Proper Feel for Optimal Training?

[Primal]

Hi all. So, obviously, the point of going to the gym is to cause micro trauma a specific muscle group that you are working on to force it to grow back stronger for next time. My problem is that I am incredibly confused as to know if I tore my muscles as optimally as possible during my allotted period or if I didn't hit it hard enough. I don't know about you guys but, for example, when I hit my biceps and triceps, I usually get a huge pump that last for ten minutes even after I have stopped working them. But on some other muscle groups, ie. legs and back, I get a 'numb' sort of feeling where if I try to flex it, it trembles beyond my control. The 'numb' feeling, I have found leaves me much more sore than does getting a pump in the following days. However, I have seen many a video, article, and even movie (pumping iron) where people claim that getting the pump is the most important way to know if you are putting in the best work possible.

Thanks for reading!

-Primal

[Praetorian]

The pump is only one aspect of muscle growth. As a beginner you should be concentrating on increasing your overall strength especially on the major compound lifts. This will help build overall mass and density much faster and much more than concentrating just on the pump. Try to use a wide variety of rep ranges which covers both fiber types. The key point in a beginning BB is to learn proper lifting technique and and slowly increase strength over time. You dont need to be super strong like a powerlifter but you do need to move some serious weights if you want serious size. Look at all the top BB and how they trained to "grow" not how they train to maintain.

P

[cog]

Hi all. So, obviously, the point of going to the gym is to cause micro trauma a specific muscle group that you are working on to force it to grow back stronger for next time. My problem is that I am incredibly confused as to know if I tore my muscles as optimally as possible during my allotted period or if I didn't hit it hard enough. I don't know about you guys but, for example, when I hit my biceps and triceps, I usually get a huge pump that last for ten minutes even after I have stopped working them. But on some other muscle groups, ie. legs and back, I get a 'numb' sort of feeling where if I try to flex it, it trembles beyond my control. The 'numb' feeling, I have found leaves me much more sore than does getting a pump in the following days. However, I have seen many a video, article, and even movie (pumping iron) where people claim that getting the pump is the most important way to know if you are putting in the best work possible.

Thanks for reading!

-Primal

You dont mention the movements or rep ranges.

[Praetorian]

Basic compounds barbell bench/incline presses, dead lifts, squats, bent over barbell rows, barbell shoulder presses, barbell curls, dumbbell rows, chins, low pulley rows, shrugs.

Rep ranges for upper body 2-3, 3-5, 5-7, 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, lower body 3-5, 6-8, 8-10, 10-15, 15-20

P

[TT Eric]

Basic compounds barbell bench/incline presses, dead lifts, squats, bent over barbell rows, barbell shoulder presses, barbell curls, dumbbell rows, chins, low pulley rows, shrugs.

Rep ranges for upper body 2-3, 3-5, 5-7, 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, lower body 3-5, 6-8, 8-10, 10-15, 15-20

P

Hi Ted, I wanted to ask you about your method. I use the recommended -10%, but on some lift like bench press, I remove sometime less then 10%, but I got huge jump in reps, 3, 7, 10, 13, would you recommend to remove less weight, like 5%, or stick with the -10% since it work the whole range anyway.

Thanks

Eric

[Praetorian]

You can play it by ear but its not written in stone...the idea is to get a range of reps from approx 4-5 sets.
T

[Primal]

I do all of these exercises. I usually start with a warm up (2 sets-20 reps) on each movement to get the blood flowing and then start onto my real sets which are high volume (4-5 sets). In the first set I usually hit 80% of what I can lift with reps ranging from 8-12, 2nd set- 90%, reps 6-8, 3rd- 95%, reps 4-6, and finally 4th- 98%, reps 1-2. If I do a 5th set I usually do the weight I would do the 4th set weight and go beyond failure. I only do this sometimes.
Basic compounds barbell bench/incline presses, dead lifts, squats, bent over barbell rows, barbell shoulder presses, barbell curls, dumbbell rows, chins, low pulley rows, shrugs.

Rep ranges for upper body 2-3, 3-5, 5-7, 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, lower body 3-5, 6-8, 8-10, 10-15, 15-20

P

[Primal]

Basic compounds barbell bench/incline presses, dead lifts, squats, bent over barbell rows, barbell shoulder presses, barbell curls, dumbbell rows, chins, low pulley rows, shrugs.

