Mini Cut Vlog

9bred4

How's it going guys, just going to start a thread about my current vlog I have going. I'm trying to do a small cut in 3-4 weeks to drop a bit of excess weight. All advice is appreciated and taken on board. Be it advice regarding my form or that of my nutrition or just all around tips.

Anyway, here's the video from today which of sort of the real starting point for nice gym footage:

If you want to follow this thread by all means go ahead and get involved!

9bred4

My deadlift form is just way off today. Don't know what it was about. Anybody have any deadlift cues to make note of?

Also my squat was a bit off. Not a good gym day overall!

deadybai

Whats your weekly workout schedule?

Caliden

I wouldn't do lunges before deadlifts, your legs will be in bits. I do them straight after squats otherwise my form breaks down.

For cues, I take a good bit of time to setup and stay tight until finished.
When over the bar initially I take a big breath, get my core tight and keep it that way for every rep. Taking a breath at the top only.

Flex your lats and imagine trying to 'tuck them' into your pockets, this keeps the upper back tight and prevents rounding.
Pull any 'slack' out of the bar so that my hips don't shoot up before the bar even gets off the ground.


Your negative is a bit slow too, don't be too shy of making noise. Your stance also seems a bit wide.

MightyMandarin

You have some 'buttwink' going on in your squats, which is usually caused by tight hamstrings so I'd try and get them looser and warmed up better before you start squatting. I'd also change out of running shoes for squats and get a flat soled shoe (or even better, a weightlifting shoe if money's not an issue) as running shoes are very bad for squats in my experience.

Even though the angle is poor I can see that your stance is too wide for deadlifts. Your setup is also quite bad and your hips are shooting up before you pull which means you're lifting almost exclusively with your back. There's also a lot of rounding going on there.

For cues, I'd usually get my feet narrow enough to hang my arms straight down by my sides, and aim to have the bar cutting right across the middle of my feet. Then I bend my knees to just before they touch the bar. Then I lower my hips just to where I can grab the bar, and straighten out my back before I pull.

If you still have problems with back-rounding trying to stick your arse out is a cue I found useful when I started deadlifting. If you still can't get it, a snatch grip deadlift might be useful in forcing your back to get straight. There are hundreds of youtube videos explaining proper setups and form aswell, so they're probably better to explain what I just said but whatever.

9bred4

deadybai wrote: »

Whats your weekly workout schedule?

Monday - Arms & Shoulders
Tuesday - Chest & Back
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday- Arms & Shoulders
Friday - Chest & Back
Saturday - Legs
Sunday - Off

9bred4

Caliden wrote: »

I wouldn't do lunges before deadlifts, your legs will be in bits. I do them straight after squats otherwise my form breaks down.

For cues, I take a good bit of time to setup and stay tight until finished.
When over the bar initially I take a big breath, get my core tight and keep it that way for every rep. Taking a breath at the top only.

Flex your lats and imagine trying to 'tuck them' into your pockets, this keeps the upper back tight and prevents rounding.
Pull any 'slack' out of the bar so that my hips don't shoot up before the bar even gets off the ground.


Your negative is a bit slow too, don't be too shy of making noise. Your stance also seems a bit wide.

God damn deadlift! Y u so difficult. Thanks for the solid advice.

9bred4

MightyMandarin wrote: »

You have some 'buttwink' going on in your squats, which is usually caused by tight hamstrings so I'd try and get them looser and warmed up better before you start squatting. I'd also change out of running shoes for squats and get a flat soled shoe (or even better, a weightlifting shoe if money's not an issue) as running shoes are very bad for squats in my experience.

Even though the angle is poor I can see that your stance is too wide for deadlifts. Your setup is also quite bad and your hips are shooting up before you pull which means you're lifting almost exclusively with your back. There's also a lot of rounding going on there.

For cues, I'd usually get my feet narrow enough to hang my arms straight down by my sides, and aim to have the bar cutting right across the middle of my feet. Then I bend my knees to just before they touch the bar. Then I lower my hips just to where I can grab the bar, and straighten out my back before I pull.

If you still have problems with back-rounding trying to stick your arse out is a cue I found useful when I started deadlifting. If you still can't get it, a snatch grip deadlift might be useful in forcing your back to get straight. There are hundreds of youtube videos explaining proper setups and form aswell, so they're probably better to explain what I just said but whatever.

I get what you mean, going to make a note of this and the other advice and try compile some sort of "deadlift and squat notes" so I know what to look out for and all that. Thanks for that!

