Lol. I went together with my GF, she squatted and I deadlifted. Fun session since the gym was pretty much empty.

Question, when you say Bench 20kg x 3 x 10, did you include the barbell? Because the barbell itself is 20kg. It seems a bit too light if you're doing bench with just the barbell.

What kind of combination workout are you thinking of? I'm currently experimenting with giant sets, where I'll bench, rest 1 min, then row. I'm thinking of adding an abs exercise in there as well later on. Basically work of antagonistic muscle groups. Saves a lot of time and gets my conditioning better.

Ah, I see. For squats, bench and deadlif, the barbell weight should be consistent at 20kg unless you're using a short training barbell or a women's barbell which is about 15kg. I'm of the opinion that you should record the entire weight of what you lifted, sum of the barbell, plates and clips you might have. For isolation work the weight might not be as important but for the major compound movements, the weight is the single best way to track your progress, so I like to be meticulous with it.

As for variations? Hell yeah, that's a million times better than isolation moves if your goal is to improve your main lifts. Take a look here to see what exercises can be used to correct specific weaknesses in your lifts. But these are nuances and small details that help when you stall badly, getting stronger overall by ways of progressively overloading like what you're currently doing is good.

Roll the plates on top of a small 2.5kg plate to raise it up, that way you can load the bar.

You didn't set up tight enough. You can see when you initiate the movement, you jerked the bar a bit. That's a bad habit. You lose efficiency. So use the bar to pull yourself into position and take the slack out of the bar before you initiate the movement.

To be honest it doesn't look all that bad. Lower back seems straight enough. Upper back, there's a bit of rounding but nothing too serious. If anything I'll say it's probably due to your lats.

Rounded upper back isn't something I would worry about, it only becomes an issue if you hyperextend your back at the top to overcompensate it. Most people would cue using the chest up cue like you do here, which is not bad. But, you run the risk of being hyperextended rather than being straight at the top. That was exactly how I injured my lower back, on 2 separate occasions.

So, lats. How I cue myself is I imagine myself holding a very heavy file between my armpit and my arms. Not sure how else to explain it. You just gotta flex it and remain straight as an arrow. Instead of chest up, try, back up. As in your entire back goes up towards the back of the room, while simultaneously pushing the floor away from you using your legs and squeeze your glutes as hard as you can.

Hey man, try to calculate your rowing volume versus your bench press volume. If possible try to maintain a 1:1 ratio to make sure you don't develop a rounded forward shoulder imbalance. I personally do 2:1 of row:bench. A lot of gym bros tend to just bench and bench and incline bench and dumbbell bench and forget about rowing causing them to have rounded forward shoulders.

Is your squat warmup adequate man? Seems like a bit too rushed. My 5x5 for squats is about 110kg, so my warmup would be something like 20kgx10-20, 60kgx8-10, 80kgx5-8 and 100kgx3-5, only after that will I do my working set. Don't rush your squat warmup, it's generally a bad idea to squat cold. If it were me and I'm rushing for time, I'd rather skip everything else and do my squat properly.

Yup, you rest as much as you need. Take your time. My usual squat session for volume (5x5 or 6x4) easily takes up to 45 mins, with almost 25 mins of it just warming up. My squat session for intensity (3x3 or 6x1-2) takes up to an hour with 35 mins of warming up. Most of that time I spend is usually just resting and catching my breath so others who want to share the rack with me usually squat during my rest time. Min rest time for me is 2 mins.

This post has been edited by Npad: Mar 15 2017, 09:57 AM

Of course, I don't expect you to do what I do, we have different goals man. Haha. I'm just saying get more warmup sets in. Get your joints loose and warm. Get your muscles warm. Only then start your working set. Make it a goal to reduce your rest time to increase your conditioning. My conditioning is shit right now because of what I do. But then again, my goal is to lift the most I can for 1 rep, not lift the most rep for the least amount of rest, so work towards your own goals.

Another way to save time is to giant set or superset your accessories. For example, you can bench 1 set, then rest 30 seconds, then chin up one set, rest 2 mins, then repeat. You can do the same for OHP and RDL. Combine movements that are opposite/antagonistic from each other. This will improve your conditioning at the same time.

8 reps deadlift? Damn man, that's a lot. Touch and go or complete reset?

I hate high rep deadlift. I never go over 5 unless it's touch and go. On touch and go deadlift, I can go complete ham and go for a 20 rep RP. If it's the normal complete reset, if I can do a weight for 8 reps, it's too light. If it's challenging enough to stimulate any growth, I won't be able to exceed 5 without any form breakdown. That might have been the case here. 2 sets of 5 reps with good form and heavy weight is better than 1 set of 8 with good form but light weight.

Also, I find it a waste of energy to warm up with too many reps on deadlift. It's different with the squat. I also don't make huge weight jumps on it as to feel my groove. If for example, I'm working up to a 3x5 at 140kg, I'll warmup like this:
70kg x 1 x 5
90kg x 1 x 3
110kg x 1 x 3
130kg x 1 x 2
140kg x 3 x 5

Low bar or high bar? Either way, build more upper back muscle! The bar needs to rest on something, don't let that something be your spine.

Good, good.

Man I haven't done high bar in forever, but common mistakes I've seen in the gym would be letting the bar slide forward towards your neck, making the bar rest not on your traps but on the c spine. This usually happens when you lean too far forward, which is a nono on a high bar. The foam will help but it is more of a crutch than a solution in this case. Be as upright as you can while maintaining balance and build bigger traps would be my advice to you. Also play around with your stance. Find a stance that allows you to hit depth without leaning forward too much. For me when I do high bar, my stance needs to be quite narrow and toes forward, quite the opposite of my low bar.