Get gym bro to film you.

Oh I can film it no issue, i have a go pro and a tripod etc. behind me in frame will either be the entire rest of the gym or folks on treadmill. Ill see what I can do though.
Im not sure gym bro can use a camera.

Oh I can film it no issue, i have a go pro and a tripod etc. behind me in frame will either be the entire rest of the gym or folks on treadmill. Ill see what I can do though.
Im not sure gym bro can use a camera.

See if he focuses on your biceps

HA! I hate the gym honestly, very few people want to help anyone else out and the music is horrendous...
Ill try and go early tomorrow. Depends on how the kids sleep tonight and if I can get the wife outa bed.
I watched a few youtube videos today, mehdi and starting strength channels.
I do bench press basically like Ripetoe's video shows but I find chest up/back flexed makes things worse. If I just relax and dont try and exaggerate anything it goes better.
Ill try and get some video. If there is a bunch of people there I wont be able to. Would be different if I had a friend who could just hold the cell phone but I dont...

If I make plans they never work out. Intended on hitting the gym early and it didnt happen. Got there about 5pm just got home.
140 squat- done.
55 OHP- Done (I was stuck here before)
165 deadlift- Done.
I was slightly intimidated by the deadlift but its like once the weight starts coming off the floor a little switch in my head flips like "oh! you got this..."
OHP tried to get revenge on me on the last rep but I said "I dont care what you have to do this is going up to elbows lock..." and it did.
I think going back over the previous weights helped some confidence and eating more food has helped alot.
I totally screwed my diet today, we ran errands all day and I just didnt get to eat much. so 6:20 pm and Ive eaten like 1200 calories today.
Time to really pig out!

Thanks alot guys for letting me bounce ideas off you and to for the encouragement. Truly appreciate it.

I also got some nice wireless headphones. Deadlift get pumped song:

I don't see any videos.

Ive lost my gopro charging cable. I think it is in my truck ill check today. bench press is tomorrow anyhow.

Ive lost my gopro charging cable. I think it is in my truck ill check today. bench press is tomorrow anyhow.

I was going to post one of those wacky bench press extreme arch videos as a joke but couldnt find one.
I found this video though and it really makes sense to me...

editting video now. bench press went stupid easy today, i had to check and make sure i had 80 lbs on it. those newb gains got me again. Last time i did bench press 75 lbs was on the difficult side, 80 felt really easy honestly. the last set was slightly wonky as I gripped too far left on the bar somehow.
although It seems i am consistent on squat form i am not going low enough I can tell that immediately. That will be something I have to work on for sure, its not by much but enough.

Well i uploaded it like 5 times and it wouldnt take so I put it on my youtube channel. Sorry about the music I just put something else on there besides people talking and what I presumed was old country music they had playing at the gym.

Looks like you are starting by bending your knees first then hips. Do it the other way.

Push your knees out so you can get lower you are not going deep enough. You need to do some box squats to get your depth right.


Looks like you are not keeping your back tight enough. Probably because you have the hooks too high to setup right.

For your squat I would lower the hooks on the rack so you don't have to go on the tips of your toes to rack/unrack. Instead of looking straight ahead, look slightly down, like where the wall meets the floor for example, for a more neutral spine. There's a little hitch in your squat, I think your legs may not be opened wide enough for your torso to fit. So in the words of the mighty Ed Coan, open your taint(YouTube search for the how to squat with Ed Coan on Mark Bell's channel). As you gain mobility try to get a little deeper in the squat as well.

On bench press, control your decent. You are moving really fast. It's hard to tell with the angle, but the bar looks like it might be an inch or two high on your chest at the bottom. I like seeing explosive speed when you are coming up, but the decent ought to be more controlled.

Overall you are looking like you are getting the hang of it. Keep it up.

Edit: also on bench, tighten up your body. I noticed quite a bit of wiggling. Plant your heels and tighten up your lats before you unrack.

Bench looks pretty good to me except you are pulling your shoulders off the bench. Keep them back.  And setup closer to the bar. You are lifting off at weird angle and as the weight gets heavier you might drop it on your face.

