Squat Form Check

[Ben Chasnov]

This is my third working set from this morning.



29M/5'9"/173lbs. First post here on the forum, but I've been posting on the Starting Strength Reddit for a few months now.

Some background: My squat stalled at 205 around Christmas, I did a 90% reset and worked up to 210 in January before needing 10 days off for injury. Started back up at 90% on all lifts and finally back up to 210. I'm currently resting ~ 8 minutes between sets and have added a light squat day. If you're curious to see some old sets you can see them here.

[Pete Troupos]

Welcome Ben

29M/5'9"/173lbs.

This might be part of the problem with the stall.

The squat looks pretty good, but I'd like to see you stay tighter into the bottom. You're letting yourself "drop in", and to do that something has to be loose for a moment. When things get loose, you get off balance.
See if you can stay tighter into the hole. Reach back with your ass and enjoy the stretch of the hamstrings.

Then read this, if you haven't already.

[Ben Chasnov]

Thanks for your feedback, Pete. I currently rest 8-10 minutes on heavy squat sets and have been adding 5lbs (except for light squat days). I aim for around 8 hours of sleep every night.

I started the program in October around 145lbs and am still gaining around 1lb a week. I've moved from ~15%BF to 20+ by my visual estimate and US Navy calculations. My food intake is around 3550 cals a day, 444C/99F/222P. Since I've been consistently gaining weight (and put on quite a bit of fat) I've been hesitant to go much higher. Am I really NDTP?

I'll focus on tightness and try to feel my hamstrings at the bottom.

[Pete Troupos]

I started the program in October around 145lbs and am still gaining around 1lb a week.

Well that's well done.

You could shave some fat out of the macros and move the calories over to carbs. Cap it at 80-85g of fat, bump up the carbs to 475g and see if that doesn't help with the body comp and performance. How much has your waist circumference increased?

What was the injury?
If you've reset a couple times, you're on 8-10 rest, you're back at roughly the same weight, and the bar is moving like that, it may be time to consider moving the squat to intermediate. What are you deadlifting?

[Ben Chasnov]

Thanks, Pete.

I didn't take waist circumference measurements before I started, but I'd estimate I've added a couple inches. I've also considered adding HIIT once or twice a week to keep the fat gains in check.

The injury: My left leg had nagging tightness in my hamstring for a few months now that doesn't really get in the way of lifting, thought it could be piriformis syndrome but foam rolling didn't do much. Then a month or two ago I started to get some pain in my left hip that I didn't feel when lifting, so I trained through it. I screwed up when I did some yoga after a workout, and a couple hours later I could barely walk.

Acute pain lasted for 2-3 days and gradually subsided back to where it was previously. I haven't seen a doc or PT but my self diagnosis is SI joint dysfunction … worst case herniated lumbar disc. Still get a little hip pain from time to time and deal with the hamstring tightness. Don't feel anything during squats but did feel my hip a little bit during heavy deadlifts yesterday. I'm planning on working through it and if I continue to feel pain that interferes with lifting I'll visit my doc or a PT for definitive diagnosis.

My deadlift was 270 before taking time off, did 265x5 yesterday morning.

I squatted 215x5 yesterday and failed the fifth rep of my third set. I plan to repeat the weight on Friday (light day tomorrow) and if I succeed to start doing 2.5lb increases 2x a week.

[Pete Troupos]

Try deadlifting in your weightlifting shoes, if you're not already, and see if that helps with the pain. Maybe post something over in the rehab thread.

I would move to something more intermediate on the squat at this point.