Swoz Gives it a Red Hot Go

[Bill Anders]

I think I noticed my new strength on vacation: carrying a large hiking backpack and lifting bags into train luggage racks felt really light and easy.

Welcome back! Hopefully it was a good holiday. Apparently you're already seeing the improvements, which is the point of all of this. That's great!

Squat with one goal only: keep my gaze down. Second set most representative. Third regressed badly after a comment from the guy at the next rack threw me off. Felt good to increase the weight and to work hard on technique during warmups. Confident that I'm limited mostly by technique rather than muscle.

Honestly, the third set is the most representative when we're looking at form videos. That's where everything starts to break down and show where you need work. But yes, the second set was much better than last week!

Work on shoving your knees out through the whole squat. It's easy to see from this direction that your knees are caving in quickly as you start to come up out of the pocket, which means that you're losing all of the tightness in your adductors, which in turn makes it more difficult to get the bar up to lockout. Which leads to lockout...

Once the bar is up at the top, you do a good job of locking your knees, but you stay hinged over at the waist. Stand upright (but not entirely upright, as you want the bar to stay directly over mid-foot). Rip writes about it in Understanding the Master Cue. I find it helpful to remember at the top of each rep to stop until I can get in balance with the bar over mid-foot, then visualize that vertical line between the bar and mid-foot throughout the entire rep.

Bench press: First time I took a video and HOO BOY were my warmup sets awful. My bar path wanders freely between my sternum and my face. I think the third working set video above is much better (less bad) than most of the (many) warmup sets. Got the last rep in a broken set.

It's impossible to see what's causing your drifting bar from this angle, although we can see that it's drifting. Again, it's helpful to visualize the groove from your sternum to lockout and work to keep it in there. Chances are that your elbows are flaring out at different rates and different times to cause that drifting. Also, it looks like you are not tight through the lower body. You need the Vasalva here just as much as the other lifts, plus you need to be driving up with your feet flat on the floor. That keeps everything below the chest tight, something that's crucial as these get heavy.

Deadlift: Tried to narrow my stance, raise my hips, tension my arms, "put lats in back pocket", "push the floor away." Felt very heavy and I pause substantially between reps. Reps 3&4 didn't come all the way up and I didn't get rep 5 even with two attempts. Felt like hand grip was the weak link at the end. Have to come up with a plan for improving on the DL.

Overall, your start position looks very good! Unfortunately, you do not lock out a single one, not even the first two reps. You're essentially doing Halting Deadlifts, which travel above the knee but not to full lockout. Based on that, none of these should count for you, as frustrating as that may be, as you are not training Halting Deadlifts. The way to ensure that you make a complete Deadlift is to make sure that your shoulders are behind your hips at the top just as both your knees and hips lock into position. During your warmup reps, overemphasize pushing your hips forward through the bar to get a feel for where your shoulders should feel at lockout for your workset.

Your grip was your limiting factor for all of your reps, which is likely why you were not locking out. There's a good article—Weak Grip and Its Effect on the Deadlift—where you will recognize some things. Once you started feeling your grip starting to loosen, switch to a mixed grip like Nick describes in Deadlift Grip Adjustments.Deadlift Grip Adjustments | Nick Delgadillo.

Unlike your other lifts, you're taking much too long between these reps. The longer you take, the harder the next rep is going to be and eventually you won't make the next rep, as you found. No amount of fidgeting will change that. If your grip is correct for the next rep and the bar is in position over mid-foot, take one deep breath, brace your Vasalva, tighten your back, and push that floor away.

Great to get back in the gym! I'm a bit concerned about how terrible my technique is but I'm relieved to be actively improving it.

Yes, you are actively improving your lifts! Don't dwell on "how terrible [your] technique is." Just recognize that there's plenty of room for improvement and that you're working towards that. You mentioned in your Deadlift paragraph that you "[h]ave to come up with a plan for improving on the DL." But the reality is that you don't have to come up with a plan, as there are plenty of resources here to explain what's going on and how to fix it.

Hope that I can fix the worst problems before the weights get heavy enough to cause injury.

The reality is that you could seriously injure yourself with the weights that you are working with now. Even the warmup reps. That's why it's important to make sure that your form is good for each and every rep, no matter how heavy. Which leads to...

