Form critique thread, post your videos here.
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Just recorded these lifts yesterday and I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance for the help!
Squat -
http://youtu.be/Rwb4bDzoV64
Deadlift -
http://youtu.be/O0QKXzBXV5w
Stephen
Same as the above, squats look pretty decent (first looked a little hokey but you picked it up after that), just need to go a few inches further down to break parallel.
Deadlifts, your hips are shooting up before the bar starts to move. You're basically doing two lifts, standing up with your legs and then using your lower back to move the weight. You want everything to move at the same time and at the same rate. Hips should rise with the bar coming off the ground.
Maybe this will help?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3EMnj-9Ky0
Thanks for your help and especially the link on deadlifts!0 -
Whoops. Sorry about that. I'm as new to posting videos as I am to lifting. Permissions to the videos have been changed to unlisted.
Squat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY
Deadlift:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STn5KciRMY
Elia
Both were links to your squat video, so I'll just critique that.
Depth: As I'm sure you can tell, you're got getting the depth that you should for a full range of motion. You want the crease of your hip to be parallel with the top of your knee at the bottom of the squat.
Knees: To get depth, you want to push your knees out. This also helps preserve your knees a bit. You want your feet rotated outwards at about 30 to 45 degrees (mostly whatever works for you) and you want your knees traveling in line with them, generally.
Forward lean/Upper Back Rounding: It's hard to tell by the video, but you seem to be leaning pretty far forward, and it even looks like your upper back is rounding a bit. Make sure your chest is pushed out and forward, that your elbows are up and back, and that the bar is not resting on your neck. You want the natural curvature of your spine to be solid and intact throughout the movement.
Also, try unracking the weight from a higher position if you can, or at least make sure you get down under the bar more (bar over feet) when you do unrack the weight so you don't snap something up.
Also make sure you're not rocking the weight forward or backward to get some momentum. Bar over center of feet at all times.
Wrists: If you're truely resting the bar high on your rear delts, and have your elbows back (low bar position), you should be able to keep the bar in place with just the lower palms of your hands (great explanation in the book Starting Strength). You should be supporting very little of the weight with your hands/wrists.
Here's an example of my squat for comparison:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzlpujZwBA
One key thing that you've got right... hips and shoulders comeing up evenly. Well done. Most new comers don't have an even squat, and their hips come up faster than their shoulders. Think "hinge" not "lever". Very good.
That said, of all the big lifts, the squat is easily the most technical. It just takes time and a ton of recordings to get right.0 -
First time I actually post a video anywhere. I can clearly see 1 problem that I need to address. Any feedback is appreciated.
220 lbs. 5x5. This was actually my 5th set.
http://youtu.be/_8GAUqDfnPQ
Cool man, 220's not light. Your back and is in good shape and your movement is even. A few things though:
You're using a high bar posture with low bar form. Your elbows are tucked and forward and the bar is high on your back (high bar), but you're leaning forward quite a bit (low bar) and going to half depth.
Try this: Raise your elbows back with the bar positioned just above your rear delts, and your palms only resting on the back of the bar to keep it secure (read: wrists NOT supporting the weight). Also, open your stance just a little, with your toes out at 30-45 degrees. Finally, open your knees as you descend so that they travel in line with your feet. Opening your knees will allow you to reach depth.
Fair warning, changing up your form like this will afford you a full range of motion, and so the movement will be much harder and tougher on your body/tendons. You need to do an ego check and drop the weight down. You're doing SL 5x5 so frankly that's not a big deal, you'll recover the lost ground pretty quickly. If you don't drop it down enough, you'll end up hurting yourself. Like I did.
If you're doing 5x5 at 220, honestly I would say drop the weight back down to around 135. You'll recover your lost ground in about a month, and I promise you that you won't regret it (even though you might feel like a b*tch at first). It's going to feel different with the full range of motion, and you're going to need the lighter weight to prevent injury to your tendons (I'm in physical therapy right now, tendonitis that will not go away...) and get the form right. It's just much more quad intensive than what you're doing now.
Here are my lifts before and after fixing my form:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXs--CbdpkEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzlpujZwBA 0 -
Hi--- I would love to get some input on my squat form! The first time I recorded myself, a few months ago, there were obvious problems even I could see (not going deep enough to be parallel, serious back rounding) but this time I'm not sure what to think about my form so thought I'd check with the experts.
http://youtu.be/bEHIbz3tHfg
There's a set at 95 lb first (yes, that's my working weight this week, I realize it's like half what the other ladies here can squat) and I also recorded a set at 85 lb from before that, which I included in the video in case that's helpful.
