Reply With QuoteSo, How much weight did you gain in 5 months? Your last rep gets really ugly because you are fatigued at that point. Go to a weight you can squat 3x5 and gain weight.
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5 months of squatting, still cannot do 200lbs for 5 reps. User error or broken body?
Hello everyone. I apologize if this post is long and poorly worded, but I need help to suss out my problems.
I've realized that I'm an exceptionally bad squatter and I'm getting seriously worried that my body is broken or something. I'm 24 years old, male and after 5 months of squatting, I cannot squat 200 lbs for 5 reps with acceptable form.
My squat is troubled from many aspects, but the primary issue has been a twisting/arching low back and a lateral shifting of the hips. I've become better at controlling this but it is always there, just less pronounced on some reps. I usually get the first 1-2 reps to look decent, but it's downhill after that.
One of my knees usually caves completely when I get fatigued. I feel like I have 0 control over this. I don't know if my knee caves because my hips are twisting, or if my hips are twisting because of my knee is caving. I'm starting to suspect I have a scolitic curve somewhere in my spine because I literally look like an "S" when everything goes wrong as shown in this picture:
I have the classic scoliosis syndrome where my right shoulder hangs lower than the left. I went to a chiro and a PT. The chiro tried to measure my legs with some weird method and found no discrepancy but said I had an "uneven low back", and the PT just used a big fucking ruler and said my right leg was 1 cm longer. The PT also commented very briefly about a "mild curve in the spine".
One month ago I asked a friend to measure my legs with the method Rippetoe uses in his article. My friend did several measurements with that method and found a discrepancy. He found that my right leg was longer, at least 5 mm but no more than 15 mm. This made a lot of sense to me, because if my right leg is longer, my pelvis is tilted and it can curve the spine and mess up the alignments.
After that I've put a 1 cm shim under my left foot but the twisting and shifting is still there. I have three videos from today's workout and I used a pretty wide stance, but it looks pretty much the same with a narrower stance.
Rear/back
Back
Side
Look closely at my hips. It looks like the right side is rising faster, and that my ass is wobbling.
Also look at the bar path on the side-view. The first rep has a decent vertical path and seemingly no "hip-shift", but the 2nd and 3rd rep the bar shoots forward over the toes. Is this because my upper back is loose and starts to round? Can this be a reason for my twisting motion?
I realize this is a lot of text but I know there is smart people on these boards, hopefully someone can help me with this.
Thanks for reading.
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So, How much weight did you gain in 5 months? Your last rep gets really ugly because you are fatigued at that point. Go to a weight you can squat 3x5 and gain weight.
Member
I went from 145 to 172 lbs in the last 4 months. I'm still gaining weight eating 3500-4000 calories/day. The ratio between BW and working weight has remained roughly the same. That would mean I have to weigh 200 lbs to squat 220, and that sounds absurd to me.Originally Posted by Hans Bachmann
I have deloaded a billion times during these months trying to fix this twisting but I just cannot get rid of it. Even the first 3 reps are not good. Watch the second rep on the rear/back-video at 0.5 speed and look how my hips wobble on the 2nd rep.
It's like I enter panic-mode when it feels heavy and my body does everything to get the weight up (like twisting crazily instead of collapsing down or something)
Last edited by JTT; 07-02-2017 at 01:39 PM.
Member
Squats are heavy and not always perfect on NLP. However your back rounds because you are weak. your knees shift, because you are weak. As far as I can tell, You break at the hips first, dive down with your chest and then push your knees forward. with the hips back already, you throw your hips back even further when driving up, pushing the bar towards your toes then your knees and hips shift to make up for fatigue.
However, i would post something like this in the moderated sections, so you don't have to deal with iliterate fools like myself. You'll even get answers that are actually usefull! I wish you good luck though!
Member
your feet heels might be a little too wide,
they look wider than your shoulders in the rear view.
your feet toes look too slight an angle,
RIP SS calls for approx 30*,
you look pretty straight on to 10* tops in rear view.
so, heels in a bit,
toes out a bit,
deload, keep your knees out over your toes,
post more video,
Member
TLDR; have you seen a SS coach? Austin Baraki sorted out all my squatting problems in a matter of minutes when I had a coaching session with him.
Member
There's no ss-coaches in my country. I could try online coaching but I've been under the impression that weird asymmetries probably need to be fixed live.
Member
I'd agree with some of the others regarding stance width and toe angle . . .
Regarding your concerns about progress (squatting 220 @ 200 BW):
- how long do you rest between sets?
- how large of jumps (in bar weight) do you use between squat workouts?
- I see that you've gained weight, but what is your protein intake per day?
Member
I have tried different foot angles and it's easier to keep the knees tracking over the feet with feet more forward. Maybe I need to go 30* and learn how to keep My knees OUT. My femurs are very long.
I don't know what I do wrong. I rest 6-9min, have Done 1,5kg jumps and I eat 150-200g of protein every day.
Edit: My ass/stomach have accumulated plenty of fat lately.
Last edited by JTT; 07-04-2017 at 01:36 AM.
Member
I'm not posting this to help with form, but to help with the feeling that you may have of being alone or unique in this area. While I don't have the leg discrepancy you have, I do have almost every other issue. I only just hit and knocked down 200 last night at 180lb BW, and I can tell that my form started to break, particularly in my upper back. I regret that I didn't record it, but i'm sure it wasn't pretty. I have lots of trouble keeping my upper back tight under that kind of weight throughout the set. What you said about panicking is exactly what goes through my head, and all cues go bye bye; I just want to get the damned thing up. Just remember though, It's a marathon, not a sprint. Stuff like squatting only gets easier with reps performed. Keep eating, keep gaining, and keep training. One way or another, it's better than not training. Oh, and thanks for showing me that there are others like me. Good luck!
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