Squat Form Check

[KreuzhebenFTW]

Greetings from Hamburg,

I would like to have a form check on my squat. I was pretty happy as I finished this set (3/3) at 127.5kg (BW 80.1kg). A couple of months ago 120kg was only a dream, but I would like to know if i'm not somehow cheating. Is it deep enough? Back to vertical maybe?

Thanks a lot in advance

[Jeff Illingworth]

A rear 45 degree view would be better. That being said, you need to widen your stance a little. Look down - aim your chest and face at the ground. Stay tighter on the descent. Fix your grip (look at your hands - see how one is more under the bar than the other one?). Work on getting a better valsalva. Take the breath through your mouth, not your nose.

[Dlk93]

Yea I know we like to think we look badass when doing heavy squats, but avoid the temptation to look at yourself in a mirror (I'm assuming that's what you were doing here).

Also, 45 degrees works best for form critiques on squats.

The stance might be a touch narrow, but how tall are you?

Try reducing time between reps also. You're not getting any stronger standing underneath the bar.

I suspect you might be right about the back angle but let's get a 45 degree video before we go there.

[KreuzhebenFTW]

Hi Guys, Thanks for the comments.

I'm 176cm tall (5'9'' I think), 80.1kg (176.5lb). Also, I was 85.6kg in April (skinny fat) and dieted down to 76kg early August. After 14 days vacations I started hitting the weights hard following the SSLP. Previously I was doing Stronglifts 5x5.

And yes, I was looking at the mirror :-) I remember thinking I had to know how deep I'm going, therefore look at the mirror. I understand I should know how deep i'm going from my proprioception. Will try next time to burn a hole in the ground with my vision. Would you recommend I keep increasing 2.5kg next time, or should I stay at 127.5 and work on my form? 130 would be such an achievement for me, but we don't want to compromise technique, right?

I'm attaching the set one from the same workout. This one I filmed from the rear angle, and I can see and I remember well not hitting depth at all. I made a point of correcting that on set three, which I posted originally.

[Dlk93]

You're stance is still an inch or so too narrow, and You're letting your knees come forward at the bottom. Set your knees 1/4th through the movement and the rest is reaching back and descending with the hips. Widening your stance a bit and driving your knees out will help (with hitting depth as well). TUBOW and Tempo Squats can help with this but neither are necessary.

[KreuzhebenFTW]

Hi Guys, Thanks a lot for the time you take to critique my form. I made a vide yesterday from all my 3 working sets. I widened my stance, I think I fixed my grip and made a point of looking at the floor. I think I'm still letting my kness slide forward at the end of the descent, right? If that's correct, then I think I fixed 3 of 4 issues. And certainly the working sets felt not extremely taxing. I think I could have gone to 132.5kg (a 5kg increase). So I believe the form fixes have brought some positives and for that I'm really thankful.

A note on time between reps: I'm breathing heavily by the 3rd rep, so I feel I need a couple of seconds to gather myself before the next rep. Should I really make a point of trying to shorting the times between reps?

Cheers

[Jeff Illingworth]

Much better!
Work on getting tighter still. When you unrack, stand up and stop. Then, while squeezing tight, take your step back and then stop. Get set, take your deep breath, squeeze and brace like someone is about to hit you in the stomach with a bat, and then squat.
You can get bent over a little more and, yes, your knees do get a little too far forward sometimes.

As far as rest between reps, you want to keep it to a minimum, but do not rush. If you have to stop for two or three breathes, that's fine. You'll know when your waiting too long.

[KreuzhebenFTW]

I squatted today again. Managed to get 132.5 kg 3x5. But I was not really happy with depth. I think I barely hit parallel. Interestingly all warmup sets up to 105kg were ok, I was very happy with depth. I still need to fix my knees earlier. I need to conciously pay attention to that. I don't think I was doing that today.

What do you think?

[Jeff Illingworth]

Get your knees out a little more and keep them there. That'll help a lot with depth.