Member
Squat Check
Hi,
I'm breaking one of the rules here since this video is of a triple, but over on the Programming forum Andy has gotten me doing 6 triples so that's why. This was the 6th (and final) set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNeaxKYPveA
My elbows are quite high but it causes me no problems, is stable and I struggle to keep a neutral wrist any other way. Other than that, does anything look out of place on these squats? Cheers.
Starting Strength Coach
Your knees aren't getting forward enough in the first 1/3 of your decent. This is causing you to squat on your heels to prevent your knees from sliding forward in the bottom. Use the TUBOW to fix this. If you don't have a TUBOW think knees first when initiating the decent and push them more forward then you feel comfortable.
Member
Hi Nick, my gym has loads of TUBOWs so I can try this (I'm already thinking 'knees first!'). I'd have done it today but they decided to close early due to the holiday period so my squatting was rushed; took some videos but nothing worth uploading here since they just looked the same. I get a bit of a knee bounce when I'm not forcing myself to avoid it, and if I manage to avoid it then it looks exactly like the video in the original post.Originally Posted by Nick D'Agostino
It genuinely feels like my tibias aren't long enough to get my knees any further forward but I'll stick a TUBOW an inch in front of my toes next time and see what happens when I try to hit it. Thanks for the advice.
Member
Okay Nick, I tried but I don't think it was pretty. It was upper body day today but I hate the feeling of not having this form right so I did some squats anyway, although they're only sets of 1 and 2 because I want to do a proper volume day tomorrow. I know we're supposed to stick to 1 video but these are only 10 and 5 seconds long so hopefully that's okay.
The TUBOW seemed to make my squat look like a high-bar with a really vertical back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGnpWtd_uZA
When I took the TUBOW away it just looked really horrible - I did loads of easy singles with 225 but the bar path was all over the place, back angle all over the place, depth all over the place... I eventually called it a day and did a single with my old strategy but trying to get the knees a bit more forward:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tqBHpZWugA
How bad is it? Do you think it's fixable by continuing with my current programming and just focusing on putting the knees forward or do I really need to relearn this? I'm willing to squat all 4 sessions a week to practice the movement, use the TUBOW, strip the weight down, etc, but if this isn't too bad and you give me the all clear to try to work on this as I go then that would be a relief! But tell me it how it is.
Starting Strength Coach
Don't panic lol. Continue your current programming. Use the TUBOW on all of your warmup sets and take it away for your work sets. When using the TUBOW stay tight and cut your depth. Your relaxing and bottoming out in that video. With out a coach yelling at you this is going to take more then 1 training session to fix. Just keep using the TUBOW for a few sessions and post another video in a week.
Member
For the sake of my own curiosity here, would doing a set or two of pause squats during warm help to teach one to stay tight in the bottom position? Or would doing that risk creating other problems?
Starting Strength Coach
It may help. Sometimes people pause too deeply, and when dealing with novices pause squats may screw up their rebound timing. Pause squatting is a strategy I would use if multiple intra workout coaching attempts to fix the squat in an intermediate trainee failed.
Member
I know you said to wait a week but there been some interesting developments... I'm not sure if this is related or a separate issue but it's definitely a bigger problem. I'm twisting. The original post at the top of this thread was shot from the right. I happened to take one from the left on Tuesday and the bar moved noticeably forward of the mid-foot as you can see (depth might not be perfect, not too worried as sets weren't maximal anyway and my depth instinct is a little off now I'm trying to change the form up):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r96ZCunK4-E
So I had an idea and moved the camera to the other side and the bar doesn't come forward, but if you watch the plates in the background you can see the other side of the bar moving forward and back several inches! (Sorry for the worse camera angle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A14PaQkUCqA
Have you ever known this to happen before? Could this be a leg length difference or something?
Starting Strength Coach
Next time you squat get me a level behind view from about 15 feet away so I can see your whole body with room to spare. It could be a few things but the behind view should give us some more perspective.
Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSfgLCfc8o0
No guarantee that the 'twisting' was actually occurring on this, especially since it was a little light (recorded on upper body day since I could get it recorded like this then) since I didn't get a simultaneous side view but it was happening every single set the other day so I assume it was happening in the video.
I wanted to get a closer version so did another set. The iron plates magically turn into bumpers because I got told off for using the iron on the platforms and had to replace them all...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apQ72YTgIMs
My stance looks a little uneven on that one but I don't think that's a recurring problem.
Cheers Nick.
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