Form critique thread, post your videos here.
Replies
-
DeadliftsandDonuts wrote: »Here's a squat from my 1RM testing last week. I've never competed before, but would I be red lighted for depth here? I think it looks a bit high. Thanks!
Looks like you broke parallel to me. I kept hitting pause, and it looked like you were right at parallel on my last pause, then dipped just a little more after I resumed playback.
1 -
Hi guys,
A few pages back (February I think) I posted my squat and general consensus was good, but shallow, initiating with an arch and a bit of butt wink and some potential knee cave (have reposted the video below to save you scrolling).
Since then I tried to work on those things and essentially completely forgot how to squat. I have eventually regained something resembling a squat but would appreciate your feedback.
The video has a side shot and one from further away.
I *hope* I have worked on your suggestions, the main think I've worked on is depth, so please tell me that I'm now ok with that!!
I took a lot of weight off and this is 2 sets of 45kg working back up (I'm on 5x5 again).
From the side I don't see butt wink (although admittedly it is a terrible shot) but I see it from behind - I don't know if it's just because I have a big bum?!
I won't be offended if you tell me my old squat was better, it's a work in progress!
Cheers,
Steph
New squat:
https://youtu.be/Xe7MtQSDZ2w
Old squat:
https://youtu.be/aG3_1UPMXeo
0 -
^ New squat looks better to me.1
-
StephieWillcox wrote: »From the side I don't see butt wink (although admittedly it is a terrible shot) but I see it from behind - I don't know if it's just because I have a big bum?!
A little butt wink is harmless. It looks worse than it really is because you kinda arch your lower back just before you descend (which personally i avoid).
1 -
Squat looks great, depth looks good too. Nice work.1
-
Thanks guys. Thank god. It's been a depressing 5 months!
Still trying to stop that intial arch. I can't seem to take a belly breath without tilting my pelvis.0 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »Thanks guys. Thank god. It's been a depressing 5 months!
Still trying to stop that intial arch. I can't seem to take a belly breath without tilting my pelvis.
What helps me is to breathe, THEN flex glutes, pushing hips forward just before descending. On video it looks like you're just standing up strong/tall right before the descent.
Otherwise, my squats look much like your "before" video.0 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »Thanks guys. Thank god. It's been a depressing 5 months!
Still trying to stop that intial arch. I can't seem to take a belly breath without tilting my pelvis.
What helps me is to breathe, THEN flex glutes, pushing hips forward just before descending. On video it looks like you're just standing up strong/tall right before the descent.
Otherwise, my squats look much like your "before" video.
Ok that makes total sense. For some reason I was focused on the fact that taking the breath had to be the last thing I did before descending which now I've thought about it is ridiculous!
I will breathe and then sort my tilt out before starting.
I always see you complaining about your squat
it helps me to know that experienced lifters still have things they're not happy with
0 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »StephieWillcox wrote: »Thanks guys. Thank god. It's been a depressing 5 months!
Still trying to stop that intial arch. I can't seem to take a belly breath without tilting my pelvis.
What helps me is to breathe, THEN flex glutes, pushing hips forward just before descending. On video it looks like you're just standing up strong/tall right before the descent.
Otherwise, my squats look much like your "before" video.
Ok that makes total sense. For some reason I was focused on the fact that taking the breath had to be the last thing I did before descending which now I've thought about it is ridiculous!
I will breathe and then sort my tilt out before starting.
I always see you complaining about your squat it helps me to know that experienced lifters still have things they're not happy with
You should see my deadlift lololololooooooooolllooololoool
2 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »StephieWillcox wrote: »Thanks guys. Thank god. It's been a depressing 5 months!
Still trying to stop that intial arch. I can't seem to take a belly breath without tilting my pelvis.
What helps me is to breathe, THEN flex glutes, pushing hips forward just before descending. On video it looks like you're just standing up strong/tall right before the descent.
Otherwise, my squats look much like your "before" video.
Ok that makes total sense. For some reason I was focused on the fact that taking the breath had to be the last thing I did before descending which now I've thought about it is ridiculous!
