nunderville

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Free weights: squat, bench press, barbell row

5-17-2016

Squat

Inspirations

Goals

  • From the bottom, concentrate on pushing the hips straight up. Hips/butt rise first and after they can't go higher, the torso straightens.
  • Keep eyes, head and neck properly aligned by looking at and staying fixed at a point on floor just a few feet in front of me
  • Make sure hips don't come forward in the positive part of the exercise; looking at the floor can help to prevent this.
  • When unracking, keep chest up and get the bar to sit just under the spine of the scapula on the posterior deltoids (as described in the video). Elbows need to go far back to pronounce the delts and provide the stable platform. Once setup with the elbows back, keep wrists straight and inline with forearm

Questions and areas for improvement

  • I seem to do a "snapping" motion at the top. Is that wrong or dangerous?

Bench press

Moving up to 55lbs! Soon the plates won't look like such toys. Did more than 5 reps as a couple felt so strange I confused my count.

Questions and areas for improvement

  • Moving the bar diagonally feels awkward. Anything I can do/visualize to reduce that?
  • Should the bar be more forward and directly above shoulders at the top?

Overhead press

Oops, didn't actually mean to do this exercise, but I confused myself and ended up with an extra exercise and recording. It is a bit interesting to see the effects of using the heavy weight and the failed rep/set.

The good

  • Failed a rep and coped

Questions and areas for improvement

  • Was surprised at how hard this felt! but that's because I mixed up my exercise/resistence combo! Don't do that!
  • Push hips forward just before pushing up. Try to keep torso and lower body rigid; then the hip thrust will push the torso back and provide space for the bar to move straigh up as the head has moved.
  • Would like to see this from a side angle
  • Review grip and grip width recommendations

Barbell rows

The good

  • Back stays close to horizontal and not below hips

Questions and areas for improvement

  • Would like to see how it looks from a front angle
  • Should pull shoulders back more?
  • What is a good grip width?