Hello out there! I've been lurking here for quite some time and *just* got up the nerve to video myself squatting this morning.

Behold: the Squishy Squat. I'm squishy and squatting. I do not like what I see both in form and in physical shape. I'm not new at this, but have never seen my form from the side. I need help and advice. Can squishy people really do proper form squats? I mean ... look at my legs. They're huge! I feel like I can't even see if I'm coming near parallel, much less breaking it. Or if I even CAN break it at this point in my fat loss career.

Here you go! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUuhgfWPBVI

We bigger squishy people can absolutely do squats with proper form!! I've come a long way in the weight loss department, but I'm still pretty hefty. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-5ENG6kVXk

My form in this video isn't perfect, but it's fairly decent. Watch where my knees go. They don't go forward in front of me, they go out to the side. I'm not squatting down over my legs, I'm squatting in between them -- it makes a ton of difference! Also, look at my lower back. Note how when I start the rep, you don't see a sudden curve appear in my lower back. When I watch your squat, I see an increased curve, then your back straightens out as you go deeper, then it curves again as you come back up. You don't want the curvature of your spine to change while you're loaded down with a barbell. The job of your spine is to hold each part of itself in the same position relative to the rest of your spine while you move your body down into the squat and back up again.

I'd suggest going to a very light weight, possibly the empty bar, and experiment with your form. Film each set and see what gets you closer to having your back consistently unchanging and your knees out so that you can go deep enough. Once you find what works for you (watching some instructional videos may help you figure out what to try), practice it until it feels pretty natural and consistent, then start adding weight. Rippetoe (author of Starting Strength) advocates getting into your bottom squat position and jamming your elbows inside your knees to shove them out, to help learn what it feels like to really get your knees out. Spending some time in that position may help, kind of giving you a mental representation of what to aim for on your way down. Most of all, stick with it!! Once you get the form nailed down, you'll be amazed at how fast your strength increases! :oD

Let us know how it goes!

Imma try some stuff this week. Maybe pointing toes out more, getting a more neutral head and trying to get my shoulders down and back (like a bench press). Part of the problem is, as soon as I start getting into position my shins are hitting the bar and rolling it forward. I always feel like I'm either reaching too far (and thus rounding my back) or hips are getting too low (thus knees coming forward and shins knocking bar out of position). I'll keep working on it...

Edit: oddly enough, even though I feel like I had better back positioning in my most recent video, my lower back hurts like a mofo this week after DLs. Huge lower back DOMS. Had to use the rumble roller on it twice a day to make it bearable. Must be using the muscles in a different way.

Something that might prove useful: load up the bar with a ridiculously heavy weight that you will NOT pull, heavy enough not to roll easily. Make sure that you can bang your shins up against it and it still won't go anywhere. Practice your setup with it till you've figured out how to get set up without that bar being able to move. The idea is that once your shins touch the bar, the rest of your setup has to come from your shins staying at that angle and your body adjusting around that. Think about feeling your hamstrings loaded up and sitting back into the setup so you can feel your weight strongly on your heels.

Then when you've got the hang of getting into that position, reload the bar with 135 and make sure you get into position the exact same way as you did when the bar couldn't roll. Before you pull, make sure you feel your weight on your heels, and then take all the slack out of both the bar and your body -- EVERYTHING tight as possible -- then drive your heels explosively through the floor to pull. Do your warmups explosively and you'll be ready to hit higher weights with the same form and with greater bar speed off the floor. Also, especially since you're having issues with set up, I'd really strongly suggest doing singles only -- just step away from the bar after each rep and get set up all over again. You'll get more practice that way, which means you'll get better at it faster. Because you're having issues with set up, getting it well practiced and all those issues ironed out will give you more benefit than any increased time under tension training effect from doing sets of multiple reps, especially since those reps are not consistent from one to the next.

