Amsterstam squat camp 1.25 years later

[JayvH]

Hello there and sepcial greeting to Tom,

after diagnosing my massive knee slide during Amsterdam squat camp in December 2014, I pretty muched used complete 2015 for fixing this. (Thread history: #1, #2, #3)

Even after Tom's last thumbs up in thread #3 I thought I had it down but when reaching hard weights, the knees were moving again. So over in my thread in the technique-section, I used to analyse back and forth until user bhara was so kind to give me some tipps in a personal session. Main thing was to get far more horizontal (nipples to the floor) than before. This gave me the first real feeling of the stretch in the hamstrings, which I've searched for so long and the knees became more stable (although not perfect) immediately.

But the discussion in the technique section followed, that my shins were to vertical now, knees to much behind the toes. So I redid a session with less weight on Friday with knees to the tip of the toes (using pussy pad as TUBOW replacement) to check if that worked better. The stretch in the hamstring is significantly reduced and I hardly get any power out of the hole aka the bounce is gone. Even failed reps on set 2 and 3 while searching for the stretch.

So in short I want an opinion if I'm fine with extreme leaning over and this even may be necessary because of short torso and femurs, while the tibia could be relativly long (I don't have comparison to other lifters though).

90 kg with 5 reps (side view)

I'm aware that knees are moving at rep 1 and 4 a bit.

This set is recorded from the side on purpose for checking the knee position and movement, sets from the side and back could be provided. I also would be able to show a recording with knees more forward and back more upright for comparison.

[Michael Wolf]

After reading your whole post, I decided I would look at your squats with a fresh eye, so did not look at any of your previous videos or threads. With that in mind...

It definitely looks to me like you're sitting back too much and your tibias are too vertical. You're also not getting quite deep enough, and you're changing your gaze as you descend and end up looking almost right between your feet.

Don't worry so much about whether you feel the stretch in your hammies. Move your knees just a bit more forward before setting their position, which will mean a slightly more upright torso and possibly less feeling of hamstring stretch. Set your gaze before the first rep and only look at that spot for the duration of the set - don't look anywhere else, even between reps. Get below parallel.

Like I said, I haven't seen your other videos - on purpose. But if it's a choice between a little knee slide and above parallel, shins vertical squats, I'd take the bit of knee slide.

[tfranc]

My squats use to look kind of look like this. Fear not getting into your knees! Your squats will feel much, much better.

[JayvH]

Thanks so much for your input, I always imagined I need to feel a stretching sensation in the hamstrings. I took of a bit of the weight and tried to set my knees more foreward as I did in the past. And my slide is back but not as harsh as it has been. Nevertheless I'd like to show my new effort.

This time I have a video recorded from the default view from the side and back. This was my third set with 82,5 kg and I recognise, that the fifth rep is a bit high.

I don't know, if this offers some new insights, so I also have my sideview recordings of set 1 and set 2 for an optional view. Where I see a good squat on the first rep of first set (I think) and than a bit of slide again. Not really sure what is wrong here. Am I still too vertical with the shins or am I loosing tightness? Tried to focus on eyes on one point on the bottom edge of the mirror in front of me, which was easyier to do, when not getting super horizontal.

[Michael Wolf]

Looked at the third set (your first link). They do look better. Your knees aren't absolutely perfectly still, but I don't see any worrisome knee slide. You need to go a bit deeper, and smooth out the initiation of your descent so you lean over at the same time you start bending your knees. Allow your knees to go just a touch more forward before trying to set them in place, and let's see how it looks.

[JayvH]

Before getting your respose I already set them a bit further forward and this almost eliminated my slide. After seeing the new Platform Video about correct back angle I finally realized what breaking hips and knees at the same time should look like. So I squatted 90 kg on Friday for three sets of five (miscounted on first set and did six).

This is the third set.

I think depth is a bit better now, knees are not as good as on the two workouts before. Don't know why, maybe I was to concentrated to break hips and knees at the same time. Knees are caving in a bit and the back angle closes a bit to much when I come out of the hole. Would love to hear your feedback.

[Tom Campitelli]

Hola, JayvH. Good to hear from you. Many of your reps are a tad high, but those are otherwise decent looking squats. A touch of knees coming in, but not worrisome. Bring your stance in a hair and go a little deeper.

[JayvH]

Hey Tom, thank your for your feedback. From the sideview the depth always looked ok, so I thought it may just be the perspective. But worked it into the last two workouts and felt that it was a bit easyier to get out of the hole. Wanted to show my 3rd set of 100 kg today. I think depth on the first three reps is ok, but the bar began to move after third rep. I think this has something to do with my left wrist bending at the bottom, don't know where this comes from. So while concentrating to keep the bar in position I failed to reach the correct depth on rep four and five I think.

I hope stance is a bit better now, not sure though because when I take my stance I'm not really sure how far it was last time.

So here is the third set.

[Tom Campitelli]

Knees out a little more on the way down and much more on the way up.

[JayvH]

Thanks Tom, do you think the stance still needs to be a bit more narrow? And would you recommend a reset or to still increase the weight, when you look at a third set like this. Just for the information how to asses it, because I think I have to make a little reset since my arms hurt a bit from holding the weight in the last two reps.