Head Position And Back Angle

[Gary Gibson]

Damn Gary!! Nice work. Inspiring for this old guy! What are you weighing in at now btw?

Thanks! 182-185 these days. I'm actually amazed at how easily I'm holding this weight because I'm taking a tiny layoff. My attempts to start a cycle since my recent meet just didn't pan out and I have to travel on business in just a few days. So I'm waiting till April to start training and GOMADing again.

nice weights you're squatting there & good depth. the more recent squats (heavier) look way smoother than the earlier ones. i found i was doing good mornings out of the hole too when i was looking slightly down, if i look staight ahead, this doesn't happen. most good squatters (that's not me) seem to look straight ahead, though some look up & some down...whatever works best for that individual.

Yup.

[PVC]

Notice that even on my very heaviest sets, my back angle loss isn't anywhere near as bad as it was in that video from six months ago.

Yeah, you held your form impressively well on that 430 single.

On a side note, the guys at your gym seem to be a little bit frisky. I hope they at least took you out for dinner first.

[Randle McMurphy]

Curiously, i noticed rip telling someone not to keep looking down during a clean - i'll see if i can find the link

[Randle McMurphy]

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ighlight=clean

See? and i notice justin on his snatches looks forward right from the begining.

[Guido]

I've always told people I train to look at a point on the wall in the distance (a "focus point") or to look slightly up. The head will follow and keeping chest high and back arched/neutral usually follows, as well.

[cervicornis]

Greg, my squats look very similar to yours when the weight gets heavy. I have the same problem with losing back angle and the overall movement becomes a bit hitched. I've been trying to fix this form error by cuing chest up or traps into the bar, but that has only worked so well. I'm going to try looking up, I appreciate you posting this.

[Gary Gibson]

I'm doing a prelim to Pins to Pillars which means I'm using around 50% for lots and lots of sets of five. This light weight and high volume is giving tons of practice. I've lowered the bar on my back because the damned thing keeps rolling down to that level anyway. Found the lower position makes it much easier to keep my wrists straight. I also found myself keeping a neutral neck and still maintaining back angle.

Of course, these are ridiculously easy weights, so SS textbook form is easy. I'll update you on form degradation and lapses to old habits as the weights get heavier over this cycle.

[LaHabra]

Gary,

I have had this tendency too. It has earned me the reputation of having a very strong good morning but very weak squat. On monday I was coached to try a more vertical head position which seemed to fix my chest position but killed my hip drive(In fairness it could have been fatigue from a long weekend of drinking at spring training games).

The other day while cleaning up the gym I noticed for whatever reason that my sense of the middle of my foot was wrong. I had been going on the notion that it was over my heel and that anything in front of that was on my toes.

Today on my light day I warmed up with front squats then did some light sets across (80% of mondays work sets). I experimented with this new balance position and found that I when I was trying to place the barbell over my heel I had the tendency to shove my ass back more thus dropping my chest. This new mental approach of a in front of heel midline kept my chest in good position during the back squats regardless of head position.

Though you said that you too had no problems with this at lighter weights, So I guess I will find out friday whether this new mental image will work at heavier weights for myself.

** Did you feel any effect on hip drive with this new head position?

[Gwyn Brookes]

My suspicion is that the head neutral position is more efficient mechanically, but there is a significant contribution that can be made by specific use of the eyes. Our CNS is designed heavily around "following the eyes." An example of this for anyone who rides is when you're riding the curves, you look ahead at the road, and your bike magically goes where right where you look.

So it would make sense that initially you would coach the squat with the spine in neutral all along its length, but that when the squatter reaches a certain level of comfort with the movement, experimentation with eye placement can be made and a specific use of the eyes, especially on the last two reps of a heavy five rep set, will help you get out of the hole.