Calling people who squat heavy...

Sad to say that I am an AFAA cetified personal trainer/fitness instuctor and still battle with weight issues. Back to your question. Form, form and form is key. When I train I push form over reps. Once form is perfected, repetitions will increase at strenght increases.

Most people do squats incorrectly. Although the goal is to, eventually, get your hips as low as you possibly can to the floor, form absolutely has to PERFECTED or you will not get the desired results. I have my clients use a "prop" while we work on form. I use different types of exercise media such as Body Bars, Medicine balls, and the TRX. proper form for a squat should feel, "unatural" in the beginning. Hips should be "hyper extended" while maintaining an "engaged" core, body weight should be shifted to the heels, chest should be lifted, shoulders relaxed and square, face forward and most importantly, Knees should be aligned with the ankles. Practice these things, perfect them and then focus on reps! Tip: sometimes very tight hamstrings will affect form.

Hope this helps!

I've been squatting for years and I can't get anywhere near parallel with a barbell. I have read it's to do with the ratio of femur length to torso length. It means some people can't go low without becoming imbalanced or leaning forward excessively. I just use dumbells or a smith machine. Have you tried front squats/hack squats?

work on your mobility FFS.
there is no reason for someone to not be able to hit parallel (except maybe a serious injury), after squatting for years.

I've been squatting for years and I can't get anywhere near parallel with a barbell. I have read it's to do with the ratio of femur length to torso length. It means some people can't go low without becoming imbalanced or leaning forward excessively. I just use dumbells or a smith machine. Have you tried front squats/hack squats?

I looked this up earlier today as I have relatively long femurs compared to shin length, in relation to the fact that I can't do pistol squats without falling backwards unless I lean so far forwards on my knees that they hurt. I have very good balance generally and not too bad joint flexibility and can go ATG on regular squats, so it doesn't seem logical that I can't do pistol squats. But apparently femur length is the issue.

Here is an article I found about it: http://voices.yahoo.com/long-femurs-why-wide-stance-makes-parallel-squats-11752392.html?cat=50 I have exactly the problems described, i.e. leaning too far forward (which also hurts my knees) when squatting in a shoulder width apart stance, falling backwards if I go too low. When attempting parallel squats with a shoulder width apart stance, my torso is almost parallel to the floor in order to maintain balance (as described in the article), and I can't go lower without holding my arms out in front of me, I can just about maintain my balance if my arms are straight out in front of me as a counterbalance, but if my hands are in barbell holding position, I fall backwards. I've always wondered if this was a body proportion thing, and yes, it seems to be the case.

However, a wider stance prevents all of this, which is what the article says to do, in fact I naturally have always squatted in the stance mentioned in the article and never had problems going ATG including with a barbell, and never considered it an issue as I never saw any reason to try to barbell squat with a narrower stance. It's only due to the issue with pistol squats that I even looked this up, and if anyone has any ideas about how I can do one legged ATG squats without falling backwards I'd be delighted to hear it because my barbell loaded with all the weights I have is only 88lb, and last workout I squatted 84.4lb for 6 reps.

Everyone starts out differently but rarely ever with perfect form. Getting to parallel is a great goal but it's not something to beat yourself up over if you can't do it right out of the box. Just keep squatting, you'll get there! You can also do some hip flexor stretches (Google) which might help to make you more flexible to get you a little lower.

Just remember to keep your butt going back toward the back wall, not straight down. Knees over toes. Chest up. Don't let knees pull inward toward each other. And stay on your heels, and push through them on the way back up.

Bumping for the great info!

Great tips!
I'm the only one at my gym that uses the squat rack, so I'm always second-guessing my form

When I started, I couldn't do a body weight quarter squat, and forget about parallel. I can now successfully do 120lb back squat to parallel. But it took time - a lot of time.

