I posted a video here last Monday, and now it's Friday and my last workout of the week, and I think I made some good progress on squats and deadlifts. I watched Juggernaut's Pillars of Squat + Mark Rippetoe videos on Squat/Deadlift and I think I made good improvement on my form. Obviously it's still far from perfect, so I'm posting an update.
@arealwomanalwyz Weightlifting shoes will help your squat. Nailing down the aim of your lifting ie. Weightlifting/Powerlifting/Body Sculpting will dictate your form.
@arealwomanalwyz Squat: keep the bar over your mid foot. You're falling forward quite a bit. This is going to make it very tough to improve. You want a straight up and down bar path. You may need to keep your torso more upright for this (I think you overcorrected this a bit from your old video), and you might try gripping the bar a little wider to make this easier for you.
Deadlift: pretty good. Stat braced through your core through the whole lift. You don't need to lean back at the top. I think this glute squeeze can get exaggerated a bit causing the leaning back, which makes the movement down a little awkward for you.
@arealwomanalwyz On the deadlift it looks like you are going around your knees on the way down. On the way down you want to break at the hips and move them back but not bend your knees until the bar passes your knee. The view isn't the best because of that other machine so I'm not 100% sure but it does look like your knees bend early.
@arealwomanalwyz Big change from old to new! The more you squat the more your muscles will learn to get more rigid and stable overtime.
You should also actively be squeezing your traps back, even those muscles behind your lats and armpit to stay firm through your elbows and upper body. I know someone here mentioned going overhand - you should use the grip that allows you to maintain the most rigidity whether it’s pressing the bar down more into the back with overthumbs, or being able to squeeze your back better with underthumbs. Either ends up being personal preference for performance in the long run.
Your weight still shifts a little forward to the toes on the ascent as I see the bar path travel a few inches forward (instead of straight) - a little improvement in the second video though keep spreading the floor with your feet.
You may actually benefit from a micro pause at below parallel so you can focus on the upward controlled ascent rather than try to capture a bounce-rebound and shift forward.
@arealwomanalwyz one of my biggest things is this as well. I have to constantly tell myself squeeze the glutes don't thrust the hips. i sometimes have better results when i do some band walks to activate my glutes prior to deadlifting.
@arealwomanalwyz It would matter as you keep progressing in weight because it puts more weight on your lower spine and sometimes your knees. People tend to relax their legs when they lean back with the weight and just imagine that kind of stress on relaxed knees. However, for your first deadlift attempt, it looks really good!! Your squat has improved SO MUCH!! That's a huge accomplishment!
The bar is still rolling around a bit in your hands. That may just be because you're playing around with the grip a bit and the weight is light...just make sure you have your set up correct (back tight and locked, hands and bar firmly in place) before you walk out of the rack. Squeeze your back really tight and think of your hands as an anchor and not something even holding onto the bar. For that reason, I do an overhand thumbless grip and don't even bother wrapping my thumb around the bar. Personal preference though.
Obviously it's still far from perfect, so I'm posting an update.