Reply With QuotePausing at the bottom, as a novice, is not a good habit to develop.
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Novice Squat Form Check
75lbs, yes I know it's light but I'm just starting and looking to develop good habits.
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Pausing at the bottom, as a novice, is not a good habit to develop.
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Real talk dude. YNDTP. You didn't choose your starting weight as described in the blue book, and you've obviously only been making 5 lbs jumps since your last post. You could have started with more than this on the bar your very first workout, and probably gotten away with some 10 lbs jumps afterwards. Realistically, you could probably be squatting 135 no problem by now, but instead you're a couple of weeks deep and developing bad habits because this still isn't enough weight to challenge you. It's cool that you're not being greedy (a mistake I made when I started), but you're being way too conservative for an able bodied young man. That being said...
Charlocity is absolutely right that pausing at the bottom is not a good habit to develop. You're basically doing pause squats, which you won't want to be when shit gets heavy. Your elbows are too high and cranking up as you descend, because your upper back isn't tight enough. No surprise though, because your back actually needs something to resist to be able to assume and maintain a proper position. Both of these are also probably related to the fact that you seem to be intentionally tapping the safeties. Definitely stop that. Your depth is good. Learn what it feels like without the safeties.
It's great that you seem to be taking this seriously. You're an engineer, so you're definitely smarter than me, and this methodical approach is probably in your nature. However, you're cherry picking the parts of the program that appeal to that nature and disregarding the parts that don't. Review the section on choosing your starting weights, and how your first few workouts should go, and reevaluate your strategy here.
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Thanks for the feedback! I'm sorry my being conservative in my starting weights and progression seems to upset you. I'm not in any hurry to jump to super heavy weights and honestly I feel like 15lbs/week is still somewhat aggressive. That being said, I made a few adjustments: lowered the spotter arms 2" to avoid hitting them during normal ROM, focused on not pausing at the bottom, switched to the thumb-around grip, and after much shoulder stretching managed to narrow my grip to just get my hands inside the bench marks. It felt pretty painful and my elbows are still sore from it, but I think it did help with keeping my elbows down at the bottom. Here's my latest set at 85lbs:
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The best possible way to get ignored in the future is to be a smartass to people offering you advice you've asked for.
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I understand that's how it feels, I was terrified of 30 lbs a week when I started. Now I look back at those weeks as fun! I'm an old guy at 57. I rode the 15 lb a week pony from 95 to 265. For you as a younger guy it will likely go much further. So get on the 15 lb train and trust the system, it does work!Originally Posted by coliver14
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Exactly. You're almost twice the OP's age, and started with more than twice the weight on the bar. Also, 15 lbs per week sounds aggressive, but it's the bare minimum you're signing up for when you undertake an LP. At least until you introduce a light day.
OP, it doesn't upset me, but I'm not going to baby you and tell you you're doing this right. In my humble opinion, these form checks are still next to impossible because this weight doesn't challenge you at all. Your form changes as the mass of the barbell starts to dominate the lifter/barbell system, and right now your body weight is still very much running the show. You've done so many things that indicate you're taking this seriously. You dropped a good chunk of coin on all the right gear, and took the time to draw up that grid on your platform. You don't need shiny gear to do the program though. When it comes to that, you cherry picked one line from the book about being conservative with weight jumps, and ignored the whole section about how to choose your starting weights for your first workout. At the end of the day, you've shown you're gonna do you no matter what I or the blue book say, but I still think you should, at the very least, be making 10 lbs jumps until you reach the weight you should have started at on day one.
The narrower grip is a good thing, but it would be better if you could manage it with a thumb over the top grip and straighter wrists. Good on you for working on stretching out those shoulders! You're still rounding you're upper back. Here's some reading and watching material:
Identifying and Correcting Thoracic Spinal Flexion in the Squat | Bill Hannon
Would like to see more emphasis on hip drive too. You're leading with your chest out of the hole. At these light weights, a proper emphasis on hip drive will likely look like the ass driving up before the rest of your body. You might be afraid you're doing a good morning. Don't worry! It'll sort itself out when the weight gets real. You want to learn what hip drive and maintaining your back angle feels like now.
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