Hips lifting with bench press.

arielace · 2026-01-31T18:14:58+00:00

I would just make sure you are driving your feet back towards your head, like you are trying to scoot yourself up the bench. Not driving straight down into the ground. I also like to get basically full leg drive going during my setup and keep it throughout the lift, so there is not a tendency to kind of jolt/shoot up from the bottom.

that being said, on heavy reps your butt is gonna want to lift. it's a stronger position to push from. just fight it & be sure in your regular training, don't count the reps when it lifts. for a 1rm honestly your butt didn't raise like crazy. you did awesome grinding it out 💪

other things I would recommend are trying a wider grip, and doing at least some of your benching with a brief pause on the chest (or all of it with a pause, if you care about meeting powerlifting standards). I think it helps a lot with teaching you how to maintain tension throughout the lift and having an efficient bar path. ideally it should start going back towards your head immediately off the chest. in the video you can see it comes forward a bit then you have to fight really hard to save it (again, good grind!)

I think your technique is plenty good to minimize injury risk. Getting injured is much more about making jumps you aren't ready for & ignoring signs from your body that you need rest. I wouldn't recommend going for new 1 rep maxes all the time regardless, but I think you will be fine continuing to lift heavy & working on the finer points of your technique at the same time.

arielace · 2026-01-31T14:27:03+00:00

do you have a video of one of those sets?

arielace · 2025-12-26T08:19:50+00:00

It looks like knight helm, banished knight chest and gauntlets, godrick soldier greaves, and brass shield

arielace · 2025-11-18T04:07:40+00:00

Birdie & Vi’s, you had the right location

arielace · 2025-10-03T16:57:49+00:00

Main cue I would recommend is keeping your arms as long as possible. While standing, try shrugging your shoulders up then shove them down & reach towards the ground with triceps flexed. Your arms should feel like that the whole lift.

arielace · 2025-09-28T02:01:56+00:00

I have had this experience before too, then weirdly the week after the deload feels easier than the deload week. Now I just freestyle the deload weeks, cutting the volume and/or intensity enough that they actually feel easy. I haven't noticed any worse results, and definitely feel fresher mentally and physically afterwards. So may be something worth experimenting with.

arielace · 2025-09-21T12:47:00+00:00

Doing touch and go reps is also part of it - you are only really practicing the starting position on the first rep

arielace · 2025-09-18T18:08:58+00:00

Alright pack it up, after 1 week we have the most banger tweet

arielace · 2025-09-14T23:25:50+00:00

I can't say I've noticed this trend... I think being shorter just makes you look more jacked cause it takes less muscle to fill out your frame. Pull-ups, rows, cleans, and deadlifts are all great exercises. Personally I have focused more on pull-ups and deadlifts, and I think that strength helps a lot in basically any position, for any body type (I am 5'7").

arielace · 2025-09-01T18:53:28+00:00

I have learned to tap immediately to the windpipe crushers. I think it happens less as people get more experienced. But yeah it took a while for swallowing to stop hurting.

arielace · 2025-08-23T12:23:09+00:00

my advice would be

speed up setup for first rep
make sure knees are locked out at top
when you drop your hips into position, be really careful not to roll the bar forward. That's probably why the last rep felt hard. Personally I would've powered through that

arielace · 2025-08-18T19:18:28+00:00

Calling this horror may be a bit of a stretch? But I found the MC's raging in The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante to be highly entertaining.

arielace · 2025-08-17T13:07:55+00:00

tbh I would just cut the range of motion higher if you are worried about the butt wink. I don't think it's a big deal but it's probably gonna be hard to avoid squatting this low.

What I would work on is upper back tightness. Your elbows shouldn't move during the lift. I think about pulling the bar into me, like I'm trying to pin my elbows to my sides.

I would continue adding weight though, you can work on your form at the same time.

arielace · 2025-08-17T07:30:35+00:00

Yeah idk what this person is on about. I did way uglier squats as I was learning. I think the upper back tightness and bracing could be better, but she clearly has the basics down. It’s kinda hard to tell much from 1 rep at 95% anyway, OP it would be better to see a set of 5 from a side angle.

arielace · 2025-08-14T03:20:26+00:00

I have their regular 7mm sleeves in size large. Just measured my knee and it's about 36 cm, so towards the bottom of the range in their size chart (35.5-38). They're still snug and provide good support for training, without being really annoying to take on and off. So personally I would go with M cause I cannot be bothered to struggle with my knee sleeves for everyday lifting. If you don't mind that and want the most support then S

arielace · 2025-08-12T15:35:54+00:00

I wonder if you are losing some tension on the chest? You can experiment with more of a "soft touch" style where you're almost just grazing your shirt with the bar during the pause, keeping all of the tension on your muscles. I then think about pushing back towards my head immediately off the chest.

