18
What you are describing suggests that your knee extensors, and particularly the single-joint quadriceps muscles—vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius—are weak. The closer that you are too the floor, the greater the moment produced at the knee. At 0°—that is, parallel to the floor—the moment is at a maximum due to the weights of the upper ...
10
Short of getting coached directly, the best tool for the job is taking video. There are a number of digital video recorders that have at least an hour of video available on the device. When you are training by yourself, you want a video recorder that can stable enough for you to stand up and trust that it won't fall over while you are lifting. You may ...
8
There can be many reasons for muscle spasms/pulls in the neck area, including (in no particular order):
Insufficient food: the muscles lack the glycogen stores required and overcompensate
Insufficient sleep: your nervous system is impacted when you are in a sleep deprived state, and I've had most of the neck spasm issues when in this state
Bad hydration: ...
7
This has happened to me a lot over the years. I found it was caused by tightness of the levator scapulae and middle and upper trapezius and a weak lower trapezius and serratus. All largely sorted through fixing muscular imbalances, using a mixture of self myofascial release and targeted resistance work on the weak areas.
Release tension in pec major/minor, ...
6
There is a certain technique of foot strike that runners use for distance running, and that's known as midfoot striking.
Your issue, commonly known as runner's knee, seems to be likely from the biomechanical issue discussed in this article. In essence, if your footfalls are striking hard on the heel, then the entire shock of the impact is traveling ...
6
First, I don't think you have the correct notion of ATG based on this sentence:
For example, if I lay on my side with my legs in line with my torso and try to pull one foot straight back, I can't get my heel to touch my glutes.
In an ATG squat you are going down until your calves are in contact with your hamstrings. Simple physics state that two ...
6
The bottom line is you want your shoulder in a neutral position. That doesn't necessarily mean full scapular retraction, but it's a cue that helps a lot of people.
Considering your level of experience, and the fact you came off of injury I would advise you to use that scapular retraction, but only to the point where your shoulder is in a neutral position.
...
6
I would suggest starting with the barbell on the floor. If you can't, or won't, and the blocks are necessary1, then I would find some way to safely elevate yourself to the same level. Once you and the barbell are at the same level, you can work on getting your deadlift technique down. For that, I would recommend watching Alan Thrall's 5-step approach to the ...
5
Everything depends on the coach; however, bad form will prevent you from lifting heavier weights. If anything, form is more important with power lifting where the goal is to have the highest total on the platform.
That said, there is a decently wide range of what constitutes good form, and it comes down to finding a coach who can help you find your optimal ...
5
You can lay down flat on your stomach and then lift your feet up. You don't only lift your toes off the ground, but you also lift your feet up to the point where your knees are also leaving the ground. You then repeat this for several repetitions. This will cause you to feel a certain burning sensation in the lower back muscles. The idea is, once you feel ...
4
Their answers hold weight... I've noticed the pull or tear when the weight was a little heavy or a lot heavy. Also every time you actually move your head forward or look down to do the weight, it's possible to strain or tear it. Keep good posture, eyes forward and head straight. Stabilize or don't use your neck while moving the weight.
4
I assume you are doing this to avoid strain on your wrists rather than to toughen up your hands for bare-knuckle boxing?
One option is to use push up "bars" or "handles" instead of your knuckles. This would have the additional benefit of getting you another 4" or so off the floor and increasing your possible range of motion. You can probably get a pair ...
4
Awareness
The first step is to discover the sensation of a flat back, of firing your lower back muscles, of arching your back, and of keeping or losing your back arch while the hips move. Practice "supermans" on the floor, lifting your legs and chest off the ground. Get into what you think is proper position, then feel with your hand or look in a mirror.
...
4
I'm willing to bet you don't do single leg work at all. It's not fun, but it is necessary to deal with things like this. Single leg work that supports squats include things like the following:
Split squats
Lunges
Single leg press
Bulgarian split squats (one leg elevated on a bench)
Pistols
You'll want to do as many reps as you can with the strong leg, ...
