After seeing that one guy get torn apart for his squat form that he had assumed was good made me second guess myself. 4th set of a 5x5. Thoughts? Sorry for lighting. It can be hard to tell depth when there’s no mirror. I’m just trying to feel my hamstrings touch top of my calves. Is that low enough?
Edit: 240 pounds. I have a side view of third set if that’s better
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, I don’t really know what I’m doing sorry. I’m here seeking advice on two things.
Firstly, I’m just not where I thought I’d be and wonder if there’s some tweaks I need to make or if I should just trust in what I’m doing. I’m 5’8” 162 pounds male in my mid 20s and have been lifting fairly consistently for 2 years. I used to be insanely skinny like 120 at the beginning of college and slowly bulked up to like 130 and stayed around there for a while. 2 years ago I got seriously tired of the way I looked and started taking things more seriously. I’ve pretty much always been on an eternal bulk trying to get bigger. I’ve definitely picked up some fat on the way I think. Not very defined I feel especially abs and upper chest. Lower chest seems a bit droopy. I eat about 3200 calories and 180g protein as I have a very fast metabolism I feel and it took this much to finally see the scale start to go up but now I’m worried maybe that was too much of a surplus.
I lift anywhere from 3-6 times a week depending on my job which goes thru seasons in which 3-4 times is all I can do for a few months to times like now where I can easily do 6. I do two variations of exercises in a PPL format, but this means in those busier seasons I’m only hitting each muscle group once. I’m now realizing after looking into things I probably should have gone to full body split or upper lower in those seasons. I grew up with a body builder for a dad, who has an awesome physique but I do wonder sometimes if some of my knowledge from him is dated and so I try to look into things on my own. For a while in those 2 years I did the following:
Push A:
-Barbell Bench warm up to a top set. Progress when I could get 8 reps
-Dumbbell Incline Press top set, progress at 8 reps
-Machine Flies 3x8
-Overhead Press top set, progress at 8
-Rear delt flies 3x8
-Machine Dips 3x8
Pull A
-Deadlift top set progress at 8
-Wide Pulldowns 3x8
-DB Bent Over Row top set, progress at 8 reps
-Preacher Curl 3x8
-Hammer Curl 3x8
Leg A
-Back Squat top set, progress at 8
-RDL top set, progress at 8
-Bulgarians 3x8
-Back Extension 3x8
-Leg Extension 3x8
Push B
-Dumbbell Bench top set, progress at 8
-Barbell Incline top set, progress at 8
-Seated Dumbbell Overhead press top set, progress at 8
-Close Grip Bench 3x8
Pull B
-Barbell Bent Over Row (underhand) top set, progress at 8
-Chest Support T Bar Row (overhand) top set, progress at 8
-Seated reverse grip cable row 3x8
-Close grip barbell curl 3x8
-Wrist curls 3x8
Leg B
-Front Squats top set, progress at 8
-Hip Thrusts top set, progress at 8
-Hamstring Curls 3x8
I honestly tho was really just phoning it in on all those accessories. Not really progressing as I was always just concerned with those top set compounds.
Anyways I was starting to struggle with motivation and hit plateaus a lot. (At the time I had also never done a deload week, never heard of it before)I REALLY wanted to join 1000 club in bench, squat, and deadlift but in my only attempt at it only got 930 pounds (250 bench, 345 squat, 335 deadlift cuz I suck at this one and was still learning form and leverages). I got to the point where I needed something fresh and so in the last 2 months while I’ve been in a place where I can go 6 times I just overhauled everything to plate loaded machines to try and build more muscle with my dads help. With this new program I started progressing on things again and am able to enjoy it again. It now looks like this:
Push A
-Hammer Strength Bench top set, progress at 8
-Hammer Strength Incline top set, progress at 8
-Reverse Grip Overhead Press 3x12
-Machine Dips/Lateral Raise superset 3x12
-low to high cable flies 3x12
Pull A
-Bent Over Row (underhand) 45 degree angle machine top set, progress at 8
-Hammer strength seated one arm row neutral grip top set, progress at 8
-Neutral Grip Pull down 2x12 into set of AMRAP Pull Ups
-Single Arm Pulldown/Abdominal Superset 3x12
-Close grip curl/reverse curl superset 3x12
Leg A
-45 Degree angle Hack Squat top set, progress at 8
-RDL top set, progress at 8
-Abductor/Calf Raise superset 3x12
-Bulgarians 2x12 (Im too dead for a third set)
Push B
-Hammer Strength Incline top set, progress at 8
-Hammer Strength bench top set, progress at 8
-Incline DB close grip 3x12
-Hammer Strength Behind the Neck top set, progress at 8
-Lateral Raise Cable 3x12
-Tricep Extension 3x12