Rep ranges for upper body 2-3, 3-5, 5-7, 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, lower body 3-5, 6-8, 8-10, 10-15, 15-20

P

I see you have put all of the heavier weight first. I usually don't like to do that because even though I am warmed up, I still find doing weight that I can only get 2-3 reps on really strains my targeted muscle group. Is it ok if I do this? Or should I warm up better first and then do the heavy weights first? What would you recommend?

[Primal]

Just another really quick question, when do you upgrade from being a beginner to an intermediate lifter? Is it when certain knowledge is achieved? Or after certain years of lifting? For example, would four years be an intermediate lifter or advanced? Just a thought...

[Praetorian]

You are pyramiding backwards...in other words you are doing a 26 mile marathon and then attempting to win the 100M dash...NEVER going to happen. If you are straining the muscle group being trained then your warmup in a word sucks! Performing a proper warm up is as important as the working sets because without it you will either get injured or you will make little progress and it is the biggest thing most beginner lifters either skip completely or perform incorrectly...see below for proper warm up. As for when you progress to an intermediate lifter see an article i wrote below...it has very little to do with years training and everything to do with progress and technique. How many times ive heard " I have been training for10,15,20 years yet the guy looks like crap....20 years of improper training is about as much good as tits on a bull.

Warm-up Like Dave Tate and Bench More Weight
If you think Dave Tate just gets under the bar and lifts, you're sadly mistaken. A stickler for perfect technique, Tate knows how to truly prepare for a PR. You don't.
"Show me a guy who wants to bench 300 pounds for a new PR, and I'll show you a guy who's warming-up like an idiot," says Tate.
The Idiot Warm-up
135 x 12
185 x 10
225 x 5
275 x 3
300 x 0
"That's 5650 pound of volume before testing your max," says Tate. "Plus you only did 28 ****ing reps."
The Tate Warm-up
4 x 5 with the bar
2 x 3 with 95 pounds
135 x 3
165 x 3
195 x 3
225 x 3
255 x 1
280 x 1
300 x 1 awesome ****ing rep.
"This way you're doing 3910 pounds of volume but with 40 total reps," explains Tate. "It's 31 percent less volume but 42 percentmore repetitions; it's more warm-up but less fatigue."
According to Tate, the smart lifter primes technique, activates the nervous and muscular systems, and gets the job done.
The stupid lifter gets pinned.


Bodybuilder Training Evolution

As bodybuilders unfortunately we age like everyone else. What this means to us is that we need to make sure our training evolves over time as well in order to maximize gains and to remain healthy thus avoiding the pitfalls such as chronic injuries that tend to occur over time.
Starting out a beginning bodybuilder should focus on building a decent strength base. The reasons for this are many and I will discuss a few of the most important ones. First strength is easy to measure and thus makes it the perfect tool to see small changes over time. It is very difficult to see lean mass gains in the short term but strength gains are very quantitative. Another reason is to perfect what I call the “Get Big” lifts which are the basics that add that crazy size, density, and thickness every bodybuilder covets. There is no other way to develop crazy density without pushing some significant weight around and in order to do that without getting injured it takes perfecting proper technique. This takes years to perfect which means you need to do these exercises repeatedly in order to master them. This should give you a clue as to why you shouldn’t change your entire routine up every week or two. Once you master the technique and are pushing significant weight you most likely will be hitting the intermediate phase of the life span of a bodybuilder. At this stage strength is no longer a priority but it is still considered a good measure and will continue to be used however more emphasis will be placed on increasing the rep range on the basics and striving for maximum hypertrophy as the goal.
Thus the basics are still included and are prioritized as the first exercise in a routine but wider rep ranges are used. As an intermediate bodybuilder you will eventually hit your highest bodyweight and will struggle dearly for every additional pound of lean muscle. At this stage more and more emphasis will be put on developing maximum lean mass as well as reducing body fat to allow that mass to be seen. Most intermediate bodybuilders will have competed a few times and will start to slowly reduce off season weight as they drop fat and remain leaner year round in the pursuit of pure lean mass and a tighter more shredded contest physique. Lastly we come to the advanced stage of a bodybuilder. This is where the age of the bodybuilder tends to be in the mid to late thirty’s or early forty’s. At this stage pushing very heavy weights can become a major disadvantage and lead to significant injuries. Strength is no longer a measurement used and the basics are generally put near the end of the routine once muscle has been pre-exhausted. This allows the advanced bodybuilder to continue to train with very high intensity but avoid the injuries that can occur with years of heavy lifting. At this stage the bodybuilder tends to focus on muscle contraction using a variety of techniques such as pre-exhaust, unilateral exercises, drop sets, iso tension, resistance bands etc. Basic compound movements are still employed but are moved to closer to the end of the routine and thus very heavy weights are no longer necessary. By reducing the load on the joints we can increase the longevity of our careers as bodybuilders and enjoy the essence of lifting without the stress of career ending injuries.
The evolution of training as a bodybuilder is a choice that we all have to make and if we choose wisely we can enjoy a life long endeavor of lifting. However, if we fail to adapt and change our training with time then career ending injuries can results and that can lead to a very short career.


