Squat form check after long break

[Tom Campitelli]

You are correct that your depth is lacking a little. Your knees are definitely not sliding forward, however. I am glad that is helping with your hips. The TUPVLSF can be of use at times. You are almost overdoing things at the moment. Instead of the knees going forward at the bottom, they are going back a little. Work to keep them in place by the time you are halfway down. Ideally, you will break at the knees and the hips at the same time. Right now, you are kind of starting with the knees and then flexing the hip. We'll give you that for the time being, keeping in mind that the goal is to have both happen simultaneously. Also, remember to drive your butt up all the way to the top. I also agree that we will fix your elbows when these other issues are ironed out.

[opf]

Today I tried to implement what we've been talking about. I was squatting without the TUPVLSF and tried to break at hips and knees at the same time and make the movement a bit more elegant. I can't actually tell if I have a bit of knee slide in this one? If so, I'll go back to squatting with some terribly useful object in front me.


Notice that I figured out how to get the elbows down (well they aren't sticking out as much as before at least). You were correct: It was a side effect of keeping the upper back rounded. Before, I kept it rounded to better create a platform for the bar to rest on. As you can see in this video when I am unracking, it's really hard for me to find that low bar shelf position, so I helped supporting the bar by rounding. My rear delts are just not very developed yet I guess. Keeping a straight upper back took care of it the elbow situation - almost. Now I just gotta be more conscious about keeping them down. Keeping elbows down does seem to make it easier to get into the correct back angle.

But yeah, main question from me: How does this look? Do I have knee slide here? And do you know one or two good "master cues" to squat down and set the knees and hips properly without accidently sliding them forward?


YouTube

Thanks coach

[Tom Campitelli]

Progress is being made. Slow your descent down. You cannot control yourself very well going that fast and every rep is a bit different. More control. You are overdoing the look down thing, too. Your neck should not go into additional cervical flexion as you descend. This will also encourage upper back rounding. Keep your neck neutral. All of your reps are high. The first one was very high. Go deeper, but stay leaned over.

[opf]

Okay, thanks for the feedback - appreciated.

Question: Do you have suggestions for one or two mastercues I can implement to 1) keep my knees in the right position - not too far back, not too far forward? I think it's hard to reach depth for me right now because I'm keeping my knees way too far back. But I'm doing that because I'm scared of them coming too far forward and causing me to get hip pain again. And 2) make sure I descend properly and consistently the same. Right now I'm kind of just doing random stuff as I descend - no particular cues - and that's probably why all my reps look different.

Also: I have another video from today with more kgs on (I'm at 78,5 kgs now), but it looks almost the same as the one from my last post, so I don't see a point in posting it. However, I am experiencing my lower back/lumbar getting *very* stressed after each set. It was worse today because the load was a bit heavier. I don't feel pain the next day, but it does feel super stressed and fatigued during and after sets - is this to be expected, or do you see any flaws that could be the cause? I feel like it should be my hips, not my lumbar that does most of the work.

[Tom Campitelli]

The first thing to do is to slow your descent down. This will make everything easier as far as being consistent. If that means you need to take weight off the bar to control it, that is fine. Go down half as fast. As for your back, stop overdoing the look down cue. Don't let your back move. Use the valsalva to your advantage. Big breath. Squeeze all of the torso musculature. Hold on to that squeeze for the whole rep. Slow. Tight. Film your sets, but don't necessarily post them here. Use them for your own review. If you are not deep enough, go deeper on the next set. Make one change at a time. Go slow. Be consistent. Be patient.

[opf]

Okay, I slowed everything down and experimented a bit. When I said I need a master cue, it's because I find it hard to focus on all those things at once. Don't let knees slide, remember to push knees out, remember to break at hip and knees at same time, keep elbows down, don't let your back move, reach depth (but not too deep) etc. So I thought: Isn't there like one or two things I can tell myself before descending that'll make everything just kind of fall into place? Maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Anyway, I think these look a good deal better. This is my last work set and it looked better than the others. Also felt better on my back. On this last set I kinda stopped trying to micro manage everything, although making sure that i 1) break at hips and knees at same time and 2) avoid knee slide.

What I *really* want to know is: Is this too much knee slide, or does it look OK? I feel like it's either this amount of knee slide or no depth + some lower back movement. If I let the knees come a bit forward like this, everything seems to happen much easier. Can't figure out if this is knee slide or just normal movement of the knees. I'll let you be the judge.

YouTube

If this is OK, I'll keep doing it

Thanks and thanks for the patience too

[Tom Campitelli]

Those are better. The knee slide you see likely comes from two things. One is that you hold your knees back a little too much early in the movement. Let them come slightly further forward by the time you are halfway down. The second, and related, reason is that you sometimes become more upright at the bottom. Don't do that. Stay leaned over.