Squats SOS

[rabble]

I have two related squatting problems I could use some advice on. #1 is mainly for mobility folks.

1. I am 25, male. I have flexibility issues that make it difficult for me to low bar squat. I've been doing stuff from here and some other thoracic spine mobility work for over a month and things are better but still not great. Not sure if I am doing these things correctly though. I can only low bar with a very wide grip, and even with a super wide grip my wrists have to bend up and I get elbow pain and feel that I am pushing the bar against my upper back (see problem 2). And when I get done squatting my shoulders are pretty sore/tight as I remove the bar.

Do we have any resident mobility experts? More on my dislocations: I've been doing them with a resistance band with handles 3 times a week for over a month and have seen a tiny bit of improvement I think, but nothing great. Just to give you an idea of my range of motion, with no resistance band, if I put my arms out parallel to the ground it is painful for me to bring them beyond 180 degrees (as viewed from someone standing above). And if I do a 'wall test' in which I try to bring my arms above my head without bending my elbows or further bending my lumbar spine, I can get like 6 inches from the wall before things start to get painful. (This is problematic for overhead press, inter alia, as I go into overextension in my lumbar spine I think...)

So for problem #1: Time for PT? Switch to high bar in the mean time? I started off trying to do low bar squats but things were quite painful so I switched to high bar while I was trying to do mobility work. After about six weeks of high I switched back to low bar two weeks ago and things haven't felt 'as painful' but it certainly isn't a pleasant experience. I was hoping that I was not so creaky that 6 weeks of internet recommended mobility work would not be sufficient to fix things, but maybe I'm doing the wrong stuff.

2. I noticed in a recent video that my torso was angling way forward... like my legs angle back from perpendicular about 5 degrees and relative to my hips, my shoulders are about 25-30 degrees (!) forward relative to a straight line drawn from my feet to past my hips. (Hopefully this makes sense? The angle from my feet to my hips to my shoulders is about 180 - 25 degrees.) This angling is worst on work sets and is hardly present when I warm up with the bar, for example, so I have assumed it is a leverage thing.

Seeing this 25-30 degrees kinda freaked me out. Is the problem probably that I am carrying the bar too high or are there other causes? Perhaps related to my flexibility issues, I think I am having trouble regularly getting the bar back low enough. I was watching through past videos and it looks like I can get the bar low enough to get it in a position such that the line from my feet to my shoulders is more or less straight but things are uncomfortable and I am having trouble knowing how low is low enough. I think the times my body was straight the bar felt like it was going to roll off my back and I had to reposition it mid set... remember my grip is wide and also my deltoids are pretty small so there isn't this massive shelf for the bar to rest on (or am I doing something wrong?).

Thanks.

[Steve Hill]

Why don't you post a video and let the resident "coach people to squat correctly," experts (that would be us) determine if you have mobility issues?

[Sean Herbison]

Why don't you post a video and let the resident "coach people to squat correctly," experts (that would be us) determine if you have mobility issues?

You seem cranky today Steve. Correct, but cranky. Too many repetitive questions today?

[Steve Hill]

I'm cranky EVERY day.