Lastly, slow down! Starting with your warmup reps, don't rush between reps; there isn't any extra credit for getting a workset done 1 second faster than the last workset. Take an extra second to make sure that the bar is where it needs to be, that it isn't moving, and that you are ready to have the bar move in the path that it needs to (we call that the groove). If you're quickly moving from one rep to the next, oftentimes you're at the edge of that groove, which makes it much more difficult to get back under control to keep it in that groove, which can be the difference of making it or not. Or an injury or not. This is true for all of the lifts. Go back and look at the video of your last squat rep—you're walking the bar towards the hooks before you even get all the way up, which sets you up for coming up under the hooks and missing them completely. Same for your bench video—you're pushing the bar towards the hooks before you're locked out, which means that the bar is over your face on soft elbows, which is very dangerous (the bench is the most dangerous lift of all of the ones that we do). Move methodically and you'll get all of these.

Keep at it!

[swoz]

Thanks for all this constructive actionable feedback and encouragement!

If my form is improving it's definitely thanks to you guys' feedback here on the forum.

Slow down. That's an enticing idea. I will try that next.

I do feel rushed and stressed during the squat working sets. It feels like a game of whack-a-mole that I can't keep up with. Ass to the wall! knees out! face down! lead with the hips! I'm lucky if I manage to do even one of those things in the heat of the moment. I thought that the stress was due to the heavy load but I can believe it's partly due to haste.

(I especially felt this on the third set because my neighbour in the next rack commented that I looked dangerously bent over forward on the second set. I couldn't quite work out if he was giving me valuable safety advice or mixing up techniques e.g. thinking I was doing a high bar squat. It made me self-conscious and exacerbated my "yapping dogs in the brain" problem on the last set.)

The notes about injury risks are appreciated. I will try to especially take more care to rack the bar slowly and safely.

I have ordered a belt. Leather, 4" wide, 10mm thick, untapered "powerlifitng" style, reputable brand. I understand that this will probably be better suited for squats than deadlifts. I look forward to learning how to use it and treating it as one more tool in the toolbox.

The dumbbell grip article is a revelation. I am amazed that grip can be the root cause of so much of my problems. I will practice the alternating and hook grips for the working sets and last warmup set.

Also on grip: I'm not allowed to use powder at this local commercial gym where I have been training. Maybe it's time to shift focus to the other gym I have access to which belongs to the local "power sports" club.

Speaking of the power sports club I'm planning to sign up for a friendly competition there this Sunday. I'm told it's mostly a beginner-friendly social event where people lift a weight they are comfortable with and track their progression from year to year. The people there seem very friendly and experienced. I'll bet they could help me find the groove on my bench press quickly.

I might miss one workout this week in order to stay fresh for Sunday and play a two hour basketball game on Friday. Maybe I'll be tempted to squeeze one in on Saturday though. The basketball is a bit of a conflict but there are only two games left before the summer break and then my only sport will be strength training for a couple of months or so.

[swoz]

It's official: I signed up for a powerlifting competition on Sunday!

The organizers stated very clearly that it is open to all levels of experience and the idea is for a good time to be had by all. I live in a pretty small town and moved here recently so I'm looking forward to meeting the people there.

[Bill Anders]

I do feel rushed and stressed during the squat working sets. It feels like a game of whack-a-mole that I can't keep up with. Ass to the wall! knees out! face down! lead with the hips! I'm lucky if I manage to do even one of those things in the heat of the moment. I thought that the stress was due to the heavy load but I can believe it's partly due to haste.

(I especially felt this on the third set because my neighbour in the next rack commented that I looked dangerously bent over forward on the second set. I couldn't quite work out if he was giving me valuable safety advice or mixing up techniques e.g. thinking I was doing a high bar squat. It made me self-conscious and exacerbated my "yapping dogs in the brain" problem on the last set.)

There are a lot of cues to make these work just right. Just slow down and think them through before you unrack the bar. Once the bar is unracked, just follow those cues as best you can. Warmups too!

The guy in the next rack over probably only knows high bar squats, so what you're doing is different. Expect that. Sometimes a lot. It goes away once your lifts approach and surpass theirs. Or when you build a home gym.

The dumbbell grip article is a revelation. I am amazed that grip can be the root cause of so much of my problems. I will practice the alternating and hook grips for the working sets and last warmup set.

Also on grip: I'm not allowed to use powder at this local commercial gym where I have been training. Maybe it's time to shift focus to the other gym I have access to which belongs to the local "power sports" club.

