Squat: Long Legs, Always Over Toes

[IAmDarwin]

Could I please get a form check on this squat?
She can’t seem to hit depth without the bar going over her toes or her knees going too far forward.
As a result she's been getting some tendinopathy in her knees as well.

Feb 13 (135 lbs)
Side View (2nd set)
Read Quarter (3rd set)

Feb 15 (130 lbs)
Rear Quarter


The switch to learning the starting strength low bar squat is recent. She's says that this fatigues her low back very quickly and her arms/shoulders get sore afterwards. My understanding is these issues will go away once the form improves. We're not sure whether she should do a reset to let these issues heal as the technique is improves.


Extra Details
25F
5'3"
Bodyweight: 150 lbs.
Squat: 135x3
Deadlift: 190x5
OHP: 52.5x3
BP: 77.5x3
Power Clean: 60x3

[Mark Rippetoe]

Please tell me she is not paying you for this.

[Maybach]

Exactly none of her back is being held in extension. This means the bar is not in the correct position. On some of these, it's not even close to the correct position. The 130 lb set is in the high bar position.

Her lower back is fatigued because she is having to restraighten it throughout each rep.

The position at the bottom of the squat should be troubleshot without the bar on her back, then reassessed once you put the bar on, and it should remain the same with each increase.

If the bar is in the proper low bar position, the knees will not have to track forward excessively to achieve depth. Get an erector set and convince yourself of this. Rather, the back must become more horizontal. I suppose the occasional freak might have femurs a foot longer than their torso, but that is no what we are dealing with here. It's her back. She needs to get her back under control.

[BruceTrout]

I don't know that she hit depth at all, regardless of where the bar is relative to the toes. Stance looks too narrow and frankly the weight looks too heavy. Set up a tripod or something and get the camera angle lower, it's too high to be certain about depth. Set the camera mid-thigh to hip height.

When did she start squatting and what weight did she start at?

[BruceTrout]

Just saw the side view (not sure how I missed that) and maybe that first rep is to depth, but can't see enough to know for sure. That's her second set and she's barely getting a 2nd rep. I'm leaning more toward the weight isn't right for her, but how much rest did she take between the first set and this one?

[BareSteel]

This load is too heavy for her, as evidenced by the slow bar speed, back rounding during ascent and her not standing up at the top. I'd say strip some weight off the bar to a more manageable level, which will make it easier to learn this new squat technique.

[IAmDarwin]

This is my girlfriend Rip. I’m not her coach . She registered on the forum to post this herself weeks ago but hasn’t been approved yet. She asked me on her behalf because she’s sick of guys coming up to her and trying to coach her to “not be so bent over” & “do goblet squats instead”.

We started following/learning your program around the same time. We’re both still learning. I’m not a coach and this is not my profession but we do work out together every couple weeks.

I would love to see a coach but there aren’t any listed in Toronto. The closest is a 7 hour drive into Pennsylvania.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Accounts are approved the same day, so something was wrong with her submission. If this is your girlfriend, you have to help her or tell her to quit squatting like that. You are not paying attention to the details, so learn them and become more useful to her.

[GioFerrante]

Most of this will clean up if you get her to set her back correctly. After that, you may or may not have to coach her to lean over sooner than she is doing, and also get her knees more forward and set also sooner than she’s doing. You’ll be able to evaluate that after she learns to extend her spine properly. If she doesn’t know what it means to set the back and brace properly, have her do the superman exercise to learn to contract the lower and upper back muscles properly. Once she’s got that down, drop the weight to 95 lbs or so and have her build back up properly. She’s squatting high, so this weight is too heavy anyway to be done at a full range of motion.

There are videos around somewhere on using the Superman position to gain control of the back muscles and another one from Nick D on how to find the correct spot on the back for the low bar position. I’d definitely look them both up.