I really should do this one of these days. I have one video but it's not sufficient because the way the power cage is set in relation to the camera, a part of me goes off camera each rep. It was interesting showing a couple of coworkers who know nothing about lifting though. Next time lower power is on a late night lifting session, maybe I can try to video squat and deadlift.

@krokador - I'm not really knowledge for criticism, so I just have a question. Where do you look when squatting? Just curious. In the first one, the front video, it's almost like you are looking at the camera. Kind of like, yeah, critique this. hehe ;-)

@kristinels - haha on the comment in the video. I'd say pfft men but that's what I noticed on a woman's youtube channel who recently showed some a lifting session that included squats so... Well, actually I noticed the way her pants handled the move of the squat since many tend to wear the tight leggings, but close enough in concept.

@kristinels - i like how you keep your hips open (knees don't fold inwards), but maybe consider a more neutral head position? it seemed like you started out that way and then you were getting more and more baby-bird as the set progressed. not as comfortable as neutral, and apparently it also wastes some of your hip power too.

other thought: if you keep your wrists straight, that might help with keeping a tight upper back. and that in turn might make it easier to keep your chest up.

Hmmm - on my phone the video captures the whole top of the bar and weights. YouTube formatting must have cut it off a bit I notice my wrists were still not straight though!

First and second video bar position both look like low bar to me just slightly different placement. If the lower one is hurting your shoulder move it back up a bit. I have to use a pretty wide grip personally (right inside the rings), and don't have issues staying tight in my upper back. YMMV of course. I do warm up both my upper and lower body before squatting which includes both a lat and pec stretch.

I look up when I squat, but I focus on something up across the room like the gym clock. #rebel

Lower your stands and mini squat the bar out- don't tippy toe it out.

It looks like your knees come in for just a twitch on the way up. This might be caused by several things, but one of them is unstable/weak ankles. You might want to try lifting in your socks to see if this alleviates the issue since the cushioning in running shoes causes instability.

kristinels wrote: »

Since @Fittreelol thought the bar placement in my first video was ok, I may just go back to that one next time and focus on incorporating more stretching beforehand, a closer grip with straighter wrists, and a better head position.

Where you put the bar on your back doesn't matter as much as keeping in centred over your mid-foot. How high or low the bar is just determines how much of a forward lean you have to keep it centred.

I recommend and do Joe Defranco's simple 6 and limber 11 pre-lifting which will show you similar warm ups to what @canadianlbs was suggesting plus a few more which make lifting much more comfortable for me and many others. They are easily google-able.

I should also clarify from my earlier post- it does benefit upper back tightness to have your hands closer to your body, but it's definitely not a requirement.

When I look at your first video I definitely see the bar is on your back instead of on top of your shoulders which would indicate low bar, but you might just be scrunching your shoulders up so much it appears that way. Either way I agree you are definitely coming too far forward in both videos. This could also be attributed to or at least exacerbated by your shoes.

I found this picture of a woman showing high vs low bar which might also help demonstrate the difference since there aren't all those big man muscles in the way. You don't have to go super far down your delts for it to be considered low bar. When I first started SL forever ago I went to a personal trainer who said everything looked good, so I kept on keeping on even though it would often hurt my shoulders a bit. Then like a year later one of my lifting friends was like, "Why on earth is the bar so low weirdo?" I moved it up a smidge which helped some form issues, and alleviated the shoulder pain. Hooray!

kristinels wrote: »

I just cannot make my chest any higher/straighter when my butt is below parallel. Maybe more stretching?

this has been killing me too. like, a can't-figure-out-why problem, not a can't-do-it one. i haven't webcammed myself since i thought of my latest adjustment, so i don't know for sure if i'm even on the right track. but it sure feels like it from inside my skin so i'll mention it:

you might not be sitting 'down' 'into' your posterior chain muscles enough. the only way i can describe this is i have to tell myself to feel my glutes and hamstrings as if they were a giant slingshot that i'm literally sitting into, and counting on it to keep me from falling over and to push me back up once i hit bottom. when i can't get this to work, then basically the only way my body has to keep me in balance seems to be to tip me forward. when it does work though, it's more like i'm sitting on 'top' of my own hips and my torso etc are a lot more free.

i have an anterior pelvic tilt (apparently). so for me to even do this, 'stick your bum out' is actually overkill. instead, i have to do almost the opposite. i slightly roll my pelvic angle more upright than it usually is, almost loosen my knees, and consciously get my weight more onto my heels. i kind of pull my entire body together 'under' the bar like i'm getting ready to push it upwards instead of dropping downwards with it.

