Critique my form please, power clean, squat, front squat, and deadlift, videos inside

R

realworksuks

2
Critique my form please, New Videos 4/4/08..!

I finally got some videos of my lifts, please critique my form, I appreciate it!

Power Clean



Squat



Front Squat



Deadlift
 
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back squats look good, nice and low without low back rounding.

Gonna have to talk about the power cleans. send evo and goergen a PM asking them to critique, I can write something more extensive when I have the time. You really aren't tapping into your potential power with them the way you are doing it.

front squats look good too. I'm envious of your squatting mobility (mine sucks :p) Only thing is it seems you are first shooting your knees forward then following with the hip when the knees can't go further, you should try to break with the hip and the hips at the same time.
 
Karky said:
back squats look good, nice and low without low back rounding.

Gonna have to talk about the power cleans. send evo and goergen a PM asking them to critique, I can write something more extensive when I have the time. You really aren't tapping into your potential power with them the way you are doing it.

front squats look good too. I'm envious of your squatting mobility (mine sucks :p) Only thing is it seems you are first shooting your knees forward then following with the hip when the knees can't go further, you should try to break with the hip and the hips at the same time.
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Thanks for your input Karky! When you talked about the squat and how I first shoot my knees forward... I have wondered about that for a long time. So I should instead stick my ass back first right?

and when you said this : you should try to break with the hip and the hips at the same time.

You did mean hips and knees at the same time right?

So I guess I should stick my ass out while breaking the knees at the same time then right?

Yeah, I know my powerclean is pretty sloppy...

What'd you think of the deadlift?
 
squat form looks good. nice and deep.
Power clean-looks like your using your arms; are you?(you shouldnt)
its all leg power :]
try not to change the stance on your legs too much. dont open up too wide

just practice, watch tons of videos of correct form(gale hatch) if you cant get a coach. keep the weight light and post up another vid later.

deadlift: the first movement should be in the hips, keeping the upper body stable. it looks like you did it right but it looks like you bend over a lot >.>

im going to get video of myself hopefully not too far in the future :]] so you can critique me :p
 
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Squats look good. I noticed the knees vs. hips lead thing on the front squats - but it wasn't consistent. Sometimes, you did it one way, sometimes, the other way.

Deadlift seems fine to me also. I did notice the bending of your back thing (as commented above) - not when you are lifting, but when you are getting yourself set. If I did that kind of "stretch" pre-lift, my body would not be happy. Hehe.

As for the power clean, I can tell it is wrong, though I don't have a lot of confidence in my analysis. My diagnosis would be that you are not starting your explosive pull low enough. Your arms are too high, so the "throw" is not being driven by your hips/core. While there is some natural "hop" or "jump" to the throw/squat/catch movement, it looks like your bodyweight is very far forward - too much so. To me, this also suggests that you are using your arms and that is pulling your balance forward. Compare that to how your weight is for deadlifts and squatting.
 
In the Deadlift, do not look in the mirror. You are looking for a neck injury. Look down on the floor in front of you. Your neck is suppose to be neutral and not forced to look up like on the squat. Read this article posted by Eric Cressey on T-Nation TESTOSTERONE NATION - 5 Common Technique Mistakes and it will tell you what you are doing wrong in the deadlift with videoclips of what you are doing and what you should be doing (what you should not do and what you should do) a long with a few other exercises.
 
yes I meant hip and knee at the same time :)

on the power clean you bend your elbows before you reach the top of the triple extension + shrug, that takes away power. keep the elbows straight until the "top" of the jump.
keep the bar in contact with your legs, your arms are just hanging down, the bar should be in contact with the body before the explosive pull.
it also looks like you can bend a bit more down before the explosive pull, you are just barely flexing at the hip. However I am a bit unsure as this will vary a great deal from person to person, but it is worth trying out.
the catch is also bad, you move your legs out a lot and just flex the knees to get under. I think you would do well with trying to do some high pulls for a while to learn the explosive pull movement.
 
Front squat-besides what others have said, I can't tell from the angle but it looks like you don't have the bar high enough.

Power Clean-feet jumping a bit more out and back than I'd like to see. At times the bar comes out too far in front of you. Your hang shrugs seem a bit too forced; you seem to be jerking the entire body instead of really shrugging and driving with the hips.

Squat-I can't see any real inheriant flaws. I will say that something bothers me about the way your knees lock out, but I can't put my finger on it. I would suspect that if you picked up a heavier weight, more apparent flaws would surface.

Deadlift-I wouldn't count you as really locking out. I'd put the hips a bit lower from the start.

...I'd like to see your form on some heavy triple or 5 rep weight.
 
how come no one here is mentioning the neck position on deadlifts except for me? Your supposed to be looking down in front of you, not straight ahead like in a squat. This person is defiantly looking straight ahead in the deadlift like in a squat and is asking for neck problems in the future.
 
