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[Bobby Isosceles]

I keep it right against the leg all the way through the motion.  Keeping the lever arm on the lower back as short as possible.  From what I read though, this depends on your anthropometry.  Short legs/long arms might be better to let it drift out a bit towards the bottom.

Here's what I did, set #5 of my BBB, so 185x10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tRxJB9NSmc

I'm really tired by this point but I think the form was okay considering this was reps #40-50 after my 5/3/1 lifts. Opine!

(I think I had too much upper back rounding on my 1+ lift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmUI_w8-Tmc)

[Bobby Isosceles]

Oh yeah, this morning I took a dozen bags of pine bedding and a dozen 50 lb. bags of 3/8" alfalfa pellets up to the barn for storage. It's pretty much the same as palming a 50 lb. kettle bell in each hand and taking a walk up a hill and then shrugging each one up to chin height so you can drop it in a bucket.

Honestly, the extra work lately has been good for me. The other day I just reached one hand over the side of the truck bed while talking with Spouse and snatched out a bag of Versabond thinset and was waving it around at shoulder level while cussing about counter installers foibles. I am almost back to Bull Strangling levels.

Extra work is always good. Training for strength is great but thanks to the BBB stuff I've really appreciated the power of volume. 5x10 of SLDLs is simply murdering my hamstrings (and two days later, I could barely eke out a few reps on the GHR). I figure that Man, in some sort of noble savage state of nature, will benefit more from volume than from 1RM type activities.

That said, the increased volume has turned my eating habits into something perverse. I try to bulk cleanly due to some autoimmune issues, but it leads to strange things like devouring two cans of tuna and a pound of grapes, and that's about it.

[jaydub]

Upper back rounding isn't much to worry about.  That is some major weight hanging off your spine.  Have a look at the monsters DL'ing 700+ and you'll see some upper back rounding.  I like the BBB format too.  Now that I'm into coaching season it's the template I'm using when I get a chance to lift.  I like the appetite side effect.  My table mates at lunch recently remarked on the increased volume I'm chowing down.  Going back for seconds and so on.  I stay away from cheap carbs though, so not as much pasta/bread, plus an enormous kitchen-sink salad for vitamins.
Before I found 5/3/1 I was in a 3 sets of 5-8 mode.  I didn't fully appreciate how much of a volume jump 5 sets of 10 was until I actually was doing it for a couple weeks.  Really makes you need to step up the recovery work.

[Bobby Isosceles]

So let's talk about explosiveness training. Is the order power > strength > hypertrophy > endurance? Or does power come at the end like a finisher?

I want to start including some power cleans and box jumps, and don't know where to fit it. My routine currently is:

sunday: low bar squats and pullups (sometimes farmer's walks)
tuesday: OHP and pullups (this is where i do bench/row if i have to double up in a week)
thursday: deadlifts and hip thrusts, sometimes some high bar squats for funsies
friday: bench, row, farmer's walks

[Bobby Isosceles]

Beast mode, activate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcgVtPM8QnQ

[jaydub]

Nice work, Bobby.  Good depth.  It might just be your geometry, but your torso was leaned way forward.  It's natural to do that as you're trying to get low, but it turns part of the lift into a good morning, and that is rough with that much weight.  Gotta stay on the heels and think "chest up & out".  Pull the bar down with your arms like you're at the bottom of a lat pulldown to keep the shoulder blades together. If it's geometry (short legs, long torso) then there's not much you can do about it - it'll just be harder to progress.  On the other hand, dead lifts should be easier.

Edit: "Modify <> Quote", duh.

[Bobby Isosceles]

Nice work, Bobby.  Good depth.  It might just be your geometry, but your torso was leaned way forward.  It's natural to do that as you're trying to get low, but it turns part of the lift into a good morning, and that is rough with that much weight.  Gotta stay on the heels and think "chest up & out".  Pull the bar down with your arms like you're at the bottom of a lat pulldown to keep the shoulder blades together. If it's geometry (short legs, long torso) then there's not much you can do about it - it'll just be harder to progress.  On the other hand, dead lifts should be easier.

Edit: "Modify <> Quote", duh.

Yeah, I'm short and stubby and do well with deadlifts. These are also low bar squats too so more sitting back and less sitting down. The bar is resting on the shelf between my traps and rear delts and not on the traps themselves.

This was also a huge jump for me. I did it because a huge Icelandic monster of a man told me that he thought I could do it. Prior to that my 1RM was 285.

[Bobby Isosceles]

This has been a good week for me, apparently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpdVOT4qstQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLd7SE-PPm8

[Bobby Isosceles]

Breaking walls, mofo.

It's very weird, I basically stalled my progression for months and focused on volume for a bit. Didn't get one inch bigger or gain an ounce of weight but somehow got better PRs. After these today I came home and ate two lb of liver and a quart of milk.

[Bobby Isosceles]

So I changed gyms to a straight up powerlifting/strongman gym (and in the process saving money on the membership).

I have gone from being the strongest man in the gym to the weakest, which is humbling and awesome because it gives me a lot to aspire to.

New gym is interesting: prowlers, fat bars, swiss bars, yoke bars, stone simulators, landmines, glute-ham-raises, etc.

I've been playing with the prowler - it it normal to want to vomit between runs? amidoinitrite?

[jaydub]

Nothing says conditioning more than prowler work.  No skill required (good when you're pushing your exhaustion limits) and you can't really go fast enough to pull a hamstring.

[Bobby Isosceles]

Hands down, whoever invented the Prowler deserves a prize for its conditioning work. I am also experimenting to see how it is for hypertrophy work. My girlfriend is very small (80lb, 4'11") with a winged scapula. She can currently squat about her BW, but her elbows flare because she has trouble keeping the bar steady as her shoulders tire. I figure some HEAVY prowler pushes/walks not runs will give her the same stimulus plus some prowler push/pull work will also build up her shoulders enough to take a bar.

[jaydub]

Hopefully she is also keen on the idea so the whipping can be kept to a minimum.  Don't let her know you're building her up to plow the back yard for a vegetable patch.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I suppose I could google this, but I'm-a ask y'all instead. What is this Prowler you speak of?

[pmcd9]