ATHLETE DIARY
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Guide

How to film your set for a form check

A video of your set is the best technique coach there is — if it's filmed right. A bad angle hides exactly what needs to be seen, so filming has its own rules: simple, but not optional.

The main angle is from the side

For squats, deadlifts, bench and overhead presses and bent-over rows, almost everything that matters shows from the side: the bar path, torso angle, depth, hip and back position, where the bar sits relative to your foot. Place the phone perpendicular to the bar, in line with mid-foot.

Why so strict: lifting technique is mostly geometry. Where the bar sits relative to mid-foot, how your torso angle changes, whether your hips rise before your chest — all of it happens in the plane you see from the side. A camera at an angle distorts that plane, so a straight bar path looks crooked and a crooked one straight.

From behind you see less than you'd think: your back hides your hips and the bar, and depth is invisible. From the front you see knees and symmetry well, but not the bar path or your back. So your main video is from the side, and other angles are extras when you want to check something specific.

Height, distance, framing

  • Height — hips or mid-thigh. From below a squat looks deeper, from above shallower. At hip height depth shows honestly.
  • Distance — 2–3 metres. Closer and your body leaves the frame at the bottom or top; further and small details vanish.
  • Your whole body and the whole bar in frame, from your feet to the bar at the top, with room to spare above and below. Cropped feet or head means lost information.
  • Portrait or landscape — doesn't matter, as long as everything fits. Portrait usually suits deadlifts and squats, landscape the bench.
  • The phone stays still. Prop it on a bench, a plate, a stand or a tripod. Handheld video shakes and drifts, and camera movement gets mistaken for bar movement.

Angles by exercise

  • Squat — from the side at hip height. Want to check your knees? One more video from the front at 30–45°.
  • Deadlift and Romanian deadlift — strictly from the side: the bar path along your legs and your back are what matter. Plates shouldn't hide your foot — move the camera slightly forward.
  • Bench press — from the side at bench height or a bit higher, from the foot end at 45°, to see both the bar path and your shoulder blades.
  • Overhead press — from the side: you see whether the bar clears your face and whether your torso leans back.
  • Pull-ups — from the side or from behind at 45°, to see range and swinging.
  • Lunges and split squats — from the side of the front leg, and from the front for the knees.

Exercise technique — setup, steps and common mistakes — is in the technique section, with start and finish frames.

Light, clothes and length

  • Light in front of you or to the side, not behind: against a window or a lamp you turn into a silhouette.
  • Clothes that show your joints. A baggy hoodie hides your back and hips; shorts and a fitted top show knees and spine.
  • The whole set — from unracking to the last rep. Mistakes most often appear on the last heavy reps, and a cut video loses them.
  • Length. For a review I need a clip of one set up to 20 seconds — enough for 5–8 reps. Film a long set in full and send the last part.
  • No sound needed — I only look at the picture.

Which set to film

A working set, not a warm-up. On a light weight almost everyone's technique looks fine — it breaks on heavy reps. The best is the last working set of an exercise, when you're already tired: that's where you see what happens under load.

Don't film a max attempt for a review: a set like that is a risk on its own, and judging technique on it is harder. And don't change your technique for the camera — film it the way you always do it.

Want to see your technique improve? Film the same exercise every few weeks from the same spot and height. Then two clips can sit side by side for an honest comparison: depth, torso angle, bar path.

Common filming mistakes:

  • the phone on the floor — the squat looks deeper than it is;
  • the camera almost head-on at a small angle — the bar path disappears;
  • someone walks between the camera and you and hides half the set;
  • zooming instead of stepping back — a worse picture and a tighter frame;
  • the video starts on the second rep — the first is often the most telling.

How I review a video

Open the AI coach, tap Analyze my set on video and send the clip. I'll ask which exercise it is and look at it: what's visible from this angle, what's going well and what to fix first — not a score out of ten, but one or two things that pay off most. Anything the angle doesn't show, I'll say so and suggest where to film from instead — I won't make it up.

Then ask how to fix it — the conversation carries on from there, and I'll know your sets from the diary. Up to 10 reviews a day, free, in the bot and the iPhone app. More on the video form check page.

Film a set by these rules and send it to me — I'll review it and tell you what to fix first.

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