Squat Form Check

[Brandin138]

Hey coaches, I'm hoping to get a quick checkup on my squat form. This is from my TM Intensity day, 355x5. I'm particularly interested in anything that could potentially aggravate my patellar tendons. I crashed on my mountain bike and banged up my knees pretty good and seem to have developed a case of patellar tendonitis in my right knee (due to the blunt trauma). Working back from some time off from squats, this should have been an easy set of 5, before my injury my volume day was 335 5x5.

https://youtu.be/hLy7njCG0Lo

I apologize for the poor quality & non-optimal angle. Apparently the mobile YT app compresses your video really badly if you're not on wifi when you upload.

Thanks in advance.

[Tom Campitelli]

Those are pretty good looking squats. Your knees keep traveling forward for the duration of the rep, but I had to stare at that to see it happen, so I may be imagining things. Have you tried some box squatting to stay out of your knees a little more? Consider it. For irritated patellar ligaments, a more vertical shin may be helpful. You are already a long legged dude, so leaning over much more may be tricky.

[Brandin138]

Thanks Tom. I haven't done any box squatting in a long time, but I'll give it a try this week and see how they feel. I've always had an issue with going a bit too deep, so box squats will probably help that out as well. My knees feel better today, so I'm hoping I was a bit premature and my knees just needed to heal more from the crash...

[Brandin138]

Tried some box squats today after cleans. Did a very easy feeling 225 for 3x5, here's the 2nd set. Let me know if I need to work on anything. They felt good, no pain at all from my knees. Definitely felt different in the hips & really had to focus on shoving the knees out & loading the hips. How do you like to program these (in lieu of regular squats for a few weeks), sets of 5? I'm running a 4 day TM if that changes anything, today would have been volume day at 315 for 5x5. Thanks in advance.

https://youtu.be/J2FgVu1P2wE

[Tom Campitelli]

You need a lower box. Also, don't sit down on to the thing and relax. Stay tight. Keep the weight in your feet as much as you can. Don't sit down like you would into a chair. Hang out down there for a full second. Then come back up. Consider using the box squats in place of normal squats for two or three weeks to see if that buys some time for the ligament to heal. Reduce the poundage accordingly. You may want to start with 3x5 for your volume day, or just go light enough to get 5x5.