Squat Check: working back up

[Sonny]

34 years old, 5’8”, 215 lbs, no coach, have been starting, stopping, and restarting NLP over and over for the last few years.

I previously worked up to 395x5x3 this past August, stalled, started not doing the program for the next few months, didn’t train at all in December.

Started back mid-January.

This is 3rd set of 5 at 360 lbs.

Squat 360# - YouTube

A couple questions:
- Is my stance too wide?
- Am I getting my knees set quick enough? (I always want to break at the hips first then knees instead of hips and knees at the same time).

My gaze is inconsistent, and I’m not keeping my head and neck still.

What else?

[Pete Troupos]

Hey Sonny
Next time, please film from the reverse angle of what you have here.

Yes, your stance is too wide. Bring it in a couple inches on either side.
Yup, your hip/knee timing is an issue. Think about sending your knees forward and out first.
Give yourself a small target to stare at. Like a coin.
You're also going WAY deeper than you need to. Cut it off a couple inches.

[Sonny]

Thanks Pete.

I’ll face the wall next time.

Maybe being able to see my lower back will reveal something about why I’m going too deep. (lumbar flexion?)

Will a more narrow stance help correct the depth?

[Pete Troupos]

Will a more narrow stance help correct the depth?

Not necessarily. Usually a wider than normal stance inhibits getting to proper depth.

[Sonny]

Here’s tonight’s last set from the reverse angle.

Looks like I still need to work on all of the above, but I think my depth is better.

Squat 365# - YouTube

[Pete Troupos]

You may have overcorrected on a few of these and cut them off at parallel. But yes, you need to fix the other stuff still.
The bar looks like it may be low on the back and you're not getting any upper back tightness before unracking the bar. Lift your chest up and lift your elbows a bit and mash your back against the bar so you're certain it's in the right spot below the spines of the scaps. Nick D. has a video on our YouTube channel about bar placement you'll find helpful.

[Sonny]

How am I doing Pete?