P

[Primal]

Bahahaha! Nothing like getting told raw that your warm up sucks! Thanks Praetorian, starting tomorrow I will make sure that I am doing all of my heavy lifting first and the smaller reps after. The reading material was also quite helpful too! I will try to associate the warm up as mentioned with my other lifts.

But back to the original question. Prae, you said that the pump was just "one aspect of muscle growth". This sounds like there is much more that could initiate growth. If you find an article or video or such, please send it my way! What I am hearing from a bunch of people in my school is that "the pump enlarges the veins in the muscle forcing the muscle to expand bigger than what it would usually be accustomed to. This rips the fascia and induces muscle growth (with the proper nutrition of course)". Tell me what you guys think of this!

Thanks for all the advice!

[Praetorian]

The idea you were told about the pump is not a very good or correct description of what happens. The fascia does not rip and and the veins dont enlarge. Capillaries via arteries carry blood to the muscle. The more blood and intracellular fluid the more pump you feel. However you can get a decent pump with light weight and almost no growth so the theory of training for the pump is a big misnomer. Muscle fibers that are stressed via a stimulus such as ever increasing weight increase in size as they increase in strength. So the idea is to use significant weight to induce a pump as well as to produce strength gains. Training through a larger rep range will allow this to occur.
P

[Primal]

So the best way to get the best growth is to lift heavy weights. You can tell you are using the right weight when you feel a small pump going on? Just wanting to get some good clarity. Whenever I do get a pump, especially on bicep and triceps, I always use pretty heavy weight. Funnily enough, it's always when I do preacher curls...

[Praetorian]

Train to get big and strong...meaning you will move significant weight in all rep ranges and you will get an excrutiating pump at the same time....why limit yourself to one aspect of growth when you can hit all of them. Training purely for the pump is like being a sprinter and preparing for the 100M dash at the olympics and all you do is practice your starts out of the blocks never running more then 10m...how well do you think youll do?
P

Have a read!

3 Mistakes That Limit Your Gains
by Christian Thibaudeau   11/04/13
Mistakes-that-limit-your-gains
Here's what you need to know...

• Whether you're a powerlifter, power athlete, or bodybuilder, you'll build more muscle if you focus on the big, basic lifts.

• Spending too much energy training smaller isolation movements is an easy way to overtax your body's recuperative abilities.

• Nobody trains as hard as they think they do. You need to train hard to cause your body to change, and the more advanced you are, the harder you need to work.

I've done almost everything you can do to build a body – Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman training, gymnastic work, sprints, you name it. So when it comes to improving the way the body looks and functions, I have a very large toolbox to draw from.

However, despite my diverse training repertoire, everything I've learned comes back to a handful of rules and principles. Break them and progress stalls, or never really starts at all. Here are the three main mistakes to avoid if your goal is to build a high level of muscle and strength.


Mistake #1: Focusing on minor isolation exercises instead of big, compound movements.
Look at the most successful bodybuilders, strength athletes, and power athletes in the world and you'll find that the foundation for their training consists of a handful of basic exercises.

The best powerlifters in the world focus almost exclusively on the competition lifts. Jim Wendler basically uses four main lifts (bench, squat, military press, deadlift), Mark Rippetoe uses five (bench, deadlift, squat, power clean, military press) and Bill Starr uses three (bench, squat, power clean & press).

The majority of football players rely on bench presses, squats, deadlifts, power cleans, chin-ups, and push presses and build very solid bodies. And throwers, arguably the strongest and most powerful overall athletes in the world, base their training on bench presses, squats, power cleans, power snatches, and push presses.

What about successful bodybuilders? They use a slightly broader exercise selection, but the foundation of their training also consists of the big basic lifts.

The point is, if you want to go from average to large and muscular, then you should spend most of your training energy performing sets of the basic movements.

