Deep Squats Impossible For Some Tall People

[Sabre28]

I am six foot three inches tall. When I do a squat, the way my body is built causes me to lean forward after squatting down about half way unless I switch to standing on my toes. This means that for me to do a full squat I either have to lean forward or stand on my toes.

It is impossible for my body to do a squat with my back straight and my feet flat, I would simply fall backwards. I ignored this issue and performed squats with a full range of motion (with heavy leaning forward for several months).
It actually wasn't until I started doing extremely deep squats with relatively light weight (1 plate and 25's) that I hurt my lower back. It took almost 3 months to fully heal and was really annoying.

Ive switched to doing half squats because I can actually keep my back straight and I havent had any lower back problems ever since and its been years. People watch me load up 2, 3, or 4 plates on the squat rack and then do only half squats and they probably think I dont know what the hell Im doing. What Im doing is saving my back!

Any other tall people here have this issue? BTW I seem to be getting GREAT results from the half squats, and I supplement them with really deep leg presses to allow myself to get a full range of motion without any injuries.

[Redneckspud]

Low box squats are your friend. Try messing around with low or high bar placement, widen up your stance too. Make sure your warmed up before squatting, i usually do a couple sets of light goodmorning before squatting just to make sure my hamstrings are loose. I realize im shorter than you but i do have short legs and a long torso with will give the same effect. I do have lots of forward lean on my squats but honestly messing around with stance and bar placement will help make them comfortable.

[Sabre28]

Ive tried every stance possible. After a half squat I start to lean forward and there is no stance to stop it. The only thing that allows me to go deep without learning forward is to either stand on my toes, or use a super wide stance with my feet facing almost completely outwards instead of straight.

[Redneckspud]

If you can, post a video and it will probably help us figure out whats going on. The forward lean could be anything from bar placement to tight hamstrings.

[chazzy1864]

Your feet don't have to point forward in a squat.

[Ironlife]

Discover and experiment what is best for your legs and your build. I am not tall and dont know first hand your problem but i could imagine it would be difficult to do full range squats.

[Sabre28]

I know its really hard for people that arent tall with long legs to understand whats going on. To be honest, im not sure if it's my height or a combination of my height and the way my legs are built that prevents me from doing deep squats with proper form (I can do them just fine with bad form).

Try this: stand with your feet 12 inches apart facing forward. Bend your knees and squat down as deep as you can before your heels are forced off the ground to prevent you from falling backwards. I can only get to about 90 degrees while heavily leaning forward before my heels are forced off the ground to prevent falling backwards. I have seen my friends squat completely straight up and down flat footed so this has something to do with leverage. I am forced onto my toes at about the 90 degree mark in this stance.

[poloboy406]

negative my friend... I am 6'4" and I only do a2g squats. It is very possible.

[iSkinny]

It's either a flexibility issue or that you don't know how to squat correctly. It might even be both, but without a video we can't really help.

[Sabre28]

negative my friend... I am 6'4" and I only do a2g squats. It is very possible.

What is a2g?

Also, maybe you are just built differently than me.

Try this: stand with your feet 12 inches apart facing forward. Bend your knees and squat down as deep as you can before your heels are forced off the ground to prevent you from falling backwards. I can only get to about 90 degrees while heavily leaning forward before my heels are forced off the ground to prevent falling backwards. I have seen my friends squat completely straight up and down flat footed so this has something to do with leverage. I am forced onto my toes at about the 90 degree mark in this stance.

Perhaps your build allows you to do a full squat with flat feet and a straight back even at 6' 4". I am not making things up, it is physically impossible for me to do a squat with flat feet and a straight back unless my stance is extremely wide and my feet are pointed extremely outward. Otherwise Ill just fall backwards or lean too far forwards.

[SoaringSwine]

Learn to sit back rather than down. Push your hips back as your first movement.

[Sabre28]

I think deep squats for tall people with a build like mine is just a recipe for back problems later in life.

Same thing with deep bench press for people with long arms. People with short arms have no problem touching their chest and going right back up, meanwhile people with long arms who go all the way down to their chest put their rotator cuffs in an extremely stretched and awkward position. Years of doing this is why so many people get shoulder surgeries and have back and knee problems at early ages.

Im an advocate of good form, but Im not an advocate of full range of motion. I beleive that certain exercises when performed with a deep range of motion, such as squats and bench press cause more harm than good to people with long limbs.

[iSkinny]

1. Stop repeating your self.
2. It depends on what you regard as full ROM.
3. Post a video or no one will help, as all you're doing is repeating yourself and making excuses as to why you're to tall to squat.

[chazzy1864]

Why do you keep trying to squat with your toes facing forward?


Also, are you looking for help to do a real squat, or are you just wanting soemone to back up your excuses as to why you can't do the move? If the latter, why even post? We never would have known you were doign half squats, until you brought it up.

