Anyone follow this dude? His squat and deadlift form advice are dog shit. His strict press uses damn stretch reflex. Not sure about his bench technique. Anyhow I'd advise anyone here taking technique cues from Mr. Thrall to stop and go find a real powerlifter to learn from.
His deadlift advice. He says to avoid sitting back but that's the only way I can create tension. Barely broke the floor trying his way. Also he preaches a slumped over squat. Feels very weak compared to keeping the torso moderately upright.
I get that this is an old thread, but I'm not sure I understand what the criticism is here. Squat uses stretch reflex, touch n' go bench uses stretch reflex, there's nothing particularly bad about using a moderate stretch reflex in the press if you're doing reps, unless you're competing in "strengthlifting" lol. What's the argument against it?
His deadlift advice is pretty much the "5-step SS model", which I don't think is fundamentally bad and leaves a lot of room for different torso angles. Correcting low hips is pretty common from what I've seen, and is a typical mistake, especially if you come in used to squatting (timestamped):
From what little I understand, hips too low will push the bar forward and get in the way of a straight bar path. I do think there is room for personal preference though. I think his videos are more geared towards total newbies and they seem to me like a decent starting point for the basic lifts.
As far as the low-bar/high-bar/upright torso/oblique torso/ debate goes, I do think Rippetoe and the SS people became too obsessed with low bar squatting and maybe he got sucked into that at some point (not anymore though). It seems to me that there's not much fundamental difference between low-bar and high bar squats, as I've seen people squat crazy weights with both without much issue. It would probably make sense to leave more room for experiment and personal preference than what SS advocates.
Rippetoe's advice that Olympic lifters should low bar squat seems silly to me (among other things...), but I haven't seen Thrall push that kind of stuff. I also think he's distanced himself from Rip and SS, and even criticized them, which is a sign of him being a rational person. Overall I think he is a good youtuber.
