Squat Form Check @ 310#

[Bryan Bulmann]

Hey guys,

Here is my last set of 310x4x4 for my HLM heavy squat day. My two biggest form problems of late have been keeping my spine in extension at the bottom of the squat and keeping the bar over midfoot. It is a good day when I can manage to do both on the same rep. Hope I got the angle right, per the sticky. Thanks in advance for your critique...it is very much appreciated!

[Michael Wolf]

A bit over extended at the top, lapsing into flexion at the bottom. I can't see your upper back well due to the rack uprights, but you look a little kyphotic too. Work hard to keep your chest "proud" at the top, while simultaneously crunching your abs hard to avoid over-extending your spine. Then hold that exact back rigidity as you descend - so only the angle changes, from the waist. The spinal relationships themselves should not change at all, i.e. no flexion.

Control your descent so you don't fall into the hole, and this will help with the above as well.

One of the things I often see with kyphosis, is an inability to lean over properly due to the bar tending to role up on the lifter's back. To some extent, you can't "fix" a structural kyphosis, but you can make damn well sure you're showing a "Superman Chest" as best you can, even when you lean over, and that you're trapping the bar in place so it doesn't roll up. That will enable you to lean over properly, control your descent, and then drive up - all without the bar rolling up, and without lapsing into flexion.

[Bryan Bulmann]

Thank you, Mr. Wolf! The kyphosis certainly explains my past problems of the bar rolling up my back every time I tried to lean forward. I thought I was doing the superman chest thing, but I think I end up just moving my scapulas closer together.

And just to be clear....when you say 'flexion', you mean my back is rounding, correct? Just prior to my descent, I try and extend my lower back using Rip's cue of "pointing my dick toward the dirt". But now that I'm watching the vid, I see what you mean about rounding it in the bottom of the hole.

Thank you for the keen observations! I will do my best to correct them!

[Michael Wolf]

Thank you, Mr. Wolf! The kyphosis certainly explains my past problems of the bar rolling up my back every time I tried to lean forward. I thought I was doing the superman chest thing, but I think I end up just moving my scapulas closer together.

Men, as a group, are quite unaware of their back muscles and how to control them properly for good positioning when they lift. Retracting the scapulae is not the same as "lifting the chest." Put your finger right in the middle of your "cleavage" in that midline between your two pecs. Without retracting your scapulae (or moving your arms, obviously), make your finger rise up towards your chin by lifting your chest. That's "superman chest."

Just prior to my descent, I try and extend my lower back using Rip's cue of "pointing my dick toward the dirt". But now that I'm watching the vid, I see what you mean about rounding it in the bottom of the hole.

Ah, despite our best efforts, another misunderstanding in exactly the way we tell you not to misunderstand us when we use that bit of instruction.

The "dick cue" is used to help dudes learn how to establish active, conscious control their low backs. It purposely puts the back in over-extension, NOT during a squat but just standing there in isolation before you learn to squat, to help you learn to feel what active, conscious control of your low back feels like. Congratulations! You just consciously used your lumbar erectors for the first time in your life. Then you do it again a few times, and can start to feel how to control them to do your bidding.

But to be 100% clear: That cue is NOT how we want your back to be when you squat. NOT AT ALL.

We specifically point this out this during the instruction: "I don't want you going on the internet and saying Rippetoe says my back should be over-extended when I squat," but somehow it gets lost and misunderstood anyway.

The purpose of this cue is to give you, for the first time in your life, the ability to purposely and consciously control your low back muscles, which you have never done before. Once you learn how to do that, DO NOT USE IT TO OVER-EXTEND your back before squatting. NO.

What you do with it is to maintain a rigid neutral back during squatting. The conscious control you've just learned is to resist flexion, not to produce over-extension. The bar's weight over the back segment, oriented in moment from the bar to the hips, will tend to cause spinal flexion unless you resist it. You must learn to resist it! Without conscious control of your lumbar erectors, you have - quite literally - no hope of resisting it.

So this cue is simply part of the teaching process to learn to control your low back/lumbar erectors.

Once you have that control established, use it to maintain a rigid, neutral back and fight the flexion. NOT to produce any kind of over-extension when you squat. At all. Ever.

I'm glad we had this little chat, Bryan.

[Bryan Bulmann]

Oops...sent that previous reply off too soon. I also wanted to attach this video...sorry for the sticky violation. My home gym didn't allow for the same angles as my work gym.

I 'felt' like I had a good superman chest...but I don't really see it in the vid. And, while I guess they're not horrible squats, I think I'm still seeing some lumbar flexion at depth. Next post I will have the proper/preferred video angle and hopefully your corrections nailed down. Thanks again, coach!

[Michael Wolf]

This definitely looks like an improvement. Better control of your descent and an effort not to over-extend. Still needs plenty of work but it looks like a step in the right direction.

[Bryan Bulmann]

This definitely looks like an improvement. Better control of your descent and an effort not to over-extend. Still needs plenty of work but it looks like a step in the right direction.

Any tips on how to keep my bar path straight? That bad habit has been haunting me the longest.

[Michael Wolf]

It's not perfect yet, but the stuff I wrote in my initial post was also aimed at that, even though I didn't say anything about bar path. Control instead of dropping in and falling into the hole helps A LOT with bar path,