To all you weight training guys and gals -

WARNING: Skinny 51 yr old guy lifting weights (comes from not doing any exercise for too long).

Here are a couple videos shot this morning showing my squat and dead lifts. I really appreciate any feedback, comments, and critiques. First the squats. Weight is 95 lbs and is not my working set...but maybe too much? Watch the video.

Squats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY

I don't think I'm going low enough in the squat. Maybe take some weight off and try going lower to the bottom? Also - any thoughts on my posture, back angle, where the bar is placed, arm and hand position?

Deadlift next. Weight is 95 lbs. Not my working set. Those are at 115 lbs.

Dead lift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UnNetVmteg

Thanks,

Elia

Okey dokey...Here are my forms for critique. Please let me know if these links don't work! TIA!!!

Squats:

1st Set:
http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/metalfemme131313/media/20140123_221309_zpsiof5wcju.mp4.html

2nd Set after watching first video (I did 4, instead of 5, and didn't know it...lol!):
http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/metalfemme131313/media/20140123_221527_zpskbe1sd27.mp4.html

Deadlifts:

Side: http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/metalfemme131313/media/20140123_224949_zpsfrvrqy8o.mp4.html

Front: http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/metalfemme131313/media/20140123_225410_zpsfacxl0qz.mp4.html

Pendlay Rows:

http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/metalfemme131313/media/20140123_225743_zpscthqlio4.mp4.html

Your first squat vid doesn't work for me for some reason. Just gives a black video screen. The rest work though.

Squat looks pretty good, just really shy of depth. You should be going quite lower than that, at least 6" if not more to break parallel. Probably need to deload weight if your current configuration is heavy for you.

Deadlift looks pretty good, maybe consider sitting back a bit and getting your hips a little lower. Sink your hips and raise your chest.. Depends on your bodily proportions but most people have at least a bit of an upright posture when they start the deadlift, whereas your body is completely horizontal. Puts a lot of stress on your lower back, IMO.

Gah! I don't know what happened to that vid?! I deleted it from my Photobucket, somehow. :grumble:

So, if my improved sqaut is still really shy of depth, then, I'll be starting back from square one, because that was the best I could do at that weight. :laugh:

Noted on the DL back position.

Thank you for taking the time to help me!!! :happy:

Whoops. Sorry about that. I'm as new to posting videos as I am to lifting. Permissions to the videos have been changed to unlisted.


Squat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY

Deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY



Elia

Whoops. Sorry about that. I'm as new to posting videos as I am to lifting. Permissions to the videos have been changed to unlisted.


Squat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY

Deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY


Elia

Both of your links are the same video, btw.

I don't think anything obnoxiously wrong with your squat (from the limited angle) other than the fact that you aren't reaching a good depth (parallel or breaking parallel). Some work on increasing range of motion and you should be pretty good to go.

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Whoops. Sorry about that. I'm as new to posting videos as I am to lifting. Permissions to the videos have been changed to unlisted.


Squat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY

Deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY



Elia

Both were links to your squat video, so I'll just critique that.

Depth: As I'm sure you can tell, you're got getting the depth that you should for a full range of motion. You want the crease of your hip to be parallel with the top of your knee at the bottom of the squat.

Knees: To get depth, you want to push your knees out. This also helps preserve your knees a bit. You want your feet rotated outwards at about 30 to 45 degrees (mostly whatever works for you) and you want your knees traveling in line with them, generally.

Forward lean/Upper Back Rounding: It's hard to tell by the video, but you seem to be leaning pretty far forward, and it even looks like your upper back is rounding a bit. Make sure your chest is pushed out and forward, that your elbows are up and back, and that the bar is not resting on your neck. You want the natural curvature of your spine to be solid and intact throughout the movement.

Also, try unracking the weight from a higher position if you can, or at least make sure you get down under the bar more (bar over feet) when you do unrack the weight so you don't snap something up.

Also make sure you're not rocking the weight forward or backward to get some momentum. Bar over center of feet at all times.

Wrists: If you're truely resting the bar high on your rear delts, and have your elbows back (low bar position), you should be able to keep the bar in place with just the lower palms of your hands (great explanation in the book Starting Strength). You should be supporting very little of the weight with your hands/wrists.

Here's an example of my squat for comparison:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzlpujZwBA

One key thing that you've got right... hips and shoulders comeing up evenly. Well done. Most new comers don't have an even squat, and their hips come up faster than their shoulders. Think "hinge" not "lever". Very good.

That said, of all the big lifts, the squat is easily the most technical. It just takes time and a ton of recordings to get right.

