Girlfriend can't get depth without heel support

[Mr_Rogers]

I may have to look into those, I think the actual heel on the PowerLifts are .75" (which would make the effective heel .65" not .5"). Thanks!

[Dastardly]

See if you can find vintage adidas from the 90's. They had much bigger heel than anything from the 2000's

[Chode]

I can see her knees are fine so I won't bother with the TUBOW. I'll try that Dan John thing.

[Tom Campitelli]

Provided there is no injury or pathology, a trainee doesn't need huge heels, lots of mobility work, or favorable proportions to squat below parallel. They need a good coach to yell at them to get deeper and fix any other form issues that they have.

[Simma Park]

Provided there is no injury or pathology, a trainee doesn't need huge heels, lots of mobility work, or favorable proportions to squat below parallel. They need a good coach to yell at them to get deeper and fix any other form issues that they have.

^This. OP, don’t make the mistake of looking for special snowflake reasons why she can’t squat. Make sure you actually know enough to coach her. I’m thinking maybe not, and you might be better off having her post a form check or see a coach. But your call. We can’t see what’s going on. And that includes those of us who are already hypothesizing about the need for 1 inch heels and whatnot. Most people don’t require lifting shoes with extra high heels. They just need to be shown how to squat properly.

You have taken her through Rip’s teaching method properly from beginning to end, right? IME, it works much better than Dan John’s goblet squats.

[Mr_Rogers]

Some simple insoles and using spars advice (I forget what it was exactly, something about pushing the femurs out to make room) clicked with the Mrs. Her form was much better the other night. Her press form is already better than mine :-(

[DV]

Get her some shoes, as mentioned. Just standard lifting shoes, and you should be golden. You want them anyway, and they'll probably alleviate the problem.

Posting a form check still sounds like a good idea, though. It's hard, sometimes, to see the flaws in real time. And there are some good people in the technique forum who can help with that.

[Dastardly]

But as I previously mentioned. If you can find some of these, they have a huge heel that would really help.

[Chode]

Yeah I won't really be able to sell her on shoes yet as she is only a couple of weeks into lifting. But thanks for the links, I'll keep it in mind if she continues to enjoy training. Her squat looks fine with about 2cm under each heel, I'll keep pushing her deeper and hopefully something will click. She is happy doing this.

As for coaches go I'm pretty isolated in Tasmania (Aus), i'll try and convince her to do a 2 week crossfit trial at the local haunt, maybe they can help her out. I have taught 3 or 4 of my mates and brothers how to squat correctly using the book so I don't think I'm coaching her wrong.

[xcardiobunny]

When what you describe happens, it’s almost always because the person doesn’t understand that squatting isn’t about bending the legs. It’s about opening up the crotch and sinking the body down between the femurs.

This sentence helped me finally get a handle on keeping my knees from sliding forward.