Critique my....squat

gnolan

This is the first time I've actually seen how it looks when i squat. I was very worried about my form, particularly my lower back and my depth. Seeing it now, i feel a little better.

If anyone can give me some tips on my form i'd appreciate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzWZW2PixlU

Colm_OReilly

Seems a little high, also your knees shoot forward at the bottom of the squat, which reduces your hamstring recruitment.

I'd focus on:
Looking down a bit more
Sitting back and pushing your knees out
Pushing your knees out a bit more at the bottom
Getting the weight further back on your heels.

I know that seems a lot to concentrate on, but they're fairly symbiotic cues.

Hope this helps,
Col

kevpants

Fair play for putting the vid up.

Not a hell of a lot wrong there. I'm sure someone will spot something small that's off. You're a tad high, but you aren't intentionally pussying out of it. I think if you concentrate on breaking at the hips first and sitting your ass back as far as possible on the way down you'll get more depth and feel stronger (remember tokeep your chest up when you're sat back that far)

Don't worry about the lower back, it works hard in the squat but it gets stronger.

Well done you're on the right track you've obviously put a lot of effort into getting it right.

the drifter

thats a bloddy excellent attempt lad there aint much wrong there....

id look up a bit more...and change your shows to flat shoes prob ok now but as the weight increaces flat shows will benifit...

ive seen a whole lot worse than that though fair play!!!!

kevpants

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

I'd focus on Looking down a bit more

the drifter wrote: »

id look up a bit more

LOL. Classic.

I'd be on the drifters side on this one. I just don't get the whole looking down thing. How does it not just untighten your upper back? I find looking ahead helps ram the bar into place as well.

Not being smart, I'd just like to hear the other side of the story.

hardtrainer

There's nothing majorly wrong with your form at all.
You could go a little deeper, but I'd like to see what position your feet are in. If you bring them out a little beyond shoulder width you might find you can comfortably go lower without too much hassle. However, you might also just need to practice going lower using just a bar and really letting things stretch out at the bottom. Also, try to shove your behind a little futher back. Your knees are going a touch too far forward IMO, but others may disagree.

The look up/down thing. Really whatever is comfortable for you and allows you to maintain your position. Some people find looking down makes them lean forward too much.

But as I said, good form overall. I wish many of the guys in my gym took note. Some awful 'squaters' out there.

Transform

Few things -

1. Elbow position - pause the vid when your at the bottom, your elbows are wayyyy to far back. The elbows should be directly under the bar like your going to lift it off your shoulders as you push back up. stretch your chest more if you find getting into this position is hard.

2. Depth - looks grand to me

3. Take another vid - so many people put these up but no correction vids. also when you do that take the vid from behind you this time so we can see what your knees are doing when your coming out from the bottom (hopefully not buckling inwards).

Hope that helps

Reyman

That's a pretty solid squat. The only point I'd make is that you are descending very fast. I'd have thought a more controlled slow descent would give better progress, though you may need to drop your poundages.

BossArky

+1 on slowing the descent.

I got the same advice from Hanley previously. Diving Bombing could put a bit of a strain on your knees. I can feel my hamstrings more if I control the descent.

d-gal

By looking at your vid a few times I would recommend pointing your feet a little more outwards, will open up your hips and allow a little bit more depth.
I always always recommend keeping your head up, 99.9% of people's postural form goes to crap if they look down and looking up usually gets the bar a better placement on your traps.
Agree with Transform on elbows, keep it tight!
Generally your squat is very good, way above average.
Make two other videos, one from behind (for feet/knee/grip positioning) and one with a heavier weight (to see what struggles under pressure)

kevpants

Disagree totally on the elbows but then there are two schools of thought.

I couldn't imagine squatting low bar with retracted shoulder blades with my elbows forward. I'm elbows back all the way.

gnolan

Thanks for the input lads. As far as the elbow thing goes, I'll probably be keepin' 'em back where they are, maybe 2-3 inches forward. I made an effort today to exaggerate the movement cos recently i've been trying to keep my shoulders as tight as possible and wrists as straight and loose as possible. I have to say that today it worked pretty well for me, so i'll stick with it, seems to help with keeping the chest up too.

I've been mostly looking straight ahead, there's a mirror in front of the rack so i can't get a fixed point to look at; instead i just watch my head slowly turn a healthy beetroot colour!

