Chandrashekhar Tupe teaches his son Aarav well. Both train together at Starting Strength Atlanta. With others layers of safety measures in place, Shekhar wants Aarav to learn how to properly give a lift off and spot on bench press. [photo courtesy of Starting Strength Atlanta]
Ashley is all smiles before putting up an impressive 135 lb press and 205 lb bench to win the Starting Strength Columbus Freedom of the Press event for the ladies. [photo courtesy of Megan Yeh]
Yonason Herschlag
I saw a clip of this guy squating 400kg, and I noticed he took a wide stance. Looking in the Blue Book, it appears that the main objection to this stance is that it can prevent most people from reaching parallel.
Would that mean that if I personally reach bottom just below parallel with the recommended "neutral shoulder width" stance, that widening my stance a drop could be advantageous?
The dude in this clip makes it look so easy to squat 400kg, that it raised this question in my head.
Mark Rippetoe
I think the squat in the video has more to do with the guy's strength than his stance width.
Jason Donaldson
The guy in the video also looks to be squatting with a squat suit. Because of the way those suits store and re-apply energy to the movement, they work differently from the body doing it alone, resulting in the use of wider stances to take advantage of the suit.
Don't get me wrong, the young man is clearly very, very strong. My point is just that the specifics of execution for assisted squats (and bench presses, and deadlifts) are different because the system in question has those extra parts.
Bawitdabarbell
This is an elite-level competitive powerlifter using a single-ply squat suit and knee wraps. He is an extreme outlier in terms of squatting performance, and thus he deviates slightly from the blue book model, for obvious reasons.
Well, the reasons are not obvious to me. That's why I asked. Jason Donaldson gave some helpful clarification.
Correct me if I'm wrong, does taking a wider stance enable reaching parallel with a more erect torsoe? If so, it would appear to shorten the distance from bottom of squat to top, thus reducing energy expenditure and total effort to complete the lift.
Alex Wood
There are plenty of places where techniques commonly used by competitors in powerlifting contests deviate from the blue book.
- Sumo deadlift
- Extreme lower back arch in the bench press
- Very wide hand placement in the squat
These techniques solve for different things.
The blue book is about how to perform the exercise in a way that is safe, over the longest effective range of motion and recruits as much muscle as possible to make you strong. Powerlifting is often concerned with artificially shortening the range of motion to let you move the most possible weight, often this means safety is a secondary consideration particularly on the day of the meet.
Those are the trade-offs.
I would say, unless you are competing at a very high level it makes sense to just stick with what is safe and makes you strong. But that's a matter of personal opinion.
Griffin727
My current lifts are bench 365 squat 585 and deadlift 635. Would this program be overtraining?
Day 1 Bench 5x5 75 percent of 1RM Dumbell press 4x6 Overhead press 5x5 at 60 precent of 1RM Barbell rows 4x8
Day 2 Squat 5x5 75 precent of 1RM Paused squat 4x6 Deadlift 3x5 60 percent of 1RM
Day 4 Overhead press 5x5 75 precent 1RM Bench 5x5 65 precent of 1RM Barbell rows 4x8
Day 5 Deadlift 5x5 75 precent of 1RM Paused deadlift 3x5 Squat 5x5 65 precent of 1RM
Yes, this would be overtraining.
I figured, I been feeling tierd alot. I guess I'll drop it down to 2 lifts instead of 4. My progess on bench has been a issue more then the other two. I have always had a overtraining bone since I started. Maybe I should get a 2nd job lol.
Practical Programming for Strength Training
Cueing: Shoulders Over the Bar –stef bradford
Press Variations –Carl Raghavan
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