Squat form check

[Adam Levine]

My first form check here - I'm a total noob, go easy on me. I've frozen the weight of my worksets and I'm not continuing NLP until I can get my form right - I thought I had it right and progressed a little, then I videoed myself and discovered I was very, very wrong.

Please let me know if you think this is "good enough" form to start progression. Once I'm there on all four lifts, finish reading the books, and arrange my schedule, I'll start.

One thing I did on my sets a couple weeks ago was to set the safety bar one pin higher and "tap" it on every rep to I hit depth. Is that something useful, or am I just being a moron there?

This video actually has two sets in it. The first is my "best" warmup set - the one I think has the best form I'm currently capable of, which isn't great. I can't seem to straighten my wrists for one, and getting depth is difficult. The second is my last workset, which still isn't at a weight that is near failure for me. Please let me know if I'm screwing up all the time, or just under load.

[Adam Skillin]

Hey Adam. Cool name.

You're not hitting depth on these, and it's largely because your stance is too narrow. Move your heels out to directly beneath your armpits and re-set the weight to one you can squat about 4 inches deeper. You'd also benefit greatly from a pair of actual lifting shoes. Don't use the safeties to gauge your depth, because the impact at the bottom will throw you off or you'll slow down and touch them while moving so gingerly as to lose a lot of the benefit of the stretch reflex. Just widen your stance, keep your toes and knees shoved out and in line, and there will be room for your torso. The wrists are a secondary issue. For now, widen the stance, shove the knees out ASAP on the way down, and sit your butt back so that your torso slides between your thighs, which there isn't room for it to do at present. Let's fix the stance and depth first and see if we can work on the grip later. I will tell you from what I see in the video that I'm confident that issue is solvable for you as well.

[Adam Levine]

First and foremost, thank you. I'm getting a little frustrated learning this stuff, and the help is appreicated.

A few weeks ago, I put foot-markers under the squat rack (like dancing steps). I'll do that again and give it another shot.

-->Adam

[Adam Levine]

OK - I tried again. I used the markers, did over 100 empty-bar squats trying to get it right, tried different widths, and I still don't think I have depth, but it's better...

I'm hoping it won't take 100 squats to get there every time. Still didn't feel right - I think I was too far forward a few times, felt pressure on the balls of my feet. However, getting the bar on my back got easier.

Another question though - for me "to depth" is the same as "as deep as I can go". That's a bit of a safety problem - the safety beams are lower than I can go - any higher is too high. What do I do if I can't finish a rep? That won't be an issue for awhile, but it will be eventually.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you're having problems getting feedback on these because they indicate that you're not even in the ballpark's parking lot with your form. Everything that can be done wrong is being done wrong. Sock feet, stance, knees forward, back angle, pause at the bottom, etc. Maybe you should start over here:

Learn How To Squat: A Beginner's Guide | Barbell Logic

[Adam Levine]

Thank you.

I know it's hard to believe from the video, but I am trying - I'm just extremely uncoordinated. I've read the book, reviewed the videos here and on BBL, and watched frame-by-frame in the app. I'll re-review, maybe print a few cues on the floor, slow down my setup, and try again. This may take awhile, but I'll figure out how to do it. Today's sets was a little better, but not a lot.

Shoes are on order - did that after Adam's post earlier. I don't think shoes can fix all my issues, but it's worth a shot...

-->Adam

[Karl Schudt]

Hey, you aren't too far from Bill Hannon. Might be worth a visit.

SSCA : Coaching

[Adam Levine]

Hey, you aren't too far from Bill Hannon. Might be worth a visit.

SSCA : Coaching

I'm in contact - waiting for him to have another of his weekend sessions for out-of-towners (assuming my obnoxious posts haven't pissed him off so much he doesn't want to deal with me...)

I realize a live visit to an SSC may be able to do more in a day for my technique than my current strategy of grinding away can do in a month or two... But, at least I have a month or two.

-->Adam

[Adam Levine]

Doing more reading and had a question about back angle, which I'm hoping to understand before my next squat day.

The back angle remains constant through most of the lift. I'm assuming that is constant relative to the floor, not to the legs or hips, right?

Second is understanding hip drive, which is flummoxing me. I read this 2 Things I'm not understanding about hip drive - that the hips can't go forward out of the bottom. Would it he helpful if I tried to exaggerate this by rolling my hips back a little at the bottom, making it more like a roll than a down/up? Might also solve my pausing problem.

[Adam Levine]

Hoping for a follow-up. I spent a week reviewing form checks, the book, videos, and tons of warmups sets. Hopefully, this is at least a *little* better.

I'm not going to be able to fix everything at once - but if there are one or two things I should concentrate on first (especially stuff that keeps me from getting injured) it would be appreciated. I figure I'll be refining this for quite a while...

I've used the bungee as a depth sensor, but it was pretty ineffective - it's too light for me to feel it, even when I do manage to hit it. Maybe if I tie a jingle bell to it...

I've included what I think was my best warmup (and there were a lot, many much worse), and my last workset. I've cut out all the junk like setup.