some squat vids - looking for improvement again

[petpre61]

since I found some great advice on EF I thought I give it another shot. what do you think?

these were made right after a few sets of power cleans with PR weight. last work out was 3x3 120kg today I went for 3x3 122 but since I failed the second set of 122kg I did 121kg instead I got all the reps in. maybe I failed because of a lack of focus.

122kgx1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im-AcGiAVQU

121kgx3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9ZKBrKt9wU

 

[BiggT]

First of all, those are some sweet shoes.

As for your squat, it's fine....it's excellent considering those were limit squats with some damn heavy weights.

You'll get all sorts of feedback like "too deep", "sit back", "knees come forward too far".....but, a lot of people won't understand oly squats as that is all stuff for a PL-squat. Those were good, solid olympic squats and you maintained an upright torso and didn't do anything bad despite straining under some big weights. Good work, I'd say your form is fine.

 

[solarclimax]

Like biggt said, and yea those shoes are sweet and so is your home setup.

 

[djeclipse]

Nice squats, good depth, and way to pound out those reps.

Isn't your squat rack turned backwards though? Wouldn't it be easier to re-rack it if you were to walk forward instead of backwards?

 

[petpre61]

thanks guys - lol biggt you are always the first to give positive feedback, good job. yeah I like my shoes and my home gym as well. I dont wanna miss them anymore

 

[Cynical Simian]

T covered it - nice squats. So, for lack of suggestions for improvement, I'll do what others did and talk about the shoes...

I've finally decided to get some Oly shoes and plan to get the Ironwork IIs. The Dynamic Fitness site says to use dress shoe size, but, um, I don't own anything I'd consider dress shoes (college student ). Would you mind comparing the fit to other shoes you have (running, indoor soccer, Dr. Martens, whatever) to lessen my chances of having to send them back for a different size?

 

[s8nlilhlpr]

Well everybody else had said nice job, so I guess I'll go with the flow as well! I am going to point out something I saw though, when you fail with 122kg, you pushed backwards instead of up. It looks like you started to round your back, then try to push it up by straightening. You can try sitting more squarely between your ankles, instead of sitting back. But, like everyone said, for PR weight, good show!

 

[Protobuilder]

I agree completely w/ BiggT's assessment. Spot on oly-style squat, especially w/ that 3 rep grinder. I'm surprised you didn't lean forward. Nicely done.

And LMAO @ the comment about having the squat rack backwards!! That's what I thought too. LoL I'm just used to doing it the other way.

 

[BadboyAl]

i think the problem is that powerrack is way to clean.. no weight marks, chalk dust, scratches, dents....seems like your to clean cut about it... get down and dirt in there throw some weights around the room, get pumped alittle (dont have to go crazy, but you approach the lift with a smile not gonna cut it)...

 

[super_rice]

good job, those squats are fine.

work on staying tighter in the hole, as you can get a bigger spring out of the bottom with heavy weights. if you are serious about olys, don't squat too heavy all the time since this will impede your pulling progress and impair your ability to complete heavy snatch/clean workouts.

from here, you could try to sit your hips closer in between your legs, making your torso upright. this is less a PLer squat so you will move less weight, but this will help your olys.

 

[perp69]

Squats look good from what I can tell, although best position for the camera would be at an angle instead of looking at the side or straight from behind. I would move those hooks to the other side so you can re-rack the weight walking forward-just easier to see what you are doing and safer IMO. Take a hammer to that rack-way to nice looking

Perp

 

[petpre61]

T covered it - nice squats. So, for lack of suggestions for improvement, I'll do what others did and talk about the shoes...

I've finally decided to get some Oly shoes and plan to get the Ironwork IIs. The Dynamic Fitness site says to use dress shoe size, but, um, I don't own anything I'd consider dress shoes (college student ). Would you mind comparing the fit to other shoes you have (running, indoor soccer, Dr. Martens, whatever) to lessen my chances of having to send them back for a different size?

I took my running shoes' size. since i bought them online I called the owner first and he told me to try on some adidas running shoes at a local store first so I know my size with adidas and since the ironworks are adidas as well I wouldnt have a problem.

