Squat Form Check

[Adam Doyle]

Ok, improved, but two big things stick out which are making this more difficult at this time: depth, and (lack of) hip drive. Move the camera to knee level, so that it's less ambiguous whether you hit depth. I'm spitballing you're 2-3" high.

Lack of stretch reflex going into hip drive is going to make the thing feel heavier, as you've identified by inadvertently pausing at the bottom. Let's take a step at correcting depth by setting the safeties at parallel and then take your next 135# warmup to there and camp out there for a couple seconds, so you can feel what parallel is like... legs really open, very folded at the hip, (don't get depth by softening your upper back). Move your camera more posterior to clear the safeties and view both knees and hips. Then make yourself believe that the weight is actually sitting on your sacrum and drive your hips up. Reset the safeties down a couple inches for your next warmups to 225, but of course just squat these: nail depth, drive hips.

JD, I tried to implement your advice above. I set the camera up at knee level and from a more posterior angle. See videos below:

YouTube 135x5 with pause on first rep at bottom to focus on hip drive. This was a little awkward to stop at the bottom and I think I may have set the safeties a little low because I leaned forward a little to tap it. But I can see more pronounced hip drive in these reps.

YouTube 195x4. Here I set the safeties lower but still tried to hit depth. To me, it looks like my hip crease is below my patella, so it should be at depth. I can still see some hip drive out of the bottom, but a little less pronounced than at 135.

YouTube 225x5. This is my second set of 5. I was able to get 2 sets of 5 and then only 3 on the last set. I can see a little hip drive on some of the reps, but I think it just felt too strenuous to get more horizontal to drive my hips up. I know Rip says getting more vertical will slow your ascent, but it felt like the opposite for me today. It was hard to make myself do it because it felt unstable. The whole workout I felt a little twinge just below my mid back. Nothing major, but enough to make me hesitate. I was feeling more tired today and discouraged about my form, so this may have affected my ability to get all 3 sets, and keep form.

I wonder if I need to back down the weight more to get used to the form adjustment. Maybe a 205 work set. It’s sucks to regress on weight so much, but if I wasn’t doing it right before, I may need to build up my back muscles to be stable at it. Any more thoughts? Thanks again for taking time to read all this and look at the videos. It’s a big help!

[Mark Rippetoe]

Your stance is too wide, and this is cutting your depth and your bounce.

[JD Keip]

Your stance is too wide, and this is cutting your depth and your bounce.

I can't disagree with that.

Doyle, get more towards your original stance. You'll then dial in your descent velocity and should be all set.

[Adam Doyle]

Your stance is too wide, and this is cutting your depth and your bounce.

Thanks Rip! I’ll narrow up my stance in an inch or 2 on each side and go at it again on tomorrow. I’ll probably back off to 205 or 215 for worksets, get the form mostly right, and start back on LP +5lb increases from there.

[Adam Doyle]

I can't disagree with that.

Doyle, get more towards your original stance. You'll then dial in your descent velocity and should be all set.

Thanks again JD, it’s a big help! I’ll keep tweaking it and post for a form check again in a week or so.