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Thread: Squat Form Check - Depth, Everything Else

  1. #1
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    Default Squat Form Check - Depth, Everything Else

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    I would very much appreciate opinions on these squats, especially with regard to:

    1) Depth - are they all bad? If any are okay, which ones? (I'm attaching 2 videos of different sets, 2nd one is side view.) If depth is bad, anything you see that could improve this?

    2) Everything else. Thanks!

    64 y.o. male, 230 lbs., 6'0". Coming back after long reset, but now breaking into new territory, load-wise.

    3rd work set (Note: I have the feeling that my phone distorts the foot width at the bottom of the picture - I don't think it's quite as wide as it looks. I have been trying to aim for shoulder width, though edging towards wider rather than narrower):

    March 24, 2021 - YouTube

    1st work set, side view (Note: One of the luxuries I have been affording myself - using 64 y.o. as an excuse? - is doing only 4 reps for my first work set, so that's why there's only 4 here. Maybe I'm a wimp, but I find that helps my mind break the mental ice and stress of doing a PR while simultaneously trying to work on form. Interestingly, sometimes I feel like the first set -especially the first rep of that - is sometimes worse than subsequent reps/ sets, or at least the 2nd set. Not sure if that's true here in comparison with the third set though.):

    Squats 3/24/21 1 - YouTube

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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Okay, just to make sure, from that I'm figuring they're all so ridiculously high I shouldn't have posted them, and back to drawing board?

  4. #4
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    Not a SSC (very far from it) but been watching and reading and squatting a lot.

    They are all very high, you're not even hitting parallel. You are also not starting the descent from a locked-out position. Before you start you've got to stand up with your knees and hips in lockout.

    You are also collapsing your chest/ upper back forward at the bottom, it looks a bit scary.

    I would try lightening the load and practice starting from lockout, and keeping your upper back tight, chest up. Turn your toes out ( they look to be in parallel) to 30 degrees or so and really push your knees out as you get to the bottom to see if that helps depth.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by allanjgill View Post
    Not a SSC (very far from it) but been watching and reading and squatting a lot.

    They are all very high, you're not even hitting parallel. You are also not starting the descent from a locked-out position. Before you start you've got to stand up with your knees and hips in lockout.

    You are also collapsing your chest/ upper back forward at the bottom, it looks a bit scary.

    I would try lightening the load and practice starting from lockout, and keeping your upper back tight, chest up. Turn your toes out ( they look to be in parallel) to 30 degrees or so and really push your knees out as you get to the bottom to see if that helps depth.
    Thanks for the comments! Yes, they are very scary. Actually used to be worse - the bar would slide forward and sometimes I'd fall forward onto the pins. The only way I could solve that was by actually lowering the bar a bit on my back, and now I have a bit more control and no longer fall forward catastrophically.

    Do you think the chest collapse/too horizontal back angle helps cause the bad depth? It seems to me that if you're collapsing and going too horizontal at the bottom beyond what SS recommends, which is what I'm doing, your butt will tend to come up as your chest goes down: hence, above parallel.

    I definitely have to focus on chest up, as you suggest. "Proud chest" never worked for me; lately I have been trying to focus on keeping my gaze and head more vertical - not looking forward, still looking down, but not as much, hoping my chest will follow and stay up - and simultaneously cueing on shoving the bar up, but only after the initial hip push, so as not to lead the whole thing with my chest, which I know is a no-no. Obviously it's not working too well so far. I am spectacularly resistant to keeping a more vertical back angle, it is quite a battle.

    Never thought about the lockout, will try. And knees out, definitely, although at the bottom I can only focus on one cue at a time, and the back angle's so bad I focus on that, so my knees might be slipping inward. Well, onward and upward, thanks again.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by SquareOne View Post
    Thanks for the comments! Yes, they are very scary. Actually used to be worse - the bar would slide forward and sometimes I'd fall forward onto the pins. The only way I could solve that was by actually lowering the bar a bit on my back, and now I have a bit more control and no longer fall forward catastrophically.

    Do you think the chest collapse/too horizontal back angle helps cause the bad depth? It seems to me that if you're collapsing and going too horizontal at the bottom beyond what SS recommends, which is what I'm doing, your butt will tend to come up as your chest goes down: hence, above parallel.

    I definitely have to focus on chest up, as you suggest. "Proud chest" never worked for me; lately I have been trying to focus on keeping my gaze and head more vertical - not looking forward, still looking down, but not as much, hoping my chest will follow and stay up - and simultaneously cueing on shoving the bar up, but only after the initial hip push, so as not to lead the whole thing with my chest, which I know is a no-no. Obviously it's not working too well so far. I am spectacularly resistant to keeping a more vertical back angle, it is quite a battle.

    Never thought about the lockout, will try. And knees out, definitely, although at the bottom I can only focus on one cue at a time, and the back angle's so bad I focus on that, so my knees might be slipping inward. Well, onward and upward, thanks again.
    Your analysis is just as off as your squat. Go back to square one -- the squat chapter in Starting Strength, Learning to Squat section. Signing up for a camp or a 1-1 session with a coach would get things in the right direction faster and more reliably.

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    Quote Originally Posted by stef View Post
    Your analysis is just as off as your squat. Go back to square one -- the squat chapter in Starting Strength, Learning to Squat section. Signing up for a camp or a 1-1 session with a coach would get things in the right direction faster and more reliably.
    Thanks, Stef, for looking at this! Now you know why I picked the handle SquareOne.

    Back to the squat chapter, definitely. I'm glad my amateur "analysis" is off because it sure hasn't worked. Any quick hint about my worst misconceptions would be appreciated in advance, but I appreciate what you've said so far.

    (I will probably reconnect with a coach who got me started, who was amazing - he recognized the problem right away and we worked on it, but I didn't go regularly and stopped and haven't been back for a form check due to covid. If he sees this video he'll go 'the guy clearly hasn't learned a thing', and 'oh no, he might be coming back'.)

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by stef View Post
    Go back to square one -- the squat chapter in Starting Strength, Learning to Squat section.
    Stef, for a total rehaul of squat technique, which is obviously called for here, what would you recommend in the immediate future for a deload, if any? I find it really hard to try big technique changes while doing five pounds more than I've ever done, but I will do it if you recommend it. I could stay at this weight and try the adjustments, accepting that sometimes I might not be able to complete five in a row every time with the unfamiliar changes, or I could deload, even massively. The squat is currently at 240 lbs., high as I've ever gone.

    Comments from anyone appreciated. Thank you for your time!

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    Quote Originally Posted by SquareOne View Post
    Stef, for a total rehaul of squat technique, which is obviously called for here, what would you recommend in the immediate future for a deload, if any?
    You didn't go back and read the squat chapter.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    You didn't go back and read the squat chapter.
    Uhh, oops. True. Pulling it off the shelf right now ....

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