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Alright I looked at all your videos and your squat is even, which is good, but your chest is completely caving in and you're leaning so far forward that your lower back is rounding. This is going to cause you some serious trouble once the weight gets heavy. You need to pay some real attention to your form if you don't want to get hurt.

You need to keep your shoulders tight and *stick your chest up and out*. Right now your squat is really more of a Good Morning. You're just leaning way too far forward. I know I keep posting my own squat here, but here it is for reference. Notice how my chest is up and out, my elbows are back so the bar can rest on my rear delts, and I sit back/down more than I lean forward. In fact, I only lean forward as much as I have to to keep the weight above the center of my feet while maintaining the curve in my back (*kitten* out, chest up; everything solid/locked).

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

A great cue for you to keep in mind, aside from chest up, is to picture the bar moving up and down in a straight line above your feet. And just in case this is contributing to the problem don't focus so much on the mirror in front of you. Just focus on picturing the bar above your feet and pushing your knees out to achieve depth.

Hi--- I would love to get some input on my squat form! The first time I recorded myself, a few months ago, there were obvious problems even I could see (not going deep enough to be parallel, serious back rounding) but this time I'm not sure what to think about my form so thought I'd check with the experts.

http://youtu.be/bEHIbz3tHfg

There's a set at 95 lb first (yes, that's my working weight this week, I realize it's like half what the other ladies here can squat) and I also recorded a set at 85 lb from before that, which I included in the video in case that's helpful.

Sorry it's backlit. Also let me know if I should get other angles like from the front.

Thanks

Your form is pretty good but you're running into a bit of a problem at the bottom of the movement. It appears that you're doing low-bar squats, which is fine. However, it actually looks like your squat depth is TOO low for a low-bar squat. As a result, your butt is wrapping under you to an extreme ("butt wink") and you're leaning really far forward. This results in you having to "Good Morning" the weight as you come back up.

I would recommend stopping the motion a little higher up. You want your femurs to be JUST breaking parallel to the ground. A good cue for this is the crease of your hip joint should just be dropping below the top of your knee (if you drew a perfectly horizontal line between the two points).

Like this:

I've been trying practicing with a box that looked in the mirror like my legs were about parallel if I fully sat on it (but tried to barely graze it during the squat itself). Here's a set I was doing with the box:
http://youtu.be/7YBI5fCjf2A
and then I would move the box aside and try to get approximately the same depth by feel:
http://youtu.be/-K9_g_sPmkE

A. Do those look better? Is that still deep enough to be legit? (For some reason I have a difficult time judging visually whether the hip crease is higher or lower than the knees although I think this looks about parallel). Any other form issues?

B. Is there anything bad about practicing with a box like this? I've heard that it can compress your spine if you fully sit down on it, but I'm hoping it won't cause any issues if I just lightly touch it and come back up. I thought about using the railings like DopeItUp suggested but it seemed like the notches on this rack were too far apart to get the height exactly right... it was either too low, or high enough that I would annoyingly clang on them at parallel.

thanks

Squatting to a box is fine, that's how I got started too. Just don't cheat and bounce off the box, which is what I started doing when the weights got heavy. Use it to judge depth for a little while (or maybe just your first few warmup sets) and then take it away. It takes time to get a feel for things.

As for your new videos, your depth looks basically perfect and your form is massively improved. And I mean massively, night and day.

Only real complaint I still have (that's already been talked about) is the excessive leaning forward at the bottom of the movement. You're starting out well but you're leaning too much by the bottom. You can see the bar is over your toes or beyond (hard to tell exactly, the camera angle isn't perfect). If you take a video from directly to the side of the path of the barbell you'll probably see it a little better. But you're definitely unbalanced at the bottom of the movement, a couple reps you can actually see your weight shifting to your toes and you almost start to fall forward. For the best example of this, watch the barbell path in your 5th rep of the box squat video. Bar goes down, then moves completely horizontally at the bottom, then goes back up. All of the reps have this to some extent but it was demonstrated best in that particular rep.

Try a bit more vertical torso for the bottom portion of the movement, you might be surprised that you don't fall over It's a common fear, trust me. Worst case, if you DO start falling backwards, just drop the bar off your back. If you're afraid of doing this, practice dropping the bar ahead of time. Honestly everyone should practice bailing on squats a few times (both forward and backwards) so they know what to do/expect when the time comes.

Well I finally got my own videos..I see issues but thought I would let others critque as well...

Last night Squat weight was 160lb these are my 2nd and 3rd set as I find my first always seems to be the hardest.

http://youtu.be/NkNw3edN1Y0 2nd set

http://youtu.be/MTaGRVMaP1w 3rd set

FrnLft,

Thanks for taking the time to review my (one!) video. I’m heading to the gym this afternoon and will try to shoot some new ones of my squat and deadlift again.

