I just watched this, so helpful.

They are so awesome! I love that bit about the breathe- I will try that tomorrow.

I go through Lexington all the time, and am saving up for a training session at J&M. Can't wait!

No idea, just figured it would be $$$$$$!

They are so awesome! I love that bit about the breathe- I will try that tomorrow.

I go through Lexington all the time, and am saving up for a training session at J&M. Can't wait!

I was just thinking the same thing! Way to play a vacation!

It's mostly good advice. The split squat stance for unracking gave me pause--it's fine while the weight is light, but you do not want to introduce that kind of asymmetric load when unracking a heavier bar. I prefer to unrack with both feet under the bar, then make one step back. I was also mystified as to why the gal was squatting outside of the rack and not in it, and the business about "most women" not knowing how far to squat was surprising. From my observation at the gym, most *women* who squat have pretty decent form. It's the men who do little quarter squats with their necks craned up.

I think most people don't know how to squat properly, actually. They probably just said "most women" because that's the audience they are expecting to be speaking to.

Still haven't had time to watch the video (EIGHT MINUTES?!?! WHO HAS THAT MUCH TIME?!?!) hehe, kidding. It seems to me that I see a lot of demos of people squatting outside of racks - maybe because when they're demoing they're using light weights (for them) and it just makes it easier for the camera to get a good angle?

lwoodroff: You cheeky thing, you! :flowerforyou:

Yeah, I agree it's probably got to do with the camera angle. She is only squatting with a bar in that video, no plates. And I hear you re: most people, I just wish they said it that way and didn't make everything about women specifically. The one thing they said about women-specific squat issues that I thought was interesting was about shoulder flexibility and bar position--but they didn't elaborate, and I wish they'd said more. I didn't understand why the bar position has to be higher for women. Does it have to do with the amount of muscle on the back or what? I use the low position as per Starting Strength and haven't had any problems...

I think most people don't know how to squat properly, actually. They probably just said "most women" because that's the audience they are expecting to be speaking to.

Still haven't had time to watch the video (EIGHT MINUTES?!?! WHO HAS THAT MUCH TIME?!?!) hehe, kidding. It seems to me that I see a lot of demos of people squatting outside of racks - maybe because when they're demoing they're using light weights (for them) and it just makes it easier for the camera to get a good angle?

lwoodroff: You cheeky thing, you! :flowerforyou:

Yeah, I agree it's probably got to do with the camera angle. She is only squatting with a bar in that video, no plates. And I hear you re: most people, I just wish they said it that way and didn't make everything about women specifically. The one thing they said about women-specific squat issues that I thought was interesting was about shoulder flexibility and bar position--but they didn't elaborate, and I wish they'd said more. I didn't understand why the bar position has to be higher for women. Does it have to do with the amount of muscle on the back or what? I use the low position as per Starting Strength and haven't had any problems...

Finally watched it. :happy:

They said if the bar is too low, you may end up using your arm strength to hold it in place. They referred to the "sweet spot", which as I recall is the same way they referred to it in Starting Strength? Or maybe that was Mehdi. Anyhoo, I suspect that because of the tendency of women to generally be more flexible than men, we may think that the proper spot is actually lower than it needs to be. I know I was doing that at one point, but then I finally figured out my sweet spot. When I held the bar too low it wanted to roll out of position during the squat and I did have to hold on to the bar more to keep it from doing that. Now that I found the right spot it tends to stay in place. It's still low, just not as low as I initially thought it should be.

It makes sense to me that since women tend to be more flexible than men we may have different tendencies to watch for. Plus the male and female bodies have very different centres of gravity. And of course there's individual differences in body mechanics. As they said, you could do a whole seminar on the squat, so you can't really expect to have everything covered in an 8 minute video.

I thought the part where he talked about Molly's particular issue with her right knee was interesting. I know my right side is stronger than my left and I'm still tweaking how to deal with it - it hadn't occurred to me that it would be okay to have one foot angled in more than the other. Interesting.

ooh 'females' that really irritates me. she talks about 'men', what's wrong with 'women'. 'females' is horrible!

It is? :embarassed: (I used female in my post above.)

Bump

Yeah, fair enough if you use that consistently but they talked about females and men, felt more unbalanced. *steps off high horse* :-)

Thanks. I really needed to know about feet positioning because it's getting harder with heavy weights. I have a very short torso and look forward to trying the suggested technique for ladies built like me.