I will breathe and then sort my tilt out before starting.
I always see you complaining about your squat it helps me to know that experienced lifters still have things they're not happy with
You should see my deadlift lololololooooooooolllooololoool
Your deadlift looks 1000x better than my squat.0 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »Still trying to stop that intial arch. I can't seem to take a belly breath without tilting my pelvis.
Try facing away from the mirror. Looking at the mirror for visual cues makes it harder to focus inwards and actually feel your positioning (= proprioception).
0 -
I'd agree about not facing the mirror but honestly your squat looks pretty damn solid to me.0
-
Okie dokie, last time for me for a while I promise!
Had a go at correcting the arch - means my set up is messy messy messy but I assume that will get better with practice.
What do we think? Better?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6mSv-fuIO8 2 -
This looks solid, previous vid looks solid too. Would be curious to see knee tracking from a front view but you're not far off if anything is going on there.
0 -
Ok cool, this actually felt a lot worse in terms of being quite uncomfortable, and holding everything strong, but felt much more stable and like I could squat an awful lot more.
I will keep an eye on the knee tracking - this has been a problem in the past - it may be a little off in these videos because I was so focused on bracing!0 -
I think a lot of people are jealous of your good Squat form.StephieWillcox wrote: »
What do we think?
3 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »What do we think? Better?
Much, much better!
This may seem like nitpicking, but on the way up, you arch your back again, when you're about 1/3 the way up. That could potentially tweak your back, or make you fall forward if you get stuck. It's usually from the abs not staying tight enough to stabilize your pelvis. Do you do ab exercises before you squat? If so, don't!
1 -
StephieWillcox wrote: »Ok cool, this actually felt a lot worse in terms of being quite uncomfortable, and holding everything strong, but felt much more stable and like I could squat an awful lot more.
I will keep an eye on the knee tracking - this has been a problem in the past - it may be a little off in these videos because I was so focused on bracing!
Your squats are nice. Just be aware of your potential weaknesses and breakdowns and keep an eye on them. Eternal vigilance.
That feeling of uncomfortableness is normal and expected. Total body tension in the big movements like squats, deadlifts, bench, OHP, etc is critical for power production and also for injury prevention. It's exhausting and unpleasant but necessary.1 -
Cherimoose wrote: »StephieWillcox wrote: »What do we think? Better?
Much, much better!
This may seem like nitpicking, but on the way up, you arch your back again, when you're about 1/3 the way up. That could potentially tweak your back, or make you fall forward if you get stuck. It's usually from the abs not staying tight enough to stabilize your pelvis. Do you do ab exercises before you squat? If so, don't!
Ha, I saw this too - and nitpicking is fine.
Now I am over my weird fear of videoing myself in the gym I think I will do it more often, as obviously the arch was corrected very quickly.
My core is not strong AT ALL. I don't do abs before squatting (stronglifts, so squats come first) but I think I probably should add some core work onto the end.0 -
Hello,
Can anyone help me with my deadlift form? I am wondering if I am rounding my back too much? Any other feedback would be appreciated!
https://youtu.be/U1-E8-V-cLQ 0 -
I don't think you're rounding your back to any degree that I'd be concerned about but there's a couple of things I'd adjust slightly.
1) I would try to get better upper back tightness and thoracic extension before you pull. Think about showing your shirt to the mirror before you pull. Or chest out.
2) You have somewhat of a shoulder shrug at the top that's a bit pronounced/exaggerated. As long as your shoulders are not slumped forward you're fine and you don't need to try to shrug the weight at the top.
Another cue that may help is to think of trying to put your shoulders in your back pockets before you pull (during the set up).0 -
Thanks! That is very helpful!
Glad to hear that back rounding is not an issue. I think I have been trying to get it more arched but seems impossible. Is it normal to have some soreness in the muscles of the lower back after deadlifts then? I can definitely feel those muscles working more than others (glutes, hamstrings, etc) during the lift and afterwards to so was concerned I was doing something wrong.
