Help with Squats

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  • magtart
    magtart Posts: 161 Member
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    its a fitness myth that your knees shouldnt go over your toes, whoever gave you that misinformation, dont listen to that person anymore. I squat competitively BTW and have squated over 400lbs, so I know what I am talking about.

    check out this video
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBHc323QwFE

    That was interesting, thank you.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
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    I just ordered a fitness ball. I can't wait to try it out.!

    Wait till your husband gets all pissy because it rolls all over the room and gets in his way all the time. Mine made me get rid of mine.
    Should have just got rid of your husband if that's his attitude.
  • SrJoben
    SrJoben Posts: 484 Member
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    I am a 59 yo woman with bad knees and 2 herniated discs in my lumbar spine. I would love to strengthen my thighs and glutes, but every time I attempt a squat my knees go over my toes. I have watched videos for proper form but it seems like my fat *kitten* causes me to tip over backwards if my knees are behind my toes.

    Does anyone have any tips for me?

    The oft repeated thing about not letting your knees go past your toes is misleading.

    It's not a useful cue to getting the form right, because it doesn't tell you how to fix the problem it's warning against.
    Which is unfortunate. Because if your toes are going far past your knees you are squatting very very incorrectly and need help.

    In fact I'm not sure it could be described as a squat and I doubt you're getting more than about 6 inches lower before either hitting flexibility limts or falling over! The only way I can imagine this happening is if you try to drop your butt STRAIGHT down, and keep your torso completely vertical. That's not possible to do while squatting.

    (btw some people need to have their knees go a couple inches past their toes because of the way they are proportioned. That's not what this is talking about)

    Again it's a stupid cue. Forget it. Here's the actual cue for starting a squat: Stick your butt backward.

    If you do that you're 80% there. It solves almost everything.

    More complete instructions:

    Put your feet about shoulder width apart with your feet angled outward. (Toes further from each other than heels are)

    Concentrate on starting the movement by sticking your butt back as if you were trying to sit in a chair.

    Keep your chest up as if you were trying to let someone read a slogan written on your shirt.

    (Your torso will not be vertical at the bottom, it will be tilted forward roughly 45 degrees. That's fine. Trying to keep your chest up keeps your back straight.)

    On the way down don't let your knees cave in toward each other. Push them outward. Keep your thighs in line with your feet.

    Also, particularly if you have bad knees, you want to go all the way down, lower than the point where you thighs are parallel to the floor. Partial movements are actually harder on the knees.
  • wozkaa
    wozkaa Posts: 224 Member
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    I just ordered a fitness ball. I can't wait to try it out.!

    Wait till your husband gets all pissy because it rolls all over the room and gets in his way all the time. Mine made me get rid of mine.

    LOL I'm picturing quite the hissy fit...
    My dog was terrified of mine when she was a pup.
  • magtart
    magtart Posts: 161 Member
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    I just ordered a fitness ball. I can't wait to try it out.!

    Wait till your husband gets all pissy because it rolls all over the room and gets in his way all the time. Mine made me get rid of mine.

    Not a problem...hubby is a disabled cancer patient and spends most of the day in bed. The problem is the cats. I had an exercise ball a few years ago and one of the cats punctured it.
  • Rose6300
    Rose6300 Posts: 232 Member
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    I just ordered a fitness ball. I can't wait to try it out.!

    Wait till your husband gets all pissy because it rolls all over the room and gets in his way all the time. Mine made me get rid of mine.
    Should have just got rid of your husband if that's his attitude.

    Seems like that'd have been a bit of an overreaction.
  • Rose6300
    Rose6300 Posts: 232 Member
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    This may be helpful. http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2014/03/03/strength-training-101-how-to-squat-properly/#more-21628
  • Rose6300
    Rose6300 Posts: 232 Member
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    I just ordered a fitness ball. I can't wait to try it out.!

    Wait till your husband gets all pissy because it rolls all over the room and gets in his way all the time. Mine made me get rid of mine.

    Not a problem...hubby is a disabled cancer patient and spends most of the day in bed. The problem is the cats. I had an exercise ball a few years ago and one of the cats punctured it.

    Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. In hubs' defense, it was mostly the kids rolling it in his path that got on his nerves.
  • dicoveringwhoIam
    dicoveringwhoIam Posts: 480 Member
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    Widen your stance. Chest up and out. Back straight. Weight on heels.
    Good luck!
  • magtart
    magtart Posts: 161 Member
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    I think widening my stance will help. I was doing it with my feet placed shoulder width.
  • Cath_Taylor
    Cath_Taylor Posts: 104 Member
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    Let us know how you get on. My H showed me how to do this tonight and how we didn't end up in A&E (ER) I will never know! Was hilarious! Kinda regretting getting rid of my gym ball now :smile:
  • MacCaulin
    MacCaulin Posts: 1
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    Squats are one of the best exercises you can do for your mid and lower body. They work so many muscles and there are a ton of variants. However, they're also one of the more dangerous exercises, probably because they utilize so many muscles some of which are core muscles.

    It's for those two reasons that when I was learning weightlifting in my teens, my instructor emphasized squats but also taught an eased approach to them. What he taught me was:
    1. Don't jump right into doing squats or you're going to get hurt. Instead, ease into them by starting with a weightless bar.

    2. Learn the form before adding weight. In other words, make it muscle memory. As others have already mentioned, the form generally taught is a general form. It teaches you how your form should generally be but you have to adjust it to fit your own body. You do that by using a weightless bar and taking it slow.

    3. Small increments. You can mess up your knees and back pretty easily with squats so always increment your weight in small intervals. Personally, I've always done increments of 10lbs. 5lb per side. Additionally, when you add weight, don't feel you need to go down all the way right away. Only squat as far as you feel comfortable with until you can get all the way down. Especially with bad knees and back injuries, you want to make sure you're strengthening your joints, not exacerbating injuries.

    4. Always wear a lifting belt. My instructor always told me it was to prevent hernias. I've read some studies in the past couple of years that cast doubt on whether they actually provide any protection against hernias but I can say from experience that the belt provides an extra sense of stability. If your belt is tight enough, you can feel your abs pressing against belt. It also helps keep your back straighter which is important.

    Full disclosure: To my knowledge, my instructor had no formal training, scientific background, or any such thing (nor do I for that matter). He wasn't even a teacher. He just owned a small gym in my hometown. However, he was in his 60's and squatting around 450lbs 2x a week. His son would come work out with him and squatted around 650lbs. As a scrawny little 15 year old that could barely squat his weight, I didn't question him. Following his methodology I got myself up to a max squat of 350lb's at my peak (not even close to that anymore) so I've never felt the need to question his methodology.

    One last thing from personally experience, SrJoben is spot on with everything except going all the way down from the get go. Partial movements may be harder on the knees, I don't know one way or the other on that but if you go all the way down without getting your body used to be able to stand back up from that, you aren't getting back up without breaking out of the squat. That's just frustrating and discouraging. That goes for every time you add weight as well.

    Hopefully that helps!
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    its a fitness myth that your knees shouldnt go over your toes, whoever gave you that misinformation, dont listen to that person anymore. I squat competitively BTW and have squated over 400lbs, so I know what I am talking about.

    check out this video
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBHc323QwFE

    Huge thanks for that!!!

    Agreed

    And no squats aren't bad for your knees...I squat 165lbs and no knee issues.

    As for that myth I know that I saw a gif of a child (probably 18months old) squatting and the caption was "This is how you do it"...

    Forgetting of course that babies bones aren't totally hardened.

    How you squat is defined on how you build.

    I squat with a wider than normal stance as it's most comfortable, I have a stool behind me to make sure I get ATG (*kitten* to grass) and I keep my girls up and neutral spine...
    And the fact that babies have a totally different leg:torso ratio.

    Squatting has to work with your own proportions.

    You can also hold on to something for balance until you get used to the movement.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    4. Always wear a lifting belt. My instructor always told me it was to prevent hernias.
    Not sure how that would prevent an inguinal hernia, which is the most common type, since that is well below where the belt sits. (Plus it allows you to create more pressure on the areas that are not covered by the belt.)

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