I have finally made a video! I've had the most trouble progressing on squats and I want to make sure that I'm doing it right. This is my last set of 5, and I'm fatigued enough that I wobble a bit on the last one. Any advice or critiques are welcome. Thank you!!!!
http://youtu.be/5jmZnLnndsc

I have finally made a video! I've had the most trouble progressing on squats and I want to make sure that I'm doing it right. This is my last set of 5, and I'm fatigued enough that I wobble a bit on the last one. Any advice or critiques are welcome. Thank you!!!!
http://youtu.be/5jmZnLnndsc

Can't see your depth but it looks like you might not be reaching parallel. Need a vid from a little further back and/or lower. Can't see your feet either but it looks like the bar is pretty far forward (ie: you're leaning forward a little too much). It almost looks like you're going to fall forward towards the end of the set. Maybe try a little more of a vertical back position?

I have finally made a video! I've had the most trouble progressing on squats and I want to make sure that I'm doing it right. This is my last set of 5, and I'm fatigued enough that I wobble a bit on the last one. Any advice or critiques are welcome. Thank you!!!!
http://youtu.be/5jmZnLnndsc

What the other folks have said. Basically look at the bar path, you see how it's not straight? It's dipping forward and to the right going into the hole. You want the bar, as much as possible, to move straight up and down. What you're doing will strain your lower back and oblique more than they should be.

Try dropping the weight to like 95 and working on your form, build back up. For more specific suggestions regarding setup, would need a better angle, ideally front or back on.

Here's my final DL vid for a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANb7RCBLxm4&feature=youtu.be

Final set was basically matching my previous PR.

Tried to incorporate some fixes but only minor success. Tried for a more neutral head....got it MORE neutral than it was but still tilting back plenty. Whatever. I even put something on the floor right in front of me to look at. I look at it....with my eyes. But my head likes to move

Still rolling the bar on every rep. I didn't think I was, I thought I was doing a great job of keeping the bar stationary but after reviewing the video it's still moving just a little. I'd get down into position on each rep and stop right when my shins hit the bar - but when I start the lift I'm pushing my knees forward just a little and the bar moves. I tried turning my toes way out for all the reps (they're almost turned out squat-like at this point) but it really doesn't make a huge difference. I took off my shin skins so I could feel my shins hitting the bar better but all that really seems to do is cause my shins to be chewed up really badly (hard to tell but my shins are bleeding a lot in the last set - that really hurt). I thought about trying to sit back just a little bit more but my arms are already pretty much straight up and down with the bar at the start of every rep so I'm not sure if that will help.

All I can think of is that I'm just setting up too close to the bar. If I back up an inch it might stop me from rolling the bar as I get into position.

I'll keep working on it and maybe post a vid at some point in the future if I can figure out how to correct these little things and make my form picture-perfect.

Oh yeah, and here's a bonus video of me doing OHP 135x5 and dropping the last rep (think I pushed the bar out a little, I can usually do 135x5 and am normally very close to 140x5). www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzPl3R2belI&feature=youtu.be

Didn't watch the videos, but I will say that I had to move the bar back a bit, my shins don't touch when I setup. If they did the bar would roll. You want the bar to be as close as possible without rolling, so try moving it back a quarter inch and see if that helps.

Ahh interesting, I had been using my shins touching the bar as sort of a cue that I was in position. The bar isn't rolling much anymore, it just kinda shifts a little when I first start. I'll try setting up slightly further away and not touching the bar until the pull actually starts.

Here's my final DL vid for a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANb7RCBLxm4&feature=youtu.be

Final set was basically matching my previous PR.

