Squat/Deadlift Form Check

[Justin Smale]

Hi folks,

I've posted on the Technique forum before and had the usual suspects critique my form, but now that I'm verified and a real person and all I figured I'd post some form checks here. I took 2 videos of my squat because when I looked at the second set it seemed I was stopping a bit too high so I filmed my third set from the side to guage my depth (on that set it looks fine to me so maybe it was fine in the first place, or I self corrected after thinking I was too high). Any advice you folks could give on cleaning up my lifts would be greatly appreciated.

Squat Set 2


Squat Set 3


Deadlift

[Pete Troupos]

Welcome to being a real person, Justin.
Typically we do one lift per form check.

For the deadlift, I'd like to see you get your back much tighter/"flatter". Get the chest up harder and keep squeezing up, leaving the hips in place, more than you think you need to and think about pulling all of the "slack" out of the bar before you break if off the ground. Then, make sure you're on mid-foot and stay there. You're pulling all of these from your toes. You feel the bar swing away from you and off your legs? Get and stay mid-foot.

For the squat, need to fixed that cranked-elbow grip. Watch this and see if it helps: YouTube
With your elbows that high, it's unlikely that you have the necessary thoracic extension to confidently lean over as you descend. See if you can get the chest up and elbows down. That should help with one of the biggest issues, which is the lack of enough lean. You're not getting leaned over enough to start, so you end up forward and on your toes in the bottom. The knees slide forward, the hips chase the knees, and then depth becomes suspect. Get leaned over sooner and send your hips back, keeping everything on midfoot. If you can get in the proper bottom position, with the right back angle for your build and your weight on mid-foot, it'll help solve the last major technique issue...more hip drive out of the bottom. Being slightly forward may have you less confident in staying with the hip drive, so you tend to lift your chest early. You won't be able to get away with this as it gets heavier.
Fix the grip --> Fix the back angle/mid-foot balance --> Moar hip drahve.
Work on that for a bit and see how it goes. Good luck!

[Justin Smale]

Thanks so much for the feedback! I'll work on those things for the HIP DRAHVE.

[Justin Smale]

I've been working on this the past few weeks and I THINK I'm making progress but I wanted to check in to get your take on how my squat looks. I've been working my grip narrower as per that video (trying to get myself into the low bar position every day regardless if I'm squatting that day or not). It's not painful but it's definitely not comfy, though tolerable and I'm able to get my hands about an inch inside the markings which is further than I've been able to get them previously. Looking at the videos I can see my elbows are down a little more, though they still look high compared to a lot of form checks that I've seen on here. And again I THINK I'm getting more out of my knees, just want some confirmation I'm on the right track here and there's nothing I should nip in the bud.