Sorry it's backlit. Also let me know if I should get other angles like from the front.
Thanks
Your form is pretty good but you're running into a bit of a problem at the bottom of the movement. It appears that you're doing low-bar squats, which is fine. However, it actually looks like your squat depth is TOO low for a low-bar squat. As a result, your butt is wrapping under you to an extreme ("butt wink") and you're leaning really far forward. This results in you having to "Good Morning" the weight as you come back up.
I would recommend stopping the motion a little higher up. You want your femurs to be JUST breaking parallel to the ground. A good cue for this is the crease of your hip joint should just be dropping below the top of your knee (if you drew a perfectly horizontal line between the two points).
Like this:
I've been trying practicing with a box that looked in the mirror like my legs were about parallel if I fully sat on it (but tried to barely graze it during the squat itself). Here's a set I was doing with the box:
http://youtu.be/7YBI5fCjf2A
and then I would move the box aside and try to get approximately the same depth by feel:
http://youtu.be/-K9_g_sPmkE
A. Do those look better? Is that still deep enough to be legit? (For some reason I have a difficult time judging visually whether the hip crease is higher or lower than the knees although I think this looks about parallel). Any other form issues?
B. Is there anything bad about practicing with a box like this? I've heard that it can compress your spine if you fully sit down on it, but I'm hoping it won't cause any issues if I just lightly touch it and come back up. I thought about using the railings like DopeItUp suggested but it seemed like the notches on this rack were too far apart to get the height exactly right... it was either too low, or high enough that I would annoyingly clang on them at parallel.
thanks 0 -
Alright I looked at all your videos and your squat is even, which is good, but your chest is completely caving in and you're leaning so far forward that your lower back is rounding. This is going to cause you some serious trouble once the weight gets heavy. You need to pay some real attention to your form if you don't want to get hurt.
You need to keep your shoulders tight and *stick your chest up and out*. Right now your squat is really more of a Good Morning. You're just leaning way too far forward. I know I keep posting my own squat here, but here it is for reference. Notice how my chest is up and out, my elbows are back so the bar can rest on my rear delts, and I sit back/down more than I lean forward. In fact, I only lean forward as much as I have to to keep the weight above the center of my feet while maintaining the curve in my back (*kitten* out, chest up; everything solid/locked).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzlpujZwBA
A great cue for you to keep in mind, aside from chest up, is to picture the bar moving up and down in a straight line above your feet. And just in case this is contributing to the problem don't focus so much on the mirror in front of you. Just focus on picturing the bar above your feet and pushing your knees out to achieve depth.0 -
Alright I looked at all your videos and your squat is even, which is good, but your chest is completely caving in and you're leaning so far forward that your lower back is rounding. This is going to cause you some serious trouble once the weight gets heavy. You need to pay some real attention to your form if you don't want to get hurt.
You need to keep your shoulders tight and *stick your chest up and out*. Right now your squat is really more of a Good Morning. You're just leaning way too far forward. I know I keep posting my own squat here, but here it is for reference. Notice how my chest is up and out, my elbows are back so the bar can rest on my rear delts, and I sit back/down more than I lean forward. In fact, I only lean forward as much as I have to to keep the weight above the center of my feet while maintaining the curve in my back (*kitten* out, chest up; everything solid/locked).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzlpujZwBA
A great cue for you to keep in mind, aside from chest up, is to picture the bar moving up and down in a straight line above your feet. And just in case this is contributing to the problem don't focus so much on the mirror in front of you. Just focus on picturing the bar above your feet and pushing your knees out to achieve depth.
(Assuming you're talking to me) -- Hmm, you are seeing that the bar is forward of my midfoot at the bottom of my squat? I have trouble seeing that when I pause the video there, e.g. at :15 or :19 in the last video (http://youtu.be/-K9_g_sPmkE ) it looks to me like the bar is directly above my foot. I can try putting my weight into my heels instead of centered on the foot?
Otherwise, I can see that your back is more vertical in your video but I am not sure how to achieve that in my own squat without having the weight too far back and losing balance---are you suggesting that I need to use a higher bar position on my shoulders? It looks like you might be using a higher bar position? Or do you think there is something different I can do with my legs to bring my weight enough farther forward that I can have a more vertical torso position?
ETA: I'm not disagreeing that my back rounds there at the bottom, I'm just not sure what practically to do about it---I think if I kept everything else the same and just had a more vertical torso I would definitely fall backwards onto my butt so I need to change something else too.0 -
Hi--- I would love to get some input on my squat form! The first time I recorded myself, a few months ago, there were obvious problems even I could see (not going deep enough to be parallel, serious back rounding) but this time I'm not sure what to think about my form so thought I'd check with the experts.http://youtu.be/bEHIbz3tHfg
There's a set at 95 lb first (yes, that's my working weight this week, I realize it's like half what the other ladies here can squat) and I also recorded a set at 85 lb from before that, which I included in the video in case that's helpful.