Tried to incorporate some fixes but only minor success. Tried for a more neutral head....got it MORE neutral than it was but still tilting back plenty. Whatever. I even put something on the floor right in front of me to look at. I look at it....with my eyes. But my head likes to move

Still rolling the bar on every rep. I didn't think I was, I thought I was doing a great job of keeping the bar stationary but after reviewing the video it's still moving just a little. I'd get down into position on each rep and stop right when my shins hit the bar - but when I start the lift I'm pushing my knees forward just a little and the bar moves. I tried turning my toes way out for all the reps (they're almost turned out squat-like at this point) but it really doesn't make a huge difference. I took off my shin skins so I could feel my shins hitting the bar better but all that really seems to do is cause my shins to be chewed up really badly (hard to tell but my shins are bleeding a lot in the last set - that really hurt). I thought about trying to sit back just a little bit more but my arms are already pretty much straight up and down with the bar at the start of every rep so I'm not sure if that will help.

All I can think of is that I'm just setting up too close to the bar. If I back up an inch it might stop me from rolling the bar as I get into position.

I'll keep working on it and maybe post a vid at some point in the future if I can figure out how to correct these little things and make my form picture-perfect.

Oh yeah, and here's a bonus video of me doing OHP 135x5 and dropping the last rep (think I pushed the bar out a little, I can usually do 135x5 and am normally very close to 140x5). www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzPl3R2belI&feature=youtu.be

you might not have caught this, but your lower back is definitely rounding on the heavier lifts. It could just be a form issue, or it might be gut check time.

You might try warming up with lighter weight so you're more prime for the bigger lifts, or you might have to take a step back and lower your maxes. Kudos on the big weight though, that's pretty gd heavy.

Yeah, I don't expect my form to be perfect especially since my last set was matching my all-time PR. I was actually curious to see just how much my form was breaking down on my maximal sets and to examine just how bad it was getting. Looking at the vids I was actually pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as I expected. My form at maximal weight is still better than about 90% of the people I see in the gym, unless they are doing very very light weights. Not to say that I'm not always striving to improve my technique (hence the videos) but perfection and progress rarely seem to coincide with people trying to pull big weights. I've been working on some accessory back exercises to strengthen my lower back and hopefully be able to keep it flatter at higher weights. Time will tell!

I do warm up with lighter weights btw, I just didn't video them. I always start with really light sets of 135 to get warmed up.

I have finally made a video! I've had the most trouble progressing on squats and I want to make sure that I'm doing it right. This is my last set of 5, and I'm fatigued enough that I wobble a bit on the last one. Any advice or critiques are welcome. Thank you!!!!
http://youtu.be/5jmZnLnndsc

What the other folks have said. Basically look at the bar path, you see how it's not straight? It's dipping forward and to the right going into the hole. You want the bar, as much as possible, to move straight up and down. What you're doing will strain your lower back and oblique more than they should be.

Try dropping the weight to like 95 and working on your form, build back up. For more specific suggestions regarding setup, would need a better angle, ideally front or back on.

I think what is happening is that I start with a high bar squat, and then sort of roll the bar down a bit using wrist movement into a low bar squat toward the bottom which causes me to lean forward more, and then roll it back as I stand up. I feel like I am still solidly on my heels. I'm not sure when I started doing this adjustment. It does make it easier for some reason, but I do feel it more in my lower back which I don't like. Thoughts on this?


ETA: After I get advice and adjust, I will take another video. Should I JUST do a back on video, or one from the back and one from the side? Thank you!

Lots of people prefer side view for critique, I personally do better with back or front on. I guess do both if you can.

You should NOT be rolling the bar at all. That's an easy way to tear a bicep once the weight gets heavy. If you need it low bar in the hole, start with a low bar position.

Alright. Okay. I "think" I'm good to go with stuff. Just need to get the okay before I start adding more weight.

135LB Squats from behind
http://youtu.be/Hk3-zs6Gqbk

185LB Squats from the side
http://youtu.be/GUa8eC-XTgk

145LB Pendlay Rows from the side
http://youtu.be/MMVmEyrTULE

100LB Overhead Press from the side and back
http://youtu.be/WryK_x-Q5Cw

(Sorry for the video bar garbage thing. First time doing vids from my phone. Sadly, the quality is better than my camera.)

