Thought I'd post some pics of the ol' back as I'm starting to get back into my training after a long time of doing very little (light weights and no motivation).

I'm crap at lat spreads but I just tried a couple of pics couldn't really manage it.



**** posing though! LOL! That's why I'm never competing!




Shoulders look uneven, but it's just the angle of the pic unfortunately - they're looking pretty good and even at the moment.


Didn't train for nigh on 4-5 months really.

Back up to around 100kg now, strength back up, benching 100kg for 10+, deadlifting 230kg, squatting 160 for 5+ reps. So getting back there slowly.

First pics a cracker. shame your bending your neck forward and robbing us of alook at the upper back popping if you had full posture

Pull head back... noted... I shall try again some time!

lose the CK shorts as well

Thumbs on sides of waist and fists cleched stand up straight lol!

Saying that I would hit it.. HARD!

Oh how I envy your naturally thick and sexual frame... To get to your position, I am going to need to work my ass off! Lucky sod.

Can we have some shots of you bending from the waist tensing your glutes and hamstrings

Not very good at doing leg shots! Thanks for the advice will work on it for the next time I decide to do this sort of "posing".

However another couple of pics I took a couple of days ago, and some deadlift vids which I'd like your help and suggestions on.

Here are a couple of snaps - not very good quality I'm afraid.






Took a few vids of my deadlifting - the angle is pretty pants so it's look "up" at me, not really happy with my form or technique at the moment which is why I think it's holding me back.

First vid is 190kg x 2



Second vid is 230kg x 1



Third is 190kg x 6



Last vid is 200kg x 4 - tried a different angle but as you can see it's not very useful!

Looking beastly as usual.

Try doing the lift head down as opposed to having it up. There are various camps that favour head up but I did read a decent article giving merits for head down which made good sense and worked well when I tried it out.

Alex wrote:Looking beastly as usual.

Try doing the lift head down as opposed to having it up. There are various camps that favour head up but I did read a decent article giving merits for head down which made good sense and worked well when I tried it out.

Andy Bolton is a good example of this

Cool - thanks for the advice

Looks to me like there's a little bit of slack in your arms/upper back (not sure which) which only disappears once you actually start to hoist the weight- it's most pronounced in the 230 x 1 vid. I think your hips are rising very slightly before your shoulders as a result

What has helped me is making sure that every little bit of slack has left my upper and lower body well before the bar leaves the floor, and a useful cue I read was to pull yourself 'into' the bar- if you're lifting 200kg, you should already feel like you're putting 50kg worth of force through your body before you actually start to lift the weight.

Does that make any sense?!

It does make sense, I'll have a look more closely and see if I can tweak it. Cheers.

Didn't see your deadlifts! Strong, but form is alittle off as you rightly pointed out. Lumbar arch is a little slack and hip drive could be improved. If you improved hip mobility you could start with greater hip flexion = flatter back which would mean greater glute recruitment and stronger pulls.

Thanks for the pointers Karlos! Any tips on how to improve those areas?

You need to stretch your glutes and hip flexors. Also do a few sets of cossack squats and/or Over head squats at the start of all your lower body sessions. The idea is to get as deep as possible on the without letting your lower back relax. Also a good stretch is lie on your back and pull your knee to your chest hard! again keeping your lumbar arched. On all these you should feel some pain deep in your hip.

I used to have awful hip mobility now within a few months I can hit an atg squat with no back flexion. It's well worth it, plus my problematic knees have been a lot better.

Awesome - thanks matey.