Squat Formcheck (my first)

[spielstrasse]

My first post, so please be gentle. Just kidding, I should be shot for just wearing those shorts.

My squats this morning with 113kg / 249lbs. Look bad and felt horrible, but I did them.
When I go down in weight a bit, my form feels and looks better (IMHO): my knees stay out more and I don't look up when I get scared.

20231102 | Squats 113kg Set1 - YouTube
20231102 | Squats 113kg Set2 - YouTube
20231102 | Squats 113kg Set3 - YouTube

Should I keep doing my ugly fahves adding the kilos, or should I go down a few to where I "feel" my form to be adequate?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Have you not watched enough of the form check videos to know why the bar is slowing down on the way up? This is the most common squat error on these boards.

[spielstrasse]

I get scared, look up, lift my chest, drive my hips forward instead of upward, thereby closing my knee angle and shortening my hamstrings from the distal end...
... would be my guess.

[spielstrasse]

If I was wrong and it's not "insufficient hip drive, because I'm lifting my chest", could somebody give me a hint?

And is this something I can try and correct while I go up in weight (did 114kg on Saturday and 115kg this morning) or do I have to practice the correct movement with lower weights before going back to training?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Precisely correct. You practice the movement during your warmups -- that's what they're for.

[Jason Donaldson]

I get scared, look up, lift my chest, drive my hips forward instead of upward, thereby closing my knee angle and shortening my hamstrings from the distal end...
... would be my guess.

The way to boil this down is that you're lifting your chest. The other effects come from that.

Useful cues to yourself may include "chest down", "nipples toward the floor", or even just "hips".

I find that picking a properly LOW focus point for my eye gaze is essential. A brightly colored physical object centered on the floor against the wall may be useful - it may be a little TOO low, but you're in the market for a corrective cue anyway, so why not try it? Lock your gaze on it, and stare through it hard when the bar feels heavy.

[Eric Schexnayder]

Is there a reason you are not wearing a belt? That will help a lot with keeping your chest down longer than you like, which is what you need to be doing.

[spielstrasse]

Is there a reason you are not wearing a belt?

Before I read the blue book I got a four inch belt. The one time I used it I hurt some floating ribs. "New fear unlocked" as the kids say.
I might need a three inch belt, but I just introduced the lifting shoes as a variable, just to me allowed to post on this forum.

[spielstrasse]

> practice the movement during your warmups
Tried that and maybe there was more hip drive, but on my work set it looked horrible again, so yesterday I went down quite a bit in weight for my worksets (did five)
20231110 | Squats 100kg | five times five w/ hip drive? - YouTube

Don't read any further!
For that rare individual that has both "the coaching eye" and "the patience of a saint", I also uploaded my failed attempts to hip drive with my normal weight on 20231108 and my extended warmup sets on 20231110. Here's hoping that there's a good rep somewhere in the bunch.

Failed attempts at hip drive (20231108)
(Left hip started hurting. Probably SI-joint again)
20231108 | Squats after first forum post - YouTube

Warm up sets (20231110)
20231110 | Squats warm ups - YouTube

PS: @Jason Donaldson Brightly colored physical object in place! Tnx!

[Satch12879]

The 11/8 squats look very good.