For those who know me...
Yes, I cut my hair.
No, it has not affected me like Sampson.
Yes, I donated it.
Yes, my son did as well.

Your squats look pretty decent. Knees staying out, bar over midfoot and path is mostly a straight line. Depth needs a little work, your first rep is really close but seems to gradually get worse. Generally you want to break parallel with your thighs at the very least. Usually you can view this easily by checking to see if the crease of your hip is getting lower than the tops of your knees. It's close, you're only a few inches off but you never quite make it, IMO.

Pendlay rows look pretty good. Remember to really engage those lats and bring those shoulders up. Make sure you're not using all arms because it will get really difficult as you get heavier. It's hard to tell what you're doing there, I'm just giving a tip. I try to envision pulling my elbows up using my back muscles, instead of using my biceps.

OHP looks pretty good too.

Overall quite good form, IMO. A little more depth on your squats and I'd be really happy with everything I'm kinda a stickler for depth, too many people cheat their squats and it only gets worse as you get heavier. I like squatting to a box because I know I'm always hitting depth and not cheating myself. It's hard as sh1t though

Hip flexibility with weight is something I've had to work on since day one. It's almost there. I wasn't nearly that low before. I just can't seem to get my body to go any lower without tucking my tailbone under and rounding my back. It'll get there in time. Thanks guys.

Thanks Sara. I'll pay attention not to screw around and do the three steps thing. I always end up going through the mental checklist and end up fidgeting. More stuff to pay attention to. Thanks.

Ok, finally frustrated and brave enough to post a video. 185 lbs for me is a good amount of weight on squat. My 1 RM is 225. DL 1 RM is 390, so I think I must be doing something terribly wrong on squats. Appreciate all help. First time using the box to gauge depth.

http://www.tomhole.com/images/squatform20130922.mov

Standing by for signals. You may fire when ready, Gridley.

Where are you failing when you do fail at squats? You didn't seem to have much trouble with that 185.

I didn't see anything overtly wrong but I did note that for the bottom 20% of the movement, you're tucking your butt under and rounding the lower back to get all the way down to the box. Might be a flexibility issue throwing your form off at the bottom? That's all I can think of. Try some hamstring and lower back stretches/mobility work prior to squatting?

I wouldn't feel too badly about your crappy squats, mine suck compared to the rest of my lifts too. Getting to proper depth with proper form and especially using a box, definitely makes it a lot harder than most people do them. The box is challenging because you sort of have to slow down and pause in anticipation of colliding with the box. A lot of people just bounce at the bottom of a squat and even more never even come close to parallel so that's why you tend to see a lot of inflated squat numbers. If you're tall it's even worse, IMO.

We actually have almost the same DL (mine calculates to 388) and I always use a box when squatting (poorly) so I feel your pain. One of the biggest things that helped me was stretching/mobility work and foam rolling. Especially the hammies, but also the glutes, lower back, hip flexors, abductors, etc. It takes me 20 mins of warmup before I even do my first warmup set of squats. But it has helped a lot. The other thing that helped was just doing a progressive loading program (stronglifts at the time) and just committing to it. Lift or die, I decided. Turns out, I was pu$$ying out to a certain degree, squats are just hard as sh1t and are much scarier than deadlifts in my opinion since you're carrying the weight on your shoulders. With a DL you can just drop the bar (or in most cases, it just doesn't move when you fail). I just added 5lbs every workout and I went from 200x5 to 235x5 in no time. Then deloaded and worked back up with Madcow to 255x5 which is where I am now. It's still my worst lift but that's a huge jump in something like 3 months. It just took sucking it up and going for it, and turns out I could in fact do it! When I unrack the weight it feels scary heavy and it's forcing the air out of my lungs. By rep 3 my heart rate is usually 180 and I can't see or hear, but I can still do 2 more reps. My last 2 or 3 reps always involve involuntary vocalizations too such as grunting or some sort of child-like whiny groan. It's embarrassing but I keep going.

