No balance when squatting, any advice?

[brownstown89]

ahh i had this problem which kept me from squatting too...

1. Stretch out ur hip adductors and abductors, along with your lower back and lats,hams and quads b4 you lift... you also may wanna walk on the tredmill.

2. your either gonna be hamstring dominant or quad dominant. for me i use to deadlift alot i was hamstring dominant.. so i did the maching where it keeps ur back straight your legs are sort of 90 degrees and i went real low and worked my quads hard..I unfortunately cant give you advice on what to do if your hamstrings are week id imagine box squat with a variety of boxes..

3. read wendlers articles on squatting. His will help with a raw squat..

4. practice the form with light weights leave the ego at the door, i use to be able to squat 365 untill i realized i look dumb doing a quarter squat.. now im about to hit a 315 ATG squat....

and overall it sounds like you need to spread ur legs and act like ur pushing the floor out with ur feet.. point your toes out slightly.puff ur chest out squeeze the **** outta the bar put it low on your traps, arch your lower back and stick ur ass out first.. then reverse the motion back up

[sub001]

ahh i had this problem which kept me from squatting too...

1. Stretch out ur hip adductors and abductors, along with your lower back and lats,hams and quads b4 you lift... you also may wanna walk on the tredmill.

2. your either gonna be hamstring dominant or quad dominant. for me i use to deadlift alot i was hamstring dominant.. so i did the maching where it keeps ur back straight your legs are sort of 90 degrees and i went real low and worked my quads hard..I unfortunately cant give you advice on what to do if your hamstrings are week id imagine box squat with a variety of boxes..

3. read wendlers articles on squatting. His will help with a raw squat..

4. practice the form with light weights leave the ego at the door, i use to be able to squat 365 untill i realized i look dumb doing a quarter squat.. now im about to hit a 315 ATG squat....

and overall it sounds like you need to spread ur legs and act like ur pushing the floor out with ur feet.. point your toes out slightly.puff ur chest out squeeze the **** outta the bar put it low on your traps, arch your lower back and stick ur ass out first.. then reverse the motion back up

Thanks, this helps a lot. I really need to get someone who knows what they are doing and can teach to show me. My one main workout friend knows pretty much everything, but can't teach for crap. Every time I feel like I am doing a perfect squat within my abilities he says I am leaning to much or need to move my feet in a way that is awkward to me and not real help on the squat (ie. "Point toes 30 degrees out" is helpful, not "move your legs in more" when it's my natural stance and not really far out). I listen to what he says and take it into consideration but he is sort of telling me what works for him, not what is a good squat.

[youngandfree]

Make sure your butt goes BACK and down, not just straight down. Like you are sitting back on a toilet.

[kingk0ng]

It's because there has to be a specific breaking point that cannot be identified without a 2nd party. You can't squat in the mirror and see since you could only see the front which would require you to look up and that is bad for your cervical and you cannot see the side of your body which a squat should be critiqued from.

Furthermore, the hips must either break first or the break must be simultaneous. If the knees break first the bar path will be straight down and the tension will stay within the quads without a balancing tension to the hamstrings and glutes. You want to pretend you're setting on a toilet as someone else mentioned. This is the reason that box squatting is the best way to teach someone how to break properly if they do not have a coach present.

Another poster has already said it, but try to keep parallel alignment within the bar and your feet. And this exercise is not a leg press, so don't push up from your feet; you're supposed to use your hips.

[sub001]

Thanks for more advice everyone. I started practicing with the bar and doing more smith machine squats. My flexibility has greatly increased and it's one of those exercises that once you start routinely doing it, it becomes much easier. I can pretty much ATG smith machine squats now and I am almost comfortably parallel on regular squats. All this advice has helped a lot. My quads hate all of you haha. They will be happy once they are tree trunks though!