Squat form check please

Rays_Wife

For the past month I have been working on my squat form. I was just curious as to what others thought of my form now. I took videos of my first set and my last set.

First set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Kxe6hVJYA

Last set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPUwQCG9gp8

Thanks for any feedback! 60 pounds isn't hard for me, but I wanted to get opinions before I moved on adding more weight to the bar.

PitBullMom_Liz

Alright, my thoughts (and keep in mind I still struggle with my squat!): You're not quite hitting parallel, close though! And it looks as though as you rise up, your torso dips forward a little bit. So make sure you're tightening everything up.

I'm sure others who REALLY know what they're talking about will be along shortly to give you much better, more detailed advice, LOL.

bumblebums

It's not bad, although I can't see everything I would like from that angle (such as your foot angle).

A couple things I did notice:

Depth isn't quite below parallel. To hit proper depth, your hip crease should be below your knee joint. It's not quite there yet, I don't think (although that could be an illusion due to camera position).

Your knees slide forward at the bottom of the movement. Overtime, this problem can lead to a wicked variety of hip tendinitis, especially as the weights get heavier. In a good squat, the knees are fixed in position during the first third or half of the descent, and they stay there without moving forward throughout the bottom part of the squat. This requires some tightness in the hamstrings and glutes, but it will protect your knees from soreness and your upper quad tendons from being yanked as the quads contract.

Anyway, without getting into the details of what is happening, I would advise you to work on this early, because it's easier to prevent than to cure. Find something like a block of wood that's about 2.5 feet long, put it right in front of one of your legs (in front of the toes), and aim to touch it with the knee early in the squat without knocking it over.

Throughout the squat, shove the knees hard out. This also helps with the knee slide problem.

The macro problem with many squats like this is that the bar path is not quite straight--notice how the bar moves forward as it goes down? If you use the Terribly Useful Block of Wood, that will likely fix it.

kirabob

^^ Bumblebums has pretty much nailed it.

Another nifty little trick is to think about shoving your entire rib cage down towards your pelvis (front and back, like you are squishing two marshmallows (bony marshmallows) together. This will tighten up your core and help with that bar path.

Rays_Wife

Thank you so much for the informative replies! I had a feeling I wasn't quite reaching parallel on all my reps but as for the knees sliding out at the bottom I had no clue! Wow bumblebums, you probably just saved me from some great injury in the future. Thanks so much. As for my foot stance, it's a little more than shoulder width apart (kind of wide) and my toes are way out (about 40 degree angle). I have played with foot placement a lot to see what works best for me. Putting my feet this way has resulted in the deepest squat and the straightest bar path I can muster. (believe me, it used to be a lot worse lol).

And I will focus on tightening up more, I do tend to forget and relax that core. Great tips. And I'll look for a Terribly Useful Block of Wood

bumblebums

TUBOW is my best friend.