Sorry for the ramble. Just throwing that in there because your form looks at least halfway decent, and if you can DL 390 I'm willing to bet you can be a lot stronger at squatting than you think. Food for thought.

Ok, finally frustrated and brave enough to post a video. 185 lbs for me is a good amount of weight on squat. My 1 RM is 225. DL 1 RM is 390, so I think I must be doing something terribly wrong on squats. Appreciate all help. First time using the box to gauge depth.

http://www.tomhole.com/images/squatform20130922.mov

Standing by for signals. You may fire when ready, Gridley.

Where are you failing when you do fail at squats? You didn't seem to have much trouble with that 185.

I didn't see anything overtly wrong but I did note that for the bottom 20% of the movement, you're tucking your butt under and rounding the lower back to get all the way down to the box. Might be a flexibility issue throwing your form off at the bottom? That's all I can think of. Try some hamstring and lower back stretches/mobility work prior to squatting?

I wouldn't feel too badly about your crappy squats, mine suck compared to the rest of my lifts too. Getting to proper depth with proper form and especially using a box, definitely makes it a lot harder than most people do them. The box is challenging because you sort of have to slow down and pause in anticipation of colliding with the box. A lot of people just bounce at the bottom of a squat and even more never even come close to parallel so that's why you tend to see a lot of inflated squat numbers. If you're tall it's even worse, IMO.

We actually have almost the same DL (mine calculates to 388) and I always use a box when squatting (poorly) so I feel your pain. One of the biggest things that helped me was stretching/mobility work and foam rolling. Especially the hammies, but also the glutes, lower back, hip flexors, abductors, etc. It takes me 20 mins of warmup before I even do my first warmup set of squats. But it has helped a lot. The other thing that helped was just doing a progressive loading program (stronglifts at the time) and just committing to it. Lift or die, I decided. Turns out, I was pu$$ying out to a certain degree, squats are just hard as sh1t and are much scarier than deadlifts in my opinion since you're carrying the weight on your shoulders. With a DL you can just drop the bar (or in most cases, it just doesn't move when you fail). I just added 5lbs every workout and I went from 200x5 to 235x5 in no time. Then deloaded and worked back up with Madcow to 255x5 which is where I am now. It's still my worst lift but that's a huge jump in something like 3 months. It just took sucking it up and going for it, and turns out I could in fact do it! When I unrack the weight it feels scary heavy and it's forcing the air out of my lungs. By rep 3 my heart rate is usually 180 and I can't see or hear, but I can still do 2 more reps. My last 2 or 3 reps always involve involuntary vocalizations too such as grunting or some sort of child-like whiny groan. It's embarrassing but I keep going.

Sorry for the ramble. Just throwing that in there because your form looks at least halfway decent, and if you can DL 390 I'm willing to bet you can be a lot stronger at squatting than you think. Food for thought.

Yeah man, I hear you on that "scary heavy" thing. My warmups and working sets increment up to one heavy set for the week (5/3/1) and by the time I usually get to the last heavy set, I'm thinking WTF happened this thing is heavy lol. Then I just look forward, take a breath, break at the knees and drop for a rep lol

Tom, the box squats are tough because you loose all of your momentum at the bottom, but they are great for working on form. Tape yourself like you've been doing, and keep at it, even if you need to drop the weight some.

Look up a channel called CanditoTrainingHQ on YouTube. This guy is ****ing excellent, and he has a couple great squat videos.

I did this, dropped the weight, but now when I squat (I use a very light band instead of a box to make sure I'm reaching depth) everyone at my gym now watches me lol and I've even gotten a few thumbs up when I've completed a set lol

It's a public gym, a YMCA, and most of the guys there can't squat for **** anyways.

I'm just using the box for now to get the depth right. I may switch to a band instead. I'm hoping I can get rid of the box ASAP and just hit the correct depth without any assistance. I'm new to lifting, so it's all learning for me.

Will give these a go tonight. Thanks.