Going low in squats
kopmom
Posts: 491 Member
Ok, so I am up to 100lbs on squats so I have a question....do they not count if I am not parallel (legs) when squatting?
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I just re-read the squatting part of Starting Strength last night. So I'm going to answer as Mark Rippetoe, not as me. The answer is NO. NO. NO. If you are not at least parallel, it is not a squat.0
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it is very important to reach at least parallel while squatting. I record all of my squats to ensure I break parallel.0
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Ok so if I cannot go that low at a certain weight then I should move back down in weight I assume0
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That is the way I understood squats. If I can't get paralell, I would go back down in weight. Good luck!0
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Ok so if I cannot go that low at a certain weight then I should move back down in weight I assume
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yeah, I was all proud of myself when I thought I could do 120, until I saw it on video. I deloaded to 60 and learned to go *kitten* to grass. Up to 75 REAL low now. If you're gonna do it, might as well do it right, I say...0
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Part of the reasoning is that only doing half squats will focus most of the work on your quads, leaving you unbalanced. You also don't give your knees their full range of motion, which creates stress in the joint (I am seriously short handing that description). So it is well worth taking some of the weight off and learning to get at least parallel, if not a little further.0
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Well there is a such thing as TOO low. I will try and explain this as best I can.
When you squat, you want to be able to BOUNCE up and out of the "hole". If you go past a certain threshold of where the bottom actually is, then you can find yourself getting stuck and/or struggling or straining yourself to get back out. Try squatting down without any weight and find that point where you can bounce up and down at the bottom. That's where you want to bounce from when doing squats. You can get down lower and try and touch your butt to your heels, but that would be going down too low and is actually improper form.
kopmom, if you really want to make sure that your form is good, then I recommend that you record yourself and post the video so we can take a look at it and point out some things you may need to work on.0 -
Thanks all, will lower the weight and try for better form. I can get my husband to video me when we go to the gym together next week0
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I go just past parallel any lower and my butt rounds under, rounding my lower back (this is called "butt wink" apparently).0
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Well there is a such thing as TOO low. I will try and explain this as best I can.
When you squat, you want to be able to BOUNCE up and out of the "hole". If you go past a certain threshold of where the bottom actually is, then you can find yourself getting stuck and/or struggling or straining yourself to get back out. Try squatting down without any weight and find that point where you can bounce up and down at the bottom. That's where you want to bounce from when doing squats. You can get down lower and try and touch your butt to your heels, but that would be going down too low and is actually improper form.
kopmom, if you really want to make sure that your form is good, then I recommend that you record yourself and post the video so we can take a look at it and point out some things you may need to work on.
Are you going to tell me that these folks are doing it wrong?
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Squatting ATG is entirely optional unless you're specifically training in olympic style lifting for competitive purposes (at which point you'd have a coach already and wouldn't be looking for feedback from recreational interwebs lifters like ourselves).
Please don't make squat depth an either/or issue when "parallel or below" is perfectly acceptable for recreational weightlifting with plenty of room for personal preference (while not losing good form or making it unsafe, of course).
Also: *drool* (I love olympic lifting
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Also also: I see no heels being touched by any butts in these pictures unless the angles are awkward. Most folk actually end up someplace around their ankle/calf areas in relation to their hips.
Anyhoo -- kopmom, try "spreading the floor apart" with your feet at the bottom of the squat. I tried that today, and it helps with the firing of the hips to give you the power needed to come on up from the bottom. To prevent butt rounding under, tighten up your core and focus on keeping your spine's natural arch and don't go lax in the bottom of the movement, but rather stay tight all the way through. Never squat any lower than your core/stability and hip/leg muscles/ligaments and knees and so forth are actually able to sustain. You want to be in absolute control of your body, and the weights, at all times from the time you de-rack the weights until the time you rack them again and the set is finished.0 -
well I'm certainly no expert on Olympic lifting as of yet, but if I were to see actual footage of those lifts then I MIGHT be able to pick a few nits. Lu Xiaojun seems to have the most flawless form I've ever seen. In Olympic weightlifting I don't think there's even a rule against going down too low.
In that last image, the guy touches his elbow to his knee which is against the rules. He'd get a no lift on that one.
Lu Xiaojun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSIV5tJ3bv4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQ5U8vTZ1M
I think the weight got too heavy for him in that second video.
Also, it's more common to be able to squat more weight than we can snatch or clean so it should normally be easy enough to do a squat from that low with that much weight on the bar.0
