Learning basic lifts

[Eric Montgomery]

Originally Posted by Petra Mamic

I guess I forget some cues sometimes. Eric, what exactly did you mean by "sitting back"? Butt back more + more vertical tibias?

Yes, for a low bar squat that's what you want to think about--butt back as opposed to dropping it more straight down like you would for a high bar squat.

For the deadlift, it looks like the bar is over the balls of your feet during setup, when you want it over the midpoints of your feet. Reread how SS teaches the setup....stance, grip, shins, chest, pull. If you go through those steps right, the bar will be a little further back and your shins will be a little more vertical and you'll be pulling with optimal leverage. It's a little hard to do with an unloaded bar so try to find some plates or blocks you can set the bar on to allow you to approach the bar and set up correctly before you actually grab it.

[Petra Mamic]

My understanding was that the goal is to lower the bar straight down, and that you are supposed to flex in the hips until the bar clears the knees, and then flex in the knees. Otherwise, if you start bending in the knees earlier, the knees move forward and the bar on its way down has to move forward and "around the knees" when it's at the knee level, no?

[Eric Montgomery]

I didn't see too much wrong with how you lowered the bar on the deadlifts...as long as you're pushing your hips back first and keeping the bar close to your body, you don't have to think about it too much.

[Robert Fabsik]

Originally Posted by Petra Mamic

My understanding was that the goal is to lower the bar straight down, and that you are supposed to flex in the hips until the bar clears the knees, and then flex in the knees. Otherwise, if you start bending in the knees earlier, the knees move forward and the bar on its way down has to move forward and "around the knees" when it's at the knee level, no?

Overall the above is correct, but youtube some other folks deadlifting and see how many of them are lowering the bar the way you do. You definitely want to start with the hips back, but it seems you are letting the shoulders come too far forward.

[Petra Mamic]

Hi there,

I am back with two videos of my (hopefully improved) press (one lateral and one frontal view). I decreased the weight, tried to keep my core tighter and have less of a lumbar extension.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
LT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVmfS1CArPY

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

[Eric Montgomery]

Looks better--only a few things I'd correct:

1) You don't need to start each rep from a dead stop--after you press the first one up, do your breathing and get tight again real quick while the bar is locked out overhead, then bring it down and right back up. Same idea as getting a stretch-reflex out of your squats.
2) You want to grip the bar more in the heel of your hands, not in your fingers. Kinda like you see here (WFS). There's two main reasons for that...one, gripping in your fingers and allowing the bar to bend your wrist back creates leverage at a right angle to the direction you want the bar to go (i.e. up). And two, as you start to go heavier on your presses you'll be putting a lot of strain on your wrists and elbows if you allow the bar to bend them back like that. Make sure you do the same thing on bench press--since you'll be benching heavier than you press it's especially important to avoid that strain on your wrists.

[Petra Mamic]

Thanks, Eric! I will pay more attention to my grip next time.