Sorry it's backlit. Also let me know if I should get other angles like from the front.
Thanks
Your form is pretty good but you're running into a bit of a problem at the bottom of the movement. It appears that you're doing low-bar squats, which is fine. However, it actually looks like your squat depth is TOO low for a low-bar squat. As a result, your butt is wrapping under you to an extreme ("butt wink") and you're leaning really far forward. This results in you having to "Good Morning" the weight as you come back up.
I would recommend stopping the motion a little higher up. You want your femurs to be JUST breaking parallel to the ground. A good cue for this is the crease of your hip joint should just be dropping below the top of your knee (if you drew a perfectly horizontal line between the two points).
Like this:
I've been trying practicing with a box that looked in the mirror like my legs were about parallel if I fully sat on it (but tried to barely graze it during the squat itself). Here's a set I was doing with the box:http://youtu.be/7YBI5fCjf2A
and then I would move the box aside and try to get approximately the same depth by feel:http://youtu.be/-K9_g_sPmkE
A. Do those look better? Is that still deep enough to be legit? (For some reason I have a difficult time judging visually whether the hip crease is higher or lower than the knees although I think this looks about parallel). Any other form issues?
B. Is there anything bad about practicing with a box like this? I've heard that it can compress your spine if you fully sit down on it, but I'm hoping it won't cause any issues if I just lightly touch it and come back up. I thought about using the railings like DopeItUp suggested but it seemed like the notches on this rack were too far apart to get the height exactly right... it was either too low, or high enough that I would annoyingly clang on them at parallel.
thanks
Squatting to a box is fine, that's how I got started too. Just don't cheat and bounce off the box, which is what I started doing when the weights got heavy. Use it to judge depth for a little while (or maybe just your first few warmup sets) and then take it away. It takes time to get a feel for things.
As for your new videos, your depth looks basically perfect and your form is massively improved. And I mean massively, night and day.
Only real complaint I still have (that's already been talked about) is the excessive leaning forward at the bottom of the movement. You're starting out well but you're leaning too much by the bottom. You can see the bar is over your toes or beyond (hard to tell exactly, the camera angle isn't perfect). If you take a video from directly to the side of the path of the barbell you'll probably see it a little better. But you're definitely unbalanced at the bottom of the movement, a couple reps you can actually see your weight shifting to your toes and you almost start to fall forward. For the best example of this, watch the barbell path in your 5th rep of the box squat video. Bar goes down, then moves completely horizontally at the bottom, then goes back up. All of the reps have this to some extent but it was demonstrated best in that particular rep.
Try a bit more vertical torso for the bottom portion of the movement, you might be surprised that you don't fall over It's a common fear, trust me. Worst case, if you DO start falling backwards, just drop the bar off your back. If you're afraid of doing this, practice dropping the bar ahead of time. Honestly everyone should practice bailing on squats a few times (both forward and backwards) so they know what to do/expect when the time comes. 0 -
@ Ukuleist
Hmm, looking at it again, the bar might be too far down your back. You should have your elbows back to create a shelf, and have the bar resting on your rear delts. A good cue is that you can hold the bar in place easily with an open palm. I don't even wrap my thumbs around the bar, there literally no need.
Otherwise try opening up your stance a bit, and make sure you're pushing your knees out. A good exercise to get the gyst of the movement is gobblet squats with a dumbbell.0 -
Well I finally got my own videos..I see issues but thought I would let others critque as well...
Last night Squat weight was 160lb these are my 2nd and 3rd set as I find my first always seems to be the hardest.
http://youtu.be/NkNw3edN1Y0 2nd set
http://youtu.be/MTaGRVMaP1w 3rd set 0 -
FrnLft,
Thanks for taking the time to review my (one!) video. I’m heading to the gym this afternoon and will try to shoot some new ones of my squat and deadlift again.
I now realize I was pushing to up my weights week by week and my form wasn’t correct. So at my last workout (which occurred after the video was shot) I dropped the weight I was squatting at back to 85 lbs and worked specifically at getting to horizontal or slightly below. I’m going to remain at 85 lbs until I feel pretty confident that my form is OK before upping the weight. I also found I had to focus on pushing my knees out and it was easier to focus on at the lower weight. I do sometimes feel I’m leaning too far forward and at the last workout really tried to also focus on sitting ‘back and down’ into the squat. With the combination of sitting down below horizontal, mentally focusing on keeping my knees out, and sitting ‘down and back’ the squat felt pretty good. I will try to get a pure side view of my squat this afternoon for your (and anyone else who is interested) review.