Pull B
-Hammer Strength Seated One Arm Row neutral grip top set, progress at 8
-Bent Over Row 45 degree angle machine top set, progress at 8
-Pull downs 2x12 into Pull Ups AMRAP
-seated cable row V grip/cable rear delt fly 3x12
-Preacher curl/Weighted decline crunch 3x12
Leg B
-Hip Thrusts top set, progress at 8
-Vertical Hack Squat top set, progress at 8
-Leg Curl 3x12
-Glute Kickback/Calf Raise superset 3x12
I feel like my progress on new program has been great but I want to go back to barbells at some point and try and continue to improve there. The more and more I look into things on my own without my dads help as much the more I see that maybe I’m doing too much? Also that I may need to rethink how I do my sets to improve strength? Would this even help someone trying to eventually increase numbers on bench squat and deadlift? Can I even focus on gaining a cleaner physique thru hypertrophy (and maybe a body recomp) while also trying to improve strength on those lifts or would I need to focus those goals one at a time? Sorry for really long post. Again I don’t really know what I’m doing with reddit
I’m literally just trying to GET to Virtual Sephiroth again just to practice the stupid shadowy chains bullshit. But the last 3 attempts have stopped becuz Aerith wont cast the ATB Ward fast enough on gilgamesh and thus loses her atb to even do so again. It’s literally game over at that point. There’s nothing left to do since it takes her 3 business days to get ATB again and the entire strat means nothing by then. (this is also the same thing that happened when I got to Virtual Sephiroth the 2 times I got there. I at least have now seen that if you walk backwards with the leader character in that fight it gives Aerith enough time to cast it, but again I can’t even make it there to try now)
I’m literally doing frame for frame the exact same fucking thing literally every guide on Youtube says to do and yet none of them have this issue of gilgamesh chasing Aerith down the second she tries to cast it. Is this just god fucking awful RNG? Is she supposed to walk over somewhere else to cast it? Why does literally zero guides even talk about this issue?
Really confused on what’s going on in this fight compared to what I’m seeing.
I use Dual Wield and have 584 attack (is that low?)
I was massively struggling against her as it seems there’s just never any time to attack her:
-she pulls her shield up 3-4 hits into any stagger
-she breaks out of any stunlock after a counterattack (never seen any enemy do that in this game) again about 3-4 hits into the combo
-the time you have to deal extra damage after you break her stamina seems WAY shorter than any other fight beforehand
I finally, for the first time, started to look up how other people fight her, just to find out that they’re using the same combos as me (ruthless, whirlwind, deftness etc.) and she is somehow staying stunlocked? The issues I mention aren’t happening at all in the 3 videos I’m seeing. They’re also doing MOUNTAINS more damage than I am, despite using input for input the exact same combos.
What is happening? I don’t understand this at all. I’m clearly not doing something right but I can’t for the life of me figure out what? I even look at discourse surrounding her and see a lot of people talking about just staying on her and being aggressive and all. How? She doesn’t let me be aggressive she just pulls her shield up or breaks out of staggers before I can even get started?
Please help lol. Its not her attacks. I got reflection almost down, I’ve got many timings down. I’m just doing no damage cuz she doesn’t let me attack like ever, even after staggering, counterattacking, reflecting, or breaking her stamina.
Edit: Something I’ve now discovered that could be leading to her getting out of staggers and stunlocks is that, despite being pressed up right against her, blowback vengeance and the first hit of whirlwind are whiffing like more than half the time, allowing her to randomly pull up her shield maybe? No video shows anyone whiffing but I don’t understand what would be causing this. First hit of whirlwind literally looks like its going thru her body and yet is missing. Still doesn’t explain why I’m doing fucking chip damage in the longest combo ever
Edit 2: Ya the deep shadow set was the answer lol. Damage went crazy. I’m still not sure why whirlwind is missing tho sometimes?
Can’t seem to find any info on this. I’m in the 5th level with a bunch of spiders and died to an elite spider enemy. My lacrima is now stuck floating in the air too high to retrieve somehow? I’ve quit out the game and rested at the Nexus but still its in the air. Have I lost that lacrima for good? Nearly 2 levels worth of lacrima. Not that big a deal I guess just annoying.