For those who can't squat.....(help?!)
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I read somewhere that if your "posterior chain" is weak it can keep you from doing a proper squat. I have been doing them a little, although I don't know for sure if I'm doing them right. I Googled videos and have my husband watch to see if it looks like the girl in the video. LOL I get sciatic nerve pain too if I do too many0
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Video0
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Well my video won't upload I guess or I can't see that it is0
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Hope you get the video up, but it sounds like an ankle mobility issue to me. You can prob do sumos b/c they require less ankle dorsiflexion. And during regular-stance, you're back is bending over to compensate for not enough dorsiflexion in order to keep the weight balanced over your feet. Otherwise, you feel like you're falling over backwards, right?
Elevating your heels should help you be able to do squats. But it would be good to work on ankle mobility/calf stretches.1 -
Hope you get the video up, but it sounds like an ankle mobility issue to me. You can prob do sumos b/c they require less ankle dorsiflexion. And during regular-stance, you're back is bending over to compensate for not enough dorsiflexion in order to keep the weight balanced over your feet. Otherwise, you feel like you're falling over backwards, right?
Elevating your heels should help you be able to do squats. But it would be good to work on ankle mobility/calf stretches.
I think you nailed it I talked to a couple trainers at the gym today and they watched me and that was one of the things they said because I do feel like I'm going to fall backwards0 -
The one thing that sticks out to me is that you keep mentioning having your toes raised. Don't do that. That might be your problem, right there. Raised heel is OK, but keep your toes (and the balls of your feet) firmly planted.0
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What I mean by my toes is that I've always been told my weight should be on my heels but it's hard for me to keep my weight on my heels I tend to keep my weight on my toes and the ball of my foot0
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What I mean by my toes is that I've always been told my weight should be on my heels but it's hard for me to keep my weight on my heels I tend to keep my weight on my toes and the ball of my foot
It's been my understanding that the weight should be in the middle of your foot, so neither on your toes or on your heels directly.
My coach's cues tend to be centered around spreading the force evenly throughout my entire foot.
I find if I move the weight to the front or back like that, the lift and my balance are both weaker.2 -
That makes sense!!! It's going to be a long road but hopefully I can get there!0
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What I mean by my toes is that I've always been told my weight should be on my heels but it's hard for me to keep my weight on my heels I tend to keep my weight on my toes and the ball of my foot
I had a competitive masters powerlifter give me the tip to slightly curl your toes while learning to keep your weight back.0 -
Weight needs to be over the middle of the foot. Your glutes might not be strong enough might have to strengthen them up first. Goblet squats are a great idea somebody else mentioned. Squeeze your glutes at the top of the squat to put your hips in a line with your feet automatically a lot of people forget that.0
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I do just goblet squats because like you my body just will not do barbell squats. My legs build just fine.0
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It could be a weakness in the glutes I suppose... I do leg press, lunges and other stuff too.0
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start lighter, start with wall squats, start with partial squats, and work your way up to where you want to be. It takes time.0
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It could be a weakness in the glutes I suppose... I do leg press, lunges and other stuff too.
If it's glute weakness, paused box squats will build those up, and force you to use your posterior chain coming out of the hole.
Paused box squats are like regular box squats, but instead of just doing a touch-and-go, you touch with a one-second pause -- without losing tightness...you're not sitting on the box, you're just pausing at the bottom while just barely touching the box -- before coming out of the hole.
My posterior chain has always been my weakness on the squat, so I do all my squat warm-up sets as paused box squats.1 -
Not to belabor the point but I believe weak glutes were my problem. I avoided squats for years but did other quad exercises. As a result, when I started to do squats, my glutes seemed proportionally weaker than the other muscles involved, so the muscles were firing in not quite the right sequence which in turn put my hips in bad position, causing pain in my lateral hips. I actually got weaker in my squats over time until I figured out what was wrong.
Obviously you might have a completely different issue, but the above is one possibility.1 -
I watch on fitness sites, in the gym, and I see every where how squats are awesome for shaping and also burn a lot being a compound lift. However after several attempts.... Using the wall, putting a small weight under my toes to stay on my heals, stretching my hips and getting advice from several people I don't know why my body won't do a proper squat. My back automatically bends even doing just body weight. I can't stay on my heals and I can't go parallel at all. I'm getting nothing but frustrated because I'm cutting and I really want to work on shaping!!!! Any good alternates or ideas I haven't thought of because it's the only thing I'm missing!!! Also I can do them on smith machine (which I want to get off and do free weight) but it's just not the same!!!
Get a coach, it's a basic human movement so it should be something you can do. A competent coach will figure out what challenges you have mobility wise and help you fix them.1 -
Have you tried spotting while you squat? Sounds insignificant but pick a spot to look at in front of you and try to focus on that spot when you squat. That might help with balance. Build up your strength by starting with only the bar0
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I agree with the TRX straps! They really helped me!0
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