Form Check - Trying to hit depth

[buffalob]

Thanks for your help on this. I finally filmed myself about a week ago just for fun, and I had a nasty surprise - I was squatting high and thought I was squatting parrallel. Since then, I have lowered the weight from 320 to 225 and spent the next 3 workouts trying to hit parallel. It hasn't been easy - I had bad behavior ingrained in me. I have changed my stance to be wider and this has allowed me to "sink" into what I hope is parallel. The problem is, that even with the wider stance I still feel like my lower back is 'losing' it's extension resulting in more than a little buttwink. When I'm done with each set, I feel like my lower back has gotten a huge workout.

Let me know what you think about my form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoHAL...ature=youtu.be

[buffalob]

Sorry - action starts at 50 seconds.

[KAG]

Not too bad. The depth is definitely there now. You do appear to be losing some tightness throughout your body. I'm not referring to your "buttwink", but rather the fact that your elbows are dropping as you descend. Watch your elbows. They start up high, but as you drop, they drop down beside you, and it appears your entire back is loosening up.

Is the bar slipping down your back slightly? I ask because your wrists start out okay, but by the end they are bent back under the bar and appear to be holding some of the weight up. This could be caused by the loosening of the upper back.

[buffalob]

Not too bad. The depth is definitely there now. You do appear to be losing some tightness throughout your body. I'm not referring to your "buttwink", but rather the fact that your elbows are dropping as you descend. Watch your elbows. They start up high, but as you drop, they drop down beside you, and it appears your entire back is loosening up.

Is the bar slipping down your back slightly? I ask because your wrists start out okay, but by the end they are bent back under the bar and appear to be holding some of the weight up. This could be caused by the loosening of the upper back.

You are absolutely right. I do feel like the bar is sliding down slightly and my hands are intercepting some of the weight, probably right from the beginning. I am having some trouble with bar position. When I move it down to the low bar position and raise my elbows per SS, I still don't feel like it's completely secure without my hands holding it in place. Might be due to shoulder inflexibility. This is probably an incorrect perception, but I have trouble hitting depth when I keep my back too tight. I end up going as low as my flexibility alows me to, and it's too high. That's my perception at least. A wider stance has helped me physically get low enough, but hasn't solved my back issue.

[Gunnhild Bruno]

The degree of lumbar flexion there is not so good, and you have some undesirable t-spine looseness as well.

A few issues:

Your stance is too wide, which is making it too hard for you to get your knees out. =>

Since you can't get your knees out, you're flexing your back to get to depth instead of doing what you're supposed to do to get depth, which is is sink your tight, rigid body down between your wide-open femurs. =>

Because you can't sink your body down properly between your thighs, you're maintaining a more vertical back angle than is ideal for you in the low-bar squat. =>

Because you're maintaining a back that is too vertical, and because you loosen your back to achieve depth, your bar placement isn't secure, and you're having issues with bar slippage, bad arm positioning, etc.

1) Narrow your stance.
2) Get the knees out. Hard. Especially at the bottom and as you come up out of the hole, when you should be pulling them apart as hard as humanly possible. Like, really hard. The #1 most common mistake people make when learning the squat is underestimating how much effort they need to put into pulling their knees apart.
3) Get your head down and stick your nipples out while you pull your shoulder blades back and lift your elbows.. This should help you get and keep your upper back in extension. Do not relax out of this position.
4) Lean over a little more from the hips.
5) Never use the term "buttwink" again on here.

A wider stance has helped me physically get low enough, but hasn't solved my back issue.

Actually, a wider stance makes it harder to get to depth. Unless you're not getting your knees out properly at all with a narrower stance, in which case, a shitty wider stance may get you deeper than a shitty shoulder-width stance. But the better solution, if you're trying to squat the way Rip advocates, is to un-shittify your shoulder-width stance by learning to get and keep your knees out.

[buffalob]

The degree of lumbar flexion there is not so good, and you have some undesirable t-spine looseness as well.

A few issues:

Your stance is too wide, which is making it too hard for you to get your knees out. =>

Since you can't get your knees out, you're flexing your back to get to depth instead of doing what you're supposed to do to get depth, which is is sink your tight, rigid body down between your wide-open femurs. =>

Because you can't sink your body down properly between your thighs, you're maintaining a more vertical back angle than is ideal for you in the low-bar squat. =>

Because you're maintaining a back that is too vertical, and because you loosen your back to achieve depth, your bar placement isn't secure, and you're having issues with bar slippage, bad arm positioning, etc.

1) Narrow your stance.
2) Get the knees out. Hard. Especially at the bottom and as you come up out of the hole, when you should be pulling them apart as hard as humanly possible. Like, really hard. The #1 most common mistake people make when learning the squat is underestimating how much effort they need to put into pulling their knees apart.
3) Get your head down and stick your nipples out while you pull your shoulder blades back and lift your elbows.. This should help you get and keep your upper back in extension. Do not relax out of this position.
4) Lean over a little more from the hips.
5) Never use the term "buttwink" again on here.



Actually, a wider stance makes it harder to get to depth. Unless you're not getting your knees out properly at all with a narrower stance, in which case, a shitty wider stance may get you deeper than a shitty shoulder-width stance. But the better solution, if you're trying to squat the way Rip advocates, is to un-shittify your shoulder-width stance by learning to get and keep your knees out.

Thanks. I just tried some air squats and the narrower stance with knees pushed out helped with the lumbar flexion issue. Tomorrow is training day and I will report back. My issue with knees out has been the pressure it puts on my adductors (the front part, if that makes sense). I had sports hernia surgery in the past and I now realize that I have been protecting this area.

SS 2nd edition mentioned that those with long femurs and narrow shoulders (I think I fit this description) would need to assume a wider stance than shoulder width to hit depth. That was the basis of my decision to widen the stance. There are a lot of variables to tinker with and I'm not the most physically intelligent person.

[Gunnhild Bruno]

SS 2nd edition mentioned that those with long femurs and narrow shoulders (I think I fit this description) would need to assume a wider stance than shoulder width to hit depth. That was the basis of my decision to widen the stance. There are a lot of variables to tinker with and I'm not the most physically intelligent person.

You think you qualify as someone with abnormally long femurs/abnormally narrow shoulders?

[buffalob]

You think you qualify as someone with abnormally long femurs/abnormally narrow shoulders?

I'm not sure about "abnormal", but that's my perception of my general proportions.