i'm keeping myself from diving into the descent until i can actually feel the sensation of those posterior muscles bearing my weight, and then i start. as i say, i haven't had any external confirmation that i'm on the right rack with this yet. but it certainly seems like i'm feeling a lot more posterior chain activation and a lot more 'bounce' in my squats.

front squatting has been helping me a lot, to find and feel this mechanic. it's a bit weird because i always heard that fs is more quads than hamstrings, but that really hasn't been the way that it's been working for me. for me, front squats force me to keep my chest/torso upright and (maybe) my psoas muscles engaged. and it seems like that leaves my body with nowhere to put the actual work of the lift except straight into my glutes when i start.

i also do this: get into your bottom position without the bar. just hang out there until you've got used to it. now forget about trying to come up or anything. don't worry too much about your chest, aside from making sure it's more or less upright. now just brace your lower abs - nothing else. just tighten up all the stuff that's south of your belly button. ymmv, but when i do this i can create a 'bounce' that starts my hips upwards again without my even thinking about it. it almost feels like i'm sitting in the palm of a huge hand that's just pushed me upwards. and then i just let the hamstrings and glutes take over and finish the job of getting me upright again.

i'm using/doing/practicing/playing with this a whole lot right now, partly just for the fun of it. it's seriously cool . . . but then i'm very easy to entertain in some ways.

Looks good. I'm on my phone so pardon my brevity. From this angle it looks like you are above parallel, might have a bit of knee valgus, and are starting out the lift with anterior pelvic tilt.

Many women present with anterior pelvic tilt all the time which you may also have, and should probably address if that is the case. There is a differece between an exaggerated lumbar curve and a nice big booty (you might have both). However, you can see you overarching your spine/ tilting your pelvis right before the start of your reps. This is what is causing the appearance of butt wink that someone mentioned in the ETP thread.

this guy put up at least an hour's worth of content about buttwink. there's mobilization work in it, of course. but also this first one starts out with the most basic notions about what actually contributes to a 'neutral' spine from the muscular point of view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxA0UD9D3AY

summerdaze120 wrote: »

Any input on my form for squats would be greatly appreciated!
I know I have areas of improvement, but how do I improve them? What should I be doing to correct my form?

https://youtu.be/F91dRjKXhRk

A few key points that I noted watching your video:

1. Drop the running shoes. Wear chucks or something with a flat and small sole. This looks to be a home gym; squat in your socks if you have to. The sole of those is throwing off your foot balance so much that you can actually rock back and forth before going down. That's not good. Ideally, you want your toes to "dig" into the ground so your arches are not collapsed and you can focus your weight as evenly as possible.
2. You have a tendency to break at the knees first, which pushes your center of gravity a bit forward. You seem to have a high bar position, so try to break at the hips first by kind of sitting back and down. It might help keep your bar path straighter. (To be fair, the last 2 sets seem a lot better about this, and you get more depth, too)
3. You tend to overextend your lower back when you start your reps, your pelvis is going through all kinds of movement it probably could do without. Try squeezing your butt and breathing into your belly and then push the air against your core to brace it. It should help with keeping your pelvis aligned and your spine neutral (look up the valsalva maneuver for a more in-depth explanation)
4. Initiate the push on the way up by firing the glutes (or at least thinking about it) if you can. Having a more stable base on the ground (#1) will allow you to push more through your heels, so combined, it should take care of the forward bend for the most part. A funny mind-bending trick I have with this one is to imagine myself pushing off of the BAR towards the ground, instead of off the ground towards the bar. It just seems like everything is tighter and better aligned that way.

About the things that can't be seen: make sure your upper back also remains tight. Ideally, you'd want to be able to let go of the bar completely with your hands and it still being balanced over your traps. That way you make sure that you're not letting yourself be controlled by the bar.

Your feet width looks okay to me, but you could experiment with it and the angle and you might find you can get more depth with a different set-up.

As it stands you aren't breaking parallel on about 50% of your reps, so I wouldn't go up in weight too much at the moment and instead focus on what's been pointed out and reassess.

Also love the dog going about like "don't mind me I'm just passing by!" lol

@krokador and @canadianlbs Thanks for the input! I bought myself some Chucks today and plan on filming another video in a few days. I did some body weight squats today with the new shoes and I could tell a huge difference; I felt more "grounded" and leveled. A lot less rocking and leaning forward. Going to work on foot placement too

hi - i'm admiring your form, actually. if there's anything wrong it's too subtle for me to see, apart from a couple of things:

- in ohp, i think my trainer would tell you to straighten your wrists if you can. and also to get your elbows a little more forwards so they're 'in front' of the bar. i like how close to your nose you're going.

