Squat Form

[sepandee]

Hello coach Rippetoe

I've been on Starting Strength for 6 weeks now. I started back in January but had to quit only after 2 weeks (and from all sports) for 1-2 months due to a nagging shoulder injury from June 2007 (did physiotherapy in Oct 2007. the guy said it's my rotator cuff but I'm not sure).

Anyways, 5'7", started at 150lb and now I'm 158lb.
Squat, I started at 125lb, went up to 195lb but found out that I was doing an olympic squat, dropped the weight and started doing them again.
here's a video of set #2 and #3. It felt really really heavy but I'm a bit more tired than normal because a) it's the first time I'm working out at 9 a.m., and b) My younger brother came with me and I was teaching him how to squat, so my warmup sets were more than tripled.

And before I post them, I know that in the first two reps of the first video, my knees are coming forward. I almost never do that and I'm not sure why I did it this time but fixed it thereafter. And on the last rep of each set, it seems that the bar is too heavy and I bring my knees forward when going up to make it easier ascending (especially in the 2nd video, which is my last set and I struggle to come up):

Set 2
Set 3

And a question on the overhead press - and this is a question that I've came across a several times on the bodybuilding.com forum. You say that the elbows have to be in front of the bar, but when I do that it becomes impossible to hold the bar as close as possible to the wrist, i.e. when bring the elbows forward, the bar goes back and rests closer to the fingers, and the wrists get bent instead of pointing straight up. The same thing is happening in this crossfit video, especially the guy in the blue t-shirt. Is that bent wrist normal? If not, how can it be fixed? Would it be harder for shorter guys with smaller hands to fix this problem because their fingers are smaller and can't quiet wrap around the bar if it's too far from the fingers??

Finally, would you critique my pendlay row form, or is that a big no no followed by a barbell hit in the head?

Thanks Coach. Great book. Too bad these commercial gyms in Toronto don't know anything about it (and commercial gyms are about the only thing we get in Toronto, especially downtown Toronto). This "trainer" at my gym (Extreme Fitness) comes and tells me I'm doing the squat wrong, that I don't need to go down so much since it's bad for the knees and then showed me how to do his version of squat, which was more like a quarter-squat!

[Mark Rippetoe]

Your squats look basically okay, except for the toes you know about. That problem, by the way, is easily fixed with shoes that don't squish under your heels. If your heels collapse, the place you'll go to is your toes. The thing that makes them heavy is the slight tendency to raise your chest instead of following through with hip drive. When your chest comes up -- when your back angle becomes more vertical -- your knees come forward a little and the hamstring slack kills your PC power.

The press problem you describe goes away if you quit assuming that every press must start from the bar on your shoulders. If you are going to have vertical forearms and if your forearms are relatively longer than your upper arms, the bar will only sit on your shoulders if you let it roll off your hand onto your fingers. You don't have to do this; just let it float a little.

If you want to post your barbell row, go ahead. What the hell.

[sepandee]

Thanks coach! I'm having trouble finding the proper shoes in Toronto. I could order them online but I'd rather try them out before making a purchase.

Here are the rows @ 115 lb:
Pendlay Rows, Set 2
Pendlay Rows, Set 3

I fail to get the bar hit my chest on the last rep of the 3rd set. I see that my back is straight, which should be a good sign. But I see a lot of wobbling. Is that natural in this kind of movement? Or could that be because I didn't have my knees and legs tight and rigid?

Thanks again Coach. Did anyone ever say you're awesome for giving us free coaching on this forum?

[Mark Rippetoe]

The name of the exercise is the barbell row: notice that there is no Rippetoe squat. Your form reflects too strict an approach to the lift. You get to use a little hip extension to start the bar up, and then you finish it with a slam into the belly/ribcage. It is described in BBT.

And thanks, but your credit card is being billed even as I type.

[Robert Callahan]

notice that there is no Rippetoe squat.

The full depth squat should be called the Rippetoe Squat

-Robert

[Keenan]

Sorry for being somewhat off topic....but can someone please explain how in the hell barbell rows changed into Pendlay Rows? I mean barbell rows have been around for God knows how long, WTF?

Where did this malarkey start?

[Mark Rippetoe]

It was probably started by Robert Callahan. I don't think it was actually Glenn's fault.