Help with squat form

jamieedwards725

Please could someone help with any information or tips on how to improve the squats in the videos below.

Me
https://youtu.be/5YdZ26IK6mk

Girlfriend
https://youtu.be/jEmwcrLDXyA

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

CarlydogsMom

You: overall not bad. Three things I see. One, I think you are barely hitting parallel, actually some reps look like you're not. If you want to get full value of the squat, try to go a bit lower. Second, are you trying to do high bar or low bar squats? The bar looks a bit low for high-bar. I'm not informed on how low-bar squats are supposed to line up vis-a-vis the bar path in relation to the foot, but for high-bar squats, the bar should fall in a vertical line pretty much over the center of your foot (imagine the middle of your foot being a fulcrum, where you line up the bar with that vertical path so you don't have those weights on either side of that vertical center. Third, you MAY be turning your knees in just a tad bit on the way up. Keep your knees in alignment with the angle of your foot.

Girlfriend: Wow, long legs!!! Again, overall not bad. Notice how her bar is more aligned vertically with the center of her foot (good!), and compare just that to your video to see more what I'm talking about (for you). Two things: work on going lower, she's not hitting parallel, and also just make sure (hard to really tell given the angle) that knees stay pushed out over the alignment of the angle of the foot.

In both cases, don't worry about knees going PAST the toe; that's been de-mythed in Rippetoe's Starting Strength. Just keep your knees aligned with the angle of your foot.

Also may want to get lifting shoes to take the cushion away from your heel, which raises your heel slightly and doesn't let your heel firmly push on the ground as you move. You want to use your heel and that force to push yourself up, and it's hard when you have cushioned shoes. Tennies shouldn't be used for squats.

jamieedwards725

Thank you very much. We shall try and address the issues and then post again for progress.

Cherimoose

Pull your knees out slightly as you descend. This will enable you to go lower. This is explained more here.

Your GF has poor depth. She almost looks afraid to go deep. Does she have an old back or knee injury?

DopeItUp

Your squat looks pretty good really. My biggest thing would be to push your knees out and keep them out. It will help with depth and it will help with your knees collapsing on the way up. I'd have to see a front angle of your squat to see how bad your knees are coming in but it APPEARS to be quite a bit from the side angle.

Your woman's squats are pretty decent too. However, whereas your squats are pretty close to parallel she's about a mile off. She's basically doing half squats, she may need to drop the weight a bit and really sink those hips down. This will require knees to go forward and/or out to the sides (probably both due to her amazing limb length).

jamieedwards725

Amy and Cherimoose
I do not have mobility issues but gf does as she has broken her right ankle twice. She has also had a dodgy knee in the past and is scared that it will bring it on again (patella wasn't sliding properly through the joint.)

Dope it up.
I think my knees collapsed a bit today as I increased the weight and could tell they were. I'll drop the weight by 2.5kg next time and get a video of both side and front views.

As said before she is worried of her knee going again but will get her to drop the weight to where she can hit parallel at least and feel comfortable next leg day.

Thanks for the comments, appreciate the help and will try and put another video up soon.

LKArgh

jamieedwards725 wrote: »

Amy and Cherimoose
I do not have mobility issues but gf does as she has broken her right ankle twice. She has also had a dodgy knee in the past and is scared that it will bring it on again (patella wasn't sliding properly through the joint.)

Dope it up.
I think my knees collapsed a bit today as I increased the weight and could tell they were. I'll drop the weight by 2.5kg next time and get a video of both side and front views.

As said before she is worried of her knee going again but will get her to drop the weight to where she can hit parallel at least and feel comfortable next leg day.

Thanks for the comments, appreciate the help and will try and put another video up soon.

Squats are not safe for everyone. If she does not feel comfortable, do not push her. And asking a dr what is or is not safe for her would be a good idea.