- deadlift: you MAY be starting your hips up before your shoulders in the middle reps. the first and last ones looked like the best ones to me, in that sense. i couldn't tell from the clip, but it looks like you're not 'pulling the slack' out of the bar before you actually pull. so doing that might remind you to tighten your upper back and your lats as well, and that might make a difference.

just so's you know i'm no kind of expert. i'm still pretty noob because i keep getting derailed and going back to square one. i really like rippetoe though. and he has some great coaching clips on youtube if you felt like spending some time looking there.

on the 5x1 versus 1x5 for deadlifts: idk. probably the weakest part of my own deadlifting is everything that i do before i actually pull on the bar. in other words, taking my grip and then getting properly tight. sometimes (often), i don't even feel like i'm really dialled in until the first rep is back on the floor. just lowering the bar is the thing that does it. i think you might see/remember the same thing about your own set in that clip

so what i've noticed is: if i'm feeling determined and confident, i do individual singles because i know i still haven't really put together that mental-physical pattern of creating the same tightness without having to do a rep first. but if i don't have the confidence, then i often string them together just because i don't want to waste the tightness i got from finishing the first rep. i kind of feel like i'm cheating a bit either way. with singles, i'm cheating because then i rest. with a strung set i feel like i'm copping out because i'm letting myself off the setup part.

just don't bounce your deadlifts off the floor which i can clearly see you're not doing. you don't let go of the bar, but you finish each rep and then re-set and make a start on the next.

i did see a couple of things for your deadlift clip:

-try fixing your gaze on a spot 10-15 feet in front of you on the floor. or further as you seem to be pretty tall. i know how hard it is not to watch yourself in the mirror if there is one. but a more neutral cervical spine is definitely a good thing.

- i'm not sure, but i'm not SURE that you're 'pulling the slack' out of the bar before you start doing the lift. i'm almost certain rippetoe talks about it, so you can look it up there. i have a feeling that if you do that, you'll get a lot more tightness overall for the entire thing. it might also help with that slight hips-first thing you seem to have going on.

- going back to the ohp: i'm a little obsessive right now about my t-spine and the thoracic/lumbar spinal junction. so this could be really nitpicky, but: notice how you hinge from the base of your ribcage as you're leaning back to push the bar up? you may see what i mean more easily by watching the front of your ribs, where you'll see that they definitely 'lift' and 'separate' from your abs. so i'm going to suggest that you try to really 'lock' your ribs to the front of your pelvis by engaging your abs. squeeze your glutes and engage your quads. and then do the lean more from your hips. not the lumbar spine though !!!! of course . it's basically hinging motion, and you want to keep as much of the hinge out of your spine as you can. i sometimes feel like i actually lean from my feet, although it only takes a fraction of an inch there to translate into enough space by the time the angle gets to my face.

i feel like a hypocrite even commenting, given how my squats are so broken right now. but fwiw:

- so impressed with your super-straight bar path
- most of your rom seems to be coming from your hip angle opening and closing, but that could be why parallel/below is a fight for you? because that comes from the knee/ankle angles.

i'm working from a similar-looking starting point, but with much messier form than you're showing here.

so for myself, here's what i'm working to change now there are Shoes in my life:
- feet further apart and at a much wider angle. my hips seem to do best pointing at least 10 to 2 on a clockface, and my 'shoulder width' is actually at least 16 inches. i'm tryin to be better about drawing a mental line through my shoulder joint straight down through my legs and passing into the ground through my heels.
- with feet like that, butt clench to rotate my femurs and point the 'tops' of my thighs upwards and outwards. this isn't easy but it's highlighting tightness across my groin that makes it hard to 'open up' in that plane. and piriformis tightness/cramps are a Thing.
- weight a little more towards the midfoot than i had been keeping it.
- break at the knees first and push them forward to about the over-the-toes point. THEN if my hips have been opening while i did that, i can anchor my ankle angle, shift most of the rom into my knee angle instead, and just kind of 'drop' my pelvis straight down between my hips. this keeps my torso way way more upright and i seriously do catch that 'bounce' sensation out of my hamstrings and glutes.

i try to get it to feel like . . . you know that *kitten*-showoff thing men do with infants, where they stack the kid on the palm of one hand and then do a one-arm overhead press? i'm trying to make myself feel like that baby and pretend my bum's moving in this 'slingshot' formed by my own hamstring and glutes.

most of this is just my re-formatting/plagiarism from this really great video where max aita teaches mark bell to squat more in the same style as him.