[Ironlife]

Im an advocate of good form, but Im not an advocate of full range of motion. I beleive that certain exercises when performed with a deep range of motion, such as squats and bench press cause more harm than good to people with long limbs.

Yeah fair point, i have a mate who trains occasionlly and his 6'4 (192cm) and he cant squat full range of motion but granted that he is not all that flexible as well..
He does squats still and might not go full range but this for him is good because he is seeing great development in his quads and knee joints arent sore.

[Sabre28]

1. Stop repeating your self.
2. It depends on what you regard as full ROM.
3. Post a video or no one will help, as all you're doing is repeating yourself and making excuses as to why you're to tall to squat.

Full range of motion for a squat is considered to be down to 90 degrees. Full range of motion for a bench press is considered to be down to your chest. The only injuries Ive ever had from lifting was my lower back injury which I got from doing deep squats and took 3 months to heal, and a shoulder injury which I got from doing extremely deep dumbell presses with heavy weights, and that took over 6 months to heal where I only did pushups instead of bench.

After both these injuries I started doing half squats, and bench press to just past 90 degrees (which is about an inch or two above my chest) and I havent had any injuries since.

Considering both my injuries were from using good form and going extremely deep, I have simply come to the conclusion that a full range of motion on these exercises might simply put too much force on tendons and joints for people with long limbs.

Didnt mean to offend anyone with my post. Was just looking to see if anybody had similar experiences with full range of motion exercises like the squat.

[CaptainGorgeous]

By 'leaning forward,' do you mean, 'rounding your back'?

[iSkinny]

Full range of motion for a squat is considered to be down to 90 degrees. .

Wrong.

Full range of motion is as low as flexibility will permit. You were going deeper than your flexibility would allow, with excessive loading, hence the injury.

[Sabre28]

By 'leaning forward,' do you mean, 'rounding your back'?

no I just mean leaning forward with my back mostly straight still. The lean puts heavy pressure on my lower back because the further i lean forward, the more the weight is supported by my lower back.

[essential222]

Switch to front squats man, I found them far better for my body structure because it allowed me to stay more upright at the bottom position and it actually meant my legs gave out before my lowerback did for once.

[lancs_hotpot]

Im a little over 6'1 and i thought this. But with practice i can now get nice and deep on squats. Its a lot harder for me than for my 5'6 friend and i cant use as much weight as a result, but i have built up to 315 below parellel squats so im happy with that.

[H-Town-Matt]

sounds like you dont know how to squat, maybe im wrong.

[TexAss]

Nothing wrong with a little forward lean as long as your flexibility allows you to keep your lower back with a good arch.

[stevenXD]

just go as low as you feel able
i can go to parallel just then after that i'll tip backwards, for me it's because of inflexible ankles and a long femur. if you want to go below parallel then put 2" of plates/ anything under your heels but going below parallel is more for working the glutes so there's no real point in trying to do them if you can't naturally.

[Kiknskreem]

Try this: stand with your feet 12 inches apart facing forward. Bend your knees and squat down as deep as you can before your heels are forced off the ground to prevent you from falling backwards. I can only get to about 90 degrees while heavily leaning forward before my heels are forced off the ground to prevent falling backwards.

The reason you are having trouble is because the above is a terrible way to do a squat.

[chazzy1864]

The reason you are having trouble is because the above is a terrible way to do a squat.

No, his frame just isn't built for squats. it has nothing to do with terrible form.

[Lencho]

Form, flexibility and weak hams/glutes are the reason you can't squat deep. I had the exact same issues you did. Some bastard even made a thread about it.

If you want to squat deep, you can. It's just gonna take some time and work. But, if you're happy with what your style of squats are doing for you, great. "Parallel" is arbitrary.




EDIT:

[Defiant1]

I am six foot three inches tall. When I do a squat, the way my body is built causes me to lean forward after squatting down about half way unless I switch to standing on my toes. This means that for me to do a full squat I either have to lean forward or stand on my toes.

It is impossible for my body to do a squat with my back straight and my feet flat, I would simply fall backwards. I ignored this issue and performed squats with a full range of motion (with heavy leaning forward for several months).
It actually wasn't until I started doing extremely deep squats with relatively light weight (1 plate and 25's) that I hurt my lower back. It took almost 3 months to fully heal and was really annoying.

Ive switched to doing half squats because I can actually keep my back straight and I havent had any lower back problems ever since and its been years. People watch me load up 2, 3, or 4 plates on the squat rack and then do only half squats and they probably think I dont know what the hell Im doing. What Im doing is saving my back!

Any other tall people here have this issue? BTW I seem to be getting GREAT results from the half squats, and I supplement them with really deep leg presses to allow myself to get a full range of motion without any injuries.

Okay. Then keep doing half squats, especially if you are getting results.

Not sure what the issue is.

[HuSkY]

yea id say you should try turning your toes out a bit or putting a block of wood under ur heels

[djansen]

I had this problem and stretching my hamstrings really helped.