Reply With QuoteWell, how is your squat with weight? Some of us have a harder time squatting low without at least the weight of the bar. If this is you, don't sweat the bar-less squat.
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Starting position in the Squat
So i've been travelling a lot for work and had to stop SS. I've decided to start again from scratch now i've got the time.
Anyway, one thing i'm still struggling with is the bar-less squat from the beginning of SS.
See the people at the start of the SS video? I try to do that and ass plant. See the diagram at the bottom of page 18? Well the 3rd figure along is basically all the depth i can manage. Bugging the hell out of me.
Any advice?
Last edited by King_mob; 09-22-2011 at 12:15 PM.
Member
Well, how is your squat with weight? Some of us have a harder time squatting low without at least the weight of the bar. If this is you, don't sweat the bar-less squat.
Member
Last time I did a bar-less warmup squat, I fell backwards and only managed to avoid landing on my ass by catching the sides of the power rack. Pretty embarrassing, so I just start with an empty bar now...
Member
Try focusing on keeping your weight centered on your midfoot. You might need to lean forward a bit. You should be able to sit down comfortably with your hams on your calves and your arms forward between your knees (asian squat).
Member
http://startingstrength.com/resource...711#post325711Originally Posted by King_mob
That movement is meant to be a stretching exercise and a way for a coach to demonstrate hip drive to a complete novice. It is not meant to be an exercise. Put some weight on a bar and work on your form that way.
Member
I appreciate the stretch is not a exercise in and of itself - however i inferred from both video and manual that this is where squat training should really start from. I would have thought not being able to do this stretch correctly could indicate problems with form which would just be compounded under weight.
The picture of the wall squat on this page http://www.elitefts.com/documents/tight_hips.htm indicates what i read as the correct bar-less squat, where i seem to be wwwwaaayyyyyyy move horizontal.
Rip suggests the squat itself and the incremental loading of novice linear progression should be all that is needed to increase flexibility in this case - but that is assuming you are flexible enough in the first place to pull off a full ROM squat correctly, right?
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Yes, this is where squat training starts, but that doesn’t mean you have to be able to do someone’s definition of a perfect unweighted squat before you can move on to weighted squats. The two look and feel too different for mastery of the former to carry over to mastery of the latter. How many times do we have to say this? Squatting down without any weight on your back is just to get you used to the idea of squatting down, help you get a feel for stance width, teach you what shoving the knees out means, and give you a means, if you have a partner or coach, to experience what hip drive should feel like and how head position affects this.
And what does that squat have to do with the low-bar squat as Rip teaches it?
STOP OBSESSSING ABOUT UNWEIGHTED SQUATS.
Or don’t, and lose time and energy worrying about something that is irrelevant.
The chances that you are not flexible enough to pull off a squat to depth is vanishingly small unless you are very elderly or have issues with bony deformations causing impingement. It is almost certainly a technique issue that’s keeping you from a squat to parallel.
Callador
Spar is right, don't overthink this. Just get under some weight and see how it goes. Before I got my weightlifting shoes, I was squatting in Chucks. With my tight hips and flat shoes, I needed 250lbs on my back to get good depth. I could hit "parallel" with lower weights, but I had a hard time breaking the plane. My new shoes help with that a lot, but I still need to get a couple of good warmup sets in to hit a good depth.
Keep up the stretching on the off days or after your workouts, but start to move a more challenging weight sooner than later. It will work itself out over time.
Member
Point takenSTOP OBSESSSING ABOUT UNWEIGHTED SQUATS
Although to be fair, it's hard to differentiate what is important and what is incidental. Hence the post in the first place.
You know I'm finally starting to admit maybe my lack of flexibility is not going to go away on its own, squat shoes are definitely in my future.My new shoes help with that a lot, but I still need to get a couple of good warmup sets in to hit a good depth.
Member
I always advocate for real lifting shoes, so I think that's a good call.
However...
You are continuing to blame your lack of flexibility, and while working on flexibility and mobility will benefit you throughout your training, THIS IS LIKELY NOT YOUR LIMITING FACTOR HERE. We keep telling you this, and you refuse to hear it, and I have no idea why you're so resistant to the idea. The VAST majority of people who post here are actually limited by incorrect form, NOT flexibility.
From what I recall, you posted 2 very inadequate videos. In one, you were wearing shorts that interfered with your ROM, and the other was just crappy and we couldn't see anything well. Stop being hard-headed, post some good form checks THAT FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES IN THE STICKY, and get some help troubleshooting your form for real. This will get you squatting better much more quickly than obsessing about your flexibility and "waiting for the lack of it to go away", which, once again, IS ALMOST CERTAINLY NOT THE PROBLEM, SO IT WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY FAIL TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM.
So post a form check, get your form ironed out, and if it turns out that you're one of the 1% who are, indeed, limited by flexibility, you'll still be in the same place you would have been anyway.
Last edited by Gunnhild Bruno; 09-27-2011 at 10:16 AM.
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