The big compound lifts alone can build a big, muscular, aesthetic body. I've trained athletes in 27 different sports as well as competitive bodybuilders, powerlifters, strongman competitors, etc., and the best looking natural bodies that I've trained were a young strongman competitor, two CrossFit girls, a hockey player, and a bobsleigh athlete.

Granted, they weren't massive like the bodybuilders, but they were muscular, lean, and very strong and powerful. Not only that, they maintained their look year-round without severe dieting, anabolics, or living like monks.

None of them did much, if any, isolation work. They all built their muscle mass through big compound movements and became very strong on them. And they didn't look blocky or unaesthetic due to the absence of "finishing" exercises.

The fact is, most frustrated lifters are limiting their gains by majoring in the minors. Your body has a limited capacity to recover and adapt to training. In Soviet literature this used to be called adaptation energy/reserve. I call it "training money."

Your body has a limited amount of money that can be invested. When you exceed what you have to invest, you run up a debt, and sooner or later you'll be forced to pay up! This means that if you make it a habit to exceed the amount of stimulation that your body can grow from, while it might work for a week or two (supercompensation training blitz), eventually you won't make progress.

This is why I don't believe in spending a lot of energy on isolation work. To me it doesn't make sense to take money away from the big lifts to invest in exercises with an inferior return – at least not while your focus is on gaining as much overall strength and mass as possible.

When you get so strong on the big basics that investing more in them won't give you a great return, then sure, invest elsewhere. But the fact is, until you're brutally strong on a few big basic lifts, your best gains will be from getting strong on those movements.


Mistake #2: Using improper lifting technique
Christian Deadlift
Learning the optimal technique to perform a movement allows you to:

• Lift the most weight (thus stimulating more growth)

• Reduce the risk of injury, both acute and from wear and tear

• Load the target muscles

Sadly, few people learn the best way to perform an exercise. I'd say that 80% of the gym population can't execute something as simple as a lateral raise or lat pulldown properly. Can you imagine the lack of competence with something more complex such as the squat, deadlift, or high pull?

When you lift to build big muscles and an impressive physique, the weight is just a tool. Yes, adding more weight to the bar is important because that enhances the amount of growth stimulation placed on a muscle, but the way you do an exercise is what dictates whether you're directing that training stimulation on the proper muscle/structure.


Mistake #3: Not training hard enough!
Training very hard is the secret to mind-blowing improvements, but almost nobody trains as hard as they think they do. Very few people train hard enough to cause their body to change. And the more advanced you are, the harder you need to work.

This is something I had to learn the hard way. I used to confuse "doing a lot of work" with training hard, and over the years the amount of effort I put into each set slowly eroded, which I'd compensate for by doing more sets.

The problem is, this gave me too much of the wrong thing (garbage sets) and too little of the right things (intense effort). In short, I never got out of my comfort zone.

My wake-up call occurred when I went to Ohio to watch Dave Tate and the EliteFTS crew train. At the time I was confident that I'd fit in – I had a 445-pound raw bench press at about 215 pounds – and I (foolishly) considered myself a "hard training" lifter.

What a reality check. After watching Tate's guys go at it – the raw intensity, the crazy state of mind, and the no-fear attitude – I felt like joining Planet Fitness.

Another mentor who helped me understand this is Tim Patterson. The last time I was at Biotest headquarters, Tim told me that it would be cool to film something "spectacular" in the two weeks before I left, like a 180-kilo (396-pound) snatch-grip high pull. That sounded great, except that at the time my best snatch-grip high pull was a shaky 125 kilos (275 pounds).

A 120-pound gain in two weeks? Not possible, right? Well, the boss seemed to think it was, and since I didn't want to let him down, I trained as if my life depended on it.

So every day for two weeks I did heavy pulling sets and overloaded with low pulls, focusing on adding more and more weight while not exceeding 40 minutes per workout, max. What this did was redefine what "hard work with a heavy weight" was for me. Every damn day, I forced myself to handle heavier poundages, going way outside my comfort zone until I was able to hit 180 kilos on the last day.


The big PR was nice, but what those two weeks really did was completely change my perception of hard work. It made me realize that what I used to think was a 10 was really about a 6 at best. And if I need at least an 8 to get maximum gains, it's easy to understand why I was having such a hard time making real progress!


Get Growing
Getting bigger and stronger can get complicated, and it's tempting to keep adding more tools to your ever-growing training toolbox. Just don't lose sight of the big picture, because you'll progress exponentially faster than the masses if you understand and respect a few simple rules.

Oh yeah dont forget to eat....yeah i know you eat a tonne right....WRONG!

