Squat form check 225x5

[Eric May]

My squats are starting to feel heavy (for me anyway) and I just want to make sure my form looks alright.

This video shows all 3 work sets @ 225lb from 3 different angles, but the link takes you straight to the last set @ 1m15s.

YouTube

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Satch12879]

First, we don’t need three angles. We want your last work set, from the rear quarter, hip height, in landscape, per the sticky that you read. We also don’t want you to wear black pants.

These weren’t in the least heavy. You are way too deep and breaking at your hips way ahead of your knees. Your low back is floppy as hell, too.

Get tighter before you start. Squeeze everything in place. Slow down your descent. Hips and knees need to break together. Bounce out of the bottom, don’t slam into it. Think about cutting off depth intentionally high.

Back angle looks good. You do a good job of maintain that back angle out of the hole and driving your hips up. Just fix these timing and tempo issues. You’ve got a lot of room to grow with these, provided you EAT. Like now.

[Justin Smale]

Satch, would you say his grip is a bit too wide?

[Devyn Stewart]

You're really exaggerating the "hips back" idea. Your hips are supposed to go back, but they aren't supposed to go first. Break at your knees and hips at the same time, set your knees at the top 1/3rd of the movement and then keep them there on the way down.

Looks like your lower back relaxes quite a bit at the bottom of the squat. You're going well below depth, so maybe cutting it a few inches shorter to spare your lower back isn't a bad idea. Just be sure to record your sets to be sure you aren't squatting high.

Make sure you shove those knees out as well. They're caving in on the beginning of the ascent, then it looks like you overcorrect. Just keep them shoved out over your toes the entire movement.

From the angle of the first video, it sure looks like you're losing balance forward quite a bit on your toes. Keep the weight over the middle of your foot the entire movement.

Hope this helps. Good luck, dude!

[Satch12879]

Satch, would you say his grip is a bit too wide?

Not so much. Long forearms. Upper back looks good.

I'll append my earlier comments by noting that knees are tracking outside of the feet. Look at the path; they're snapped way outside of the foot and then have to be brought back inward. OP, get your knees over your feet. You've got good ankle flexibility, but let's not overdo it.

[Eric May]

This is awesome, I really appreciate the feedback! Let me see if I can summarize what I need to work on.

The Good:

• Back angle
• Hip drive
• Not actually heavy / room to grow

I’m glad to hear my back angle looks good because I have been working on “pointing my nipples to the floor” and trying to focus on hip drive so at least I’m doing something right. It’s encouraging to hear you say I’ve got “room to grow” with these as well. I’ve already gained ~20+ pounds but feel like I’ve still got 20-30 to go so I’ll continue eating everything in sight for the foreseeable future.

The Bad:

• Too deep
• Low back loose
• Breaking at the hips before the knees
• Keep knees over your toes
• Falling forward
• Too skinny
• RTFS (read the f*$%# sticky)

Lots to work on here, but I feel like I know how to work on most of them. The one exception is I am having a really hard time with low back tightness and have been trying to fix it for a while. For some context, I have hyperlordosis due to a grade 1 spondylolisthesis (congenital). As a result I find it very difficult to keep both my low back and my abs tight since in order to “flex” my low back I feel like I need to hyperextend it. I’ve searched the forum and seen several threads on squatting with spondy, but haven’t found anything that exactly addresses this. Am I overthinking this? Appreciate any advice or cues for getting my setup right.

Thanks again, I’ll post a follow-up video once I’ve had a few sessions to work on all this.

Cheers!

[Devyn Stewart]

This is awesome, I really appreciate the feedback! Let me see if I can summarize what I need to work on.

The Good:

• Back angle
• Hip drive
• Not actually heavy / room to grow

I’m glad to hear my back angle looks good because I have been working on “pointing my nipples to the floor” and trying to focus on hip drive so at least I’m doing something right. It’s encouraging to hear you say I’ve got “room to grow” with these as well. I’ve already gained ~20+ pounds but feel like I’ve still got 20-30 to go so I’ll continue eating everything in sight for the foreseeable future.

The Bad:

• Too deep
• Low back loose
• Breaking at the hips before the knees
• Keep knees over your toes
• Falling forward
• Too skinny
• RTFS (read the f*$%# sticky)

Lots to work on here, but I feel like I know how to work on most of them. The one exception is I am having a really hard time with low back tightness and have been trying to fix it for a while. For some context, I have hyperlordosis due to a grade 1 spondylolisthesis (congenital). As a result I find it very difficult to keep both my low back and my abs tight since in order to “flex” my low back I feel like I need to hyperextend it. I’ve searched the forum and seen several threads on squatting with spondy, but haven’t found anything that exactly addresses this. Am I overthinking this? Appreciate any advice or cues for getting my setup right.

Thanks again, I’ll post a follow-up video once I’ve had a few sessions to work on all this.

Cheers!

Sounds like you've got the right attitude to succeed, Eric. I would be particularly diligent about the lower back tightness in your situation. The hyperextension issue is addressed in the book on page 109 if you've got it handy. I'm not totally convinced that's your issue, though. It appears as though you just lose tightness at the bottom of the squat because you descend too low. It might be prudent to play around in a mirror squatting just a hair below depth and keeping your lower back extended just to teach your body that it isn't allowed to go deeper and round over. You may also be overthinking the idea that you need to feel like you are actively contracting or "flexing" your lower back muscles. If you fight hard to keep your lower back in a neutral lordotic curve, your spinal erectors will be working whether or not you know it, so teaching yourself to control your lower back is more important than worrying about feeling certain muscles fire. There are lots of resources teaching you how to do this. Here's one: The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Learn About Lifting Weights | Starting Strength Channel

Good luck, dude! Feel free to post another video(s) when you feel you've cleaned up your form some more.