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squat form critique (videos)

rolandajoint

rolandajoint

Well-known member
i realize this is posted weekly, but here it goes anyways.

light @ 135

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heavy @ 225

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comments. criticisms. concerns.

thanks in advance fellas.
 
225 isnt exactly "heavy" :sad3:

Could probably concentrate on going down more slowly to emphasise the stretch at the bottom of the motion and then "explode" up, contracting the quads at the top of the motion
 
On heavy, looks like your back is moving forward on when going up. Try to go slower up, focusing on your legs. You should feel a lot more stress on your muscles. Its hard to to explain, but if sometimes a rep or two, you dont feel as much stress on your leg muscles, then it may be your form.

Concentrate when going up, to keep your back straight, locked out, and use your quads.

This is just my personal flavor, but imo, putting your feet closer together, so you can get a good deep squat, basically so your hamstrings touch the back of your calves. Thats how I do them. I use to do them wide.
 
you asked for advices

- you take wwaaaaaay to many steps getting out of cage. if your gym has a not incline cage use it, that one is ridiculous

- the stance looks to wide for you for normal bodybuilding squats. BUT you got to do what feels right, i would try a inch or two narrower since the movement doesnt look solid at the bottom

- your lower back actually curves at the bottom. take a look for a split second. big baaaaaaaad. that whole movement is unnecessary. just come down and up.
look at the light video your body does like a semi circle at the bottom, it is really weird. easy fix.

1) mentally think about pushing elbows out to chest the whole time
2) think about coming up as if your back was like ) come up like you are a magical dolphin fairy emerging from the water ... hahahaha i dont know how to say it without showing like your head is being pulled to the ceiling and your back has gotta follow
3) try a bit narrower and see if it helps
 
Doogsy123 said:
225 isnt exactly "heavy" :sad3:

Could probably concentrate on going down more slowly to emphasise the stretch at the bottom of the motion and then "explode" up, contracting the quads at the top of the motion
Click to expand...

It's also not exactly light... :tool:

Looks like you had some good comments already dude. I too am working on skinnying up my stance...

Props for puttin up a video. You're on your way.
 
2 issues:

1. You need to wear some shoes with ankle support. If your base is weak, then everything else will follow.

2. There is too much sway in your lower back after the sticking point. Strengthen your entire core with hypers, revers hypers, trunk rotations, and sidewinders.
 
Shoes with out ankle support are fine. Most every Oly shoe I've seen do not have ankle support because you need ankle flexibility to do an oly type of squat where the knees travel forward a bit.

Not sure what type of shoes you have on but looks like a flat sole and not to cushy which is what you want if you go with a wider stance. The more solid the sole the better. If you do end up bringing your stance in then I'd find a good pair of oly shoes with a heal. The wider your stance the more flat you want it. Either way you want a solid foundation.

Your butt wink on the bottom, which is your lower back curving could be cause by tight posterior chain which includes your hamstring, gluts, and lower back. Warm up more and work on flexibility.

Also, you need to concentrate on staying on your heals as you look to go forward a bit. Push your head back into the bar hard and push your chest out will help with that. Pushing your elbows forward will also help push your chest out. And concentrate on arching your back hard and staying tight.

You definitely take too many steps and to long to setup before you start. Work on a 2-3 step setup. Take a really deep breath into your ABs and not up into your shoulders. If your shoulders rise as you breath in you're not breathing into your abs. HOLD that air as long as you can to help you stay tight.

Work on your flexibility, core, and posterior chain hard and a lot of issues will be fixed and squat will go up.
 
Weight on the bar is all relative to each person. For one person 225lbs could be more then they can do and for another it could be an easy warm up. When I started powerlifting I could barely do 225 for a single.
 
i say slat shoes for all conventional stances that are not in the extremes

i use lacoste skate shoes
used to use DC skate shoes
 
If you are around shoulder width it might be beneficial to try out an oly shoe. It depends on each person and their leverages on what will work better. Even if you are slightly outside of shoulder width an oly shoe may provide beneficial.

I know Eric Talmant is or at least went through a pretty long processes of figuring out if a flat shoe like chucks or his oly type shoe would provide any difference or benefits for him. I'm not sure what his final results were but I believe he was leaning a bit more toward the oly shoes when I last checked. He has a just outside shoulder width stance.

I do believe if you go narrower then shoulder width a heal would be better. And if you start going wider the flatter the better.

The big thing to make sure of no matter what is having as solid a foundation as possible. The more cushion and softer it is the less power transfer you'll have and more unstable you could become.

I wear chucks but I even rip out the inner cushion that is glued in place to get an even more solid foundation. Problem with most skate shoes is they have even more cushion inside. Not near as bad as something like Nike airs or Asic gels but still more then should be there.
 
What exactly are your goals? Are you squatting to get bigger legs, powerlifting, olymic lifting, etc...?
Here's what I see:
1) Knees are going forward more with the heavy weight. A small amount of forward travel is OK in some instances, but it shouldn't get more pronounced with heavier weights. More forward knee movement with heavier weights leads to everything dumping forward and making it tougher to keep your arch.
2) Arch, arch, arch. Lock it in at the top and arch hard throughout the movement. If you can't get depth without rounding over, work on your hip mobility.
3) Push your knees out. I can't tell if they are collapsing inward, but everyone should try and push their knees out. This prevents excessive forward knee travel and keeps your hips under the bar better, and thus will make it easier to keep your arch.
4) Set-up more efficiently and don't waste so much time fidgeting before you squat. It should be 2-3 step walkout, head up, arch hard, belly full of air, then squat.

Get these things right first, then you can refine things based on your specific goals. If you want a good resource that will tell you exactly how to squat for overall strength and muscle development get Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.
 
a lot of really helpful comments in here guys. thanks. ive read em all, but dont have time right now to reply yet. will go through them all tmrw.
 
Some really good comments have already been posted, but ill try to add some suggestions:

As others have said, your back does look like it rounds out a little at the bottom, and many factors could affect this: core region strength, foot placement (too wide/too narrow), letting weight go forward/in front of you,bar placement on traps etc etc. Just mess around with it all.

You could try messing around with your stance a little, or even putting 10lb plates under your heels might do the trick. (It helps some people, esp tall people).

Also try to control the weight more on the decent and get a small, very brief pause at the bottom to prevent "bouncing outta the hole." You could go a little lower as well, but that is also a personal preference to YOU. I go azz to grass, but parallel is perfectly sufficient to build good leg mass and strength.

I used to have the problem of my back rounding at the bottom of the rep and leaning forward back in the day, (I used to have tall-man syndrome) and I remedied the problem by putting on my warm-up set weight, and doing 3-4 second pause squats; whereas you squat down as far as possible and hold for 3-4 secs before exploding up. This increased my flexibility like crazy as well as the strength at the bottom of the rep. I have done these as a last set after my work-sets for a few years now, and I think is the main reason I can go ATG on every rep whether its warm-up or max.

But its not really a bad squat at all. You are going parallel, which is more than I can say for at least 99% of the people at my gym, lol.

Hope this helps bro.
 
You drop down like an Olympic squat but your stance is that a of a powerlifter. Either sit back some and break with your hips and ass, not knees, or get your feet close and do high bar olympics squats. Some people have to find their own bodys groove, but i doubt that is it.
 
I think it was fine. Just practice your technique to get comfortable which is evident in how you shift around before you start the lift. Also, I wearing cross trainers and I do just fine so dont worry about the ankle support.
 
I wouldn't hurt to put those safety pins in place. It would suck to need them and they were still in the bottom of the rack.
 
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