Novice squat form check

[DiscAndLift]

I just completed week 3 of the SS NLP and am working my way through the blue book but wanted to get some eyes on my squat before I move ahead.

Most things seem to be looking good to me except maybe my lower back arch. I noticed from some videos I took during week 2 that I have a tendency to hyperextend my lower back almost immediately after grabbing the bar. Since then I've worked on keeping my core tight before I grab the bar and also making sure to lean over enough.

Any other thoughts are appreciated!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8M0-cC75XY

[Mark Rippetoe]

Compare your stance to that illustrated in the book.

[Maybach]

You are keeping the bar up with shoulder extension, not resting on your deltoids. Pack your upper back in tighter and pull your elbows towards your tailbone. Keep them in line with your torso throughout the rep. See how your arms basically stay parallel to the ground all the way down? It's because the bar is resting on them.

[Satch12879]

You do not “hyperextend” your low back.

You would know because it would tell you that you did that.

[heinz83]

You don't need to "tighten your core before you grab the bar". Just get into position under the bar, take a deep breath, lift your chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Then unrack, set your stance, exhale and take another deep one, again lifting your chest and making sure your upper body is tight. Then do the rep. Big breath and rebrace before each rep. Slow down.

[DiscAndLift]

Are you specifically referring to my foot placement in the stance? Or are you also talking about the bar position and general setup under the bar? I'll post a new video from this week down below. I pointed the feet out and widened the stance just by a few inches because it looked a little narrow compared to the book. Let me know if I'm on the right track...

[DiscAndLift]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iajl-mVqL5A?feature=share

More recent video where I worked on the overall stance and bar placement.
1) pointed toes out more than compared to before
2) stance is a little wider than before -- still could be wider I think
3) I'm trying to internalize pulling my elbows to my tailbone like a commenter here said. Not sure if the cue is working for me and if I'm understanding my issue here. Anyone have some cues that might work?

I do notice my heels lifting a bit in the video and I felt like my weight was coming forward

[Mark Rippetoe]

You have cleverly positioned the camera so that we cannot see your stance width, but we can see that you are about 3 inches deeper than you should be.

[DiscAndLift]

Three more videos from today's workout. I managed to get each one from a different diagnostic angle so we can see what's going on. Today I was focused on depth at the bottom.

Set 1 (Back angle)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q4dAltvlx6o?feature=share

Set 2 (45 degree posterior angle)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tvltYwWtIzI?feature=share

Set 3 (Side angle)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ubOVbwVFmZg?feature=share

[Jason Donaldson]

You still need to cut it off higher.

And your feet still look close to parallel, vs. having your toes pointed outboard at about thirty degrees. Your left foot looks like it's pointed more forward, too.

You mentioned on your DL form check that you're on your fifth week - are you been adding 5 lbs a workout all along? With the way both lifts are flying up, I'm thinking you started light. This will fix itself eventually, of course, but you'll need to get your form dialed in at heavy, and lifting too light will not do you as much form help as you might think. (Rip, et al. please counter if I'm way off here...)