To make it clearer: when I get fatigued, I just can't seem to pin my elbows to my torso quite hard enough and it makes me lose tightness --> bad form.
Hello,
So I've been dealing with an asymmetry in my squat, where my hip shifts to the right side and my low back becomes uneven when I drive up. I've been trying to iron it out and the main culprit for my asymmetry seems to be a lack of tightness in the upper back.
I cue myself to "pin my elbows to my sides and point them down", and to "close my armpits" and it makes my upper back (and whole torso) tight as a MF'er and my form holds up just fine.
But when I start to get fatigued, I lose tightness in my upper back and I get loose, so my form suffers and my hips starts to shift.
I feel like I have energy/power left in my legs, but the lack of tightness makes it impossible to grind out reps with good form and it feels like I'm leaking power.
I know some form breakdown is to be expected when you get fatigued, but my form goes from good to bad too damn quickly!
To make it clearer: when I get fatigued, I just can't seem to pin my elbows to my torso quite hard enough and it makes me lose tightness --> bad form.
Something I feel has recently been making a difference for me is thinking about pinning the bar to my back with thoracic extension before I even unrack it. Once my shoulders are warmed up and I can take a decently narrow grip, I find focusing on that thoracic extension let's me pretty much forget about where my elbows are because it's almost impossible to become loose even if I tried to. I used to think more about my elbows, wrists and hands, but since I've shifted my focus to thoracic extension during the set up, the bar has felt a lot more steady on my back.
Yup different cue for the same thing, but I just found thinking about one vs. the other helped me lock it in better before I even unrack, so that even when fatigued it feels solid because there's nowhere it can go. However, I've also taken a bit of weight off the bar recently to focus on form more, so we'll see if it even works for me when I get back up to my heavy (for me at least) weights!
I have the same sort of issue. I do lots of body weight stretches with a broomstick to keep everything loose. Seems to help me maintain form when shit gets heavy.
I also think chest out, really helps. Might go well with what you are thinking already.
This guy's video also helped me stay tighter:
YouTube