I do try to keep my hands over the bar and only push the bar forward into my delts, using raised elbows to try to lock it in place. I have less right shoulder flexibility than on my left shoulder and sometimes find it a challenge to get my right hand up, behind, into a good position.
One point I struggle with is the foot position. I was born with tibial torsion, the result being I am very pigeon toed. As I’ve aged the pigeon toe effect has lessened, but it still makes it hard to me to splay my feet out to 30 to 45 degrees. Combine that with my bad right knee (two arthroscopies on it for cartilage repair) and I haven’t yet found my ‘preferred’ foot position in the squat.
Elia0 -
FrnLft,
Thanks for taking the time to review my (one!) video. I’m heading to the gym this afternoon and will try to shoot some new ones of my squat and deadlift again.
I now realize I was pushing to up my weights week by week and my form wasn’t correct. So at my last workout (which occurred after the video was shot) I dropped the weight I was squatting at back to 85 lbs and worked specifically at getting to horizontal or slightly below. I’m going to remain at 85 lbs until I feel pretty confident that my form is OK before upping the weight. I also found I had to focus on pushing my knees out and it was easier to focus on at the lower weight. I do sometimes feel I’m leaning too far forward and at the last workout really tried to also focus on sitting ‘back and down’ into the squat. With the combination of sitting down below horizontal, mentally focusing on keeping my knees out, and sitting ‘down and back’ the squat felt pretty good. I will try to get a pure side view of my squat this afternoon for your (and anyone else who is interested) review.
I do try to keep my hands over the bar and only push the bar forward into my delts, using raised elbows to try to lock it in place. I have less right shoulder flexibility than on my left shoulder and sometimes find it a challenge to get my right hand up, behind, into a good position.
One point I struggle with is the foot position. I was born with tibial torsion, the result being I am very pigeon toed. As I’ve aged the pigeon toe effect has lessened, but it still makes it hard to me to splay my feet out to 30 to 45 degrees. Combine that with my bad right knee (two arthroscopies on it for cartilage repair) and I haven’t yet found my ‘preferred’ foot position in the squat.
Elia
Good stuff man. I hear you about the injuries, and I think you understand that you need to be your own coach on that. As for going below horizontal, there's no need for that. So long as the crease of your hips is horizontal to the top of your knees, you have enough range of motion. Of course if you have any physical limitations or something to work around, you have to make the call. I'll def take a look at your next video.0 -
Well I finally got my own videos..I see issues but thought I would let others critque as well...
Last night Squat weight was 160lb these are my 2nd and 3rd set as I find my first always seems to be the hardest.http://youtu.be/NkNw3edN1Y0 2nd sethttp://youtu.be/MTaGRVMaP1w 3rd set
Awesome that you showed different angles for your squat, so I can suggest this with some more certainty. Your key problems are leaning forward (compensating for lack of hip depth), rocking, and knees.
It's a pretty good beginners squat, but I think it would help you a bunch if you made sure to push your knees outward (more or less inline with your toes), and sit back a bit more. To do this well, it *might* help if you tried narrowing your stance just a little bit, but that's up to you to figure out what works. Sometimes taking a wide stance can be limiting.
Just try to remember to have the bar track solidly over the center of your feet with minimal rocking, and sit back while pushing your knees out, chest up. I think that would help you. Remember to keep the pressure even on the foot, and if anything on your heels and outside of your foot.
Here's a video of a good squat set of mine for comparison:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzlpujZwBA
I'm actually going a bit too low on these for the low bar squat. So it's hard to see but I have some lower back rounding. Not major, but I could have done with a little less depth and still kept a full range of motion.
Remember that fixing the squat might mean that you have to drop the weight. If you're doing SL5x5 don't worry about this because the squat weight climbs so quickly. Even if you have to drop back down to 135 or even around 95 it's no sweat. You'll pick up the lost ground quickly and you definitely won't regret it.
The squat is like a golf swing. You have to keep all kinds of crap in mind for each rep, it's not always consistent, but when you connect it's fantastic.0 -
Well I finally got my own videos..I see issues but thought I would let others critque as well...