OK,

Power Clean - There is a mountain of stuff to go over. I am only going to hit on a couple of things.

1. What are you doing before you do the clean? It looks like you are having some sort of spasm. :D I will advise on that when I know what you are trying to do.

2. Don't move your feet. you are not doing a jumping jack, a clean is up and down.

3. Keep the bar close to your body.

Just start with those things on the clean. There will be a lot more to learn after that. But, you have to start somewhere.

Squat - You squat is decent, it looks like you just need to do a ton more reps. Pull your elbows forward and get your back a lot tighter. Aside from that it is really a style thing. Make sure you squat using different foot spacings. You will find a stance that is most comfertable. (if you haven't already)

Front Squat - Keep you elbows up higher, especially at the bottom. Just do a million more reps and you will have a good feel for it.

Deadlift - this is not bad either. Your hips rise up before the bar moves much on a couple of reps. I do not see a problem with the lockout. Keep your head in line with your body. (that is true for all lifts)

Overall you need to do these exercises for tons and tons of reps. That will get you the practice you need to really get a feel for them.

Where do you live at? There has to be somewhere you can go to get some live help from a coach of some sort. Specifically on the clean, you need the most help there and the best bet is going to be find a coach in your area.

Hope this helped.
 
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xswtsalvationx0 said:
how come no one here is mentioning the neck position on deadlifts except for me? Your supposed to be looking down in front of you, not straight ahead like in a squat. This person is defiantly looking straight ahead in the deadlift like in a squat and is asking for neck problems in the future.
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And where did you get this information? This is like saying that anyone who keeps his head forward rather than looking down is looking for neck problems.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys, I will work on this stuff for a while and post some more videos eventually.

goergen1 said:
OK,

Power Clean - There is a mountain of stuff to go over. I am only going to hit on a couple of things.

1. What are you doing before you do the clean? It looks like you are having some sort of spasm. :D I will advise on that when I know what you are trying to do.
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There I was just practicing the clean pull before I started doing the power clean. :confused::yelrotflmao:

goergen1 said:
2. Don't move your feet. you are not doing a jumping jack, a clean is up and down.

3. Keep the bar close to your body,
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I see, I thought our feet were suppose to naturally jump to the side a little bit? I know I was definitely jumping out too wide, but aren't they suppose to jump out a bit?

Yeah, I have been working on trying to keep the bar close to my body but I always end up just using my arms to get the bar up ... that's my problem I think.

goergen1 said:
Just start with those things on the clean. There will be a lot more to learn after that. But, you have to start somewhere.

Squat - You squat is decent, it looks like you just need to do a ton more reps. Pull your elbows forward and get your back a lot tighter. Aside from that it is really a style thing. Make sure you squat using different foot spacings. You will find a stance that is most comfertable. (if you haven't already)

Front Squat - Keep you elbows up higher, especially at the bottom. Just do a million more reps and you will have a good feel for it.

Deadlift - this is not bad either. Your hips rise up before the bar moves much on a couple of reps. I do not see a problem with the lockout. Keep your head in line with your body. (that is true for all lifts)

Overall you need to do these exercises for tons and tons of reps. That will get you the practice you need to really get a feel for them.

Where do you live at? There has to be somewhere you can go to get some live help from a coach of some sort. Specifically on the clean, you need the most help there and the best bet is going to be find a coach in your area.

Hope this helped.
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Yes, thanks for the advice, definitely helped. I worked with a former olympic lifter at my college and he was trying to give me some tips on the power clean as well. He knew it was a total mess and thought I should just try to get the clean pull down first before I do anything else.
 
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evolution said:
Front squat-besides what others have said, I can't tell from the angle but it looks like you don't have the bar high enough.

Power Clean-feet jumping a bit more out and back than I'd like to see. At times the bar comes out too far in front of you. Your hang shrugs seem a bit too forced; you seem to be jerking the entire body instead of really shrugging and driving with the hips.

Squat-I can't see any real inheriant flaws. I will say that something bothers me about the way your knees lock out, but I can't put my finger on it. I would suspect that if you picked up a heavier weight, more apparent flaws would surface.

Deadlift-I wouldn't count you as really locking out. I'd put the hips a bit lower from the start.

...I'd like to see your form on some heavy triple or 5 rep weight.
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I will try to get some more heavy videos... for sure I will be able to in a couple months when I will have a training partner this summer.

Yeah, with the front squats I have trouble keeping that bar high... especially when I am squatting down and near the bottom. It seems to want to fall down. I am not sure how to fix that. I guess just try to stay more upright?
 
EC is right. Basically what you're doing by keeping the head up is putting the cervical spine in hyperextension. Same with good mornings, follow the decent.
 
realworksuks said:
Yeah I have read that article before, even before you posted it. It just feels natural to keep the head up. I dunno, is Eric Cressey correct about keeping your head down?
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Yes Eric Cressey is correct.
 
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