Not sure but that's kind of interesting. I don't even use plates on bench and I'm short in general. I have a coworker who is super tall but she doesn't have much of a range of motion. I showed her squat and she couldn't even do a half squat. But she can reach way higher than I can ever.

I'm still working on the depth but feeling not too bad, even with my short legs. Though I've watched some tall guys do front and back squats and wow, some of them can get really low.

Crabada you should video!

threnjen wrote: »

@Crabada my PT taught me to just bench with my feet up on the bench since they don't reach the floor. Have you tried that?

Aww, but that takes away from the leg drive you could have with a nice arch in your back and feet on the floor! (No, seriously. Feet on the bench is nicer on the lower back, but it takes away some of your stability. If you can reach the floor and don't have lower back issues, you might gain 5lbs just by putting them on the ground. Serious!

This was part of my check-in today, but I think it makes more sense to throw it out to all ya'll here:

Is having Shorty McShortster legs even a thing that could prevent me from parallel-ing?

Being short shouldn't make it "that" much harder to squat to depth. It gives you a lower center of gravity advantage, which means you're more stable and all!

Try a lil something-something here. Get into a door frame sideways (or in front of something you can hold on to) and assume your normal squat stance. Sit back and sink to the bottom without minding the feet/ankles (if you have to come up on your tippy toes, doooo eeet!) or whether your knees get past dem toes, or the butt wink for that matter. Flat back? Don't care.

From that huddled up position, grab onto your pillar and try to move your weight back to your heels slowly without unbending the knees.

Can you get your feet flat at all? If you can, can you straighten out your back (keep holding on). Activate your glutes? Push your knees out?

If you can't, does it help to widen or narrow your stance up? Feet straight forward, way out, backwards (ok, not srs)? Play around with it. Chances are you might find whatever is limiting your depth down there eventually. Could be tight ankles. Stance. Body (yes, some fat can get in the way, sometimes. Although I doubt that would be your case). Balance (if you can get in a nice position while holding on, then you need to work on sitting in that position and letting go of your anchor point).

Obviously you don't need to squat all the way to that huddled up position with a bar on your back (please don't), and it won't translate directly to an actual squat, but assessing what you can and can't do can't hurt!

VeryKatie wrote: »

Curious, have any of you ever had a stranger video you with your phone while at the gym? I'd like to know what my squat looks like but I go alone. And I figure a squat without the bar wouldn't be the same if I had my fiancé do it at home...

Done it, usually try to be subtle and not video anyone else so they don't complain or, y'know, punch me lol. The angles can be bad and my camera app keeps crashing but it works. You still *might* wanna ask front desk to see if they have anything against it.


@crabada
Also forgot to say earlier: "hip crease" height can be really hard to judge by yourself even with a mirror. Use a box just below knee height. If your butt touches it, your depth is very likely to be fine

Is your lower leg short in relation to your upper leg (as in imbalanced)? I would think short legs overall shouldn't affect your ability to squat but perhaps it might make it difficult if part of your leg is unusually short.

MissHolidayGolightly wrote: »

Is your lower leg short in relation to your upper leg (as in imbalanced)? I would think short legs overall shouldn't affect your ability to squat but perhaps it might make it difficult if part of your leg is unusually short.

This is kind of what I'm thinking. Hence, research.

And THANK YOU to everyone for all of your suggestions and feedback. I've got a lot to play with now.

xo

I've also taken a lot of weight off to get depth. It's hard to correct form - I wish I'd done more research when I started lifting (not that I didn't do any).

How tall are you crabada? I'm 5'5" - my feet only just touch the ground on bench - tip toes. My bench isn't wide/ long enough for me to get my feet up. It sure is awkward (aka designed for a dude). I can still get parallel though.... atg without a bar, but parallel is my aim for heavy squats. I agree it is hard to tell yourself. My gym also only has mirrors in front of the rack, so you can't get a side on view which is in essence the most helpful. I'm too nervous to video it in my gym - I'd have to ask a stranger.... nah

jo_marnes wrote: »

I've also taken a lot of weight off to get depth. It's hard to correct form - I wish I'd done more research when I started lifting (not that I didn't do any).

How tall are you crabada? I'm 5'5" - my feet only just touch the ground on bench - tip toes. My bench isn't wide/ long enough for me to get my feet up. It sure is awkward (aka designed for a dude). I can still get parallel though.... atg without a bar, but parallel is my aim for heavy squats. I agree it is hard to tell yourself. My gym also only has mirrors in front of the rack, so you can't get a side on view which is in essence the most helpful. I'm too nervous to video it in my gym - I'd have to ask a stranger.... nah

Where are you putting your foot on bench? Ideally you want them closer to your head, but that depends a lot on mobility. I would think though at 5'5" unless you have a super long torso that you could get them down with the right positioning, and be able to use leg drive. It's pretty easy to film yourself on lifts if you prop your phone against a multitude of surfaces. I put my phone in my shoe. (I wear different shoes than I lift in to the gym.)

Crabada would you feel comfortable posting your videos for a form check? Sometimes others can see things you're missing in form, and that can make all the difference in a lift.

Fittreelol wrote: »

Crabada would you feel comfortable posting your videos for a form check? Sometimes others can see things you're missing in form, and that can make all the difference in a lift.

Assuming you're talking about squats here, since I definitely don't need a video to tell me that my feet can't touch the ground from bench.

