Squat Form Check

[Chandler Williamson]

I'll be honest with you Chandler, I don't see the slightest difference in your descent speed here. I know it's hard and it feels weird, but you have to learn to tighten and tense up your quads, hamstrings and glutes and then keep them tight to control your descent speed. This dive-bombing you're doing will lead to injury at some point.

DAMN IT! You're right! I was focusing on what I thought I was doing, and hadn't compared my videos. DAMN!

Obviously I'm going to have to do what feels like overkill to me. I've done some searching, but haven't found any real tips or cues for how to judge my speed on the way down. Anybody have anything?

Here's yesterday's: Squat - 290 - Set 2 - working descent speed - YouTube. If you've got a moment, it would help me to know if at least the first and third reps here seem slower/more controlled, and whether they're even getting close to correct. I feel like they are, but hen I look at the how-to-squat video in the SS App, it looks like an even faster descent that I am doing! So my eye must be off. It would at least give me some point of comparison.

[Jr_Geezer]

OK, that's a definite improvement, especially the first couple of reps. Good work. I'll leave it to real coaches to say if the descent still needs work or not.

One other thing I did notice though was the way your feet (well, the left one anyway) was flopping from side to side, especially inwards. I'm not sure, but you might want to think about pushing your knees out harder and keeping them out during the ascent. Make sure your femur is parallel to your feet.

[neilc1]

I'm no coach, and maybe I'll get called on this,

do a tempo descent,
1 1000, 2 1000, 3 1000, (4 1000), then hip drive up at will,
do it with all your warm ups, and carry it over to your worksets also,
ya might need to lighten your workset a little till you get the controlled descent down,

[Guan Cheng Lin]

Andrew made a video about using metronome to make sure you fight hard enough in deadlift.
Try using metronome to help you establish adequate descent speed, not sure whether this work, just sharing my thought.

[Chandler Williamson]

Andrew made a video about using metronome to make sure you fight hard enough in deadlift.
Try using metronome to help you establish adequate descent speed, not sure whether this work, just sharing my thought.

Seems like a good idea, honestly. Time distorts under the work-load!

[Chandler Williamson]

Ok, I've come to the extremely unpleasant realization, that even after my back-off period, and trying to focus on the SPEED of my descent, I have never actually figured out how to tighten my trunk for the squat properly.

Reviewing some of my videos, I noticed that my knees and hips go back, making my back more horizontal as I start up almost every time. I found this error going back in the blue book, in the Hips section, under Common Problems, page 45, last paragraph, left column. The first thing in the anatomical discussion that follows is that the pelvis angle/low back set is not being maintained. I realized that I can't remember the last time I consciously set my lumbar! I just "tighten up", and go. So here is my second set, with me trying to focus on maintaining lumber extension: Squat - 310 - Set 2 - YouTube . I felt some muscle burn in my glutes that felt new, but it looks to me like my knees and hips are still going back!

The next major topic covered is the necessity of external rotation of the femurs (knees out), to allow depth without having to flex the lumbar/tilt the pelvis. So here is me trying to think hip drive, and hold my knees out as I start up: Squat 310 - Set 3 - FAIL - YouTube . You'll note I wimped out on the 4th rep.

I've got too many damned variables running around my head, and nothing I'm trying to focus on seems to be helping, but I'm such a rank novice and physical idiot, I could be missing something obvious. For pete's sake, y'all have been telling me to slow down and stay tight in my descent for 3 weeks, and I JUST figured out that I wasn't paying attention to lumbar extension!

Any help appreciated.

[Chandler Williamson]

Ok, I've come to the extremely unpleasant realization, that even after my back-off period, and trying to focus on the SPEED of my descent, I have never actually figured out how to tighten my trunk for the squat properly.

Reviewing some of my videos, I noticed that my knees and hips go back, making my back more horizontal as I start up almost every time. I found this error going back in the blue book, in the Hips section, under Common Problems, page 45, last paragraph, left column. The first thing in the anatomical discussion that follows is that the pelvis angle/low back set is not being maintained. I realized that I can't remember the last time I consciously set my lumbar! I just "tighten up", and go. So here is my second set, with me trying to focus on maintaining lumber extension: Squat - 310 - Set 2 - YouTube . I felt some muscle burn in my glutes that felt new, but it looks to me like my knees and hips are still going back!

The next major topic covered is the necessity of external rotation of the femurs (knees out), to allow depth without having to flex the lumbar/tilt the pelvis. So here is me trying to think hip drive, and hold my knees out as I start up: Squat 310 - Set 3 - FAIL - YouTube . You'll note I wimped out on the 4th rep.

I've got too many damned variables running around my head, and nothing I'm trying to focus on seems to be helping, but I'm such a rank novice and physical idiot, I could be missing something obvious. For pete's sake, y'all have been telling me to slow down and stay tight in my descent for 3 weeks, and I JUST figured out that I wasn't paying attention to lumbar extension!

Any help appreciated.

This took awhile to get posted, so I'll go ahead and follow it up with today's failed attempt. Same issues as best I can tell. At least some extra data points if it's helpful. Squat - 310 - FAIL - second attempt - YouTube

I don't know what the hell to do. Seems like focusing on lumbar extension is killing my depth; I'm not sure if I'm getting depth or not. I tried increasing my foot angle some, but I don't think it changed anything.

[Mark Rippetoe]

This posting online videos shit just isn't working for you. You're falling into the bottom too fast and bouncing off your knees. Get some coaching in-person.

[Chandler Williamson]

This posting online videos shit just isn't working for you. You're falling into the bottom too fast and bouncing off your knees. Get some coaching in-person.

I've been getting closer to that conclusion myself. Thanks. I will be doing so shortly either way.

Appreciate all the help y'all have given.