I will work on the set up and the weird shoulder shrug (I think that's me trying to make sure I got it all the way up).0 -
I tried again today. I don't really think I did any better, maybe a little worse. This was my third set of 6.
https://youtu.be/Mgdu0B7hEeA 0 -
What kind of shoes are those, and do they have an elevated heel?0
-
Adidas Sambas - they are pretty flat I think.0
-
brand new, i was recommend ( by usmcmp) to come ask all of you awesome experienced lifters to help me with my squat form i'm not sure if i am not going deep enough or if i should trade out my dumbbells for barbells but i'm having some back pain and my toes tend to turn out when im going into my squats some have told me this is ok and some that it's not ok so here i am asking all of you.
https://youtu.be/4wkxTJKodUI 0 -
peppermintmama wrote: »brand new, i was recommend ( by usmcmp) to come ask all of you awesome experienced lifters to help me with my squat form i'm not sure if i am not going deep enough or if i should trade out my dumbbells for barbells but i'm having some back pain and my toes tend to turn out when im going into my squats some have told me this is ok and some that it's not ok so here i am asking all of you.https://youtu.be/4wkxTJKodUI
Depth is fine.
Toes can point out and IMO in most people they should.
I'd be curious what it looks like with only one dumbbell though, YouTube search for Bret Contreras goblet squat as a tutorial. I'd link but I'm typing from my phone and I'm also being lazy lol.
The reason I'd suggest it is that it's easier to get the DB closer to your body.
In this video the load is pretty far out in front of you which is causing you to have to push your hips quite a bit far back to balance the load.
This isn't inherently problematic (yet) but it could be, and it may also (possibly) cause issues when you move to barbell squatting.
Overall though this isn't bad, and you can absolutely make progress doing it this way.
Does your back hurt when you squat like this?0 -
peppermintmama wrote: »brand new, i was recommend ( by usmcmp) to come ask all of you awesome experienced lifters to help me with my squat form i'm not sure if i am not going deep enough or if i should trade out my dumbbells for barbells but i'm having some back pain and my toes tend to turn out when im going into my squats some have told me this is ok and some that it's not ok so here i am asking all of you.https://youtu.be/4wkxTJKodUI
Depth is fine.
Toes can point out and IMO in most people they should.
I'd be curious what it looks like with only one dumbbell though, YouTube search for Bret Contreras goblet squat as a tutorial. I'd link but I'm typing from my phone and I'm also being lazy lol.
The reason I'd suggest it is that it's easier to get the DB closer to your body.
In this video the load is pretty far out in front of you which is causing you to have to push your hips quite a bit far back to balance the load.
This isn't inherently problematic (yet) but it could be, and it may also (possibly) cause issues when you move to barbell squatting.
Overall though this isn't bad, and you can absolutely make progress doing it this way.
Does your back hurt when you squat like this?
I will definitely search for him and get the goblet squatting started, My back does not hurt when I am just performing the squat, it hurts when I go from a dead lift into a squat which is a huge part of the program I'm doing ( T25 Beta). I've included a video,
https://youtu.be/I0dsMBHg-SE
Thank you so much for the advice! Aftwr I've looked at the goblet squatting and learned to do it I'll post a video of it for your curiousity and critic
0 -
Possible that the back pain is caused from you going into lumbar flexion at the bottom of that deadlift. I wouldn't go down nearly as far as you are. Watch the video and you'll see that near the bottom of the deadlift your lower back is rounding.
I would do two things on that deadlift: Keep the DB's much closer to your shins, and stop at about mid-shin rather than going all the way to the floor.0 -
Possible that the back pain is caused from you going into lumbar flexion at the bottom of that deadlift. I wouldn't go down nearly as far as you are. Watch the video and you'll see that near the bottom of the deadlift your lower back is rounding.
I would do two things on that deadlift: Keep the DB's much closer to your shins, and stop at about mid-shin rather than going all the way to the floor.
Is there anyway to fix that Other then stopping at my shins? Do I need more flexibility? Does my core need to be tighter? Am I just at the end of my spinal flexibility at that angle? I want to make sure I'm getting every benefit I possibly can from every workout I do.
0