Perhaps you'll get to the point where you use all three grips during just your warmup sets, then put on straps for the work set. It's good to practice them early, but know that the two grips that actually increase your grip strength are the double overhand and the mixed grip. The hook grip is a mechanical grip similar to the straps.

There are liquid chalks out there that can be used to get around your current gym's ban on chalk. To anyone else, it looks like you're putting on hand sanitizer. But to you, the grip difference is noticeable.

Speaking of the power sports club I'm planning to sign up for a friendly competition there this Sunday. I'm told it's mostly a beginner-friendly social event where people lift a weight they are comfortable with and track their progression from year to year. The people there seem very friendly and experienced. I'll bet they could help me find the groove on my bench press quickly.

It's official: I signed up for a powerlifting competition on Sunday!

Excellent! A meet early in your journey is good. The environment of even a highly competitive meet is something to be experienced (it's good). One thing to keep in mind as people give you advice is that it may be coming from a place similar to the guy in the rack next to you during your squat session.

While the first half of the tips are too late for this Sunday, the second half of the article is relevant to this weekend — Prepping For Your First Powerlifting Meet.

Learn, but most importantly, have fun!

[adm]

Oh, one more thing in context of deadlift which can help. Not sure how your warmups look like but at some point it will make sense to do 5, 3, 2, (1) reps in warmup sets. Once you start and do 5 reps in each warmup set it is useful since it allows more practice but when things get heavy it costs too much and it is better to save more energy for the working set. Something like 5@60kg, 3@80kg, 2@95kg should be enough for your 105kg working set. Not sure if this is a case for you but worth to mention. Also even warmups are not supposed to be taxing, make sure you get a bit of rest between the last warmup set and the working set.

[Yurkunas]

I just started the SS format but yes I agree here.
I can still pull 5 and my normal warm is:
135 x 5
225 x 4
315 x 3
405 x 2
500 x 1

[adm]

Sounds good. Best luck with your competition.

[swoz]

Squat: 40x5x3
Press: 40 x4, x4, x4, x3 last set: Press 40kg Set 4 - YouTube
Clean: Practice the movement with empty bar

Just a light workout so that my Press doesn't lag behind the other lifts for too long. I'll play basketball tonight (Fri) and I want to recover for Sunday so I only did squats as a warmup.

Happy to have progressed my Press by 2.5kg. I had worried that I might only manage 1kg increments.

Valsalva breath seemed to help relieve stress on my lower back which had been my major concern. I think that I was taking a shallow mouth breath before.

I was too timid to try and get the fifth rep of the sets. I'm not confident about how to fail gracefully on the press. In the past I have found myself pushing hard while losing posture in my back and that feels like an injury risk.

[swoz]

Thanks for the tips everybody!

I'm thinking of applying the Pareto Principle to the powerlifting meet and only staying for a couple of hours to feel the atmosphere, talk to people who I will see around the gym, and participate in the squat. The full six hours might be overkill for me this time as a dad of young kids who didn't manage expectations with his wife . I would love to bring the family along but I don't think the small basement venue can accommodate that.

I am very curious to see how they divide up the competitors and whether there is any sub-category that I could imagine competing in one day.

Not sure how your warmups look like but at some point it will make sense to do 5, 3, 2, (1) reps in warmup sets

Thanks for mentioning this. I think I did something like 30kg x 5, 50kg x 3, 70kg x 2, 90kg x 1 before the 105kg working set. It's good to talk about these things because for the first week or two of the program I accidentally did three working sets of deadlifts by mistake.

You need the Vasalva here just as much as the other lifts

I had not really understood the Vasalva technique but I'm glad to be practicing it now.

There are liquid chalks out there that can be used to get around your current gym's ban on chalk

I checked the wording: "Magnesium in all forms is forbidden." I suppose this is a boring market segmentation strategy but I'll respect it since they are so explicit and I'm only paying them $20 per month for membership. Likely I'll start using the power lifting club's gym for deadlift sessions starting soon. (I noticed that they have a huge chalk bowl on the way in.)

When you squat and go up, please keep in mind to push your knees out

I used today's light squats to practice running through these steps one at a time. Taking a moment at the top to find equilibrium and take a breath between reps, taking my time on the way up and down. Hopefully making progress.

[swoz]

I'm quite excited about the meet tomorrow

Success is just turning up, talking to people, and doing the squats. But I'm bringing supplies for the full event and if there's a chance I'll invite my wife to bring the kids to watch a little bit