3 Mistakes That Limit Your Gains
by Christian Thibaudeau   11/04/13
Mistakes-that-limit-your-gains
Here's what you need to know...

• Whether you're a powerlifter, power athlete, or bodybuilder, you'll build more muscle if you focus on the big, basic lifts.

• Spending too much energy training smaller isolation movements is an easy way to overtax your body's recuperative abilities.

• Nobody trains as hard as they think they do. You need to train hard to cause your body to change, and the more advanced you are, the harder you need to work.

I've done almost everything you can do to build a body – Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman training, gymnastic work, sprints, you name it. So when it comes to improving the way the body looks and functions, I have a very large toolbox to draw from.

However, despite my diverse training repertoire, everything I've learned comes back to a handful of rules and principles. Break them and progress stalls, or never really starts at all. Here are the three main mistakes to avoid if your goal is to build a high level of muscle and strength.


Mistake #1: Focusing on minor isolation exercises instead of big, compound movements.
Look at the most successful bodybuilders, strength athletes, and power athletes in the world and you'll find that the foundation for their training consists of a handful of basic exercises.

The best powerlifters in the world focus almost exclusively on the competition lifts. Jim Wendler basically uses four main lifts (bench, squat, military press, deadlift), Mark Rippetoe uses five (bench, deadlift, squat, power clean, military press) and Bill Starr uses three (bench, squat, power clean & press).

The majority of football players rely on bench presses, squats, deadlifts, power cleans, chin-ups, and push presses and build very solid bodies. And throwers, arguably the strongest and most powerful overall athletes in the world, base their training on bench presses, squats, power cleans, power snatches, and push presses.

What about successful bodybuilders? They use a slightly broader exercise selection, but the foundation of their training also consists of the big basic lifts.

The point is, if you want to go from average to large and muscular, then you should spend most of your training energy performing sets of the basic movements.

The big compound lifts alone can build a big, muscular, aesthetic body. I've trained athletes in 27 different sports as well as competitive bodybuilders, powerlifters, strongman competitors, etc., and the best looking natural bodies that I've trained were a young strongman competitor, two CrossFit girls, a hockey player, and a bobsleigh athlete.

Granted, they weren't massive like the bodybuilders, but they were muscular, lean, and very strong and powerful. Not only that, they maintained their look year-round without severe dieting, anabolics, or living like monks.

None of them did much, if any, isolation work. They all built their muscle mass through big compound movements and became very strong on them. And they didn't look blocky or unaesthetic due to the absence of "finishing" exercises.

The fact is, most frustrated lifters are limiting their gains by majoring in the minors. Your body has a limited capacity to recover and adapt to training. In Soviet literature this used to be called adaptation energy/reserve. I call it "training money."

Your body has a limited amount of money that can be invested. When you exceed what you have to invest, you run up a debt, and sooner or later you'll be forced to pay up! This means that if you make it a habit to exceed the amount of stimulation that your body can grow from, while it might work for a week or two (supercompensation training blitz), eventually you won't make progress.

This is why I don't believe in spending a lot of energy on isolation work. To me it doesn't make sense to take money away from the big lifts to invest in exercises with an inferior return – at least not while your focus is on gaining as much overall strength and mass as possible.

When you get so strong on the big basics that investing more in them won't give you a great return, then sure, invest elsewhere. But the fact is, until you're brutally strong on a few big basic lifts, your best gains will be from getting strong on those movements.


Mistake #2: Using improper lifting technique
Christian Deadlift
Learning the optimal technique to perform a movement allows you to:

• Lift the most weight (thus stimulating more growth)

• Reduce the risk of injury, both acute and from wear and tear

• Load the target muscles

Sadly, few people learn the best way to perform an exercise. I'd say that 80% of the gym population can't execute something as simple as a lateral raise or lat pulldown properly. Can you imagine the lack of competence with something more complex such as the squat, deadlift, or high pull?

When you lift to build big muscles and an impressive physique, the weight is just a tool. Yes, adding more weight to the bar is important because that enhances the amount of growth stimulation placed on a muscle, but the way you do an exercise is what dictates whether you're directing that training stimulation on the proper muscle/structure.


Mistake #3: Not training hard enough!
Training very hard is the secret to mind-blowing improvements, but almost nobody trains as hard as they think they do. Very few people train hard enough to cause their body to change. And the more advanced you are, the harder you need to work.

This is something I had to learn the hard way. I used to confuse "doing a lot of work" with training hard, and over the years the amount of effort I put into each set slowly eroded, which I'd compensate for by doing more sets.