9bred4

With regard my close grip bench press. Is it right? How close is too close and should I be tucking my elbows in more? I think the other exercises are relatively alright. Doing dips at 15 stone ain't easy!!

Alf Veedersane

9bred4 wrote: »

With regard my close grip bench press. Is it right? How close is too close and should I be tucking my elbows in more? I think the other exercises are relatively alright. Doing dips at 15 stone ain't easy!!

Grip looks a bit wide - shoulder width will do. Too close only puts unnecessary stress on your elbows.

Try keeping the elbows tucked more or you lose a little bit of the tricep hit. The bar will touch your chest a bit lower than where it does for normal bench. Your elbows will want to flare if you touch too high up your chest to stop it becoming a tricep extension.

But my 2 cents are worth just that

9bred4

I noticed that if I went to tuck that it hit my chest lower, wasn't sure if that was correct or not! Thanks for that!

deadybai

9bred4 wrote: »

Monday - Arms & Shoulders
Tuesday - Chest & Back
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday- Arms & Shoulders
Friday - Chest & Back
Saturday - Legs
Sunday - Off

And you do rugby training to is it?

9bred4

deadybai wrote: »

And you do rugby training to is it?

Indeed. Wednesday also, only once a week for the moment. Gym at 8 in the morning, work, rugby at 7!

9bred4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1vaSuBjEUY

Again just looking for feedback mostly, particularly the barbell row. My back doesn't look right, felt right at the time though.

MightyMandarin

9bred4 wrote: »

Again just looking for feedback mostly, particularly the barbell row. My back doesn't look right, felt right at the time though.

It's a bent over row, so bend over

9bred4

The more I bend over the more... wrong... it feels? Not sure if wrong is the right word there ha

MightyMandarin

9bred4 wrote: »

The more I bend over the more... wrong... it feels? Not sure if wrong is the right word there ha

It's harder to hold your back lower, but try to get close to parallel to the floor and just keep the lower back straight. I usually find starting with a deadlift and stopping halfway up works.

Maybe try something like a pendlay row if you really can't hold your back there while rowing.

9bred4

Yeah thank God I set up this forum anyway ha, coming in fierce handy with all the advice. Can't wait to bulk ha

9bred4

Legs day form critique. Have away at me!

9bred4

Also when I squat, why does the bar be so uneven on my shoulders?

Hanley

9bred4 wrote: »

Also when I squat, why does the bar be so uneven on my shoulders?

IT's either off centre, you've some shoulder or pelvic issue, or your grip's all eff'd up.

Plus, this should probably be in the training log forum

9bred4

We will see which it is!
Jesus to be honest I didn't even realise there was one!

JJayoo

On deadlifts you need to stop trying to 'squat' the bar. By this I mean you don't have to break parallel when deadlifting which is exactly what you are doing. You stance is also crazy wide, gonna assume it's the same width as your squat stance, wide stance = wide grip= not strongest grip.

And screw Bent over rows, awkward feckers, just hit dumbbell rows instead.

And finally if you are doing a cut you really need to have some before/after pics/videos

9bred4

MightyMandarin

Your form's looking better, but you might want to get more of an arch in your bench and squeeze your legs and glutes more to get better leg drive; you'll be able to push more weight that way.

Mellor

You are doing more of a Yates row I think. That's fine if that's what you are aiming for, but not so much if trying to bent over row.
I'm thinking more about having good perception of movement and position (proprioception), rather than being anal about the correct name being used.

9bred4

MightyMandarin wrote: »

Your form's looking better, but you might want to get more of an arch in your bench and squeeze your legs and glutes more to get better leg drive; you'll be able to push more weight that way.

Might try that the next day

9bred4

Mellor wrote: »

You are doing more of a Yates row I think. That's fine if that's what you are aiming for, but not so much if trying to bent over row.
I'm thinking more about having good perception of movement and position (proprioception), rather than being anal about the correct name being used.

So I'm still not bending far enough? Christ! It feels like I'm bending too far when doing it. Must bend more so next time

Mellor

9bred4 wrote: »

So I'm still not bending far enough? Christ! It feels like I'm bending too far when doing it. Must bend more so next time

When I do it my back is parallel to the floor.
Which means by shoulders are at hip level, and the weight lightly touches the ground each rep

Caliden

Ed Coan shows his technique for the bent over row.
Might suit you, might not. He does say not to bend over too far.

https://youtu.be/-febRoO0gG0?t=167

Alf Veedersane

9bred4 wrote: »

So I'm still not bending far enough? Christ! It feels like I'm bending too far when doing it. Must bend more so next time

Before you do it, hinge forward until the bar is at knee level. The bar is 6" shy of that.

