Squat Check / Squat Stuck

[MikeP]

My squat progress has stalled. Trying to figure out if technique is to blame / if I should deload. Here is a video from last friday.

https://goo.gl/photos/3jDo1H2phkEUm9JR8

I see that my back is very horizontal. This is more pronounced when I get close to failure.

Background (skip if I've wasted enough of your time): Two weeks ago, I got 350x5 (and two back off sets at 315) on Friday after missing it on Monday. I knew I was close to the end of LP and a 4day TM fit my schedule better (I have softball games on Wed) so I decided to switch.

My first VD I did 300x5x5, this was my first ID attempt at 350x5. This week I did 305x5x5 and got 350x4 on ID. I chose this video because it is from a 45 degree angle. I have videos from all of my other recent squat sessions, but they are from the side (camera on the floor). Can post those if it is useful. I'm 5'10" 190, 27 years old. (Softball will be ending soon if you think the 4 day TM was a mistake.) I've signed up for my first PL meet 9/19.

As always, help is much appreciated. Thanks.

[Tom Campitelli]

You are correct. You are shifting your butt back instead of up to initiate the squat. You are also probably cutting the squats off high and allowing your knees to come forward. The solution to this problem will come in a few ways. The first is that you need bigger legs. Eat. The second is that you need to get tighter. Control your descent. When you are dropping into the hole while praying that you will be able to rebound back up, things are bound to go poorly. Smooth descent and controlled ascent. Lean over a little more on the way down and then hold on to that angle on the way up. Suffer. However, you made a relatively important programming error:

My first VD I did 300x5x5, this was my first ID attempt at 350x5.

Set your first ID squat at 330. Calculate your volume day from that. Go up by 2.5 to 3 pounds per week on your volume day and 5 pounds per week on intensity day. This will insure a smooth ride into PRs for several months on the TM. It will also allow you to get deeper and fix some of these form errors. If you don't set a PR on your squats for four or five weeks, don't worry. The beauty of the TM makes itself felt after about three months when you are warming up with your previous 5 RMs.

[MikeP]

Thanks for the critiques. I deloaded to 297.5x5x5 (90% of 330). Here is the last set.

https://goo.gl/photos/2tqwFm4JsuTZYcFy5

I tried to focus on staying tighter and controlling descent. First couple of reps looked good, but my form deteriorated as the set progressed. I should have done a better job considering this was less weight than last week.

Programming: I agree that a de-load seems necessary, but I do have the following concern. If all goes according to plan, I will hit 355x5 on 8 days before my meet. I was hoping to have transitioned to lower reps on ID by then since I haven't done low rep squats.

My guess is I should probably just suck it up and focus on fixing my form because that will be more important toward driving long term progress. I had also tentatively planned on switching to HLM after my meet, but I guess I should focus on fixing my form and then reevaluate after the meet, keeping going on the TM if the IDs are still progressing well.

[Tom Campitelli]

I am receiving an "invalid parameters" message on the video.

As for programming, I did not consider how close 9/19 actually is. That being the case, hold off on the TM until after the meet. Deload a little and just go into the meet using an LP of sorts. You failed at 350x5 and were above parallel. Go back to 320 and bury them for 3x5 at sets across. Check out the table below. Try something like it and see how it goes. You'll need to eat and sleep a lot to pull this off, most likely. You'll deload and do sets across heavy twice a week until that becomes unsustainable. I took a guess as to where that might happen, but I don't actually know. Thereafter, work up to a heavy five and do some back offs at 95%. That might become working up to a heavy triple in the last couple sessions and doing back offs for sets of five at a lower percentage of the number that day (93% 90%?, go by feel). Depending upon your fatigue, at the end it might be a heavy triple, a set of five at a lighter weight, and then taking a little more off the bar for another set of five. This isn't a novice linear progression so much as it is "I need intermediate programming, but because of my meet, I need a stopgap program."

You don't necessarily need to do singles before a meet. I went into my first meet doing nothing but 3x5s as heavy as I could and I was just fine. I would do my best to keep the reps for your heavy set as triples or above, but that might go to singles, if needed. However, I bet that if you could do 355 for 5 in late August, you could triple 370 or 375 without much issue two weeks later. Hell, you might even do it for five. Give it a try and adjust to taste.

[MikeP]

My sincerest apologies. I used the exact same method with google pictures as last time. Not sure what happened. Here is a link on vimeo. Hope it works better. https://vimeo.com/135499350 (It will not be available for another 20 minutes or so.)

I agree the depth looks clearly high in the video I showed. I think this may have been a one-day thing. Most of my other videos I appear to be below parallel (to my untrained eye). Unfortunately, that was the only recent video I had from rear-45. My others are from the side with my phone on the floor. I can post them if you think it would be helpful.

Thanks for the programming advice. Does the following sound reasonable for my other lifts?

Pressing: 3-day TM with 2 bench days every week
Pulling: M-Cleans W-Chins F-Deads

As always, your help and advice is sincerely appreciated.

[Tom Campitelli]

The best place to film squats for the majority of cases is from somewhere around hip height, or a smidge lower, from a rear oblique. Your video was shot from too high for me to say anything definitive about depth. Your squats look high, but they always look high when filmed from standing. Squats don't look too bad, but you shift back more than I would like to see when you start the ascent. Push your knees out hard and lean over a little more. If you are not below parallel, go deeper. That last sentence amuses me for some reason.

Your programming ideas look pretty good for the rest of the lifts. Let us know how it goes.

[MikeP]

Thanks Tom. I will keep you informed.

When I'm not submitting a form check, I typically film from this angle https://vimeo.com/135760792 because a) I can easily film it myself at the gym and b) I can see both my knee and my hip to judge depth. I understand that this angle is bad for form checks, but if I am just self-policing my depth is it okay? Or does the camera angle somehow give some sort of "biased-reading?" (For lack of a better word.)

[Tom Campitelli]

Wide angle lenses are tricky because of the distortion they introduce. Putting the camera on the floor in concert with the optics of these lenses makes judging depth tough. However, if it works for you, continue.

[MikeP]

You learn something every day. My first reaction was "I don't have a wide angle lens," but it appears that the Galaxy S5 uses a wide angle for selfie mode and a normal lens on the back camera. camera,

In light of this, I think my previous squats may have been less deep than I wanted to believe. I concentrated on going an inch lower and to my untrained eye 1 and 4 were deep and the other three were borderline. If I had to guess, I would call 2 and 3 good and call 5 shallow.

https://vimeo.com/135918609

[Tom Campitelli]

I think I write this several times a week – judging depth from a video taken at standing height is a fool's errand. Everything looks high. It may be high, but you cannot tell for sure. I am going to give a lecture at the Starting Strength Coaches Conference on taking photos in gyms. Part of that will be a discussion of form check videos. That way, people can continue to produce videos that ignore my suggestions. Every cell phone camera is a wide angle lens. Some are just wider than others.