Scrawny Guy Squats

[Gary Gibson]

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I was 170-172 at the time last week. Got up to ~175, but am now back to ~168. You know, you really don't realize how scrawny (or fat) you are till you see a recording of yourself. Just imagine, I've gained over 40 lbs of muscle and fat in adulthood; my dad is taller and is only now getting over 140 lbs.

Have at it, Coach.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Squats look fine. But Jesus, Gary, you need a couple of cheeseburgers.

[silvergs]

Is this set not considered too much lean forward of his chest Coach?

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[Jake Galgon]

Not sure if Rip missed or if it's just not a big deal, but is it alright for the wrists to bend so much on the way down like that?

[Gary Gibson]

Squats look fine. But Jesus, Gary, you need a couple of cheeseburgers.

Heh. As soon as I break my own state records in the 75 kg. I'd decided to push through toward 82.5 kg for competition, but my weight gain suddenly reversed despite GOMAD and the obscene quantities of food I was having a hard time affording anyway. Now I'm hovering under 170 lbs. So I decided I will moderate the diet and then carb cut and water load in the last week and squeeze into the 75 kg one last time.

I was really worried that I was getting too bent over on the last half of the sets. I think the following squat looks pretty good though, but I worry that I was lifting my chest too soon.

Here's the result of that Smolov I just finished last week:

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40-lb gain on my then-max of 335, though my best a few months ago was the 347.5 state record. That was just the ramp up and I test again tomorrow. Hoping to hit 385 and maybe 395. Currently at ~169 body weight. Having a hard time removing pasta and beer from my life. I had a roast beef salad today, but tonight was really good chicken parmigiana and lots of cheap, awful Bud Light. There will be one last cheap beer binge tomorrow after I do a max squat test.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Gary's back angle is fine and his wrists are not perfect, but then what is? The only suggestion I have is that you'd feel better hip drive if you'd look down and shove your chest up at the same time. This tightens the whole back from the top down.

[Gary Gibson]

Gary's back angle is fine and his wrists are not perfect, but then what is? The only suggestion I have is that you'd feel better hip drive if you'd look down and shove your chest up at the same time. This tightens the whole back from the top down.

Thanks, Coach. "The perfect is the enemy of the good" and all. This was limit volume for me: 80%+30 lbs for 7 sets of 5. Form tends to slip a bit. Wrist rolling is my big sin when the weights get heavy, though I do shove my ass up a bit too much on final reps, too. Both wrist roll and looking up seem to be pretty common when powerlifters are at the bottom of especially heavy squats. A quick perusal of squat pics via Google will bear this out.

I have in the past kept my head down and driven with my hips and then driven my traps into the bar ("chest up") more at about the halfway point where my glutes/hams/addies hand it off to my quads. On the max attempt I was just plain scared. I think I was looking up for the same reason one thinks "up" even on the way down in a bench press. Doing so facilitates the drive up in the bench, plus it's where you really want the bar to go when it's threatening to crush or bury you. I find that ideally I look down until my quads need to kick in and then looking up helps.