4
The reason for that advice may have resulted from a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in March of 2011.
Riemann, BL, Limbaugh, GK, Eitner, JD, and LeFavi, RG. Medial and
lateral gastrocnemius activation differences during heel-raise
exercise with three different foot positions. J Strength Cond
Res 25(3): 634-639, ...
4
When I start to pull, inevitably my knee angle "wants" to open first to the point that my back is horizontal before the bar actually leaves the ground
This sounds fine. Fully horizontal is a bit much, but lots of people get to near-horizontal and that's the way it should be. There's no need to keep your back angle constant from your setup. It's very common ...
4
Caveat: Proportions is an indicator of how your squat form could look. Actually measuring your limb and torso lengths and trying to mathematically deduce "correct" form is rarely beneficial, and can lead to someone trying too hard with a form that simply doesn't work for them.
This is partly because no one has a handle on all of the significant factors that ...
4
You were likely taught to cup you hand in some beginner class.
That's not so much "wrong," just ineffective & unnatural. It also doesn't add to your propulsive power as you may think.
The cup has proven to not add any difference in propulsive power through enough studies. It also forces you to focus on a minor matter that actually adds unnecessary ...
4
We usually refrain from offering diagnoses here, for obvious reasons, but you touch on something important: Bench press prep. So I'll touch on it too.
I would caution against doing the exact same prep on incline as you do on flat.
On a flat bench, we covet the arched back and pinched shoulderblades, because the weight is loaded on arms that are ...
4
Others have mentioned correct breathing but i might also suggest that:
1). The weight is too heavy. If you can't do the movement correctly the first response should be to lower the weight until you can. If you can't even do it with the empty bar then there may be another, more structural, issue at hand.
2). You are possibly going to low. For romain ...
4
Does [form breakdown at a new working weight] happen to other beginners?
Yes, absolutely. The degree changes, and it doesn't happen to everyone every time they add weight, but it's common.
Does lifting form/technique always break down when performing the heaviest work-set for the first time?
No, not every time. The goal is to dial in technique so that bar ...
4
You're pretty much using all back with your current form. Lifting with your legs is really important with a deadlift and will help you get more weight, as well as, not hurt your back. You have a really great form in your back, you just need to squat down a bit more for the full motion.
StrongLifts suggest squatting down until your shins hit the bar. The ...
3
It'll depend on the coach. But in general, bad form gets you injured, and then you can't lift very heavy, so that wouldn't make sense, would it? It is common, however, for there to be some bad form on 1-rep-max tests or in competition, since these are all-out efforts at the limit of (or beyond) one's ability. That's different from allowing or promoting bad ...
3
I see a couple things going on here with your question. First to answer the headline question:
The further away from your body you have your hands, the more you involve your chest. The trade-off is more stress on the shoulders and pectoral tendons.
This bit of advice also works for bench press. To further activate your chest, concentrate on tensing ...
3
So I believe it depends on your progression. When you just start training there is really no need for a mixed grip until you can deadlift with good form and reach heavier weigths. However doing mixed grip only on really heavy sets (>90% of 1RM) can result in injury due to not getting used to mixed grip. So training it is important.
Handeling really heavy ...
3
Learning proper form in any exercise, is something that's hard to judge on your own. But that's not to say that you have to have a personal trainer with you.
A lot of people these days post form check videos, where they film themselves from different angles doing an exercise, and post it online for response from a fitness community.
I haven't seen any of ...
3
There are a few ways to obtain the information you want. Some colleges/universities offer a major in Kinesiology and Exercise Science. You may want to see if there is one in your area. They may provide learning programs available to the general public.
A more widely accepted and cost effective source of information is to locate a certified fitness ...
3
Based on you not knowing what your shoulder muscles are called, I'm going to take a guess that you're not really doing any shoulder exercises to speak of, or at least over-emphasizing your bench press.
A good rule of thumb for shoulder health is to overhead press at least as often, and more like twice as often, as you bench press. Additionally, you'll want ...
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