Form Critique: Squat, OHP, Deadlift (with video)

[jfh26]

Hey guys,

I finally got my camera to the gym so I could take some video of my lifts for you guys to look at. Last week I hit a BW(87kg)+ squat for 5x5 but was not fully confident that my form was tight enough to keep going. So I took some video of my squat at 90kg for 3x5. I was going to do 5x5 but I could see that the form wasn't spot on, so I stopped at 3x5. Since I had my camera, I also took some video of OHP and deadlift. Apologize in advance for the shitty gym music



My comments:

Squat Set 1) I posted this one because I felt it exemplified what I think my problem areas are. As I'm sure you'll see, I periodically find myself looking down at the floor, which causes all sorts of problems. And I think the depth is OK, but I could probably use a little more.

Squat Set 2) I posted this one because I think it looks much better than the first. I didn't look at the floor, so I think that helped a lot. As for depth, it looked OK again, but I think it should be a little more. Any thoughts?

OHP Set 5) I don't really have any comments, I just want to hear others'.

Deadlift Set 1) I lost grip with my right hand after the fourth rep, which is why I had to readjust. Other than that, back looks pretty straight, sees good to me. Any thoughts?

I also have one other video of a 60kg cooldown set for squats, which I did after the 3 sets at 90kg. I think the form looks much tighter in this one, which leads me to believe that the 90kg was simply a bit too heavy. But see for yourself:



All comments and critiques are welcome and greatly appreciated.

[guru]

Squat is okay in terms of depth & hip drive, but you're not keeping your upper back tight. Moreover, as you correctly noticed, you look too much down. Keep your head neutral (in line with spine) & just roll your eyes up. This should help, because we tend to go where our eyes are looking. Moreover, you're obviously finding it difficult to come out of the hole. Push your abs out & hold your breath (Valsalva) & you'll notice it feels much better.

As for the OHP, you're not bringing the bar all the way down to your shoulders. Also shrug hard at the top.

You're bouncing the weight on the deadlift. The weight should come to a rest on the floor, hence the name dead-lift. Also, get your chest out, and hips a little lower.

[jfh26]

Thanks for the tips, guru. I agree that the upper back tightness is likely an issue, as well as the ab push coming out of the hole. I tend to concentrate on tightening the lower body and forget about keeping tightness in the upper back. I was thinking of deloading the squats to around 75kg to work on the form - do you think that would be reasonable? Do you agree that the cooldown squats looked better than the others? As for the OHP, I haven't put quite as much time into developing the form as I have with squats, so perhaps this is the time to do that. And after watching the deadlift again, I see what you mean with the chest and hips. I was actually a little concerned about the hip position, so I'm glad you mentioned it. I'll work on these things over the next week and then get more video. Thanks.

Any other advice still welcome.

[jfh26]

I worked on guru's suggestions today and I think it helped a lot. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but I'm confident the reps definitely improved. I deloaded to 75kg to work on this, so I got well below parallel on these reps. I focused on keeping my upper back tight and it helped stabilize the bar and prevented me from tipping forward. I also took the advice of keeping my neck straight with my spine, but looking up with my eyes, and that helped me from leaning forward as well. However, I am still struggling the most with getting out of the hole. guru suggested pushing the abs out, but I don't think I was doing it right as it didn't seem to help very much. Is this pushed position supposed to be held throughout the entire lift, or initiated at the bottom of the squat to get you out of the hole?

Anyway, it still needs a bit of work but I definitely did better this round. Hopefully a new video sometime this week. One other question: since I deloaded to work on form, should I keep this weight for now or should I start building back up next workout? Thanks.

[guru]

Seems like you're doing great. It's often difficult to change too many things at the same time. I remember the ab pushing only on my top / work sets.

Is this pushed position supposed to be held throughout the entire lift, or initiated at the bottom of the squat to get you out of the hole?

Throughout. If you exhale in between, you'll most probably lose your rhythm.

Keep working on it. The ab pushing feels more natural when you have something (like a belt) to push against.

[jfh26]

So you essentially end up holding your breath for the duration of the set?

[guru]

So you essentially end up holding your breath for the duration of the set?

