How (and Why) to Film Elevators
I used to feel awkward and uncomfortable pointing the camera at myself in the gym. My thoughts were something like this: I’m not an Instagrammer obsessed with selfies. What do people think of me? But I changed my mind: now I take out my pocket tripod to film myself at least once in every workout, and my exercises are better for this.
You gotta see yourself
I train alone most of the time, so I’m filming because I’m looking for some feedback that I would otherwise get from a personal trainer. But even if someone tells you what you are doing right or wrong, it is very different from being able to see it with your own eyes.
The video is different from the mirror. From the video I can tell exactly when my squats are going out of parallel. In the mirror, I have a different perspective, and I usually go lower than necessary. (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but that’s a discussion another time.)
The video also helps you gauge how you really feel. Time slows down when you’re struggling: if the pull-up takes more than a split second, it feels like a watch. I pull, I struggle, I move barely a millimeter. Sometimes I give up or almost give up because it seems to me that I just cannot complete the movement. But then I watch the video and see that my perceived fighting hours were just a brief slowdown in repetition that eventually becomes completely solid.
Videos even help in subjective cases such as RPE (your “perceived load” assessment) . I constantly received feedback from my online trainers that my RPE 8 deadlift looked too light. I looked at other people’s RPE deadlifts of 8 and saw a clear difference in effort. Comparing my videos to theirs helped me achieve the level of effort I was really aiming for.
How to make a good uplifting video
Whether the videos are for you, your coach, or just to show off, they’ll be most helpful if you can get a good look at yourself.
Use a tripod
Putting your phone on a water bottle might work as a last resort, but you really won’t be able to see much of the heavily distorted video captured from a bird’s eye view. I have a pocket tripod that reaches waist height and can stand alone on the gym floor. It’s also compact enough to fit in my sweatshirt pocket.
Shoot at a 3/4 angle
It is tempting to shoot videos from the side or straight ahead, but important information will be missing. The side view of your squat can show if your hips are parallel to the floor, but it won’t show if your knees are flexing. For most climbs, a 3/4 view – not exactly from the side or front, but somewhere in the middle – will provide the most useful information.
For the same reasons, you’ll want to frame your entire body. Especially if you show your video to a coach or friend to check your form, they will want to see anything that can affect your lift, including your legs, for example.
Before starting, check the lighting and position
I use a forward facing camera so that as soon as I enter the frame I can take a look and make sure everything is set up correctly. If the image is too dark or you are halfway from the camera, correct it before starting to climb.
But once you start, ignore the camera. Make your ascent as usual, look in the mirror only if this is what you always do, and then do not look at the camera again until after the lift is completed
Trim your fucking videos
Nobody wants to watch you set up your camera and set yourself up before getting up for 30 seconds. Even if the video is just for you, you probably won’t want to watch it either.
Either way, you need to rest a few minutes between sets, so use that time to trim your video. On iPhone, just start watching the video, tap Pause, and then tap Edit. You can trim the beginning and end of the video right from this screen, and then choose whether to overwrite the original file or save the trimmed version as your own copy. (Choose a new file if you think you can refer to your customization later; otherwise, you can crop the original.)
Enjoy the process
Videos are not just for analysis; they can also be interesting to watch. For example, if you have friends on Instagram, a few clips of your day’s workout are good food for stories.
Sometimes I do side-by-side videos (PhotoGrid can do that) to see how I improve over time: when I first struggled with a certain weight, versus a few weeks or months later when that same weight gradually increased. (For example, the video in this pull-up post compares how long I could hold the pull-up bar before and after two weeks of pull-up-focused training.) It’s always nice to look back and see how far you’ve come.