Squat Form Check

[crichton]

Hi coaches! I'm just starting out squatting @ 27kg. How is my form? I have a very flexible lumber from too many computing hours, so I'm trying to squeeze my abs & co as hard as I can.

https://vimeo.com/85756115

Thanks!

[Tom Campitelli]

You are lifting your chest out of the bottom. Drive with the hips. Put some weight on the bar. 27 kg is way too light for you.

[crichton]

Thanks for the feedback! I was aiming to go slower on the squat, since I still have some groin pain from my previous try of SS (see here). I now do 15 minutes of foam rolling before each session, which seems to help a bit.

Anyway, I upped the weight to 42.5 kg, which is quite pain free for now. Here is a new vid:

https://vimeo.com/86350490

Another issue that I'm having is with my left shoulder. It seems to be very tight. I have to take my grip about 2 inches further outside than on the right side, so that the bar is still centered on my back. I do have some medium pain in this shoulder's front part, which is stretched the most in the squat. It prevents me from sleeping on that side. So for the moment, I'm taking a grip that is more wide than the recommended max. Hopefully this will get better after a few more workouts.

[Tom Campitelli]

Not bad. Get tighter. Put 20 more kilos on the bar at least. Take whatever grip you can.

[crichton]

Thanks Tom, but I don't think I can up it more than 5 kg atm. Reasons being:

1) My tight shoulder needing a wide grip and so I'm not able to build a comfortable shelf with my traps, which leads to the bar resting partly on bone, being already quit uncomfortable @ 42 kilos.

2) That last vid was from my second set. In the third set, my form was already breaking under the 42 kilos, so I think I simple don't have the power to do squats @ 62 kilos

[Tom Campitelli]

Do what you need to do, in that case.

[crichton]

Ok, so I tried it with 50 kilos and it was close, but I made it. Gonna keep progressing linearily from here on:

https://vimeo.com/86625564

The last two reps of each set were actually tougher than it looks in the video.

[Tom Campitelli]

Don't let your knees go so far forward. Get them in place by halfway down and then don't let them travel any further over your toes after that point. Drive your ass up the whole way. Don't lift your chest up at the start or midway through.

[crichton]

Ok, I had a bad workout yesterday. I seemed to have managed a groin pull or tendon strain in my left groin area. Below you'll find a video of my last two worksets. Set 2 is shot at an angle and set 3 from behind. The injury occured somewhere around rep 2-4 of set 3, the shot from behind:

https://vimeo.com/87383562

I think it happened because I descended and reemerged out of the bottom too fast. I felt a sharp pain. a kind of stabbing. Also, the uneven weight distribution may have played a role? I wasn't aware that I still had that issue, since I checked and corrected for it with my grip position when I started squatting 3 weeks ago.

As for the injury itself, it doesn't hurt during normal walking, but on some stairs, when getting out of a chair and also if I lift my left foot to or above my right knee while sitting.

So, what do you think, is it a tendon or muscle injury? Currently I'm applying ice, should I go full starr rehab? Shall I pause all my other lifts (it didn't seem to hurt while deadlifting in that same session). Also, note that I had the same injury before, when I tryed SS a few month ago, so it might be a re-injury, see here.

Thanks!

[Tom Campitelli]

You are not staying tight on your descent. You need to fix that. However, you did not pull a groin muscle. If you did, you would have immediately failed the lift and been in significant pain. A groin pull is a serious fucking injury and while something may not be happy with you, you did not sustain such an injury.

I cannot diagnose you from here. All I know is that you finished your set and you can still walk. Therefore, you are just fine. Don't pause your other lifts. Don't even do Starr Rehab. You are squatting just over 50 kg as it is. Be smart. Squat something lighter and stop dropping into the bottom of the squat without being under control. Eat some food, train the other lifts hard and you should be fine.