Okay, Ive been considering lowering those hooks for a while, I guess I just got used to it.
I hope this part makes sense. Feet angle (birds eye view here):      I  I   or  more like  \  /?  should knees follow the angle of my pinky toe? I think I saw that one a bench press video and just to keep the feet really planted, weight on heels etc.
saying my torso cant fit is exactly right, thats what it feels like.

as far as bench press goes, I usually am alot more tighter because it has been difficult but yesterday I felt like I could throw that bar through the ceiling.
The angle I use just helps me keep it off the hooks when i press up, ill look at the video again though I try and be eyes under the bar, find a spot on the ceiling and push to that each time. Ill slow down the decent as well...
edit: checked video, I could probably stand to scoot up a bit

Also, I forgot to ask. Concerning squats and going low enough, should I step back to like 100 lbs (slight challenge) and practice the form moving weight up as I get 5 sets of 5?

Knees fallow toes but you have to spread your hips open.

You need to setup something to squat to so you can get your depth right.

thats exactly what I was thinking.

Do a few practices with just the bar. Then build up to a weight you are comfortable practicing with. And spread your hips.

Box squats!!!

makes alot of sense.

Ignore the high bar stuff though. And you don't need to go as wide as he does.

I flare my feet slightly, not significantly.  Play with it and you'll find the spot.  I try to track my knees over the small toes, not the big toe, this keeps my toes from being too flared and keeps me opening the knees.  The cue about planting the feet and 'screwing' each leg outwards is pretty good, that's helped me stay tighter at the bottom of the squat.

Tennis ball under the chin

Don't fold over and let the bar flatten your torso and think your getting depth, let the depth come from hips and legs.

I would lighten up the bar and go deeper, but if you want to squat to parallel then watch yourself on vids until you know the spot.  I like a deeper squat because I do this for my own strength and ability and not a competition, so I figure if I can squat deeper then I'm stronger and more flexible.

I loosen up my ankles each and every time I squat for about 10 minutes before I even unrack the bar.  Then I sit at the bottom and with my hands together I force my knees apart.  Then I sit at the bottom with an empty bar, move it around and stretch, then sit at the bottom with 135 and again with 225 before I start my working lifts.

Yes, I could feel this but I could tell if it was too far one way or the other. I feel like if I lean to far back ill fall backward especially if I went lower at the knees etc. Ill have to practice some form. I def want to go deeper, hips lower than knees. great advice!

Yeah, lighten the weights up and work on sitting *between* the legs and it should help you get balanced out with the hips back.  Another cue that helped me was to watch the end of the bar and just practice moving it in a straight line.  If you do that you will have all the parts moving correctly.  In fact in might be easier to forget the details and just let your body do what it needs to move the bar straight up and down.  

Not getting balanced might be tight ankles.

Do not do box squats in the traditional sense. In fact, I'm against box squats for a novice.

Without a bar, set your feet slightly wider than shoulder width with your toes pointed approximately 30-degrees out. Pick a spot a couple of feet in front of your toes and stare at it. Don't move your head once in position, your eyes will move. Squat down by breaking at the knees and hips at the same time (like your sitting on a toilet) and pushing your knees out. Stop at the bottom. Check depth, it helps to have someone else check your depth, but you can use a mirror or camera. Get used to feeling this depth. Squat to this depth a few more times. Now squat with the bar. 3 sets of 10 to get used to it. Titrates weight 5 reps at a time up until bar speed slows. That's your work weight.

Straighten your wrists, don't wrap thumbs. I can only get my middle, ring and pinky fingers on the bar.

When you approach the bar, set your grip width and as you duck under the bar, pull your shoulder blades together and keep them flexed. This provides a shelf just behind the delts to rest the bar. It also helps you keep the upper back tight.

Before you squat, take a big breath and hold it. Do not exhale until you complete the rep...or in the latter half of the upward movement. Stay tight!

That's my $0.02.

I think ill just use "box squats" as a way to get depth muscle memory. In other words use a box or something to get hit at the bottom of the rep to gauge depth etc. I have seen some other videos online with box videos just to help get a feel for the muscle groups to use. Anyhow...
Breathing is something else I need to get down. I usually inhale big hold it and get 3 reps in then huff for last 2. Which is stupid of me to do (holding my breathe). Overall I think I just need to slow down on squats. Breathing is def. something I want to get down.

Duffin has a YouTube video on breathing.  It's a really good video.

How to hold your air and keep a solid core is the first thing I worked with my kids on when they started lifting.

Ill check it out, im a "stomach breather" anyhow so i find it easy to do that part at least.

