Squat Form Check

[NKT]

I've been having some problems with my squats. I've stalled twice in the mid-200's. I have a persistent sharp pain in my upper quadriceps: about 6" down from the hip joint and feels like it's really deep in the leg - almost under the quad muscles. This feels like an injury sort of pain rather than usual muscle soreness, but I can't identify a particular time when I would have become injured. Getting out of a chair is a joke today.

I've been working the IT bands and glutes with a foam roller and a rolling pin, and persistent pain in those areas has mostly gone away. Working the quads where I currently feel the pain has had no effect.

I had some problems with the knees sliding foreword at the bottom of the squat, but I think I have that mostly fixed now by setting my feet wider and pushing my knees out. My thighs remind me immediately when I let my knees slide foreword now.

Here's the 4th set from last night:
4/29/10 squat form check 225x5

[JStrong]

Hey Humboldt,

Any chance it's overworked adductors? You started with heavy weight, progressed quickly while messing with form, and you seem to drive your hips forward more than up, which makes the quads work more and the hammies work less.

If your adductors were weak (most are) they may not have been prepared for the weight the rest of your body could handle.

Just a thought, you probably had strong quads and weak vastus, and overworked the weakest muscles.

Get someone else to check though, I'm on a layoff after hurting myself too, so might be exactly wrong.

[NKT]

My adductors did start out weak, but they have grown just fine and remain pain-free. After looking at an anatomy drawing, it looks like my pain is happening right at the top of the rectus femoris.

Thinking about it a little further, I think the pain began when I noticed my squats were turning into good-mornings around 285lb, and I tried to correct the form without reducing the weight. May have over-stressed the quads by refusing to fail the set even though the quads were overloaded with the new form. Does that sound reasonable?

[LudwigVan]

Here's the 4th set from last night:
4/29/10 squat form check 225x5

Every rep here is a couple of inches too deep -- you're relaxing at the bottom to achieve depth and you've got no bounce out of the hole. Maintain tightness and cut these off higher.

You're also not getting a complete breath before reps 2-5. Take a full breath, then squat.