The problem is, this gave me too much of the wrong thing (garbage sets) and too little of the right things (intense effort). In short, I never got out of my comfort zone.

My wake-up call occurred when I went to Ohio to watch Dave Tate and the EliteFTS crew train. At the time I was confident that I'd fit in – I had a 445-pound raw bench press at about 215 pounds – and I (foolishly) considered myself a "hard training" lifter.

What a reality check. After watching Tate's guys go at it – the raw intensity, the crazy state of mind, and the no-fear attitude – I felt like joining Planet Fitness.

Another mentor who helped me understand this is Tim Patterson. The last time I was at Biotest headquarters, Tim told me that it would be cool to film something "spectacular" in the two weeks before I left, like a 180-kilo (396-pound) snatch-grip high pull. That sounded great, except that at the time my best snatch-grip high pull was a shaky 125 kilos (275 pounds).

A 120-pound gain in two weeks? Not possible, right? Well, the boss seemed to think it was, and since I didn't want to let him down, I trained as if my life depended on it.

So every day for two weeks I did heavy pulling sets and overloaded with low pulls, focusing on adding more and more weight while not exceeding 40 minutes per workout, max. What this did was redefine what "hard work with a heavy weight" was for me. Every damn day, I forced myself to handle heavier poundages, going way outside my comfort zone until I was able to hit 180 kilos on the last day.


The big PR was nice, but what those two weeks really did was completely change my perception of hard work. It made me realize that what I used to think was a 10 was really about a 6 at best. And if I need at least an 8 to get maximum gains, it's easy to understand why I was having such a hard time making real progress!


Get Growing
Getting bigger and stronger can get complicated, and it's tempting to keep adding more tools to your ever-growing training toolbox. Just don't lose sight of the big picture, because you'll progress exponentially faster than the masses if you understand and respect a few simple rules.

[Primal]

Ok got it. Basic movements, no isolation and train with crazy intensity. Oh and use the proper form too.

Thanks!

-Primal

[Hosehead]

Like Arnold once said " nobody ever puked after doing five sets of concentration curls "

[Primal]

Hahaha I never heard of that quote from him before! But it is completely true! Thanks for all the help! I really appreciate it! :o

-Primal

[cog]

^^^^
I am still betting most of your legs issue is squat form.You should try a safety squat bar.Or at least try to get your form assesed.

[Primal]

^^^^
I am still betting most of your legs issue is squat form.You should try a safety squat bar.Or at least try to get your form assesed.

?? My squat form is fine. If anything my squating weight is really underdeveloped because the gym I went to before I moved had no squat rack and no bench press. I am getting much stronger at it though so I think I'm all good. No problems up until now and if I have any I will definitely ask. I don't really see the point in a safety squat bar to be completely honest... I have never used one before so I know I shouldn't jump to conclusions so fast but if you need assistance from something like that then you either a) shouldn't be squatting period or b) reducing the weight being lifted. Just my personal opinion on it. Like I said above, haven't used it yet. Who knows though, maybe it provides a better stability or comfort or something?

-Primal

[cog]

^^^^

You said you were getting very sore afterwards.Where?You can get down low,pause,and back up?Leaning forward?Stance?

[Praetorian]

It takes many years to perfect squat form so dont be upset if someone says your issue may be squat form...as he is probably correct. In order to perfect squat form it takes most lifters 5-7 years of progressively heavier training. You don't perfect squat form with light weight because you cannot tell you are even making mistakes until you hit some significant weight. When you start closing in on triple body weight squats things start to become painfully obvious that they are not perfect. Once i passed the 700lb raw barrier injury could result very easily if form is not correct...not to mention un-racking and walking back with that weight...then re-racking using a conventional rack not a monolift. Perfecting the big three lifts will take many years of balls to the wall training and you need to have an open mind and be willing to learn or those years will be wasted. I learned as much as i could from the best guys around me who were elite level lifters...lucky me.

P

[Primal]

True I suppose. My squat is only my body weight at the moment so indeed I have many years of trail and error to go. It just really sucks because all I have to learn off of is YouTube and you guys... Sorry about the safety squat bar issue... I really should try it before I jump to any conclusions first.

[Praetorian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ME8gEN54Ao part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV8ZxGICsL0 part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQIAzzMDhSI part 3


P

[Primal]

Really, really informative! Thanks! Didn't know to keep the head up at 30 degrees. I will definitely start doing this!

-Primal