Up to 162 lbs already.

Good stuff. Out of curiosity, are you tracking your macros at all? Have a daily protein goal?

mfp has protein estimated to 152g.
dont track much else at the moment.
just focusing on calories and protein right now and just eating balanced meals.

edit: Every time i find good food i like to eat my wife finds she likes it too and eats it.

You can readjust your macros on mfp. People typically recommend 1.5-2 grams of protein per pound for a bulk. What that does is helps you get quality calories in leading to a strong bulk, rather than just adding a lot of fat. So if you are at ~150grams a day at 162lbs, I would get you goal to 250 grams a day then see how you feel. If you can swing getting it higher then go for it. I actually eat in the 250+ gram range and get there with about 2 lbs of meat and a shake made with 3 scoops of ON whey and 2 cups of whole milk.

Id be more than happy to give it a shot, I usually go way over protein i think. I love protein shakes but try and do just one a day. 2 scoops on workout days 1 on off days. whole milk and peanut butter added. I freaking love them. But I try and get protein from food as much as possible. The dilemma is just affording all the food too. If you have some meal examples or MFP screen shots or something maybe I could go by. I like simple simple meals.
A meat, sweet potato, vegatable, water.
a hamburger, some carrots and water
eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, a fruit
that kinda stuff.
We buy bulk packages of chicken and hamburger meat. I have lots that stuff i do salmon wrapped in bacon every now and then too. Like I said I am find with adjusting it up I just need more meal ideas/tricks. We have 3 kids, 2 in diapers. we have to be thrifty with our grocery list right now.

Relevant

Lol nice

You have too many kids in diapers at the same time. One kid in diapers at a time was a piece of wisdom my dad passed down to me. Too late for you though. Luckily I have followed that advice, so far.

I keep my cooking simple, quick, and cheap. Day care and diapers are expensive. Luckily the baby eats people food now so I don't have to buy formula. Something I do for myself is:

2lbs ground beef (93/7 is my favorite, but usually I use 85/15 and drain off some fat)
1/2 cup (uncooked measurement) white rice
1/2 cup peas and carrots
1/2 cup sweet potato cubes
Season as desired

Rinse the rice until the water is almost clear. Put in rice cooker with just over 1 cup of water. Add peas and carrots. Turn it on.

Brown sweet potato cubes in pan with some butter or oil. Remove.

Season beef as desire and mash it up. Brown in pan.

Add everything together. Eat throughout the day.

Approximate nutrition(based on 93/7):

1,774 calories
Protein - 201 grams (46%)
Carbs - 95 grams (21%)
Fat - 64 grams (33%)

If you are cooking for others as well, just increase portions and split out what is yours before they serve themselves.

I'll add in a protein shake on top of that typically. I have been doing a body re-composition or whatever the cool kids call it, losing fat and adding muscle. So you could easily add in larger portions of carbs and be closer to your goals.

Another quick thing I like to do with ground beef is brown some sweet potato cubes, brown the beef, then mix it with some bbq sauce.

If you are in the mood for Italian. Brown 3 lbs of ground beef seasoned with onion, garlic, basil, s&p. Break up the beef well and add sauce(if using prego or whatever jar sauce, make sure to season it well), you are making a ragu, so not too much sauce. You want to simmer the sauce down so you have a nice thick ragu. I like to make this with cheese tortellini since my baby loves them, but whatever pasta you want to use will work.

Toss a pork butt in the crock pot before you go to work in the am with a little soy sauce and mesquite liquid smoke(if you like liquid smoke). When you get home, make some rice and boil some cabbage(I prefer red). Boom, kalua pork.

If you have a smoker, go crazy and load it up on the weekend and chow down on smoked meat all week. Ribs, pulled pig, brisket, tri-tip, hot links, fatties, whatever else you want.

Contrary to these recipes I can cook really well, but I just stopped caring so much since I'm just trying to get the right nutrition. I still make it taste good, but these recipes lack style, to say the least.

I actually kind of find it tough to hit protein goals, I weigh about 175, and just trying to get to 175 protein is tough some days--I do like to balance my diet with a lot of veggies/greens and that may fill me up, but not on protein, but I have to do at least 2 if not 3 20g scoops a day at times.

