if you're not happy with your form and not feeling right after a session at a given weight, then by all means deload or hold off on adding more weight.

don't quote me on this but i thiiiiiink that even if it is doms the fact that it's showed up now still indicates you've reached a point where your form starts to degrade and you're using those muscles in ways that you haven't till now. it sounds like your hips might have been coming up faster than your back could support, so the return happens in two separate movements. first the hips rise (glutes and stuff below them) and then the back finishes the process (ql and other spinal erectors above the glutes). so that's different from a 'normal' squat where the back muscles function mostly isometrically - they just hold your back in a fixed position/angle and don't actually stretch or shorten over the rep. easy for me to say all that, like it's never happened to me

there's nothing wrong with deloading. everyone has a weight that's too much for them, and knowing when you've found it is smart.

Remember, you don't need to add weight every session.
If you're doing this for fitness and health, take it slow and add weight when you're comfortable.

Its hard if you're competitive (even with just yourself), but if you're not trying to be a power lifter, then make your own way.

I've deloaded many times...

spritey86 wrote: »

Sounds about right to be honest! When i say that my body almost feels like its collapsing, i guess you described my actions perfectly because it was definitely not a fluid motion as previously and my hips definitely came up faster than my shoulders around the third rep onwards on all sets.

my trainer caught me at that early on in my sessions with him. so he had two things he started insisting on which might be helpful to you.

1. he diverges from the rippetoe wisdom about 'pointing your nipples at the floor'. in other words, he's not a fan of letting people lean too far forward in the first place. so he started encouraging me to fix my eyes on something further away - hard to do when there's a mirror distracting you, but it helped me. when i'm in the rec centres and stuck with the mirror, i try to focus on something that's actually behind me in the real world. also, for some reason consciously pulling my chin in helps me to stay more upright no matter where my eyes are. 'tennis ball under the chin' kind of cue.

2. his cue when you begin the return is 'try to think about pushing your shoulders back into the bar'. i KNOW i had the opposite impulse when i started to run out of hip drive. it was almost like i'd try to pull down on the bar as if i could use that leverage to bring myself up. what he wanted instead was more the sensation you have when you sit on the floor with your back to the refrigerator, and shove from the soles of your feet.

when i do that second one it's definitely a different feeling. like the 'unfolding' impetus is travelling through the front of my body - abs moving away from my quads. compared with not doing it, where it feels like the work's moving through my back muscles instead.

canadianlbs wrote: »

'try to think about pushing your shoulders back into the bar'. i KNOW i had the opposite impulse when i started to run out of hip drive. it was almost like i'd try to pull down on the bar as if i could use that leverage to bring myself up. what he wanted instead was more the sensation you have when you sit on the floor with your back to the refrigerator, and shove from the soles of your feet.

I tried this today and it was so helpful! Thanks