Yep, when you're ready with the unracked bar on your tightened back, take as deep a breath as you can while pushing the abs out, hold it, go down all the way & come up from the hole. Release the breath at lockout.

[fideli]

So you essentially end up holding your breath for the duration of the set?

Yep, when you're ready with the unracked bar on your tightened back, take as deep a breath as you can while pushing the abs out, hold it, go down all the way & come up from the hole. Release the breath at lockout.

Just to clarify, I think guru is talking about holding your breath for an entire rep, not an entire set.

[guru]

Okay fideli, thanks a bunch for clarifying that. I missed that.

[jfh26]

Yes, OK - that makes a lot more sense now. I was having trouble understanding how you could complete an entire set without breathing

[Kevan67]

Hi jfh26

I was having similar problems with the squat, now once I am ready to squat with my back taught I concentrate on pulling my wrists apart whilst still holding on to the bar (Thus works well for bench pressing as well). This did a couple of things for me which was to keep my back tight but also to take my concentration away from the squat. I breath in on the way down and out on the way up.

Can you feel your hamstrings stretch at the bottom of the hole? you should feel them stretch at the bottom and then use the releasing of them to aid driving your hip up if that makes sense. So its like stretching an elastic band out to its max limit and then releasing it. You can use all the energy genreated in stretching your hamstrings out in helpin gyou drive the squat back up as you come out the hole. The hamstrings will start contracting and you can effectively use this energy to help your hip drive and genrate speed. Its the speed that allows you to use th energy. Back to the elastic band analogy if you let the band go it generates far more energy than if you let it back out slowly.

OHP - I am not the best at these but as said earlier you need to lower the bar onto your chest and effectively start each lift from the chest, this is far harder than the way you are currently doing them. I was doing exactly the same as you until I watched the video's on this site' again.

For your deadlift the trick is to have the bar over the center of your feet and then bend your back and hips and knees until your shins hit the bar. That should theoretically be your starting position (Ripptoe) and it is different for everyone. If you can video yourself on this check to see that the bar is coming straight up of the floor in the lift and that there is no horizontal movement in anyway as you start to lfit.

Keep up the good work.

[jfh26]

Thanks for your suggestions. In regards to the squat, I feel like what you're telling me is to get more explosive when coming out of the hole, much like an elastic, as you said. I think that will help in combination with guru's suggestions. In regards to the OHP and deadlift, I've been watching Rippetoe videos like crazy the past couple of days, so I'll try and implement his techniques tomorrow when I go to the gym. I'll bring in my camera again so you guys can comment on any improvements (or lack thereof )

[eLvarouza]

Squat: you're letting your knees come forward at the bottom because you're not keeping them shoved out.

Press: I can't tell much from this angle; your grip might be too wide.

Deadlift: all I can say until you do deadlifts properly is to stop bouncing the bar off the floor.

[jfh26]

Thanks for the comments. I worked on some of those things today. I think you're right about the knees - I was thinking the same after having some knee discomfort during today's workout and watching the videos. Perhaps next time I'll video squats from the back so you can have a better angle for the knees. OHP looked a lot better, IMO, so I was pleased with that. I took a narrower grip today and I think it helped. I don't know if I didn't eat enough or if I was just slacking, but my deadlifts looked horrendous. Back looked terribly rounded to me - I'm almost ashamed to put them in my next video. I didn't bounce the weight this time, and I tried dropping the hips further as guru suggested, but I just lost it in the back. Perhaps I'm overreacting, but I thought they looked pretty bad. I was having a little back discomfort after benching yesterday (I think from an exaggerated arch), so that may have had something to do with it. Anyway, I'm currently trying to upload the next video so you guys can comment on any changes as well as my observations. Unfortunately my internet is running slower than death so I'm not 100% sure when it will be up.

eL, I noticed in a couple other threads you corrected me about pushing the hips back first. Would you mind explaining? I think this is something I misinterpreted before, and thinking back, I think you were the one who corrected me that time too Could this be a problem in my squats?

[jfh26]

OK I finally got the video to upload. My comments are in my previous post. Any help is greatly appreciated - I really need to get this together soon.



Thanks guys. Don't be too hard on the deadlift - I know.... I'm still amazed that it turned out that hideous. Just something more to fix next time I guess