Squat Form Check

[his3tdc]

Howdy!

I've been doing Starting strength for about 3 weeks now. Well actually I haven't because I haven't been eating quite enough (which is now rectified).

I'm coming from zero previous lifting experience and virtually zero lifetime exercise. On top of an extremely sedentary lifestyle and losing 40 pounds too quickly. I'm weak as hell!

Age: 27
Weight: 222 pounds
Height: 5'11"
Squat: 40kg->70
Bench: 40kg->60
Press: 30kg->40 (really struggled with this as well)
Deadlift: 45kg->90
Power Clean: Had a couple sessions just getting the feel for it but trying to sort out my form in the other lifts first.

I seemed to be making pretty good 5kg increases in most lifts until about a week in I started feeling a tweak in the back of my right knee, which I'm pretty sure now is my hamstring tendons crying out for help. It's got to the point now where I'm slightly hobbling around and in pain when it's contracted.

Now I'll put this down to my shockingly terrible squat form that you see below (even from the freeze frame!). Also apologies for the incorrect filming, I can get some more angles if you need but there should be plenty to go on here.



Other things you might want to know:

• I can see butt wink, wobbly knees, good mornings, cringeworthy spine and garish boxershorts just for starters.
• My knees feel like they're going to explode when I do my first bodyweight squat warm ups.
• I do a bit of cycling but no major cardio.
• I'm incredibly inflexible. I'm finding getting my knees out extremely difficult.
• I've been hovering around 70kg for a week or so now, I've tried deloading twice but it's quite hard to tell if my form is correct at lower weights. Whenever I start hitting proper work sets around 70kg it all seems to fall apart and turn all Keith Richards.
• Lifting shoes are on order! In the video I've got my heels on a 1 inch bit of rubber mat to give us a fighting chance.
• The beard doesn't seem to help.

Lastly I'd love a proper coaching session in person. Do you know anyone to recommend in London?

Oh and thanks to Rip et al. for all the resources and book.

Many thanks!
Tim

[Tom Campitelli]

This one has been languishing for some time.

Your squats are problematic. You are on your toes for the whole lift and your round your back pretty badly. Under no circumstances are you allowed to use the term "butt wink" again in this thread. Purge it from your vocabulary. Use Google and limit the search results to this site if you wish to know why.

We are going to move to triage here. Firstly, get your weight in your midfoot. In your case, think "heels." That rubber matting is probably only making things worse. Get tight and make yourself uncomfortable. Get a big breath at the top, lock your trunk musculature down around that breath, and do not let your torso move or your spine flex as you descend. I don't care if it is hard to keep your knees out. If it were easy, everyone would be trying to do this. Push them out and keep them there. Make your body do your bidding. You can control what you do under the bar.