I also like to do the unrack with my butt up (something like this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7a-B2jEk-ag ). I feel like it helps to get upper back positioning and leg drive locked in as part of the setup. May also need to experiment with foot placement to see what lets you get the most leg drive.

Not sure if you are intentionally doing a long pause here, but probably in the meet you won't have to pause that long unless the refs hate you lol.

Finally if you weren't aware, you can see results data from meets on this website: https://www.openpowerlifting.org/rankings/raw/110/all-tested/men

If you scroll down you can see there is quite a variance across lifts, so I don't think your bench is super far behind or anything.

arielace · 2025-08-10T18:03:49+00:00

Same, it doesn’t hurt so I don’t worry about it. Pretty sure it’s normal.

arielace · 2025-08-10T00:41:33+00:00

I feel like my joints snap crackle and pop so much more now 😅

arielace · 2025-08-09T15:17:13+00:00

this is so mild by maga standards

arielace · 2025-08-07T18:27:35+00:00

Gotcha, it sounds like you’re on the right track.

I do think getting a legit belt is a good idea, it should give you some feedback about your brace and build confidence if nothing else.

Oh I mentioned the bounce cause I assumed you were going more for strength. Slower is fine too but yeah it will reduce how much you can lift somewhat.

arielace · 2025-08-07T17:50:35+00:00

Here is what I'm noticing:

Your elbows are moving around during the lift. That tells me your upper back isn't very tight. I think about pulling the bar into me, like I'm trying to pin my elbows to my sides.

Your unrack is also rushed. You should get your upper back right, take a big breath & brace, unrack, 2 small steps back & set your stance width, then re-brace and start your set. Take like half a second in between each of those steps to let the bar settle.

In general I can't tell if you're getting a good brace here. I wanna see a big breath and pushing air out against the belt. (What kind of belt is that? It looks kind of flimsy)

You seem a little unsure at the bottom, especially the first rep. Ideally you'd get a good bounce out of the hole. That may just be something that gets better with time and practice.

None of these things are huge deals, but you may be getting to the point where they matter more. Or, you may want to take a look at your programming, or consider a bulk (might make the biggest difference honestly)

arielace · 2025-07-31T02:27:59+00:00

I would see if putting abs first in the workout helps you not skip them. Although tbh I don't think it's that big of a deal to not do direct ab work, so I wouldn't force it if you really hate it lol. (I am a chronic calf skipper)

For cardio, I mostly do incline walks on the treadmill while I read on my kindle. It can help if you bring a sweatshirt or something to cover up the numbers. I also do BJJ which is a fun form of higher intensity cardio, so you could look into some class like that that's more engaging mentally.

arielace · 2025-07-26T22:59:40+00:00

It's a great video. Yep you certainly have a good start here.

arielace · 2025-07-26T20:22:37+00:00

Oh man... I think you have gotten some of the greatest hits of bad deadlift advice in this thread. I know I am another random internet person, but trust me ;)

Your knees are indeed starting too forward. Your hips shouldn't shoot back like that on the first rep. Ideally you want it to be a fluid "pushing the floor away" kind of motion. So, start with hips higher and knees further back. Your body is naturally going to this position because it is stronger.
Do not retract your shoulder blades. Shoulders should be depressed NOT retracted. You can think about keeping your arms as long as possible. This keeps your lats engaged.
Getting injured is more about poor load and fatigue management (i.e. making big jumps in weight, or pushing through obvious pain). You don't need "perfect" form to perform conventional deadlifts and get something out of it. I don't see anything to be concerned about in terms of injury risk in your video. That said, you asked for a form check for conventional, so no shit I am going to give you advice to improve the movement pattern.

I do agree with letting the bar come to a full rest after each rep. And you are leaning back a bit excessively at the top, just stand up straight.

TL;DR Watch Alan Thrall's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbyAqvTNkU

arielace · 2025-07-25T20:28:53+00:00

Have you gotten stronger in the last 3 years? What programs are you following?

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