*kitten* to the grass squatting

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  • dreaming13000
    dreaming13000 Posts: 68 Member
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    Can you squat past parallel with good form with just body weight? If not then practice practice practice. Part of my warm up every day is squatting past parallel with just body weight and holding it to warm up stretch hip flexor ankles etc.

    If you can do this already the slowly add weight. Use a belt to help keep chest up. And look into front squats. Front squats really helped me a lot.
  • DreesPerformanceTraining
    DreesPerformanceTraining Posts: 187 Member
    edited August 2016
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    Just to throw in my $0.02. There has been a lot of good advice, but also some poor advice.

    First, the likelihood of you lacking the flexibility to squat is very close to zero. This is assuming you have no injury or anything else going on (which I'm guessing is no based on the fact that you didn't mention anything).

    9/10 it is simply a lack of stability/control. Your body finds stability anyway it can - in this case it appears to be using your hips/adductors. This is the tightness you are feeling.

    Without going too deep into things, take the advice of others above and stick with goblet squats until your have the strength/stability to do back squats.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Just to throw in my $0.02. There has been a lot of good advice, but also some poor advice.

    First, the likelihood of you lacking the flexibility to squat is very close to zero. This is assuming you have no injury or anything else going on (which I'm guessing is no based on the fact that you didn't mention anything).

    9/10 it is simply a lack of stability/control. Your body finds stability anyway it can - in this case it appears to be using your hips/adductors. This is the tightness you are feeling.

    Without going too deep into things, take the advice of others above and stick with goblet squats until your have the strength/stability to do back squats.

    Would you be able to elaborate on flexibility vs. mobility? From what I have read, I would agree, that lacking flexibility to squat is not a problem, but mobility is.

    I think many people confuse the 2.

    Thanks.
  • DreesPerformanceTraining
    DreesPerformanceTraining Posts: 187 Member
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    Packerjohn wrote: »
    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Just to throw in my $0.02. There has been a lot of good advice, but also some poor advice.

    First, the likelihood of you lacking the flexibility to squat is very close to zero. This is assuming you have no injury or anything else going on (which I'm guessing is no based on the fact that you didn't mention anything).

    9/10 it is simply a lack of stability/control. Your body finds stability anyway it can - in this case it appears to be using your hips/adductors. This is the tightness you are feeling.

    Without going too deep into things, take the advice of others above and stick with goblet squats until your have the strength/stability to do back squats.

    Would you be able to elaborate on flexibility vs. mobility? From what I have read, I would agree, that lacking flexibility to squat is not a problem, but mobility is.

    I think many people confuse the 2.

    Thanks.

    Sure.

    There is a lot different terms and ways to look at it so I'll just break it down into two oversimplified groups.

    Passive flexibility - The range of motion a joint or muscles has. Imagine someone stretching your hamstring as you lay on your back.

    Active flexibility - The range of motion a muscle or joint has when being moved by the individual. Imagine laying on your back and lifting your leg.

    If you have ever tried this, you know that your ROM is larger when someone is stretching your leg, compared to lifting it yourself. In the second example things like strength and joint stability come into play that can affect ROM.

    In both scenarios the individual has the same length of muscle. Stretching the muscle is likely only to improve the individuals passive flexibility and not active flexibility, which would not benefit OP for her squats.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Just to throw in my $0.02. There has been a lot of good advice, but also some poor advice.

    First, the likelihood of you lacking the flexibility to squat is very close to zero. This is assuming you have no injury or anything else going on (which I'm guessing is no based on the fact that you didn't mention anything).

    9/10 it is simply a lack of stability/control. Your body finds stability anyway it can - in this case it appears to be using your hips/adductors. This is the tightness you are feeling.

    Without going too deep into things, take the advice of others above and stick with goblet squats until your have the strength/stability to do back squats.

    Would you be able to elaborate on flexibility vs. mobility? From what I have read, I would agree, that lacking flexibility to squat is not a problem, but mobility is.

    I think many people confuse the 2.

    Thanks.

    Sure.

    There is a lot different terms and ways to look at it so I'll just break it down into two oversimplified groups.

    Passive flexibility - The range of motion a joint or muscles has. Imagine someone stretching your hamstring as you lay on your back.

    Active flexibility - The range of motion a muscle or joint has when being moved by the individual. Imagine laying on your back and lifting your leg.

    If you have ever tried this, you know that your ROM is larger when someone is stretching your leg, compared to lifting it yourself. In the second example things like strength and joint stability come into play that can affect ROM.

    In both scenarios the individual has the same length of muscle. Stretching the muscle is likely only to improve the individuals passive flexibility and not active flexibility, which would not benefit OP for her squats.

