Reply With QuoteFunny shit happens when you introduce the body to a load heavier than it has ever encountered before. Few peoples 1RM's look like a perfect rep at 80% of their 1RM and that is because it is the maximum possible amount of weight that can be moved.
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Form Breakdown: This Bothers Me
I keep looking at my vids and wanting to weep softly. My max attempt w/ 395 has me getting pretty bent over. I can feel the unheard mocking laughter of a thousand Oly lifters and youtube keyboard warriors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDkARhiBCZU
I want my max attempts to look like my working weights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOiZnmxcnd0
You all have been very kind about that 395. But I'm soliciting honest opinions on it. It's just not sitting right with me. Mark had no criticisms, but I just feel it didn't look as right as I would have liked. I feel my butt shot up too much. I know a lot of "torso ought to be vertical" folks hate the low bar form anyway and their opinions don't really matter. But even for a low bar squat, I felt I got too bent over.
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Funny shit happens when you introduce the body to a load heavier than it has ever encountered before. Few peoples 1RM's look like a perfect rep at 80% of their 1RM and that is because it is the maximum possible amount of weight that can be moved.
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Gary, that squat looked pretty damn good, especially for a 1RM. You were slightly more bent over than your other reference squat, but not by much. It was a 1 RM. By definition, form will suffer a bit and your form was very solid. Rip didn't have much to say because there was nothing to really criticize. 395 lbs at less than 170lbs in bodyweight is impressive. I wonder how much weight you could move if you put on some more bodyweight?
Also, fuck YouTube. The comments on that site are the most potent distillation of retardation to be found anywhere.
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Thanks. I've said much the same to others quite a few times. Like most humans, I have trouble taking my own advice.Originally Posted by TomV
Yeah, Youtube comments make human extinction seem palatable.
Thanks for the assessment!
The high level 165-ers are all under 5'6". At 5'9"-10" I'm going to have to weigh around 200 lbs to be big and strong. I'm very curious to see how much 30-40 lbs of muscle and fat will add to my squat.
Thing is, I'm far from novice so I won't be getting those 30-40 lbs with GOMAD and linear progression. I'm going to need more complex programming and lots of volume. It's going to be a long, slow haul from here...at least three years I think.
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I agree with the others, that's not bad for form breakdown on a max lift.
I've heard others talk about cueing 'push your back into the bar' coming out of the hole as a means of keeping the torso angle unchanged when using hip drive out of the hole. But I don't know that anyone is gonna remember a cue like that when doing a max attempt.
I'm glad you posted - I was just feeling down about my knees, and then I saw your post and I remembered that you're the guy who drains his own fucking knee. Time for me to man up.
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Heh. I'm happy to report that the months of draining seem to be over. It's been several weeks and the knee is not refilling...even with Smolov abuse!
Looks like the constant high volume squatting healed me up. I just had to keep the fluid out of the way so the muscles could actually activate.
I was posting about this to Rip. Jack Reape has advised repeatedly "Push your traps into the bar" and I find that helps when I get tired or the weight gets heavy. For submaximal attempts and lower volume (hence lower fatigue) sessions, just keeping the chest up and staying tight is enough of a cue. But heavy and tired mean thoracic extension will be giving out and cuing yourself to push the traps into the bar after the bounce will help more.
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As I was struggling with my box squat form today, I thought to myself "Gary Gibson thinks you're being a pussy". Seriously, your story is an inspiration to those of us dealing with injuries/rehab.
Glad to see your knee is turning the corner. If anyone here deserves some good news on the rehab front, it's you.
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Gary, I don't think you should get too wrapped up in the aesthetics of your squat. If anyone's going to weep, it will be me, as I weigh considerably more than you and squat considerably less. I'm sure you'll get it worked out.
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Thanks very much, Jack. I put the rehab story up to show people that there are aspects of their health they can take care of on their own. You don't have to wait for government-provided care or insurance-provided doctors who don't care if you never train again.
Also, squats cure cancer.
There is nothing a properly performed heavy back squat can't cure.
Heh. Thanks. But have any of you seen my bench numbers? There's a reason I don't post bench press vids.
Take comfort in the fact that you are probably out-benching me by a hundred pounds or so.
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2 things I remember that help me stay fairly upright on max attempts:
1. push traps into the bar (you already mentioned)
2. try to press the bar off my traps
Almost always works.
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