Squat Form Check

[bobby_beginner]

Hello everyone, I just began training with the starting strength program about 10 days ago.

I recently spent hours and hours reading about squatting correctly, filming myself many times until it looked OK. Especially scared about my knees, which easily become weakened (I tried squatting a few years ago, after a few weeks I'd feel pain in the knees every time I'd go down the stairs or do jogging).

Care to check my form? I'm 6 feet, 70kg.

40kg squat

Also I am not sure about the knees out cue, so the 3 first videos are my normal squat without forcing too much the knees out. The 4th video is when I really intentedly push the knees out while I squat. Which one is better?

Diagonal view : YouTube
Side view : YouTube
Rear view : YouTube

Rear view (knees more out) : YouTube

Cheers

[Brian Sloan]

Intentionally, pushing the knees out is better, but your primary focus should be driving your butt up. You're not using enough hip drive. Also your wrists need to be straight, and stop wrapping your thumbs around the bar.

[carson]

Eat.

[bobby_beginner]

Hey, unfortunately today I hurt my groin a bit during the squat, but I managed to record it. I found it a bit ridiculous hurting myself with so little weight but anyways... that's not going to stop me to improve my squat.

I took into account your grip advice, here is a video from today with my new grip. I also found that holding the bar firmly helps to tighten my upper body.

Squat 40kg -> YouTube

I also tried to focus on the hip drive, unfortunately I don't know if I made a bad move during the first warmup squat but I kind of hurt my groin area at the left leg (between the glute and the hamstring, but localized more towards the inner leg / groin area). Then when I put 40kg (on the video above), I felt the pain more so I had to stop quickly (also I couldn't deadlift after that). I feel the pain when my legs are close to the bottom of my squat (2nd half of the way down, 1st half of the way up), and the wider my stance, the bigger the pain (not very strong though, I could continue to squat but I don't want to worsen it).

[Brian Sloan]

Injuries are above my pay grade. I'd talk to a SSC about that. But I can tell you I've felt similar pains when my stance is too wide. I fixed it by doing the first warm up set with my stance a few inches too narrow and widening it slightly as I add weight to the bar. By the time I'm doing my 1st work set the stance is at the correct width.

[Nicholas Soleyn]

Is there any bruising, swelling, or extreme discomfort where you hurt your groin?

Looking at your original posts (rear view), your stance is a little too wide. This plus trying to shove your knees out is the basic recipe for injuring your adductors (groin muscles). If you only had a minor strain, you should be able to get back to squatting pretty quickly. When you do, narrow your stance by about 2 inches on both sides. If the groin muscle is still hurting, err on the side of a little too narrow for now, pointing toes out at about 30-degrees (per the usual set up) and knees in line with your toes.

For the rest of the movement, you are fighting to keep a bit too vertical back angle on the way down. Tighten your abs like you are about to be punched in the gut, look down more, and bend over as soon as you break at the hips and knees, pointing your chest toward the floor right away.

[bobby_beginner]

Thanks guys. I did a new gym session today without issue.

@Nicholas No, there was no bruising, swelling, or extreme discomfort where I hurt my groin. So the next day I still felt the pain slightly when I squatted down without the bar. And now today I had no pain at all, so I decided I could try to squat 40kg with a slightly more narrow stance as you suggested, I didn't get the problem anymore. I also followed your advice for the abs and the back angle more horizontal.

Squat 40kg -> YouTube

What do you think if the form now? Would you advise me to keep with 40kg until I get a better form, or I can "safely" add more weight while at the same time focusing on my squat technique?

[murklurker]

I had a very similar tweak a while ago while squatting a warmup weight. Clears up super fast. Be cautious, but no reason to be afraid of squatting. It seems that tweaks are part of training.

For videos I'd try to get your feet in the shot. Can help with stuff.

For your set-up, I'd try narrowing your grip over time. Low bar isn't super comfortable, especially at first, but you can create a much tighter position for the bar if you can tolerate a narrower grip. It will also keep your elbows from being as horizontal as they are. Ideally they'd be close to parallel with your torso. Just try to wiggle your grip narrower, over a few workouts, one finger width at a time. There are a bunch of videos on youtube about this.

Also for your setup, Pause the video at 45s. Don't stand like that! Stand up straight at the top and between reps, human-like, ya know?

For the squat itself I'd work on your initiation, your descent and hip-drahve.

Your tendency is to unlock hips first then knees. Unlock them both at the same time. I think about nipples to the floor, and shoving knees forward/ out. You seem to have a pretty good grasp of nipples to floor, but think about getting your knees established forward sooner. Once you get that synchronized you can really hone in on weight perfectly mid-foot throughout.

For your descent/ turn around it is too slow. Stay in control on the way down, but you can pick it up a bit. And once you're at the bottom get outta there! It's a scary place. Some of these almost look like pause squats.

And finally, and probably most importantly, some of these are chest-y. Especially when you're learning, exaggerate that hip drive out of the bottom. Seeing a slight change to more horizontal back angle on the ascent wouldn't be the worst thing as you are learning. It establishes the proper movement pattern for you. Good morning's not what SS teaches etc, but make sure you are able to demonstrate a strong hip drive.

Also, obligatory lifting shoes are kewl comment.

Have fun!

[Mark Rippetoe]

BP / Press form check

[murklurker]

Makes sense.

I know I was there once, and kinda half-assed learning the lifts. It wasn't until after the seminar that I realized If people would just take the book with them to the gym and follow the progression as stated It'd sort out so many problems.

IE, a buddy of mine wanted to snatch and I hadn't used it in my own training yet, and it wasn't covered in as much detail as the P Clean at the seminar. Step 1, read the book carefully, understand as much as you can. Step 2, take blue book to the gym. Step 3, follow the progression. Step 4, not too shabby snatches!

I knew if i could make him follow the progression as closely as possible it'd result in a passable snatch. But for some reason when I was a beginner I wasn't as careful applying the content to my own training.

My best guess is I didn't appreciate at the time how amazing a road-map it is.

All this to say, thanks for the Blue Book, Rip!