Squat/Bench Tempo/Form

[betweentheburiedanddan]

Hey all, I recently taped myself, to see what how I actually looked while lifting. I dropped the working weight pounds for my lifts because I felt that I was moving too quickly/losing tightness in the eccentric portion of my lifts. Are there ant glaringly ugly flaws in my lifts? I'm deadlifting today, I'll post a video of the work set from that workout as well

Edit: see my post below to get a better video of all lifts, Thanks!

[betweentheburiedanddan]

Oh ya, and I realize that the squat # is fairly low compared to the bench press. Without a squat rack at my place, I'm not too comfortable progressing much heavier. I am in the market for a power rack to help with heavy training

[Carlos Daniel]

It's a personal policy of mine not to review sideways videos.

[betweentheburiedanddan]

Sorry about that. I am new to youtube, so I tinkered with it a bit and figured out how to rotate them.

Todays Pressing and Deadlift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvtYFI_2flQ

When the compilation of the squats, bench press, and power clean is done being processed I will post that. I hope this helps

[tdood]

You look damn close to bridging when you bench, you give a little "hump" when you push off your chest. Keep it all tight, dont hump, your butt should be firm on the bench.

Squats look ok I'd say, deep. You really jam your ass out at the start of the movement(not sure if thats an issue), make sure your upper back/traps are tight.
Seems like your comfortably squatting to a good depth and thats better than most.

[betweentheburiedanddan]

@tdood,

Thanks for the feedback. I notice that I did have a pretty exaggerated arch with the bench. I have been a runner for years now, but prior to that I dabbled in some powerlifting. I can most likely say that any oddities for my form are from bad habits I developed then.

Here is a compilation of the bench, squat, powercleans, all should be orientated in a vertical position now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYHL5SgtvOs

[Carlos Daniel]

Squat: you are bending at the hip first. Someone must have told you to "sit back", I think it's a bad cue in general. The final position is ok, but the knees are moving forward at the end of the descent not the beginning. Also, find a better rack, when things get heavy, you might get in trouble with your current setup. Look for some weightlifting shoes and find yourself a stretchy pair of shorts. Can't you remove the bench to squat?

Bench: Don't pause at the bottom.

I'll check the press and dead later, after dinner.

[Steve Hill]

There's no such thing as a bad cue - only bad application or use of a cue. The "sit back" cue is very valuable, when used appropriately.

[betweentheburiedanddan]

@Carlos Daniel, Thank you. I learned how to squat from a guy who pretty much trained in gear most of the time. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it, or if he just didn't have a clue haha. Before reading some of Ripptoe's materials on my kindle I squatted with a substantially wider stance and grip while it allowed me to use "much heavier" (relative for me!) weights, it gave me hip and bicep issues.

To help with all that stuff, I dropped my work weights by about 30% on the squat, looks like I should drop the weights back on the bench maybe 10% or so to keep things tighter.

@Steve - Sitting back did help me initially, I'm just one who sometimes takes cues too far to their extremes. During college XC, a coach said I should run tall. I looked at footage later, and I looked like a flagpole with legs lol

[Carlos Daniel]

There's no such thing as a bad cue - only bad application or use of a cue. The "sit back" cue is very valuable, when used appropriately.

I mean in general as in "this is a good cue for pretty much anyone".

That being said, could you elaborate? examples of form issues that would benefit from "sitting back"?