The speed of my descent was oddly enough not a concern, but i can easily see it now that its been pointed out. I think my reason for this is that it helps me get down past parallel and provides a bounce out of the bottom; rightly said not too good for the knees. Its something that i'll have to work on.

On feet position: my heels are about 4 inches wider than shoulder width, with my toes pointed out about 30 degrees. I don't think my groin can manage any wider than that when descending. The one useful thing with the mirror is to see how my knees are reacting, and for the most part they are fairly solid, every now again a slight twinge inwards with my right knee.

Hanley

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

I'd focus on:
Looking down a bit more

kevpants wrote: »

LOL. Classic.

I'd be on the drifters side on this one. I just don't get the whole looking down thing. How does it not just untighten your upper back? I find looking ahead helps ram the bar into place as well.

Not being smart, I'd just like to hear the other side of the story.

I'm with Kev and The Drifter here too.

Looking down in the squat is one of the worst things you can do imo. I know Rippetoe's mad for it, but I've yet to hear a convincing argument as to why it's good.

Transform wrote: »

Few things -

1. Elbow position - pause the vid when your at the bottom, your elbows are wayyyy to far back. The elbows should be directly under the bar like your going to lift it off your shoulders as you push back up. stretch your chest more if you find getting into this position is hard.

kevpants wrote: »

Disagree totally on the elbows but then there are two schools of thought.

I couldn't imagine squatting low bar with retracted shoulder blades with my elbows forward. I'm elbows back all the way.

Gotta agree with Tranform on this one! Getting your elbows under the bar (well not directly under, but making the attempt to) will lock your upper back into an amazing tight position!!

As others have said too, down a bit too fast. The reversal at the bottom looks like it's unneccessarily (sp?) hard.

Maybe take your stance out a tad too. There's only so low you can do with a narrow stance. it needs to be wide enough to sink in between your legs

Maybe try to get a bit deeper too.

Other than that, it's a fine effort. I'm just being brutal when it comes to picking flaws. If I saw ya going that in person I'd think "that's nice squatting".

I'll be around TF Sandyford for the next week on M,W,F if you want some hands on advice.

gnolan

Hanley wrote: »

I'm with Kev and The Drifter here too.

Looking down in the squat is one of the worst things you can do imo. I know Rippetoe's mad for it, but I've yet to hear a convincing argument as to why it's good.

Gotta agree with Tranform on this one! Getting your elbows under the bar (well not directly under, but making the attempt to) will lock your upper back into an amazing tight position!!

As others have said too, down a bit too fast. The reversal at the bottom looks like it's unneccessarily (sp?) hard.

Maybe take your stance out a tad too. There's only so low you can do with a narrow stance. it needs to be wide enough to sink in between your legs

Maybe try to get a bit deeper too.

Other than that, it's a fine effort. I'm just being brutal when it comes to picking flaws. If I saw ya going that in person I'd think "that's nice squatting".

I'll be around TF Sandyford for the next week on M,W,F if you want some hands on advice.

Thanks, i appreciate it. I'll be up there on them days myself, probably earlier than yourself though. As for the 'unneccessarily hard reversal at the bottom', i can see what you mean, there's a definite stall (or at least a slowing down), i can really feel it coming to the end of the sets. That being said, that is my biggest 5x5 so far following the stronglifts program!

Hanley

gnolan wrote: »

Thanks, i appreciate it. I'll be up there on them days myself, probably earlier than yourself though. As for the 'unneccessarily hard reversal at the bottom', i can see what you mean, there's a definite stall (or at least a slowing down), i can really feel it coming to the end of the sets. That being said, that is my biggest 5x5 so far following the stronglifts program!

Aye.. I'll probaby be around from 7.30 or so. Do say hi if you see me tho!

I watched the vid again and it looks like you're popping up on your toes at the top of the rep. Stop it, there's no need to do snap like that at the top :D

You're rocking a bit back and forth as well befoer you start your reps. I would hazard a guess that it's because your stance is a bit narrow.

Was that your 5th set??? If it was then nice going, you looked good for tons more.

gnolan

Will do. The reason (excuse!) for the popping on the toes is, i feel i have to put in so much effort to get out of the hole that when i'm out of it the last quarter squat just kind of flies up.

And no, that was my third set, but the last two were similar enough! I think i'm only good for about 5kg more then i think i gonna be making full use of the safety features of the squat rack

Roper

I thought the depth was fine. A bit hard to tell how your knees were but you looked fine.