And maybe, but not yet. I want to try some of the suggestions here and see if any of them help first. No use having everyone repeat themselves before I even get a chance to make adjustments. But thanks for the offer -- sincerely. xo

Crabada, I am only 4'9" with quite short legs and I don't think I have a problem with depth because of it. "Butt wink" is a whole other problem though. I have videoed myself doing tons of squats including bodyweight and I just can't seem to stop it. I never feel it so I just don't know what to do.

I took the night off from strict 5x5 tonight and just played with my squats for a bit. Bear with me while I talk this out, and thanks in advance for feedback and suggestions.

I did my bar-only warmups, and then 1x5 @ 95 lbs. They felt harder than I would have liked (I think two *seriously* lazy days is the culprit here), so instead of moving up, I decided to just futz around with form and see what was what.

At that point, I did some body weight squats. I cannot break what I see as parallel (when looking in the mirror and comparing crease to knees) while doing these without a wider stance than usual and without holding on to something. At least not with my feet flat on the ground. As I said in another post, in order to get to where that crease is below my knees, I am in what I would consider pretty much an *kitten*-to-grass position -- which, when I see others doing this, looks like it is considerably below parallel. I will continue to play with BW squats at home to try to feel my way through each body part and what's happening where.

My gym doesn't have boxes, so I moved one of the benches into the rack to use that as a gauge. I have NO problem hitting the bench doing squats. In fact, I definitely get lower during my normal squats. This very well may have to do with the fact that I have a rather large caboose, so my *kitten* hits that bench well before I get all that low in the squat position.

Then I did 5x5 at 75 lbs (big deload from my current working set of 125 lbs.) just to watch my knees, feel for butt wink, etc. From what I saw and felt, my knees are not caving inwards, they are not going too far over my feet, the bar is staying basically over mid-foot, and there is no butt wink. I did video the 1x5 @ 65 lbs. set and the first of the 1x5 @ 75 lbs. and honestly, my form looks pretty good to me. And I honestly feel like I'd be my own worst critic here, so that's saying something. (Sorry -- I cannot bring myself to post them, because, man, do I look huuuuge.)

I also did a little research and it appears that my tibia is likely not shorter than average, or short relative to my femur, so that's not something I'm considering as an issue anymore.

So, thoughts from all this:
- My considerable body fat is skewing the visual and I am in fact getting below parallel, and/or it's keeping me from getting parallel, but I am at least getting as low as I can for now.
- I will continue playing with my stance to see if a wider one helps with depth -- though I do have some hesitation here due to the adductor issue of days of yore, which has only improved since I narrowed my stance.
- I need to work on hip flexibility -- something I've known for ages -- and will watch to see how this affects my squats.

OK, your turn. Thoughts?

And again, thanks!

xo,
C.

crabada wrote: »

so my *kitten* hits that bench well before I get all that low in the squat position. .

i had this idea too after thinking about how it goes with me, but you beat me to it. as far as the stance width - is your adductor nervous even if you make sure to keep your feet parallel? i don't understand why, but since my latest round of shoulder-back rehab, *plus* the little muscle oops that i had before xmas, suddenly my hips seem to want my feet turned outwards at 30 degrees. with the narrow parallel stance that i've used forever, i'm suddenly falling over backwards half the time, go figure.

i'm not giving them what they want during actual squats. but i am spending quite a lot of warmup/stretch time basically in an atg sumo/frog pose, with my hands wrapped around my feet and my elbows pushing my knees out as well. it's for flexibility but i do quite a few bodyweight reps that way too, because a) it seems to help with the real squats and b) inner-thigh blobs.

i really like your constant willingness to take something apart and tinker with it to make it better, btw.

Fittreelol wrote: »

jo_marnes wrote: »

I've also taken a lot of weight off to get depth. It's hard to correct form - I wish I'd done more research when I started lifting (not that I didn't do any).

How tall are you crabada? I'm 5'5" - my feet only just touch the ground on bench - tip toes. My bench isn't wide/ long enough for me to get my feet up. It sure is awkward (aka designed for a dude). I can still get parallel though.... atg without a bar, but parallel is my aim for heavy squats. I agree it is hard to tell yourself. My gym also only has mirrors in front of the rack, so you can't get a side on view which is in essence the most helpful. I'm too nervous to video it in my gym - I'd have to ask a stranger.... nah

Where are you putting your foot on bench? Ideally you want them closer to your head, but that depends a lot on mobility. I would think though at 5'5" unless you have a super long torso that you could get them down with the right positioning, and be able to use leg drive. It's pretty easy to film yourself on lifts if you prop your phone against a multitude of surfaces. I put my phone in my shoe. (I wear different shoes than I lift in to the gym.)

I just have tip toes on the floor.... should I not?

jo_marnes wrote: »

I just have tip toes on the floor.... should I not?

Short answer: that depends. Are you able to get sufficient leg drive when benching? If so that is fine. If you're not or you plan on competing in the USAPL/IPF someday then work on getting feet flat- either by changing your stance, working on mobility, or putting plates under your feet.



I just posted this on a friends wall, but wanted to put it in here as well because it's useful! The 2nd picture is about as far down as you can go with a lowbar style squat. Granted there are several lifters that lift low bar but use a highbar style or hybrid style squat so they look like the first picture even though they have the bar lower on their back.

SideSteel wrote: »

psych101 wrote: »

Swoon at SS's arms lol

Ahem, sorry carry on

Arm. My other one is TINY.

lol

DYEL?