Have a gander at this for an idea

9bred4

Okay, so you don't need to be looking ahead either? In that Hanley video he is staring at the ground.

Alf Veedersane

It's just keeping the neck pretty neutral.

Sugar Free

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

It's just keeping the neck pretty neutral.

Something to keep in mind for RDL/SLDLs as well imo.
I find they can tighten up my traps badly if I keep my head up, the way one might do for a regular DL.

Alf Veedersane

Sugar Free wrote: »

Something to keep in mind for RDL/SLDLs as well imo.

Definitely. I was always really guilty for trying to look straight ahead. Since I've made a much more conscious effort to keep neck neutral (thanks to COH pointing it out a couple of times) it's definitely helped.

JJayoo

I have also found the the narrower my stance the better my barbell BORs feel

9bred4

I'll have an ol video up today but BOR not until tomorrow, I'll try it out though.

Used a split stance today for Shoulder press. That's alright I assume is it? I mean it probably takes away some core benefit but it is aimed at shoulders so..

MightyMandarin

It doesn't make much of a difference, just probably means you're more stable.

9bred4

Yeah, I found that if I don't split the stance I tend to really arch my back which provides more negatives than positives I assume!

MightyMandarin

Back bend is just a measure to make it easier to get the bar over your head. Most people will lean back a bit, but lads in the olympics used to take it really far, like this guy:

9bred4

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

Felt it in my hammies while deadlifting. Assuming that is normal/good? Felt good anyway and no back pain or anything either.

Alf Veedersane

Have you tried the OHP with a narrower grip...bit outside shoulder width?

9bred4

I actually thought my grip was pretty narrow! I'll try a bit narrower on Monday!

Alf Veedersane

9bred4 wrote: »

I actually thought my grip was pretty narrow! I'll try a bit narrower on Monday!

Little finger is out at the rings so it's like a benching grip. You want it just outside your shoulders so your arms are more vertical when you lockout.

When you set up, stand against the bar and position your hands just outside shoulder width.

9bred4

I get what you mean. Sitting at my desk acting it out, getting a few stares.

9bred4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_etj79Q6y7M&feature=youtu.be

Not sure which bent over row is better. 1 or 2.

Also why are my squats still lopsided!! I'm trying not to do it but still just happens. Bastards!

JJayoo

I think the lopsidded squats could be down to shoulder mobility/flexibility, I think if you tried a thumbless grip in which you aren't >really gripping the bar more clamping it onto your back==> someone will be along shortly with a pic/vid/better explanation of what i mean

In regards to your BOR, both are much nicer than in the first video BUT the bar should be pretty much dragging along your legs, you want the bar to be as close to your centre of gravity as possible so the bar should finish right in your hip crease and travel as close to your legs as possible. The bar bath you are using at the moment looks like it would hit the upper back but you will never be able to increase the weight that much as you will lose balance and be pulled forward. It would also be good to try a much much narrow stance. I find a narrow stance is the strongest for me but obviously everyone is different and it may not suit you but it's good to try all options.

MightyMandarin

Your rows are looking better than before, but I think your pulling with your arms too much. Personally I found this video brilliant for showing me how to row with my lats rather than my arms, and who better to show it than one of the strongest people in history . Starts at 2:45.

Are you squeezing your traps together and resting the bar on them? I assume your going with a highbar squat, and it looks like the bar is wobbling a bit through your reps. The bar needs to sit on the traps, and you need to grip the bar hard to stop it moving.

You're also squatting a bit high on some of your reps, and you seem to slow down at the bottom which is making it much harder for you. Are you hesitant when you squat? A lot of people have this problem when squatting. If you use a stretch reflex it'll make your squats much easier as you'll bounce out of the bottom like a spring and you'll hit good depth. Bear in mind it takes time, better mobility and concentration, to get it right.

9bred4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJbLqwO34E&feature=youtu.be

Deadlift is questionable..

JJayoo

On OHP don't lower the bar so much. You want your forearms to be perpendicular to the floor at all times. On each rep you lower the bar too low on your upper chest and this causes your forearms to drift forward = your initial push the bar isn't travelling straight up so you are leaking power.

Alf Veedersane

You're not pulling the slack out of the bar before you lift. It's almost like there's a slight downward movement before the pull and you can hear the bar clink off the hole in the plates as it hits off it. You should be pulling the bar up into the plates before you start the pull.