Squat and Deadlift Questions

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Hey BBM Team!

I had a couple of short, specific questions.

On my squat, I have 2 noticeable problems: I have what I believe to be fairly good form, I took a few videos and corrected my excessive forward lean. This lead to the bar path being well in front of the middle of my foot, and lead to some mild-severe knee pain. That besides the point, my left elbow had trouble staying upright, parallel with my right elbow. For example purposes, imagine my right elbow being at an angle 30 degrees from my torso, whereas my left elbow is closer to 20 degrees. Basically, my left elbow is pointed downward more, and has trouble keeping the “shelf” effect for the bar. This has lead to some pretty nasty left elbow pain if I bring my hands in too close for squatting, ,and that carries over into benching. If I try and force my left elbow up to replicate my right elbow position (not excessive, but to trap the bar in place), my left delt cramps up. Does this sound like a muscular problem, something I need to stretch out/strengthen?

The second squat related question is: on my heavier sets, upwards of 90% of my e1RM (around 425lbs+), I tend to shake at the top quite a bit. I try and stay as tight as possible, but it feels like I am fighting to stay balanced. I use iron plates at my gym, so having 4 plates on each side rattle is quite noticeable. Is this normal, or am I not as tight as I think?

One last thing. So, my deadlift has taken a nose dive, in terms of steady progression. I am running the 12 wk strength program (I am in the middle of week 6), and losing weight around 1lb a week. Not the best idea, but I wanted to lose weight t the time, and all of e1RM for my competition lifts have gone up, except my deadlift. I pulled 505lbs in Feb of this year, and 475lbs at the end of March. However, I found 465lbs today an RPE 9, and it has been on the decline for the past couple of weeks. I am very frustrated at this lift. I will decrease the weight again on the deadlift to something that I know I can do, 425lbs, and start the 1@RPE8 there and try to progress. Am I overthinking the lift, and may need to try more volume for the lift? I am following the template as best as possible, and have not missed any other lifts except for the competition deadlift.

Wow, that was a lot longer than what I thought. Thank you again, all at BBM, for your valuable insight. To someone who wants to progress this information on a large scale, you guys are wonderful.e

-Particular Perkins

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Particular Perkins,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

If the barbell is forward of the midfoot and you’re bent over quite a bit, I’d cue you to push your knees further forward and outward to fix that. I don’t care about your elbows being asymmetrical and I would caution anyone to NOT push their elbows up whilst squatting. Rather, keep your elbows pinned to your sides when squatting.

I’m not sure why you’re shaking at the top unless it’s circa maximal in which case, all bets are off. Real question is, why are you doing sets > 90%? Should be doing that for singles only and they shouldn’t be maximal you know?

I probably wouldn’t take your DL down from 465> 425 arbitrarily, as that would represent a large decrease for no apparent gain. If you’re on week 6 then that means you maxed out at 475 prior to starting the program and did 505 5-6 weeks before that. So, it sounds like the DL detrained prior to starting the program and is slightly improved from there right now under fatigued conditions, e.g. 465 x 1 @ 9 = 490ish for a e1RM. That’s pretty good IMO.

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Hi Jordan!

Thank you for the quick reply!

The bar path, for when I first starting squatting low bar, was pretty poor. The bar would go well forward of my mid foot because in my mind I kept cue-ing myself, lean forward. You’re supposed to lean forward. Plot twist, as I am 6 foot 2 and have moderately long legs and a short torso, the forward lean would not have to be exaggerated. That, as well as taking a video and seeing the bar in line with my knees and not my mid-foot helped the issue. I will cue myself to just keep my elbows pinned at my sides!

Through my progression, I originally hit a PR of 415lbs on the squat before starting the 12 wk Strength Program, so now I have progressed so that I am very close to that mark, and the weights are substantially easier (i.e. 385lbs previously was RPE 9, whereas after following the Strength Program is now RPE 7.5). Not maximal, but close to my old 1RM.

So, it sounds like the DL detrained prior to starting the program and is slightly improved from there right now under fatigued conditions, e.g. 465 x 1 @ 9 = 490ish for a e1RM.

I am confused by this. I am understanding that my DL detrained prior to the program (505lbs was my all-time PR), although I am misunderstanding the “slightly improved…under fatigued conditions.” Could you elaborate on your reason? I am seeing the situation as, my deadlift has gone down due to either fatigue or not enough volume.

Thank you again for your insight!

-Particular_Perkins

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If you’re within 2.5-5% of your max during the higher volume phase with lots of residual fatigue then that’s a pretty good place to be!

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