Preemptive reset

[Brustikeln]

Just recently I took 10% off my squats. I decided to do this for a number of reasons: 1.) wasn't sure about form; 2.) was getting sore for the first time and it seemed to be in the wrong places; 3.) was taking long breaks and still managed to be too gassed afterwards for my upper body lifts.

The result of the reset couldn't be better. Basically a week later at the same weight (115 kg), my form is spot on, the weight poses no more than a healthy challenge, I back down to only 5 minute pauses in between sets and I have plenty of steam for my upper lifts afterwards.

I have a hypothesis as to what had happened and wanted to run it by other members. When the weight is relatively light it is easy enough to ensure accurate form once you have confidently learned it correctly. However as the weights start getting heavier, it is more difficult to recognize whether you have said good form. This lack of "recognized good form" is misplaced simply as bad form. The lifter then overcompensates for this lack of recognition of good form, which may in fact still be good form, and produces bad form. In my case I think I bent my upper back because I thought I wasn't going deep enough. the truth of the matter I think was that I was going deep enough just wasn't astute to my depth level because shit got heavy enough to displace my motor awareness, thus corrupted my form through erroneous visual validation (depth seen in the mirror instead of felt in thr body).

Does this jive with any other people's experience? A short period of lifting at lighter weights seems to have reinforced the motor pathways, not only to reach proper depth, but to recognize when I do.

[Randy Scheingold]

Did you video your sets or get feedback from someone watching you. Its very hard to really gauge your form as a newbie by feel alone. Generally reasons for a reset would be either significant form issues and/or missed reps (i.e., missed depth on squats, or just failure to complete your 3x5). And if it is missed reps, give it 2 to 3 workouts before resetting (read the first 3 questions article too). There is no shame in getting to 8 to 10 minute rests. its going to happen eventually if you are doing the program properly. I share this as many people (myself included) squander LP by resetting too often. I know I did. On the flip side, many people screw themselves by increasing weights while ignoring obvious form issues (depth on squats, rounded back on DL).....again I did this as well to myself

[Brustikeln]

When things got a bit heavy I had someone watch me, who verified my depth. So I carried on until things got even more heavy, which is when I began having the aforementioned problems. The longer pauses were only irksome to me because there is only one squat section at my gym. I was mainly concerned about form. The last sets I did were 2x5 and then 1x2. I knew I should have take a longer rest before my last set, but people were getting ansty to use the squat station (I think from their eyes I was hogging it unnecessarily, since I have flat out never seen someone take even a five minute break at my gym). I realize that longer rests are a sign of progress, but I thought I might be progressing too quickly towards intermediate due to form or recovery issues. So I added in more calories and re-read on squat technique. It is difficult, you are right, to gauge by feel as a newbie. Especially when shit gets heavy and there is a mirror in front of you begging for visual form validation.

I guess this was my way to prevent getting stuck before needing to get unstuck, which I realize only works if you don't use it too often.

[Tiburon]

\The longer pauses were only irksome to me because there is only one squat section at my gym.\.

How long?

[Brustikeln]

8-10 minutes.