Squat form - does it look ok???

gemheath2010

Hey really want to make sure that my squats are looking ok- not a very good angle as it doesn't show my feet placement-but hopefully there is enough there to be able to see if my form is ok. My form used to be horrendous, but I deloaded and built it back up again. All comments are welcome
Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15DmYbOoFmQ

FrnkLft

Overall it looks pretty good to me, but I'm sure you want details and it does need some work.

- Make sure the bar is staying above the center of your feet throughout the lift, and that you're not rocking forward either coming down or coming up.

- You're leading with your hips a bit coming out of the hole, as you get tired. When your hips come up too fast, you end up "good morning" the weight (google it), and while you inevitably use your lower back to get the weight up, you want to distribute the load throughout your body, not leveraging with high hips and using your back to finish the lift.

- You have a little bit of butt wink at the bottom so be careful. You can try opening up your hips more (spreading your knees), or going a bit more shallow, although your goal is to reach *just below* parallel.

- And finally, the biggest thing I noticed is that you're using low bar form with the bar practically on your neck (from the angle, it even looks too high up for high bar squatting). Find what's comfortable for you, but move the bar down your back an inch or so so that it rests behind your shoulders. Your squat may be a little more shallow with this form, but it's a better overall position for the kind of squat you're looking to do.

astronomicals

butt winking and your head is not in line with your spine... your feet dont look like they're angled out enough...generally your thumbs should be over the bar.. you looked to the side as you racked the weight.... its hard to tell about the line and angles from the vantage point...

a perfect squat takes years, but, your form needs work

I really didnt like seeing your spine twerk to the left on rep four...

when your butt winks you lose the stretch reflex which isn't going to help.... you need to only go as deep as you can keep the arch in your lumbar spine...

ETA: you may think looking to the side isnt bad... well, you'll find out it is when you pull the trapezius where it inserts into the base of the skull... it doesnt feel nice.. lemme tell you.... much more likely with teh high bar position....

also... ditch the mirror.... its useless

ETA: dont be discouraged.. my squat isnt perfect either... just try and fix these things over time... removing the mirror whould help you to concentrate on proper neck alignment... slap yourself in teh face the next time you look while racking... remind yourself of how your lower back should feel by laying on your sstomach and raining your legs off the ground and holding it ight... etc..

gemheath2010

Wow thanks for that guess I still have more work to do - going to need to have a look at some more form videos etc and see if I can get rid of the 'butt wink' not even entirely sure what it is lol. I will defo make more of an effort to correct my head placement as well.
Thanks :0)

FrnkLft

You didn't mention the bar... lower the bar, it looks like it's on your neck, and it's in the wrong place anyhow for the kind of squat you're doing.

Butt wink is that thing you see where your hips roll down and forward a bit at the bottom. It's not too bad, and a lot of very heavy lifters have it to some extent without hurting themselves, but it's an indication that your back is rounding at the bottom, which can really hurt your lower back at higher weights.

The extent of a butt wink is a mix of technique, mobility, and anatomy. Google "Canditotraining HQ". That guy has a supperb squat. Keep in mind though that for most of his videos, he's doing a high bar olympic squat, which I don't recommend for someone without a coach. I've gone and ****ed up my knees attempting it at high weight because my form was slightly off.

Low bar is less technical, and allows you to squat heavier which is the goal in this case.

agggie550

What they have said above, the bar should sit fruther down your shoulders, it doesn't rest on the back of your neck, that's just the most comfortable for now.

Not the best example because this guy is a BEAST, but he no hand squats, so it kind of shows you were the bar would go.

And the only other thing i really noticed is you drop really fast, as you start to go up in weight for your joints and correct form sake you are really going to want to slow it down and make it a controlled move, and not so much a drop and pop.

Besides that looked good, good luck, and live long and lift on.

astronomicals

I cant tell if her high bar position is wrong, however you're probably right about using a low bar position... chicks want a nice *kitten* and low bar recruits more posterior chain including the butt...

switching from high to low feels strange and since your back becomes more horizontal (in the hole) it really takes some getting used to... don't do it with higher weight until youre comfortable with it.

j6o4

Looks like you're doing low bar squats with a high bar position. With a high bar position, your torso should remain more upright and the first movements should be from the knees. Doing low bar squats, the first movements should be from the hip and you should sit into the squat. Your form looks like low bar squat form, so if you squat like that it is best to fix your bar position.

FrnkLft

I cant tell if her high bar position is wrong, however you're probably right about using a low bar position... chicks want a nice *kitten* and low bar recruits more posterior chain including the butt...

switching from high to low feels strange and since your back becomes more horizontal (in the hole) it really takes some getting used to... don't do it with higher weight until youre comfortable with it.

Yeah man, from what I understand in both squats you should be coming off your heels/center foot, but a proper high bar squat is a TOTALLY different movement than a low bar squat.

Super quad dominant, you have to drop the weight a lot and train it well first, and the margin for error/injury is much higher. I was letting my knees drift forward at heavier weight, and my knees paid the price.

One of these days though... lol Dropping back to the low bar for now though, I'm not competing and my goal is to move big weight anyhow.

gemheath2010

Thank everyone comments are really useful-I thought I was using the low bar

juliewatkin

A couple of things I would suggest:

Bar position - lower the bar slightly. In addition, it looks like the bar is just sitting on your back. You should be actively tightening your upper back and pulling the bar down into it. The tighter you are, the lighter the weight feels.

