Friday I had TUBOW but forgot camera, Sunday I had camera but forgot TUBOW. I'll keep working on it, will post more video as I do so.
Yeah, that little movement when trying to exaggerate breaking at the knees first is odd. What happened to the TUBOW? You should really be breaking at the knees and hips and the same time. It should be smooth. The knees first cue is to help you get your knees into position. The TUBOW will show you if you are doing that.
Friday I had TUBOW but forgot camera, Sunday I had camera but forgot TUBOW. I'll keep working on it, will post more video as I do so.
JSK, you look like someone who is overthinking while squatting. Break at knees and hips simultaneously, drive/pull the knees/femurs out of the way, and sink your crotch down between your femurs.
TUBOW is good, but make sure you have it in the right place--it looks like you may have longish shins relative to your femurs, so you may have to put it right at your toes. Could be an optical illusion from your pants, so measure yourself.
No argument there, unfortunately I've got some bad habits to break as I never really worried about knee position in the past other than keeping them out. Getting the knee position set early just feel foreign to me at this point, and will take some practice.
I don't know what's typical, but I have ~32 inseam and measure ~18.5" to bottom of kneecap.TUBOW is good, but make sure you have it in the right place--it looks like you may have longish shins relative to your femurs, so you may have to put it right at your toes. Could be an optical illusion from your pants, so measure yourself.
Well here are today's videos, although I'm not really sure how much better they are. Knees seems a little more stable at bottom on most reps, but still aren't touching the TUBOW and may not be getting set early enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vach_lLDBOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJBl1JxQ8Y
Last edited by JSK; 03-11-2012 at 02:59 PM.
I honestly think the videos in the first post are the best ones, the "knees forward first" cue doesn't seem to be working for you because your knees are coming forward without your hips going back so you are losing hamstring tension at the beginning of the movement, and it just looks really funky and awkward. In the earlier vids you are breaking at the hip and knee simultaneously which is correct. The bar path is pretty straight too, especially when you watch the video with the tracing. I wouldn't worry too much about the knee position as long as you can maintain a vertical bar path and keep your weight balanced properly man. It's all dependent on the length of your shins/femurs, the TUBOW thing isn't going to work for everyone.
FWIW I suffer from the same problem of the bar coming forward. My squats are still improving and not perfect yet, but what has helped me the most is really focusing on where I feel the weight in my foot and making an effort to keep it on the heel, which usually results in keeping it over mid foot. That and really keeping my chest up and jamming back into the bar to keep from coming forward.
I'm no squatting authority (sking's technique is much better than mine), but I do know that these "knees forward" vids are looking really odd compared to the original vids.
There is no problem with the bar coming forward in his videos. There was the one rep on the "bar path trace" video, but that's because he failed to keep his chest up.
EDIT--oh, in his latest videos, it does come forward a bit at the bottom.
OP, get us a rear view. Side views alone do not present a complete picture. Well, video never presents a complete picture, but getting us more than 1 view will be helpful.
Last edited by Gunnhild Bruno; 03-02-2012 at 01:06 PM.
I never said there was. The OP said that a problem for him previously and that this is what his squats look like now when trying to correct that, I was just giving my perspective as someone else who has also had trouble with bar path previously.
If you read my whole post I specifically say that his bar path is straight.
Yes, and I'm just concerned that the way you discuss it after your original assessment would be confusing to the OP. The OP has a tendency to overfocus on minutiae. While he occasionally does drop his chest while going into the hole, it's clear that he's mostly corrected whatever his old problem was (which we have no video of).
I should have phrased that:
OP, there is no problem with the bar coming forward in your videos NOW. There was the one rep on the "bar path trace" video, but that's because you failed to keep your chest up.
Sorry for late followup, was out of town for a week. Yesterday was first time back in gym but couldn't get any video because adjacent stations were occupied and my wife wasn't there to hold camera. I do think in my past workouts that excessively concentrating on knees was leaving the overall movement disjointed. Yesterday I tried to make it a more continuous/smooth motion and it felt better. Hopefully I'll get video next time to see for sure, and will try to get an additional angle.