Squat form check please

[robertross]

Squat form check - YouTube


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

This is my first workout trying to address a pattern of shooting my hips up at the bottom of the squat that a friend pointed out to me.

[Tom Campitelli]

Your hips are not shooting up out of the bottom. Your ascent looks pretty good, albeit a touch too slow and deliberate. Your descent is also too slow and your knees are sliding forward at the bottom. Go down faster, get your knees in place by halfway down, and don't let them shoot forward at the bottom. Also, get yourself some lifting shoes. They are great.

[robertross]

Thank you Tom, I appreciate you taking the time and I'll work on that. I'll try to keep my knees back and speed up the descent and ascent.

It looks like the knees are as far forward as they should be about halfway down. If my back angle is correct and the lumbar should remain locked, then is it true that additional depth has to come only from hip flexion? I ask because I feel like I don't have enough hip range to get to parallel in that scenario; due to age, due to femur length, due to office work, etc.

Any thoughts appreciated. I'll be working on your feedback in this evening's session. Here's what the same backyard looked like this morning:

[Tom Campitelli]

It looks like the knees are as far forward as they should be about halfway down.

I would probably agree with that. The problem is that they keep going forward thereafter.

then is it true that additional depth has to come only from hip flexion?

Nope. Your knees don't stop flexing just because they are no longer traveling forward. Both your knees and hips will continue to flex.

I ask because I feel like I don't have enough hip range to get to parallel in that scenario; due to age, due to femur length, due to office work, etc.

You can definitely get below parallel without having your knees go so far forward.

Any thoughts appreciated. I'll be working on your feedback in this evening's session. Here's what the same backyard looked like this morning:

Dear lord. If I had to train outside, I would opt to stay inside and eat doughnuts instead. You are a tougher man than I. Where is this? The landscape looks Pennsylvanian to me.

[robertross]

215# squat form knees adjustment - YouTube

Thanks again Tom for much appreciated feedback. I decided to give the lifting shoes another go and am surprised it wasn't a difficult transition.

It doesn't look like I've been able to prevent the forward knee travel completely although I feel like I've been able to make some adjustment. Even balancing on my heels on the way down I can't help but end up on my midfoot at the bottom.

I'm trying to speed it up a little but I'm finding it difficult to modify technique and speed at the same time; easier to feel body position a bit slower, and I have tended to let my low back round when going faster in the past. Is that misguided?

As always, any thoughts are very much appreciated. I will continue working on speed and knee movement unless you see regression in something else.

Training outdoors really isn't that bad although it's definitely different from the West coast. We had a mild winter in Toronto in the great Eastern forest-boreal transition although it seems to be continuing late. I don't know Pennsylvania myself but gather that the forest type is similar although more deciduous the other side of the Great Lakes. On the other hand I've found the Bay area damn frigid in the summer time

[Tom Campitelli]

You are supposed to be in your midfoot for the whole squat. Don't try and maintain a vertical shin. Let your knees come further forward early. They are getting where then need to get, just at the bottom, which is problematic. I doubt you would round your back if you descended a little faster.