In fact everything should be tight. Focus on filling your belly with air and making it hard. Doing this has almost the same effect as wearing a belt, it adds support and makes you much more solid.

We didn't see your set up but how you set up is very important. When you put your hands on the bar, don't just hold it, grip the hell out of it and drive your traps hard into the bar.

Like another poster mentioned, it looks like you have a tendency to 'good morning' out of the hole. I struggled with this for a while. The best advice I got was to drive your elbows under the bar. This forces your chest up and keeps your hips down. When you feel your hips rise faster than your shoulders, make a conscious effort to drive your elbows under, force your chest up and drive your hips through.

Hand position: Grip can be either thumbs over top or wrapped around the bar. Different people prefer different grips. I actually hook grip the bar on squats as a cue to not flex my fingers open. If your shoulder and back flexibility allows it, bring your grip in closer to your shoulders. That will help to keep your upper back tighter. I typically have my hands almost against my shoulders.

Foot position: Find what works best for you. I prefer just wider than shoulder width with my feet at about a 30 degree angle. Again, different strokes for different folks.

Don't get discouraged. I've been fine tuning my squat for years. It changes as my weight changes and leverages are different.

I also agree about ditching the mirror. Continue to tape your lifts. Try from the side next time. You should feel what your doing, not see it.

gemheath2010

Thank everyone comments are really useful-I thought I was using the low bar position to be honest but after the comments I watched it back and I can see that the bar is defo sat to high. So when I train next I will make sure I bring it down a bit lower. Hopefully these will be easy fixes, I didn't realise it would be so hard to perfect the squat

gemheath2010

Unfortunately I go to a commercial gym so there isn't anything I can do about the mirrors

FrnkLft

Thank everyone comments are really useful-I thought I was using the low bar position to be honest but after the comments I watched it back and I can see that the bar is defo sat to high. So when I train next I will make sure I bring it down a bit lower. Hopefully these will be easy fixes, I didn't realise it would be so hard to perfect the squat

Yeah actually I have a suspicion that it's nearly impossible... :drinker:

And as for the mirror... lol a lot of people hate the mirror. I think it's a good tool to determine depth though, but just never forget that there is a bunch of things that you need to focus on that you can't see, or that might look fine in the mirror but are wrong from the side/back.

My gym doesn't have a mirror, and it drives me crazy when I could swear I was hitting depth, and the recording doesn't show anyhting. I don't have a coach, and the feedback from the mirror would save me a lot of back and forth and hassle.

juliewatkin

An awesome video to watch is a squat set up tutorial by Susie Hartwig-Gary. She explains it in a way that is very easy to follow and although everything she mentions is something I already knew, the way in which she explains it helped me develop my own cues.

It's a bit long but worth the watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtPN-ftmxG8

juliewatkin

Unfortunately I go to a commercial gym so there isn't anything I can do about the mirrors

It looks like the rack can be set up to have the pins facing out away from the mirror. Whenever I go to a commercial gym, I just flip them around so I'm not facing the mirror.

gemheath2010

Thank everyone comments are really useful-I thought I was using the low bar position to be honest but after the comments I watched it back and I can see that the bar is defo sat to high. So when I train next I will make sure I bring it down a bit lower. Hopefully these will be easy fixes, I didn't realise it would be so hard to perfect the squat

Yeah actually I have a suspicion that it's nearly impossible... :drinker:

And as for the mirror, I think it's a great tool to determine depth, but just never forget that there is a bunch of things that you need to focus on that you can't see, or that might look fine in the mirror but are wrong from the side/back.

Oh dear lol - I did wonder if I should just give up now but I actually really enjoy squats

juliewatkin

Thank everyone comments are really useful-I thought I was using the low bar position to be honest but after the comments I watched it back and I can see that the bar is defo sat to high. So when I train next I will make sure I bring it down a bit lower. Hopefully these will be easy fixes, I didn't realise it would be so hard to perfect the squat

Yeah actually I have a suspicion that it's nearly impossible... :drinker:

And as for the mirror, I think it's a great tool to determine depth, but just never forget that there is a bunch of things that you need to focus on that you can't see, or that might look fine in the mirror but are wrong from the side/back.

Oh dear lol - I did wonder if I should just give up now but I actually really enjoy squats

Don't give up. Think of it as an art

FrnkLft

Thank everyone comments are really useful-I thought I was using the low bar position to be honest but after the comments I watched it back and I can see that the bar is defo sat to high. So when I train next I will make sure I bring it down a bit lower. Hopefully these will be easy fixes, I didn't realise it would be so hard to perfect the squat

Yeah actually I have a suspicion that it's nearly impossible... :drinker:

And as for the mirror, I think it's a great tool to determine depth, but just never forget that there is a bunch of things that you need to focus on that you can't see, or that might look fine in the mirror but are wrong from the side/back.

Oh dear lol - I did wonder if I should just give up now but I actually really enjoy squats

NOOO! Don't, sorry, forget I even said anything, delete your browser history and never check this topic again....

Keep it up, your squat is actually very good for a beginner!

"I hate the squat because it is so technical... I love the squat because it is so technical." - A poem by FrnkLft.

gemheath2010

Unfortunately I go to a commercial gym so there isn't anything I can do about the mirrors

It looks like the rack can be set up to have the pins facing out away from the mirror. Whenever I go to a commercial gym, I just flip them around so I'm not facing the mirror.

Oh duh I didn't think of that lol - good idea though I shall try it when I'm in the gym next

mitchfralic

Keep your head up is the only thing i could make out from the angle