Last night Squat weight was 160lb these are my 2nd and 3rd set as I find my first always seems to be the hardest.http://youtu.be/NkNw3edN1Y0 2nd sethttp://youtu.be/MTaGRVMaP1w 3rd set
Not too bad but the biggest thing is your depth, you're way shallow. I'd take some weight off and try to go quite a bit lower and at least hit or break parallel.0 -
Thanks guys I did as suggested deloaded down to 135lbs pulled my stance in closer (I suspect I had the wide stance due to an injury to my gracilius...protecting it for no reason)
So I have videos of my deload squat...I know one rep I could feel me too much on my toes but I am pretty sure I got deep enough on both sets I could feel it on my way up.
http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
2nd set @ 135http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
3rd set @ 135
Now since you have all been so helpful....
http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
OHP 2nd set @ 80 (recently deloaded down from 83.5 to 75lbs due to failure)http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
DL @ 200 lbs
The last two sets are so ugly let me apologize first...I use the sumo stance and don't drop the weight as I am at home (heard you were suppose to drop it...anyway on my way down I am favoring the aforementioned gracillius as that motion stings a bit)
But critique away please and you don't have to be gentle...give it to me straight0 -
FrnkLft and DopeItUp,
First off - thanks for the responses and feedback on my form. Here are three clips of tonights workout.
Squat, low bar, at 85 lbs, side view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk2qnK3wzMw
Squat, low bar, at 85 lbs, front view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz99m5-BnZA
Deadlift, at 115 lbs, side view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3YMcpHAehE
On the squat - I am trying to get down to parallel...it isn't always easy. Like FrnkLft noted - when you get it right it does feel good. I am sure part of my issue is finding my foot placement. You can see me kind-of dancing a bit, trying to find a good spot. I mentioned in a much earlier post of also having left foot plantar fasciitis, so between that right knee and my left heel...it almost takes a little dancing.
Comments and criticism welcome.
Elia0 -
Thanks guys I did as suggested deloaded down to 135lbs pulled my stance in closer (I suspect I had the wide stance due to an injury to my gracilius...protecting it for no reason)
So I have videos of my deload squat...I know one rep I could feel me too much on my toes but I am pretty sure I got deep enough on both sets I could feel it on my way up.http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
2nd set @ 135http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
3rd set @ 135
Now since you have all been so helpful....http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
OHP 2nd set @ 80 (recently deloaded down from 83.5 to 75lbs due to failure)http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
DL @ 200 lbs
The last two sets are so ugly let me apologize first...I use the sumo stance and don't drop the weight as I am at home (heard you were suppose to drop it...anyway on my way down I am favoring the aforementioned gracillius as that motion stings a bit)
But critique away please and you don't have to be gentle...give it to me straight
All of the videos you posted were the same squat video. Which looks pretty decent from the angle. Can't tell on depth but it looks a whole lot better than before.0 -
Thanks guys I did as suggested deloaded down to 135lbs pulled my stance in closer (I suspect I had the wide stance due to an injury to my gracilius...protecting it for no reason)
So I have videos of my deload squat...I know one rep I could feel me too much on my toes but I am pretty sure I got deep enough on both sets I could feel it on my way up.http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
2nd set @ 135http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
3rd set @ 135
Now since you have all been so helpful....http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
OHP 2nd set @ 80 (recently deloaded down from 83.5 to 75lbs due to failure)http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw
DL @ 200 lbs
The last two sets are so ugly let me apologize first...I use the sumo stance and don't drop the weight as I am at home (heard you were suppose to drop it...anyway on my way down I am favoring the aforementioned gracillius as that motion stings a bit)
But critique away please and you don't have to be gentle...give it to me straight
All of the videos you posted were the same squat video. Which looks pretty decent from the angle. Can't tell on depth but it looks a whole lot better than before.
The other videos are on the same channel, so I'll just link 'em for her
SezxyStef squats @ 135, back view:http://youtu.be/HbMNiah9MYw (the one you've seen)
SezxyStef squats @ 135, side view:
http://youtu.be/gnKajrhHYqU
SezxyStef OHP:
http://youtu.be/bK2IcnqSY8Q
SezxyStef DL:
http://youtu.be/H7MzhQ3gl2g 0 -
I'm trying to learn front squats, any pointers are welcome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGuX7Ce4uhM
(I feel like I'm leaning too far forward, but on the third rep here I put my feet as wide as reasonably possible and went to the bottom, and then started leaning back until I tipped over. So yeah that's as upright as I can be.)
.0 -
I'm trying to learn front squats, any pointers are welcome.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGuX7Ce4uhM
(I feel like I'm leaning too far forward, but on the third rep here I put my feet as wide as reasonably possible and went to the bottom, and then started leaning back until I tipped over. So yeah that's as upright as I can be.)
.
Can you take a video from the front?0