AsISmile

I am absolutely no expert on squatting, but did read an article the other day that could help figure out how low you can squat and what your best stance is when taking hip mobility into account. Perhaps take a look at this and try the exercises in the vids.
http://bretcontreras.com/no-two-hips-are-the-same-how-anatomical-variance-can-affect-your-range-of-motion/

Mycophilia

Also might be worth noting that for squat form videos, we get a much clearer picture of the movement when it's filmed from the side and at a height of around the middle of your thigh. A second video from the front might also be helpful to determine if your knees are moving in a proper path.

piperdown44

Ditch the running shoes, those are going to cause problems. Either squat in socks, barefoot or get a flat firm soled shoe (or true squat shoes).
Vid from the side plus the front or back.
Stance looks good. Might try turning out the toes a bit more and see if that makes a difference with depth.
I've had to rebuild squats a few times to correct issues, some I wasn't aware of until shooting vids from different angles. One of the best rebuilding methods I've used is doing a box squat. You can google it. Not only does it help with understanding depth you can drop the weight a bit and work on any weaker muscles that need strengthening.

jamieedwards725

Cheers guys. Thanks for the tips. The shoes option is a no at the moment as I am currently in the middle of nowhere in the rainforest in Oz. Barefoot will be the way forward.

leggup

Your body position looks good. To get a better video, I recommend recording from a fixed point around hip height- one video from the front, one from the side. It looks like your knees might be coming a little close together, but it's hard to say. Another angle would help. You look like you're maybe 1 inch away from being at parallel. My husband used to have the same problem. He thought he was nailing it. Then he had a friend show him how low he needed to go and he had to drop 75 lbs to be able to get to that point. If you have flatter shoes (or ones with less absorption, like chucks), you'll be able to spread your toes and grip better.

Your girlfriend is going maybe 75% to parallel. I recommend removing all weight and get the depth down first. She also looks like she's leaning forward to come up, but it's hard to say since the video is high up and not stable/flat. I used to squat just like that. It took dropping the weight completely to fix it. I also have to think "sit back sit back" every time I squat to make sure my hips are going far back instead of my knees going far forward. Leaning forward like she is now doing partial squats is more likely to injure her then doing full squats that go back adequately.

Cherimoose

jamieedwards725 wrote: »

I do not have mobility issues but gf does as she has broken her right ankle twice. She has also had a dodgy knee in the past and is scared that it will bring it on again (patella wasn't sliding properly through the joint.)

It looked like she was protecting an injury. One workaround is a wide-stance squat - it produces less torque at the knee, and requires less ankle mobility.

The advice about asking a doctor was a good one. You might need to ask a specialist though, since general doctors are often not as knowledgeable about those issues or about lifting.

jamieedwards725

Ok round 2

https://youtu.be/37ksswNCx4c
https://youtu.be/rYEjR4318HM

https://youtu.be/UyD8hIWVDt4
https://youtu.be/hi6TnvuEQkg

Thanks in advance.

AsISmile

Let me bump this for you

piperdown44

Much better but have your gf ditch the cross trainer/running shoes. They are not built for squats and can lead to issues down the road when weight gets added.
Keep a mental note of how your form feels in the second set of videos. If you pay attention to how your back stays straight, how your knees track outward and how your core stays tight it will help clue you in on issues when the weight gets heavier.

deluxmary2000

Wow - just wanted to say that was a hell of an improvement in a short amount of time.

Cherimoose

MUCH better.

A minor point - your right foot points out to far.

Is she wearing your shoes?

DopeItUp

Form much better now. Good starting points to work with.

Minor nitpick, have her watch the angle of her wrists. That is gonna cause problems sooner or later. Try to get her wrists straighter (use a suicide grip if needed - no thumbs around the bar) and/or use wrist wraps if needed.

Squat depth is really good on both of you. Almost too much - I'd stick with it but if you start getting back rounding or back pain from going so deep you may want to limit depth SLIGHTLY. Just something to think about in the future.

XavierNusum

The biggest with both of you is your knees "caving in" or not tracking over the toes. You'd be surprised how fixing this, which is a glute activation issue, can fix other issues with your squat.

BalletAndBarbells

Massive improvements made - keep going with it. I agree with others comments that losing the shoes is a good start. Really watch that your knees don't fall in when you increase the weight. Watch those wrists - there's gonna be an injury with them bent so far back once your gf puts weight on that bar. One other point I would make is that you seem to snap your knees and lock them out at the top at times - be wary of this as it can lead to injury - try to keep your knees soft and use the glutes to push up/push hips forward.