Form Creep?

[Chris Griffith]

I've been running SSLP for roughly two months now. All of my lifts have been moving up well, but recently I failed my first squat workout at 250lb. That was a terrible workout in general--poor sleep the night before, didn't eat well that day. I retried 250 after a two day break and got all 3 sets of 5, but watching the video, I noticed that my form was a little looser than I'd like. On reps 3 and 5, particularly, I felt like the bar was drifting forward and my hips were rising too fast relative to the bar.

3-21-17 - Squat 250x5 (third set) - YouTube

If anyone has any thoughts on whether my form is getting too loose, I'd appreciate it. I really focused on trying to keep my form tight, but just couldn't on that last set. Does it make sense to reset? Repeat 250? Or just keep pushing onward and try not to let things break down?

For reference, here are my stats:
Age: 33
Height: 5'10.5"
Weight: 177 lb

Thanks!

[Tobias Sjösten]

Not bad! But yeah, the bar looks like it's coming a bit too forward in the first reps. Maybe because you're trying to hit the bounce in the bottom too hard, for the stretch reflex, so you're not as tense as you could be?

Can't remember who told me but what's worked well for me is to imagine a button right under your ass, which when pressed gives you permission to raise up again. It's super sensitive though, so you must press it very delicately. Thus, slowly descend, carefully press the button and then get the hell up from there as quickly as possible.

I don't see why you'd reset from here, btw – you managed the 3x5 and, with enough food and rest, can probably bump the weight up for next session.

[Chris Griffith]

Thanks! Staying tight in the bottom of the squat is definitely a challenge. I'm fighting a tendency to try to bounce out of the bottom. Cues like that are really helpful, and I'll give that a shot.

I'll keep pressing on and bumping the weight up. I'm new to SSLP, so I'm still not sure where the line between "solid form" and "form breakdown" is.

[Tobias Sjösten]

Cool, hope it helps!

I'm not sure it's the correct way™ but how I've approached SSLP has simply been to increase weight whenever I hit all 3x5 reps with sufficient depth. That's it. If my form's creeping I'll definitely work on that but treat it separately.

[Ryan Arnold]

Master Cue - envision keeping the bar in a slot over the middle of your foot throughout the entire set. Also eat more. Nice work so far!

[Chris Griffith]

Thanks, Ryan! The master cue is great. And I'm working on eating more (just had an extra snack...)

If anyone is interested, here is my third set at 255 last workout. Definitely felt better: 3-25-17 - Squat 255x5x3 (third set) - YouTube

One thing I'm going to try tonight during warmups is narrowing my stance slightly. I think I've been drifting wider and am probably 3-4" wider than shoulder width now. We'll see how it goes and maybe I'll post videos from other angles.