Squat Check, Per Favor

[Chief]

Longtime lurker, first time poster. Read both the books, spent a lot of time reading here on the forum. Would appreciate everyone's feedback on two recent squat sets (both at 215). I've been on the program for about 5 months, had never squatted before, and have reset a couple of times to deal with form issues - primarily my knees were sliding forward out of the hole. Any credit goes to Jay at 5x3 gym in B'more, who provided a great training session last month.

[Edited to add: I'm definitely high on at least a few reps.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5XNjyhbAo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU1gavsRj_Y

Thanks for viewing.

[iamsmuts]

For the knee forward issue, someone will tell you to use a TUBOW. I find them a little tricky to use.

I assume that you are squatting without the safties for the purposes of filming.

[Chief]

For the knee forward issue, someone will tell you to use a TUBOW. I find them a little tricky to use.

I assume that you are squatting without the safties for the purposes of filming.

Thanks, I think the biggest change I made was to focus on keeping my chest down when I came out of the hole. Improved my hip drive and my knees were much more stable.

As for the safeties, I generally take them out. Feel like they could interfere with necessary depth, but I guess I could put them on the lowest setting and not have an issue.

[iamsmuts]

Thanks, I think the biggest change I made was to focus on keeping my chest down when I came out of the hole. Improved my hip drive and my knees were much more stable.

As for the safeties, I generally take them out. Feel like they could interfere with necessary depth, but I guess I could put them on the lowest setting and not have an issue.

Great. I have a hell of a time getting any hip drive without causing knee slide backwards.

When it starts to get heavy for you, you'll definitely want to use the safeties. It's not just normal failures that are the problem. But sometimes there are odd muscle tears and back tweaks that might cause you to fail a rep fast.

You can find a good, safe height for the safeties with the empty bar. 4 inches below the bottom of the squat is probably fine. You don't want it to be too low, else you'll have to crumple into a little ball or roll it over your neck. You want it so that you can lean forward a bit and dump the bar without it rolling up your neck.