Rab, I'll have a look, but it might just be that the video was taken at a slight angle relative to horizontal. If there is any asymmetry, it is in the mid-part of the pull, as at the bottom both sets of plates are contacting almost perfectly together on the reps.

I'll investigate. In reality everyone is slightly asymmetrical; I'm right arm dominant and left leg dominant, which is probably the most common configuration, so I probably will automatically favour a kinetic chain recruitment that favours those sides during the lift... I do try to vary my mixed grip, so although I'll go left supinated right pronated for my heaviest/maximum lifts, as that is my favoured grip (and makes sense based on the aforementioned right arm/left leg serape effect), I do alternate it the other way round on all my lighter sets.

Rilla - jesus, how does that guy find any trousers that fit?* Can he even walk properly without getting blisters down his thighs?! They're fucking huge!

*And incidentally, even with my considerably more puny thighs, I already have an issue finding trousers with a correct waist/thigh ratio, they're all way too narrow in the leg, it seems that all modern jeans these days are designed for skinny emo street kids who wear them buckled just above their knees...

Aren wrote:*And incidentally, even with my considerably more puny thighs, I already have an issue finding trousers with a correct waist/thigh ratio, they're all way too narrow in the leg, it seems that all modern jeans these days are designed for skinny emo street kids who wear them buckled just above their knees...

That's only because your waist is too slim. Do more side bends.

Rilla wrote:

Aren wrote:*And incidentally, even with my considerably more puny thighs, I already have an issue finding trousers with a correct waist/thigh ratio, they're all way too narrow in the leg, it seems that all modern jeans these days are designed for skinny emo street kids who wear them buckled just above their knees...

That's only because your waist is too slim. Do more side bends.

+beltless front squats

Nice work aren. Have you ever tried hook grip? takes a while to get used to, but will help eliminate any unilateral imbalances.

Mmm, don't think my waist is especially slim per se, in fact if anything I could trim off a bit more there, I'm about 31 1/2" inches. But trousers seem to be designed for people with very skinny legs, my thighs are around 24". My adductors are the muscle(s) that seem to have hypertrophied more than anything else...

Squat

All lifts today done raw (no belt or any wraps whatsoever).

OK, so time to put Ader's "plate box" suggestion (i.e. build a box by stacking the 25kg plates into a tower) into full effect, and it worked extremely well.

Also in process of completely rebuilding my squat (again) in light of suggestions here, so:

1. Narrower stance overall
2. Much narrower grip on bar
3. Lower bar position
4. Sitting back a lot more
5. Looking up even more (looked up at about 45 degrees above horizontal)

Medium width conventional squats (ass to grass):

10 * 60kg
10 * 60kg
5 * 100kg

Still getting used to squatting without a heel. Tricky, as it demands even more flexibility through the calf muscle to stay firmly planted/back right at bottom. Surprising what a difference a small heel makes. I'll stick with squatting flat for now, I've always got my Olympic lifting shoes if I decide to go back to the heel. Did these using 3 * 25kg plates as a box, which was right at the absolute bottom limit of where I can physically go down to fully folded up, so just barely touched on each rep to ensure total depth.

Box squats - 7 plates = almost exactly parallel depth

5 * 100kg
5 * 100kg
5 * 120kg
5 * 140kg

140kg set was pretty damn tough.

Box squats - 8 plates = Around 1-2" above parallel

5 * 150kg

Very difficult indeed.

Front squats (ass to grass)

8 * 60kg
8 * 60kg
8 * 60kg

A lot more work to do on back squats, I feel like I'm still fighting the tendency to shift more weight further forward on the foot and need to keep forcing myself to sink back towards the back/outside of foot. Old habits die hard, I guess they say, so I'm still too anterior chain dominant despite all my posterior chain work. But it is definitely improving.

Low bar position works well, only problem is that I find it hard on the wrists (elbows felt fine), feel like they're bearing a lot more of the weight. I could see from the mirror that the bar position must have been fairly good, as I had a slight red mark running right across my back neatly bisecting the lower area of my deltoids.

Oh, and feeling a lot more work going through the legs and far less through the back, so clearly I must heading along the right path.

Why on earth would you squat in flat shoes when you've got a pair of squatting shoes? That has got to be the worst decision ever.

They're flat powerlifting boots - so also specifically designed for weightlifting.... I've got these and Olympic lifting shoes.

The boots are definitely better for deadlifting in. I may ultimately squat in my olympic shoes and for "functional movements" (i.e. multiplanar lunges, etc.) and deadlift and all other plain lifts in my boots.

Squatting in anything but olympic shoes is idiotic at best.

Well, I did ask about this issue earlier on.

Quite a few powerlifters lift in flat-soled boot, with a wider stance. Am I to deduce from your reply that this is purely taking advantage of equipment in equipped lifting? Or do raw squatters also use them...

Also, I thought I'd give it a try, since at the end of the day, the human body does not have an extra heel built into the foot, and yet we generally spend all day with a heel with the vast majority of footwear...

If nothing else, they're superb for deadlifting and plain standing/pressing movements.

Olympic lifting shoes are primarily optimised for explosive movements and "toe-off" (such as when clean/snatching a barbell). Whether they are optimal for a plain back squat from a rack is a slightly different question. Time to ask the audience...

The only ones that use flat shoes are the ones who sit WAY back and compete in the circus feds.
They don't get near IPF-legal depth.

If nothing else, then use lifting shoes for squats because:
Ferruggia says so?
Wendler says so?
And obviously because the Rilla says so (and he owns two different pairs lol).

The stability lifting shoes give is reason enough in my opinion

Aren wrote:Mmm, don't think my waist is especially slim per se, in fact if anything I could trim off a bit more there, I'm about 31 1/2" inches. But trousers seem to be designed for people with very skinny legs, my thighs are around 24". My adductors are the muscle(s) that seem to have hypertrophied more than anything else...

31.5 is small consider ing you have podge. im 33 or just over with full abs and i have a small BB waist. not shredded by any means but still a good 10% maybe

Mine is 35.4 and I've just slimmed down about an inch.

Relaxed?

Which measurement exaxtly are we talking about?

Hips or waist?

Across the hips I'm just under 32" as mentioned, through navel/waist/across obliques I'm 34"....

Additional note. Those heavy box squats really did some damage! The pause/break in tension must have done the job, as for the first time in a long long time I'm been suffering with some unbelievably sore DOMS today! Clearly then, a good shock.

Hello guys

Been incredibly busy with work (which is good) so no time to regularly maintain this online log (nor any other for that matter), but just thought I'd stick a few recent kettlebell videos to show you what I've been up to...




Wish I'd spent the extra and bought the competition grade pro kettlebells in the first place rather than upgrade to them now, they are so much better to work with (and the much better handle means I can get a hook grip on them; the handle is ultra fat on my existing iron 32kg bell, though I suppose that makes it good for a grip specific workout...). Oh well, when I've got the £££ I'll get one more 24kg, a pair of 20s, a pair of 28s, and a pair of 32s to give me two 8s, 12, 16s, 20s, 24s, 28s, and 32s.

Finally, throughout the month of July I am swinging my 24kg kettlebell a total of 25,000 times single arm for charity (i.e. 12,500 per arm):



The blog site charting my progress (and if anyone feels like donating a few pence!) is here:

http://25thousandswings.blogspot.com/

Day 12 and I'm approaching the 12,000 mark.... Doing wonders for my conditioning, although the skin on my hands is paying for it!!!