Squat - 70kg
Age - 13
BW - 70kg
Height - 5’9
Been lifting for 3 months
Equipped Powerlifting and Strength is the only goal
RPE 9ish
Depth is the main problem, problem isnt with mobility, its with struggling to get out of the hole if I go ATG
Self taught no coach
About to order my first SBD lever belt and I can’t decide between Medium or Large, and also between the 10mm and 13mm.
Right now I’m around a 37” waist at 110 kg, but I’m planning to cut down to around 85–90 kg over the next months. I mainly train heavy squats and stiff-legged deadlifts in the 4–6 rep range, focused on progressive overload. Not a powerlifter, just strength/bodybuilding focused.
From what I’ve seen online, some people with a 37” waist say the Medium fits fine, just near the last holes, while others recommend Large. My main concern is that if I get a Large now, it might end up too big after the cut.
Also not sure between 10mm and 13mm. I like the idea of maximum support from the 13mm, but I’ve heard the 10mm is more comfortable for general training.
Anyone here been in a similar situation or own an SBD belt?
Most fitness apps on the market today are simply too cluttered. They come with too much visual noise, tedious data entry, and features you never actually use when you're under the barbell. Because I wanted something faster and more efficient, I decided to build my own personal powerlifting and progress tracking app.
This isn’t just another digital notebook; it’s a tool designed to do the heavy lifting when it comes to math in the gym. The core of the app revolves around features customized for the realities of hard training:
The biggest advantage of this app is absolute flexibility. I can fully customize and configure it based on the specific block I'm running, adjusting the targets for reps and weight on the fly. No forced templates, no restrictions—the app adapts to me, not the other way around.
The result is a tool that does exactly what it needs to do: keeps my data organized, saves valuable time between sets, and shows in black and white that the numbers are moving up.
You can download it on google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmail.lebedevtrt.e1rm
Thank you
I’m a self-taught lifter and there are no powerlifting or strength-focused gyms in my city, so everything I know comes from watching videos online. Honestly, my bench press feels very awkward, inconsistent, and I feel like my technique is all over the place.
I would really appreciate it if you could take a look at this video and give me some honest feedback
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
I’ve been playing around with sumo deadlifts casually for a few years now. My question is how should I go about making my wedge better? I’ve always been slow off the ground and sometimes the bar will whip me back down half way on lesser loads, while sometimes it just whips me back down to earth approaching high loads. Is it just a fatigue + psychological thing, and am I just being dumb because I’m chasing 765? Max rn is 745 at 160bw.
Hey guys, I’ve been powerlifting with a coach for 7 months and I'm prepping for my first meet in late August (83kg class). I’ve been deadlifting and benching in Converses, but I want to upgrade. I'm torn between Notorious Lift slippers and Avancus. I need solid traction for conventional deadlifts and good floor grip for bench leg drive. Which one is the better jump from Converses for stability? Thanks!
What's up guys,
I got incredibly frustrated with traditional tracking apps and static spreadsheets. Most programming templates tell you to hit a specific top-set percentage or push a heavy RPE target regardless of what happened to your body over the previous 48 hours.
A few weeks ago, I forced a heavy 142.5kg squat top set on less than 6 hours of sleep when my central nervous system felt totally shot. I hit an absolute wall, tanked my form, and spent the next 4 days recovering from lower back strain.
I got tired of guessing my daily readiness, so I ended up building an app for myself called ATLAS.
It hooks directly into your daily wearable data, normalizes your baseline stress and sleep horizons (daily vs 7-day trend vs 28-day norm), and automatically adjusts your lifting log targets before you step into the gym.
Instead of staring at data graphs and trying to do mental math, the system gives you a concrete training directive based on your fatigue: “Overnight recovery trend down 20%, two recent RPE 9.5 sessions logged. Cap lifting RPE at 7 today, switch barbell movements to stable machine variants (Smith or Hack squat) to protect your lower back, and re-test top-set progressions on Tuesday.”
It functions as an offline-first PWA with full custom training split builders, automatic rest timers, and auto-progression math.
Right now, I'm opening up a private beta for 50 lifters to stress-test the pipeline and ensure the recommendations align perfectly with actual fatigue management. It is completely free while I calibrate everything.
Since subreddits usually hate external links, I didn't drop one here, but I put the direct sign-up link right in my Reddit profile bio if you want to claim one of the remaining open slots and test it out on your current block.
Curious to hear how you guys handle auto-regulation on low-recovery days. Do you strictly trust your warm-ups to gauge the day's RPE, or do you manually tweak your spreadsheet targets when you know you're fried?
I wanted to purchase a pioneer belt with their PAL system, but when I looked at the price for shipping, it was around £70, while the belt itself was around £110. As the shipping is almost the same price as the belt itself, I was wondering if there was any good way to get a pioneer belt in the UK without spending this much - I have seen 9for9, but unfortunately they don't stock any PAL system belts. I currently have an AQF 10mm lever belt, if there is a way I can put a PAL V2 lever on there that would also work for me. What would be the cheapest way?
...ever since I learned about it eons ago.. publicly it seems to gaining in popularity - I see more competitions on TV now (at least more than what used to be)..I just hope that it is gaining and would still love to see it in the Olympics (not just Olympic weightlifting)
So, I’m 37 yo female, (235lb) I’ve gotten back into the gym over the last 6 months but in all honesty I’ve only been truly consistent over the last 2 months or so. I’m trying to focus on body recomposition and trying my hardest to stay consistent moving forward.
Anyway, I was at the gym and saw a bar that was left set up and was curious as to whether or not I could lift it. I think it was maybe 220 lbs on it. I looked up safe ways to lift and the form or whatnot and I easily lifted it on my first try. I thought, cool. Did my workout and left the gym…
My next gym session, the first dl crossed my mind and
It kinda made me wonder how naturally strong I am. So this time on a whim I set up a bar and lifted 295lbs. I think I may have woken up a new interest. My question is, what is the average or safe starting weight for female deadlifting? Also, I’m not sure if there are any benefits to dl? Also, if I wanted to really get into it, where do I start? Are there programs or something?
Did 3x6@430lbs, been working on mobility a lot more this past cycle and this is the best my 430 has moved!!
What tips or exercises do y’all have for becoming more explosive out of the hole?