Back Squat

[blowdpanis]

I'm pretty sure that I'm doing the same thing.

What should he do? Widen his stance a bit, focus on knees out and sitting back?
EDIT: Oh, and lower the placement of the bar?

I have a lot of bad habits that I'm having trouble correcting, and I would rather chew on a 5lb plate than reduce the weight on the bar.

Stay tight in the bottom, basically. People relax a little at the bottom because relaxing is easier than staying tight, no? If you're achieving Retard Depth™, consciously cutting your reps a little short on depth tends to help.

For people who aren't shoving their knees out much, a little extra knees out can also help, as the increased stretch on the adductors becomes a good cue at the bottom to reverse direction.

[nisora33]

Looks like a great high bar squat to me.

You're right, I was paying more attention to what's going on down below, the bar is somewhat high.

[cjangelo]

Stay tight in the bottom, basically. People relax a little at the bottom because relaxing is easier than staying tight, no? If you're achieving Retard Depth™, consciously cutting your reps a little short on depth tends to help.

Are we talking about the OP? I didn't think he was getting stupid-low.

Looks like a great high bar squat to me.

Is this contributing to the hip slide in the hole? I seem to have much more efficient hip drive when I get the bar real low on my back. I would like to see the OP position the bar lower on his back and see if this doesn't immediately clear up some of the issues Stacey pointed out.

Be sure to holler at me if I'm way off base here. I'm trying to learn to analyze these problems so I can do it for myself and teammates.

[Steve Collegio]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I prefer the high-bar squat over the low-bar just as a personal preference and transference to my olympic movements. I know ripp doesnt advocate it, but i figured you guys would be a great source for advice in general. not so much low-bar specific.

[Raskolnikov]

Is this contributing to the hip slide in the hole? I seem to have much more efficient hip drive when I get the bar real low on my back.

I'm far from the most experienced guy here, but I've spent a lot more time high bar squatting than low bar squatting. And, in my experience, it's quite hard to eliminate all forward knee movement in the hole, especially if you are hitting the limits of your range of motion (going "atg" -- god I hate the term). There's inherently less hamstring tension with a high bar squat, so there's not much to keep the knees back, if you know what I mean. Shoving them out hard and minimizing forward knee drift is still a must, however.

[nisora33]

I'm far from the most experienced guy here, but I've spent a lot more time high bar squatting than low bar squatting. And, in my experience, it's quite hard to eliminate all forward knee movement in the hole, especially if you are hitting the limits of your range of motion (going "atg" -- god I hate the term)...

Yes, this.

[nisora33]

You can check his depth here:



The line is drawn from roughly knee-cap level towards his hips. You can see where the crease of the hip is relative to this line. I'm not so sure that's too deep.

On a different note: upon further reflection, and given that this is a high-bar squat, I think he's starting out trying to reach too far back with his hips. Were this a low-bar squat, reaching back with his hips that much might be okay. I think maybe he should just focus on sitting straight down instead of back to begin with.

What does everyone think?

-s.

[Steve Collegio]

Thats interesting you say "focusing on sitting straight down" as opposed to sitting back, which it was it appears i am doing. Would my torso angle be the same int he video if i sat straight down tho?

[Raskolnikov]

For what it's worth, I don't think "hips back" at all when I high bar squat. Instead, I think "knees out" and "ass down between my feet." Keep your chest up and a tight lower back, shove your knees out and forward, and try to put your ass right between your heels. That's what I do, anyways.

@Nisora, I agree, I don't think he's going too deep at al (although he probably couldn't go any deeper if he wanted to). I've just never seen anyone squat high bar to that depth and not have some forward knee movement... but it's not like I've done an exhaustive search, so who knows.

[cjangelo]

On a different note: upon further reflection, and given that this is a high-bar squat, I think he's starting out trying to reach too far back with his hips. Were this a low-bar squat, reaching back with his hips that much might be okay. I think maybe he should just focus on sitting straight down instead of back to begin with.

I've just never seen anyone squat high bar to that depth and not have some forward knee movement...

Maybe if he pushed his knees more forward in the initial descent phase, then the knees-forward movement wouldn't occur in the hole? Does that make sense?

Maybe that accomplishes the same thing as thinking 'sit down'.

Again, I don't know, I'm just trying to learn how to think through this.