my gym (silly rule, I live very rurally and this is the only place I can go with a squat rack).

https://player.vimeo.com/video/987589498

There are a lot of technical problems here, but the reason you failed is not because it was "RPE 9/10", it's because you gave up.

Watch the video you posted, and try to imagine you're watching someone else's video; would you think based on this speed, the lifter would fail this set? Even on the one put down on the pins, do you see how fast the ascent is?

[Mark Rippetoe]

These squats are 4 inches high, you're wearing running shoes, and you're not trying very hard.

[Maybach]

Your stance needs to be wider and your upper back needs to be rigid. Everything everyone else said is right.

This looks like one of those meme videos where the guy says "first time failing at this weight!", pretends to fail, then stands up and reracks it.

Resist the urge to take criticism of the effort you are putting in personally. You are not trying very hard because you have never tried that hard before. Listen to us when we tell you that you are capable of trying harder.

[Al_Orange]

As a fellow newb (and one nursing a back tweak), I worry that you will injure yourself if you simply try a lot harder with that sort of form. Maybe the form issues are causing you to fail as your body can just feel that you shouldn't be lifting like that?

I would revisit the blue book and seek out a coach.

[RfromB]

Your stance needs to be wider and your upper back needs to be rigid. Everything everyone else said is right.

This looks like one of those meme videos where the guy says "first time failing at this weight!", pretends to fail, then stands up and reracks it.

Resist the urge to take criticism of the effort you are putting in personally. You are not trying very hard because you have never tried that hard before. Listen to us when we tell you that you are capable of trying harder.

Thank you, and thanks to everyone in this thread. My training session today went a lot better (only failed last set of squats at 50kg, with below parallel depth, great improvement but obviously could go better). I really can push harder, I just psyched myself out somewhat after the first time I failed(/gave up). Being told that it is an effort problem as opposed to anything else is very helpful. I’ll repeat 50kg next session and progress from there as I should.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Being told that it is an effort problem as opposed to anything else is very helpful. I’ll repeat 50kg next session and progress from there as I should.

You just don't get it.

[Maybach]

As a fellow newb (and one nursing a back tweak), I worry that you will injure yourself if you simply try a lot harder with that sort of form. Maybe the form issues are causing you to fail as your body can just feel that you shouldn't be lifting like that?

I would revisit the blue book and seek out a coach.

The squats are high and the back is soft, but people have lifted far heavier far more stupidly and not had any problems.