I think I just did my first real squat ever

[Tor]

I don't know what it was, I almost can't describe it, but for the first time I felt absolutely certain that I was doing a squat the way it was meant to be done. I've been progressing away from the 'leg press as squat' I posted a month ago but something happened today that hasn't happened before.

Maybe it was finally setting a focal point (a watch on the ground) for my eyes. Probably was having my lifting partner set me up with a TUBOW for every warm-up set up to 225. But whatever it was I NAILED every set of 270 (a PR). They were fucking hard but my knees were rock solid, shoved out, and I could feel myself settling deep into my hams and glutes on every rep.

It just felt FANTASTIC.

I wanted to keep going down and deeper into my hams and glutes and an uncomfortable tightness I've been feeling in the front of my hips and in my quads totally disappeared. My abs were tight, my chest was lifted, my wrists were straight, my elbows were up and the birds were singing.

Did I mention it felt GREAT?

Of course, no video camera so I could be full of shit. I'll take one next time and see if I can replicate what happened today.

And, of course, half way through my bench press I realized I'd pulled a hamstring (mildly). But who the fuck cares. I can squat!

[Mark Rippetoe]

You're in the Club.

[Dave76]

You're in the Club.

Are you going to teach him the secret handshake?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Once I get his dues check.

[Tor]

Well, I have to laugh.

After my 'squat high' on Friday I went in to the gym this morning with high hopes and ran into a brick wall. I somehow managed to squeeze out 275x5x3 but my knees were knocking, I couldn't feel my hams stretching in the same way as last time, I found myself looking up at the end of the last few reps on each set, my back felt weak, I might not have hit parallel on one or two reps (my partner was a little unsure), and on one rep I couldn't hold my breath all the way to the top and exhaled 2/3ds of the way up. Whew.

I think the post title says it all.

To end on a positive note, I've had real success with managing a tight and achy lower back with judicious use of ice packs and ibuprofen (by icing right after working out and then a few more times throughout the day I seemed to have eliminated my problems completely).

I think I'll take it easy for a few days, start eating more food, and then come back with a vengeance next week.

Tor

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you need a more definite cue for your position, and for you it may very well be that you need to think about "leaning over" to get enough back angle to enable hip drive. Try thinking about this instead of "hips back" and see if that doesn't fix things.

[Tor]

Took a week off, came back and repeated my last workout and finally remembered the videotape. We worked the 'lean over' cue and I stretched my hams out so I'd have an easier time getting into position, and this is what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpVdQAdHbF8

This is the second set of the most I've ever squatted in my life.

(Not sure why I was going so deep, it just felt good).