    Thanks much. Now how about mobility? To my understanding mobility is often an issue in squatting or other movements.

    I think people often refer to lack of mobility as a flexibility issue.
  • robininfl
    robininfl Posts: 1,137 Member
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    Packerjohn wrote: »
    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Just to throw in my $0.02. There has been a lot of good advice, but also some poor advice.

    First, the likelihood of you lacking the flexibility to squat is very close to zero. This is assuming you have no injury or anything else going on (which I'm guessing is no based on the fact that you didn't mention anything).

    9/10 it is simply a lack of stability/control. Your body finds stability anyway it can - in this case it appears to be using your hips/adductors. This is the tightness you are feeling.

    Without going too deep into things, take the advice of others above and stick with goblet squats until your have the strength/stability to do back squats.

    Would you be able to elaborate on flexibility vs. mobility? From what I have read, I would agree, that lacking flexibility to squat is not a problem, but mobility is.

    I think many people confuse the 2.

    Thanks.

    Sure.

    There is a lot different terms and ways to look at it so I'll just break it down into two oversimplified groups.

    Passive flexibility - The range of motion a joint or muscles has. Imagine someone stretching your hamstring as you lay on your back.

    Active flexibility - The range of motion a muscle or joint has when being moved by the individual. Imagine laying on your back and lifting your leg.

    If you have ever tried this, you know that your ROM is larger when someone is stretching your leg, compared to lifting it yourself. In the second example things like strength and joint stability come into play that can affect ROM.

    In both scenarios the individual has the same length of muscle. Stretching the muscle is likely only to improve the individuals passive flexibility and not active flexibility, which would not benefit OP for her squats.

    Thanks much. Now how about mobility? To my understanding mobility is often an issue in squatting or other movements.

    I think people often refer to lack of mobility as a flexibility issue.

    Mobility is being able to use your flexibility to do movements. You need mobility for yoga - you may be flexible but have to be able to move through and hold the positions, too. active flexibility, just a different word.
  • DreesPerformanceTraining
    DreesPerformanceTraining Posts: 187 Member
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    Packerjohn wrote: »
    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    DreesPerformanceTraining wrote: »
    Just to throw in my $0.02. There has been a lot of good advice, but also some poor advice.

    First, the likelihood of you lacking the flexibility to squat is very close to zero. This is assuming you have no injury or anything else going on (which I'm guessing is no based on the fact that you didn't mention anything).

    9/10 it is simply a lack of stability/control. Your body finds stability anyway it can - in this case it appears to be using your hips/adductors. This is the tightness you are feeling.

    Without going too deep into things, take the advice of others above and stick with goblet squats until your have the strength/stability to do back squats.

    Would you be able to elaborate on flexibility vs. mobility? From what I have read, I would agree, that lacking flexibility to squat is not a problem, but mobility is.

    I think many people confuse the 2.

    Thanks.

    Sure.

    There is a lot different terms and ways to look at it so I'll just break it down into two oversimplified groups.

    Passive flexibility - The range of motion a joint or muscles has. Imagine someone stretching your hamstring as you lay on your back.

    Active flexibility - The range of motion a muscle or joint has when being moved by the individual. Imagine laying on your back and lifting your leg.

    If you have ever tried this, you know that your ROM is larger when someone is stretching your leg, compared to lifting it yourself. In the second example things like strength and joint stability come into play that can affect ROM.

    In both scenarios the individual has the same length of muscle. Stretching the muscle is likely only to improve the individuals passive flexibility and not active flexibility, which would not benefit OP for her squats.

    Thanks much. Now how about mobility? To my understanding mobility is often an issue in squatting or other movements.

    I think people often refer to lack of mobility as a flexibility issue.

    Mobility is the same thing as active flexibility in my example. I used that term so everyone could see that they are related, but not the same.
  • AmandaHugginkiss
    AmandaHugginkiss Posts: 486 Member
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    Chiming in with suggesting goblet squats, and also front squats with the barbell in front of you instead of across your shoulders. Both will help you with mechanics. Watch Youtube videos, and just keep practicing.

    As for other things, anatomy is different for everyone. Some need to have a more narrow stance, others wider with toes pointed outward. I'm not a deep squatter, and too wide a stance feels weird, but I need my toes pointed out to keep my knees aligned. I aim for just below parallel, which feels really deep to me.
  • kwtilbury
    kwtilbury Posts: 1,234 Member
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    Meh...I've never been able to squat below parallel. It really doesn't bother me.

    Just don't quarter squat. Those people look like total douches in the gym.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    Just posting this because it's relevant -- I put this together a few days ago to document squat progress from an online client of mine (and MFPer) who definitely had a lot of issues with the squat.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1DiBVmAgCQ&feature=youtu.be

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