Full Lumbar Flexion at bottom of the squat?

Hey Now!

I've been doing the SS novice LP for 3 months now. All my lifts are progressing great and I've packed on a ton of weight (+50 lbs since I started). The only lift that is lagging behind is my squat. My squat was progressing fine, I started at 135 day one and was up to 335x3x5 when I started to experience intense lumbar spine pain during/after squatting. This wasn't normal muscle soreness: It felt like hot needles were sticking into my lumbar spine. I know it was caused by my squats because I have deloaded my squat while progressing my other lifts and the pain has slowly subsided.

After watching a ton of footage of myself squatting; my observation is that I'm going into full lumbar flexion in order to get to parallel in the squat. Is this an accurate observation or is there something else that's causing me issues?

Is this Full Lumbar Flexion? - Album on Imgur

Fc Squat 135x1x4 - YouTube

Sweats or Shorts? | Mark Rippetoe

Stay leaned over. Let your knees come forward more, sooner.

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Originally Posted by Satch12879

Stay leaned over. Let your knees come forward more, sooner.

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Am I missing something? I'm what Ripp would call a physical moron (I'm pretty dumb in general). I feel like I'm staying leaned over the entire time (my torso angel doesn't appear to change throughout the movement). What do you mean let your knees come forward? When I break more at the knees I feel the weight shift over my toes and my barpath goes all wonky and it puts even more strain on my lumbar spine. I've also been coached by a SS online coach and was told that my knees should be set halfway down into the hole and stay there (I know I'm not doing this as you can see my knees are still sliding forward as i get to parallel).

“Butt Wink” | Mark Rippetoe

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Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

Sweats or Shorts? | Mark Rippetoe

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Are you saying that my sweatpants are too tight and are causing this issue? Or are you saying it's hard to diagnose my problem because of the dark color clothes? I'm a moron so if you can be direct that would be helpful.

Does the article say anything at all about dark colors?

No it doesn't. The article talks about over tight sweats causing friction on the knees and limiting motion and/or proprioception in regards to knee position. I will wear loose fitting shorts for tomorrows squat session and post new foo

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Originally Posted by MeatyMan

Am I missing something? I'm what Ripp would call a physical moron (I'm pretty dumb in general). I feel like I'm staying leaned over the entire time (my torso angel doesn't appear to change throughout the movement). What do you mean let your knees come forward? When I break more at the knees I feel the weight shift over my toes and my barpath goes all wonky and it puts even more strain on my lumbar spine. I've also been coached by a SS online coach and was told that my knees should be set halfway down into the hole and stay there (I know I'm not doing this as you can see my knees are still sliding forward as i get to parallel).

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Watch what your crotch does from the side view. I understand you really can’t see your crotch from the side, but imagine more what’s attached to it. Can you see how it goes from being tucked under you to more pointed forward? In other words, do you see your hips area humping or thrusting forward at the bottom? Commensurate with that, what happens to your hip and back angles? Your back angle becomes more vertical and your hip angle opens.

To stay in balance, your knees have to go forward. It’s good that you recognize this. These errors compound to slacken the hamstrings, something we don’t want. Knee irritation can come along with this, too. It’s a common enough problem.

You start well enough, but you give up as you try to reach depth. During warmups at your next workout, keep your eyes firmly on your floor target. As you approach the bottom, think about perhaps leaning over more, while simultaneously reach backward with your ass. The ass backwards cue gives you something tangible to think about that will help develop your low back control, which is not egregiously bad. I think what you’re seeing is an artifact of the other errors in the movement.