Squat and dead form.

[Jaymond]

Hey Rip, love your work. Without SSBBT I'd be totally lost.

Recently I reset my squats to try fix a few form issues I had... basically I had your standard "leg press" look to the skies and slide your knees type stuff.

I've been upping the weight again and am just under my previous 5rm, so I thought I'd get your opinion for safety's sake.

My squat somehow still looks a bit weird to me, and I have a feeling I may have overcorrected some of my previous flaws... or let some other aspects slip...

In this particular workout, I was not concentrating enough on keeping my knees out, so a little forward slide started to creep back in.

Deadlift also in this vid, 5rm personal record so form is breaking down in usual ways. Is my starting position OK, or do I need to get my ass lower?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hydDmtyYTQ8

Thanks heaps

J

[Mark Rippetoe]

The squat is not terrible, but you're getting your hips too far back at the top and then letting your knees go a little forward at the bottom.

The deadlift suffers from a lack of thoracic extension -- you're not getting your chest up into a good position before you pull. It's not that you're not dropping your butt as much as it is that you're not raising your chest. Both the squat and the deadlift could use a better back extension.

[Jaymond]

Hey Rip, thanks for your response.

I've taken your comments and tried to apply them in my workout.

Here's the result:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uVE-2SXftN8

Squatting 80kg (warmup) for 87.5kg workset.

DL 90kg warmup for 120kg (5RM PR) workset. 5kg jump between DL workouts isn't too much is it?

thanks again.

Jay

[Mark Rippetoe]

Much better. How does it feel?

[Jaymond]

It feels good. I can really feel the hamstring involvement in my squat, even moreso when concentrating on keeping my back extended and tight. Whenever I hit my typical stall point just above parallel after the bounce, I just gotta think "knees out, squeeze glutes, hips up!" and up I come, no worries.

I'm keen to keep upping my DL by 5kg per workout for as long as I can, but I'm currently trying to juggle an annoying recurring tendinitis issue in both my forearms that really came on when I learnt how to muscleup a while back, and started doing a few every workout (stupid I know)...

I've heard that straight arm lifting is OK, but anything where you bend your elbow can aggravate the condition. Is this true?

I took nearly a month off from doing any bent arm stuff, which did help for a while, but as soon as I started throwing pullups and ring-dips back in, the pain started coming back.

Have you got any strategies for overcoming tendinitis without totally ignoring arms for months and starting again from scratch?

thanks

Jay

[Mark Rippetoe]

It is interesting that the very second I develop this same medial epicondylitis, everybody starts asking me about it. I think it must be caused by April. This type of tendinitis is a forearm (wrist) flexion deal, not the elbows. I'm going to strap my pulls for a while, reduce my chin-up volume, and O.D. on ibuprofen.

[bango skank]

It is interesting that the very second I develop this same medial epicondylitis, everybody starts asking me about it. I think it must be caused by April. This type of tendinitis is a forearm (wrist) flexion deal, not the elbows. I'm going to strap my pulls for a while, reduce my chin-up volume, and O.D. on ibuprofen.

Are you keeping your wrists straight on pull-ups?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Probably not. Want me to post a video?