Knees moving back at the bottom of squat.

[DonkeyLips]

We usually talk about the knees in the context of knees traveling forward at the bottom (due to an excessively vertical torso), but my knees slide back perceptibly at the bottom.

Has anyone ever had to solve this problem before? I would appreciate some feedback.

Fifth set of five. This is a significant decrease from my max.

[Inhyuk Eun]

1. Think "Mid foot" and keep the bar in the "Mid foot" whole time.

2. "Mid foot" usually works great. But if not, try TUBOW.

[Jeff Illingworth]

Get the bar a touch lower, keep your elbows a bit more down, and actually get bent over.

[Matt Stacks]

The issue in question is that you have a soft upper back. You need more thoracic extension. Read an excellent article all about that here.

TLDR: You need to puff your chest out more, lower your elbows (bar is high in the vid), and then bend over and keep the bar over your midfoot.

[Dalton Clark]

Bar position is too high, elbows are cranked way too high up, not getting your knees set forward early enough. Hips aren't far enough back due to bar position and back extension issues. Yeah. . . basically just repeating the gentlemen above me.

[DonkeyLips]

Thanks guys. I went in this morning and did 2 light sets, convinced that I had held my knees at bay. Instead the same damn thing happened again.

I have a medium session Tuesday. I'll get my elbows down, roll the bar down a little, and report back.

[DonkeyLips]

Any improvement? I swear I've been consciously trying to get the bar further down and keep elbows down.

I'm also trying to eliminate a tiny bit of excess depth that is a contributing factor to knee backslide. The first rep ended up high because of it.

[Matt Stacks]

You puff your chest out and then you retract it. I think this is you trying to get a big breath, but I can't be certain. I think the bar still looks a bit high which is why your elbows get so damn high still. Look at the :19 second mark. You puff the chest out and put the low back in extension, but then fight that and go back to not good. Keep the proud chest the whole rep. Keep working, you'll get it!

[DonkeyLips]

Look at the :19 second mark. You puff the chest out and put the low back in extension, but then fight that and go back to not good. Keep the proud chest the whole rep.

I actually did used to squat that way a while back and was convinced it was putting my spine into hyperextension. You don't think so?

Either way, I'll work on getting elbows down. Might just need a few weeks to get the flexibility.

[Matt Stacks]

your lower back goes into some extension, yes. But if you puff your chest out and flex your abs, I think the extension will be nullified.