I ordered a belt!

I finally decided to order an ipf-approved powerlifting belt.
A leverbelt.
In pink.
Soooo cute, right?

I finally found out that a solid belt gives more stable and larger surface to press my belly against.
And I think one of my weakest points in my three leifts (actually, especially bench and squat) is keeping a tight body - and pressure around my waist/spine.

I did some benching with my rather soft and narrow belt from Better Bodies, and it helped a lot to hold a stabil position and pressure in my belly.
It felt much more stable and strong!
I also think using a belt while squatting will help me focus on holding my breath and keeping a tight body and better position.

This is 64kg 3x3 - 64kg would be appr 90% of my 1RM.
Beltless.

The belt I ordered was not in stock though, but was about to be ordered from the Norwegian dealer (Kappi). So I'll have to wait, but that's fine!

Pull-ups!

Last spring/summer I had a big goal: to be able to do a wide-grip pull-up.
Bodyweight.

It doesn't sound like a big goal to those who can do several pull-ups, but I have always struggled with them.
I could do chin-ups with a neutral grip, about two or three, and "bicep-focused" chin-ups, that is, with an underhand grip, but not an overhand wide-grip pull-up.

But - I set myself a goal and I made it! I think I even managed two pull-ups with good form, slowly and controlled, no jerking.

Pull-ups on a wide-grip bar summer 2016.

Then I closed the project and focused on deadlifts (so much more fun) and other lifts (baby bench?) - also, for a while in the winter, me and favoritegymbuddy challenged each other for a series of neutral grip chin-ups - both of us had issues with a shoulder, so neutral grips were our choice.

Favoritegymbuddy would suggest a number, and I would do half of those.
Well, he might be almost twice as heavy as me, but he for sure is a heck lot stronger than me (let
's say I can bench 30kg for ten reps - he could bench 200kg for ten reps - so he is almost seven times stronger. Not in the deadlift though, btw)

Well now my left shoulder is completely fine - and I can hang on a straight bar without pain or problems - and doing pull-ups between low bar squats feels so good, it's as though my compressed shoulders and arms and wrists are getting stretched out and decompressed again!

So - I'm starting slowly again, with the second strongest tube I could find (a green one), and started five sets of five reps last week, and did five sets of six reps this week - I am planning to switch to the next tube when I reach ten reps pr set and so on... that worked fine for me last year, and by doing reps with relatively low "weight" I can maintain proper form and still exhaust my muscles and make them grow stronger!

Oh nice - there is perfect lightning at the pull-ups bar... Hello nice back :D

I think pull-ups are a nice as accessory work - so and now that I'm switching from four to three workouts pr week, I'll do them three times a week - and that should give results after a while!

My new powerlifting shoes are here!

Finally, they arrived in the mail, my new powerlifting shoes.

I have had powerlifting shoes from adidas before, the same modell, but this is the upgraded version from 2017, the "ADIDAS Powerlift 3.1".

I ordered them from a Norwegian shop to avoid extra costs, and they had them in this color only, silver, gray and black, but I think they look good and I will not have to think too much about if they match they rest of my colors in my outfit.
And this is something I must admit I do... even if I don't want to... I have this weird thing with colors...

Anyway - compared to the adidas shoes I had before, these are wider in the toes, and kind of softer but still stable. They seem a bit roomy for my fit, but they provide enough support, and they do fit tight to a degree that they were a bit constricting and uncomfortable the first time.

But I think my feet will get used to them. At least I hope. And I will only use them for squatting, to get the little bit of extra heel lift I think I need.

I still prefer my Vibram Fivefingers for all other kind of training. They are just so soft and comfortable, and the good contact to the ground makes them secure and stable for all kinds of lifts and movements.
Only for the bench I was thinking that I could use a bit of extra lift under my heel too, but we'll see about that.

I tried them, but I am still not sure about my squatting technique. This is mainly due to the intense discussions I had with the guys at the gym. And some stupid uneducated comments from a chick at the gym.
I like to keep an open mind and I will discuss my technique - but I cannot stand people telling me what or how to do a thing (squatting) when they themselves cannot do this thing better ("Do you even squat???").

I filmed my first attempts with the PL shoes, and took a screenshot in the bottom position:

Not very deep, right? It's just parallel, but barely. I tried to find a depth where I could still maintain an upright torso - so that's where it stopped - even with elevated heels from the powerlifting shoes!

So -  what to do?
Yesterday I did box squats - I chose the height of the "box" so that I was just below parallel - chose 50kg (appr 70% of my current 1RM that would be around 70kg).
But it didn't feel quite right.
Then again, I have been unusually sore and tired and exhausted for the last week - all I wanted to do is work on my technique. But even 50kg felt too much yesterday.

But the angles look alright to me - the next will be to film it and try to see if the bar goes down and up again in a straight line.

I also found some older screenshots of technique films I made a year ago or so, when I compared my squatting with Fivefingers to my adidas shoes (the former modell was narrow in the front and I had 2/3 sizes bigger shoes - they were too big so I sold them after six months).

Those are HIGH bar squats - I am much more upright in my torso - even with the flat Fivefingers. But those squats were hard on my lower back and hips, they didn't FEEL strong, but painful. Even the elevated heel didn't help to me feeling that squatting was a lower-back exercise....
In addition, on the left picture I use only 40kg, and I can squat 40kg relatively easily...

I also think that the back/hip angle on the right, 50kg with Fiverfingers, doesn't look too bad - but still, high bar squatting for me feels like a lower back or even "upper hip" exercise - I feel them neither in the thighs nor in the glutes...

Switching to low bar squatting was a lot better.
But I know.. it may not look that pretty.
But it feels so much stronger...