Squats look good from what I can tell, although best position for the camera would be at an angle instead of looking at the side or straight from behind. I would move those hooks to the other side so you can re-rack the weight walking forward-just easier to see what you are doing and safer IMO. Take a hammer to that rack-way to nice looking

yeah next time I will shoot the video from an angle. I will keep the hooks in place but spin myself around instead. I doubt that I will work my rack with a hammer. maybe I want to resell it some day. I like my stuff clean that is true but my barbell is pretty rusty already and the plates are lying on the floor everywhere I hope this is enough of a grinding set up lol. Although I definetely need to get more focused up when I move these heavy weights .

good job, those squats are fine.

work on staying tighter in the hole, as you can get a bigger spring out of the bottom with heavy weights. if you are serious about olys, don't squat too heavy all the time since this will impede your pulling progress and impair your ability to complete heavy snatch/clean workouts.

from here, you could try to sit your hips closer in between your legs, making your torso upright. this is less a PLer squat so you will move less weight, but this will help your olys.

what's that supposed to mean?

other than that I am not too serious about oly lifting since I dont have a team anywhere close I could join.

I am going to point out something I saw though, when you fail with 122kg, you pushed backwards instead of up. It looks like you started to round your back, then try to push it up by straightening. You can try sitting more squarely between your ankles, instead of sitting back. But, like everyone said, for PR weight, good show!

I cant really tell myself. All I remember is that in order to put the bb on the safety bars I had to round my upper back a little. I dont like it myself and need to rethink the way I use the safety bars since my height and my squats depth dont work with the preassigned saftey bar postions.

 

[s8nlilhlpr]

Instead of leaning forward and rounding to dump the bar on to the safety rack, I'd just let it roll down your back. I've dumped quite a few w/o safety bars, though I use bumper plates for pretty much everything. If its a back squat, I'll push the bar backwards and step forward away from it, opposite for dumping a front squat. Then again, I'm pretty damn short, and when I'm in the hole, the bar probably doesn't move more than a foot or 2 :-D.

 

[petpre61]

simply dropping them is out of question. I am going to find a better way to use the safety bars

 

[Cynical Simian]

I took my running shoes' size. since i bought them online I called the owner first and he told me to try on some adidas running shoes at a local store first so I know my size with adidas and since the ironworks are adidas as well I wouldnt have a problem.

Awesome, thanks. That's exactly what I asked the Dynamic Fitness guy about since I already have some other adidas shoes. He kept saying dress shoes are better, but it looks like my adidas size should be good enough. Thanks again.

Regarding "staying tight", I'm not sure how to describe it without repeating the word "tight", but it basically means concentrating on holding everything in position rather than relaxing for a split second as you rebound out of the hole. One thing I noticed with the squats is that your hips rise faster than the bar as you come out of the hole. It's not a major issue since you have the lower back strength to keep your arch, but you might find it easier/smoother to stay more upright and have your legs and back work more as a unit. Madcow had a good post on thinking about the legs and back as the two "arms" of the squat and using the cue of pushing your chest back as you come up. Again, these are just minor points on a solid maximal effort.

 

[anotherbutters]

I bought some of those same shoes a few weeks ago. They certainly look the part don't they! (CS, all my shoes are size 9 and these are fine at that size. Err on the larger size if you're not sure between two sizes).

Regarding the safety bars, if you have them too high, you'll end up tapping them at your lowest point because the bar won't always be perfectly level. It might only be a small tap, but it upsets the bar and your concentration. I prefer to have the bars a bit lower as bailing out ought to be far less frequent than when you get the reps.

They looked like great squats to me.

 

[Big_Joe]

They are good lifts but I saw something, I sure everybody saw it, your ass moved backwards as you were failing in the lift then the bar moved behind the center line of your body. In my opinion that is what caused the failure, the weight was heavy but you let it get out of alinement and couldn't recover. So what to do about it. Some might not agree but I would suggest that when you begin a heavy lift out of the hole tighten your anus. And I mean tighten it. This will cause a slight tilt of the pelvis and help keep your ass from going backwards. And then the bar won't go off the center line. You still are going to have to be strong enough to lift the weight but this will help in keeping the bar on the center line. Try this and see if you can get that extra kilo.