I now realize I was pushing to up my weights week by week and my form wasn’t correct. So at my last workout (which occurred after the video was shot) I dropped the weight I was squatting at back to 85 lbs and worked specifically at getting to horizontal or slightly below. I’m going to remain at 85 lbs until I feel pretty confident that my form is OK before upping the weight. I also found I had to focus on pushing my knees out and it was easier to focus on at the lower weight. I do sometimes feel I’m leaning too far forward and at the last workout really tried to also focus on sitting ‘back and down’ into the squat. With the combination of sitting down below horizontal, mentally focusing on keeping my knees out, and sitting ‘down and back’ the squat felt pretty good. I will try to get a pure side view of my squat this afternoon for your (and anyone else who is interested) review.

I do try to keep my hands over the bar and only push the bar forward into my delts, using raised elbows to try to lock it in place. I have less right shoulder flexibility than on my left shoulder and sometimes find it a challenge to get my right hand up, behind, into a good position.

One point I struggle with is the foot position. I was born with tibial torsion, the result being I am very pigeon toed. As I’ve aged the pigeon toe effect has lessened, but it still makes it hard to me to splay my feet out to 30 to 45 degrees. Combine that with my bad right knee (two arthroscopies on it for cartilage repair) and I haven’t yet found my ‘preferred’ foot position in the squat.

Elia

Good stuff man. I hear you about the injuries, and I think you understand that you need to be your own coach on that. As for going below horizontal, there's no need for that. So long as the crease of your hips is horizontal to the top of your knees, you have enough range of motion. Of course if you have any physical limitations or something to work around, you have to make the call. I'll def take a look at your next video.

Well I finally got my own videos..I see issues but thought I would let others critque as well...

Last night Squat weight was 160lb these are my 2nd and 3rd set as I find my first always seems to be the hardest.

http://youtu.be/NkNw3edN1Y0 2nd set

http://youtu.be/MTaGRVMaP1w 3rd set

Not too bad but the biggest thing is your depth, you're way shallow. I'd take some weight off and try to go quite a bit lower and at least hit or break parallel.

FrnkLft and DopeItUp,

First off - thanks for the responses and feedback on my form. Here are three clips of tonights workout.

Squat, low bar, at 85 lbs, side view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk2qnK3wzMw

Squat, low bar, at 85 lbs, front view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz99m5-BnZA

Deadlift, at 115 lbs, side view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3YMcpHAehE

On the squat - I am trying to get down to parallel...it isn't always easy. Like FrnkLft noted - when you get it right it does feel good. I am sure part of my issue is finding my foot placement. You can see me kind-of dancing a bit, trying to find a good spot. I mentioned in a much earlier post of also having left foot plantar fasciitis, so between that right knee and my left heel...it almost takes a little dancing.

Comments and criticism welcome.

Elia

Thanks guys I did as suggested deloaded down to 135lbs pulled my stance in closer (I suspect I had the wide stance due to an injury to my gracilius...protecting it for no reason)

So I have videos of my deload squat...I know one rep I could feel me too much on my toes but I am pretty sure I got deep enough on both sets I could feel it on my way up.

http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
2nd set @ 135

http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
3rd set @ 135

Now since you have all been so helpful....
http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
OHP 2nd set @ 80 (recently deloaded down from 83.5 to 75lbs due to failure)

http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
DL @ 200 lbs

The last two sets are so ugly let me apologize first...I use the sumo stance and don't drop the weight as I am at home (heard you were suppose to drop it...anyway on my way down I am favoring the aforementioned gracillius as that motion stings a bit)

But critique away please and you don't have to be gentle...give it to me straight

All of the videos you posted were the same squat video. Which looks pretty decent from the angle. Can't tell on depth but it looks a whole lot better than before.

The other videos are on the same channel, so I'll just link 'em for her
SezxyStef squats @ 135, back view: http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw (the one you've seen)
SezxyStef squats @ 135, side view: http://youtu.be/gnKajrhHYqU
SezxyStef OHP: http://youtu.be/bK2IcnqSY8Q
SezxyStef DL: http://youtu.be/H7MzhQ3gl2g

I'm trying to learn front squats, any pointers are welcome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGuX7Ce4uhM

(I feel like I'm leaning too far forward, but on the third rep here I put my feet as wide as reasonably possible and went to the bottom, and then started leaning back until I tipped over. So yeah that's as upright as I can be.)
.

Can you take a video from the front?