It is good that they encourage people to find a foot position that works for them, because it's important, and I'm sick of squat form videos that just say (or demonstrate) "feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing forwards" - it's physically impossible for me to keep my centre of gravity over my feet in this position, which is touted by so many as the "correct" foot position for squats. So it's nice to see that they're encouraging trainees to find foot positions that work for them rather than forcing everyone into a set format. Although it's not just about overall leg length, it's more about the ratio between the femur and tibia. I'm only 5'1" and have short legs, but can't stay balanced in narrow stance squats because my femurs are relatively long so my hips go too far backwards and my centre of gravity goes too far back.... wider stance with toes facing outwards fixes this as it limits how far back the hips can go, and I can squat just fine like that.

I think most people don't know how to squat properly, actually. They probably just said "most women" because that's the audience they are expecting to be speaking to.

Still haven't had time to watch the video (EIGHT MINUTES?!?! WHO HAS THAT MUCH TIME?!?!) hehe, kidding. It seems to me that I see a lot of demos of people squatting outside of racks - maybe because when they're demoing they're using light weights (for them) and it just makes it easier for the camera to get a good angle?

lwoodroff: You cheeky thing, you! :flowerforyou:

Yeah, I agree it's probably got to do with the camera angle. She is only squatting with a bar in that video, no plates. And I hear you re: most people, I just wish they said it that way and didn't make everything about women specifically. The one thing they said about women-specific squat issues that I thought was interesting was about shoulder flexibility and bar position--but they didn't elaborate, and I wish they'd said more. I didn't understand why the bar position has to be higher for women. Does it have to do with the amount of muscle on the back or what? I use the low position as per Starting Strength and haven't had any problems...

I'm female and I have really poor shoulder mobility, bad enough that it's stopping me having the best form for the OHP (I can't get the bar over my shoulders, it's over my head, and in the over-shoulders position I can't straighten my arms, even when OHPing a broomstick) I'm working on this of course... but the whole shoulder mobility thing they said does not apply to me at all.

I think it's not all that helpful to divide everyone into men and women, then discuss these issues... I think it's more helpful to view it like.... "if you have a trainee with very flexible shoulders...." as there will be men that this applies to as well. I have really wide shoulders, so maybe it's about shoulder width more than gender, although from what I've read previously the main cause of poor shoulder mobility is a lifetime of bad posture, i.e. hunched over a keyboard, sat on a chair etc. So this would apply to many women as well, but maybe more women do stuff like yoga and pilates before starting lifting so they start lifting without shoulder mobility issues....? while men are more likely to go straight into lifting and to avoid yoga/pilates due to being influenced by gender stereotypes. so trainers see more women with good shoulder mobility and more men with poor shoulder mobility, but saying "women tend to have good shoulder mobility so teach them like this..." is unhelpful as I'd need a trainer to help me to improve my shoulder mobility, and the way they teach bar position to men, i.e. the standard way, is what's best for me. rippetoe's video on bar position was the most helpful for me. (although I'd like to see a video on how to improve shoulder mobility and help with my OHP form (i.e. getting the arms back far enough))

But my point being that i don't think it's that helpful to divide people by gender before discussing these issues, as there will be men who have issues that are more common in women, and women who have issues that are more common in men. It's more helpful to treat the trainee as an individual and address issues that they actually have, not ones that people the same gender as them tend to have. Pretty much nothing in that video seems to apply to me. But then I've got used to being different to everyone else lol so I don't know why I'm surprised.... however taken as a "many women have this issue, this is what to do for women (or occasionally men) who have this issue" while explaining that it doesn't apply to all women, then it's all good :flowerforyou:

It's not wrong, just sounds like a wildlife documentary to my ear, dehumanizes a bit.. but that's my own filters talking, you may not be bothered by it at all!

:laugh: :laugh:
Yeah, that kinda bugs me too..always have.

I always want to ask 'female what?....female chimps?...hedgehogs?....giraffes? 0.o

I guess I've been conditioned to use male/female so it doesn't bother me. In the military (basic training particularly) we had to use male or female to describe the gender of a soldier. So it was like "Male soldiers are not allowed to fraternize with female soldiers" or "All male's on the right, all females on the left." But then it was even and they never said men and females. Being uneven with the use probably would have been an issue.

As for foot position, I'm the same. I have one foot pointed out a little farther than the other, but it is how they land and rotate. I had been trying to correct it, but I think I will worry about it a little less and correct if I see issues arise.

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