Here are some things that helped me:

- Widening my stance. I am very large (~300lbs at the time), and I was trying to squat like the people who weigh 120lbs. I don't, and I am not going to have the same form as them. Go wider on your stance. It's okay.
- Doing full body weight squats to the ground (@ss to the grass as they say) holding on to something to get there to help with hip mobility issues. Stay there and just sit in that position for a while. You will feel it if you have hip mobility issues.
- Squat to Stands for mobility
- Goblet Squats to a bench
- Blanks to help build core strength

I've been squatting for years and I can't get anywhere near parallel with a barbell. I have read it's to do with the ratio of femur length to torso length. It means some people can't go low without becoming imbalanced or leaning forward excessively. I just use dumbells or a smith machine. Have you tried front squats/hack squats?

I looked this up earlier today as I have relatively long femurs compared to shin length, in relation to the fact that I can't do pistol squats without falling backwards unless I lean so far forwards on my knees that they hurt. I have very good balance generally and not too bad joint flexibility and can go ATG on regular squats, so it doesn't seem logical that I can't do pistol squats. But apparently femur length is the issue.

Here is an article I found about it: http://voices.yahoo.com/long-femurs-why-wide-stance-makes-parallel-squats-11752392.html?cat=50 I have exactly the problems described, i.e. leaning too far forward (which also hurts my knees) when squatting in a shoulder width apart stance, falling backwards if I go too low. When attempting parallel squats with a shoulder width apart stance, my torso is almost parallel to the floor in order to maintain balance (as described in the article), and I can't go lower without holding my arms out in front of me, I can just about maintain my balance if my arms are straight out in front of me as a counterbalance, but if my hands are in barbell holding position, I fall backwards. I've always wondered if this was a body proportion thing, and yes, it seems to be the case.

However, a wider stance prevents all of this, which is what the article says to do, in fact I naturally have always squatted in the stance mentioned in the article and never had problems going ATG including with a barbell, and never considered it an issue as I never saw any reason to try to barbell squat with a narrower stance. It's only due to the issue with pistol squats that I even looked this up, and if anyone has any ideas about how I can do one legged ATG squats without falling backwards I'd be delighted to hear it because my barbell loaded with all the weights I have is only 88lb, and last workout I squatted 84.4lb for 6 reps.

Actually, most strength coaches AND all physical therapists I have talked to, say that inability to do pistol squats and get A2G has more to do with lack of ankle mobility. That's why you see peeps put plates under their heels and Oly shoes have a tiny heel. Squatting is dependent on the joints from the TOP to the BOTTOM. Shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. If long femurs are the problem, then working on your dorsiflexion CAN help.

I just tried this with the Times Atlas of History under my heels.... and bingo! I can do pistol squats (they're easy, in fact!) and narrow stance front squats, both ATG. Thank you for that tip :flowerforyou:

I'm not convinced that I have a problem with ankle flexibility though, because I have pretty good flexibility including in my ankle, I can do full range calf raises with my toes on a platform, and get really low with those (i.e. heel well below my toes). Putting the book under my feet is no different in mechanical terms to making my shins a couple of inches longer. Trying to force my ankle to overflex in order to compensate for relatively shorter shins doesn't seem like a good idea, and trying to do this when squatting hurts my knees (I tried this in the past and stopped because it hurt my knees). In any case, the book seems to have fixed this issue so I'll continue with that.

There is quite a lot of variation between humans in terms of tibia/femur ratio, I know that from studying anthropology, and it varies in different populations and has enough biomechanical implications for natural selection to favour certain ratios in certain environments (shorter tibia/longer femur is believed to be an adaptation to walking/running in hilly/mountainous terrain, while longer tibia/shorter femur is better for running on level terrain - interesting because my husband has relatively longer shins and can out-run me on the flat, but I can beat him running up stairs). Given that, I don't think it's far fetched to suggest that this kind of thing can affect the mechanics and form of various lifts.

Very interesting, I'll try putting something under my heel.
I have tried doing mega wide squats too and I just can't get my *kitten* down. I don't think it's a matter of mobility or form there's just a natural imbalance in the dimensions of my body. If you could see me attempt a squat you'd understand, it's pretty comical.
Thanks for the tips.

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