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I don't like either the Smith machine nor the leg press.

In the Smith machine I have to "roll" the bar back on the pins, and that roll must occur by me bending my back. I've had TERRIBLE lower back pain from that TWO times. So no, thanks.

In the leg press there's a huge risk of the "plate" of the leg press against which you push against will slip off your toes, since that's all that is in contact with it, and then destroy you. It doesn't feel safe at all. Plus the ROM is very very low on the leg press.

So my only option is with a free barbell, but it's hard to keep balance.

It actually looks good... I have two observations as well:

1) Do you always have this tendency to walk/stand around in a bent knee position? It looks to me from the way you walk around, stand etc that you prefer to take away some tension from your hamstrings/your hamstrings are tight/you prefer to walk around with some tension in your quads? Is any of this true?

2) If you pause at the moment of hip extension, especially with the ball in your hand, you don't go "all the way through" with it. You're better without the ball but looking at it it feels like there isn't a lot of hip HYPERextension ROM going on. I have the same problem.

So what does that mean? It means either the glutes don't fire properly in that particular movement and/or the hip flexors are tight. Have you ever been consistent doing hip thrusts and then stretching the hip flexors?

I think for both you and me, if we solve this hip hyperextension problem, because it's so glaring and obvious, it could make a ton of difference even at our current levels of strength. It messes MORE up than just the power output - it messes positioning, coordination, what the arms do when the legs do something etc etc etc. It's more than just power leakage.

As for what Today is saying, I totally agree. It's like driving a car. First you need to learn to drive a car. A slow car is good for that. It's better (in a way) to start weak and start getting coordinated. If you're strong and you're not coordinated and you start applying a lot of power in an uncoordinated movement you can more easily get injured.

Then as you learned to drive this slow car you can start working on upgrading the engine (strength train). And then once you have this faster engine you can start working on trying to drive the car faster, as the new engine allows that to happen.

It's interesting how you lifted your left foot off the floor as you missed the rep... I wonder if you were loading up more on your left leg or something.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=675553912466446&ref=notif&notif_t=notify_me

I think it also has something to do with your "structure" in terms of tendon and bone actual "thickness" if you will.

If you're a naturally frail guy that goes up in weight at SOME point, despite your muscle gains, the tendons and bones don't adapt that well like muscle does and when you plant at your heavier self of now the mechanoreceptors, golgi tendon organ, call it whatever, will see that extreme load (due to speed + your heavier bodyweight) as dangerous for the tendons/bones and will shut you down.

So I think springiness is also somewhat closely related to being "light". If you're born with thick bones and thick tendons and you're naturally heavy but you have the proper structure in terms of tension distribution, levers etc, you can still be "bouncy" (think a guy like LeBron or Barkley being very heavy and still being somewhat bouncy, being able to jump off one leg well etc).

Yeah they apply hue and saturation filters over the pictures but hey, I like them more like this.