Squat form check

[Andrew S]

YouTube

Knees coming in, lost balance on second rep (haven’t had that happen in a while) I need a second set of eyes to see what I’m doing wrong.

This week:
This is 450x5. no back offs. Just 5s
Monday was 345x5x5 (just moved to 5 sets)

Last couple week:
Monday - 4x5 @ 390, 395, 400, 405
Fridays have just been 5RMs +5lbs till where I’m at now.

[Andrew S]

After reviewing my video I realized I need to keep the bar tighter on my back, probably why I lost balance. Am I Squating too deep?

[Dillon Spencer]

Hey Andrew,

First of all, you've got a good 100 lbs on my squat, so you must be doing something right. Happy to lend a second set of eyeballs though.

Fully agree about your upper back. Your grip is about a mile wide, and narrowing it will help get your back tighter. I also think you're squatting a bit deeper than you have to on some of these. The first rep in particular. As far as the knees go, it would be easier to tell if you filmed according to the sticky at the top of the forum. From the front angle, it looks like your stance is quite narrow. From the side angle, it looks like your toes are turned out more like 45 degrees than 30. I'd suggest widening it a bit, and turning your toes in a bit more to see if it makes it easier for you to keep your knees tracking over your feet.

[Andrew S]

Thanks I’ll try focusing on my back first since that’s the ugliest part. I think if I widen my stance a little it will reduce depth just enough and maybe help with tracking but won’t know till I give it a try... thanks for the feed back.

[Justin Smale]

I'll second that I think you need to fix your grip and upper back first. The fact that your hands are that and you can move your hands around that much on the bar DURING your set is a sign you don't have nearly enough tightness in your upper back, which is going to create oodles of problems downstream. I'm guessing your hands are moving around on the bar so much while you lift because you're fighting to keep it in place on your upper back shelf (you can see the plates spinning a fair bit which is likely a sign of the bar moving too much on your back). Work on getting your hands as close to your shoulders as you can while you keep your wrists neutral. If tight shoulders are what's stopping you from taking a narrower grip, work on that (i.e. Paul Horn stretch). To me this is your biggest issue to fix ASAP because as you pointed out, it's probably why you almost lost your balance and you don't want a wreck with 450.

Past that I'd also agree that your stance looks too narrow. That might be why your knees are caving in during some of your ascents. Stance at shoulder width, shove the knees out and don't let them cave in.