See, my dad didnt pass on anything to me. In fact if he knew what I was doing at the gym he would be all over me to stop and I am over-doing it etc. His idea of life is sit on the couch and get fat. He is another motivator- dont look like him! Yes we have too many in diapers, it took us 6 years to get daughter number 2 (#1 different marriage) then # 3 SURPRISE!!

Love the recipes, Ill should be able to do some of those without much problem. Here is one we do alot:
Line an oven pan with foil, take chicken legs, thighs, breast lay it in the pan. add chunks of butter and sprinkle a ranch packet (its like powder) over the chicken. cover with more foil. Put in the oven @450 degrees for 25-30 minutes then flip the chicken put the other half of your ranch packet on and back in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Pretty easy and pretty tasty.

Im going to hit the gym and try out this new squat form...

yeah I can see where the protein goals will be hard to hit. I mathed mine out to about 58g of protein per meal (if 4 meals)...
Ill have to see what I can come up with...

Oh since I like you... I will share the world's greatest meatloaf recipe with you.

Pre-heat oven to 375.

Cube 1 - 1 1/2 sweet potato. Brown it over medium heat with EVOO(extra virgin olive oil), a little chili powder, salt & pepper.

While sweet potatoes brown mix:

2 lbs 93/7 ground beef
1 cup milk
1 cup italian bread crumbs
1 egg
BBQ sauce, S&P, onion powder, red pepper flakes, basil, and rosemary to taste

Use a loaf pan.

Put sweet potatoes at bottom of pan. Put down a layer of half of the beef mixture, add 1 cup shredded whole milk mozzarella, then top with the rest of the beef. Put some ketchup on top.

Bake for ~60 min.

may have to try that one too. sounds good.

155 squats today, 24/25 reps. wider stance helped alot.
i suck so bad at over head press still...
Got 175 on deadlift though.
wish the kids would go to bed im beat.

Are you finding you are squatting deeper too?  I did overhead squats today for the first time in months and I also did some distracted ankle stretches before hand.  I attached a band on a post of the rack and put the free end around my ankle, faced away from the rack and stepped into the band to put a good bit of tension on the joint.  Then dipped the leg as far as the joint would allow and rocked around on the ankle for a few minutes.

I was immediately able to squat much deeper than I have been in a while.  I really need to do a distracted stretch every day for a while.  

yeah much deeper, I didnt video it but it was alot different than before and it felt good. my breathing is still crap. Ive never been able to hold my breathe long. I am going to try and breathe deep, like a glass fill from the bottom up etc. I was uber tired today as well and that never helps me at the gym. If I could get 2 more hours sleep in the morning it would be great. getting up at 430 am and not getting to the gym until after 4pm is another issue I think I am having overall.
I think my issue with the missed rep was I got tired and stood with the bar on my back too long trying to recover and instead i just used up my energy holding it up.
that stretch sounds pretty interesting though.

Eggs are your friend for sure, have 8-10 already hard boiled in the fridge all the time for quickies and on the weekends, I try to eat large plates of scrambled eggs in the morning to get my protein kicked off right.

Regular work days, Greek yogurt has 12g per container, so not too shabby.

And shoot, this tough just going 1:1 bodyweight, I can't imagine trying to eat 2X (350g of protein).

I like eggs, though I find them overly filling for the relatively low protein content. 5 eggs and a hunk of ham is a great breakfast, but I find I get so full off it sometimes I have a hard time eating at lunch. I think you may be having a hard time hitting your relatively low protein goal because you are eating foods that aren't really high in protein. They have protein and that is good, but to me I like to use those types of foods as add ons to boost foods that are already very protein dense(meat, poultry, and fish) or as between meal snacks rather than the base for the whole meal.

Try drinking egg whites.  They don't fill you up bad at all and are very high in protein.

They give me the shits

lol. The last thing I need in my life is a story about shitting my pants if that's the case. Any benefits of egg whites vs protein powder? Or just another source for variety?

yep, eating lunch is very tough for me.
For breakfast the last few days ive eaten.
eggs and bacon on a hamburger bun x2
oatmeal and some yogurt/fruit (like a parfait) sometimes.

Yesterday I forgot to eat lunch completely. I didnt want to eat before the gym so I waited and then it ended up being after 5 before I got home. So diet was screwed.
even though I ate 2 pieces of salmon and a protein shake i barely broke 2k calories.
I think ill have to set a timer. I cant keep doing that.