Squat Form Check please (vids)

[thehobbes]

Hi OV35ers, thought I'd post here to get some of your infinite squat wisdom. Squats are by far the most difficult lift for me. I'll get to halfway decent weight and then BOOM - form issues and I have to drop it back down. I have some vids from today's session. They don't look terrible IMO but I need some work. One problem I've run into recently was doing my reps too fast, so I tried to slow it down this time.

I do squat with straps on the bar (have a really hard time getting my arms back there otherwise), and always squat barefoot (yes home gym lol.) Also I wear my belt at 135 and up (probably don't need to wear it until I get to bw, but I've always done it like that.)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


135x10



150x8



165x6

[eternalprimate]

Looks solid my man. Nice smooth pace.

[kimm4]

Hey girlie, I thought they looked pretty solid. There's a lot of people in here with more experience when it comes to squats and I'm sure they'll jump in.

[acrawlingchaos]

Solid lifts. Back straight, no butt wink, good depth. Hard to tell if toes are pushing out past knees. Are you attempting a specific squat? What you do looks a loot like how I squat (quasi /hi/low) except I am more hi bar.

[thehobbes]

Looks solid my man. Nice smooth pace.

Thank you

Hey girlie, I thought they looked pretty solid. There's a lot of people in here with more experience when it comes to squats and I'm sure they'll jump in.

Hey Kim, thanks! Well at least nobody so far has said "holy crap that is horrible form."

Solid lifts. Back straight, no butt wink, good depth. Hard to tell if toes are pushing out past knees. Are you attempting a specific squat? What you do looks a loot like how I squat (quasi /hi/low) except I am more hi bar.

I should get my feet in the frame next time to see what's going on with that. I'm attempting more of a low bar squat but it is incredibly hard to hold the higher weights with straps like that, so not as low as I'd like. Where I have it feels comfortable enough though so I'll roll with it.

[nvrstopworking]

Tha fuq??

Age: 30 = GET OFF OUR LAWN!!!
















Nice job chickie. inb4flex

[thehobbes]

^^^Pfft... and Spanky made it in here in a mere 29min to harass me, I am honored. Thank you, yep awaiting experts who will easily point out a dozen things that need fixing on said squats haha. That's what I need though, really wanna rep 2 plates sooner than later.

[Getsum]

Squats looked really good to me. It's hard to be certain from the camera angle but it seems you're using a wide stance, I do the same. I'm no expert though...I'll leave that to FLEX.

[acrawlingchaos]

I should get my feet in the frame next time to see what's going on with that. I'm attempting more of a low bar squat but it is incredibly hard to hold the higher weights with straps like that, so not as low as I'd like. Where I have it feels comfortable enough though so I'll roll with it.

Is there a reason you are using the straps? I would imagine you would have better control if you had your hands on the bar. If it's because the bar is sliding off, you may have it too low.

Getting your feet in would def help. It looks like you could be sitting back a bit more. It looks like you are dropping down which is more what you would do with a hi bar squat. Breaking more at the hip and sitting back would be what you would do on a low bar.

Even as is, the squat itself is in good form. I would really only worry about altering form if you wanted to compete and wanted to get the most out of your form/technique.

Take what I say with a grain of salt... I'm still in the novice stages of squats myself.

[thehobbes]

Squats looked really good to me. It's hard to be certain from the camera angle but it seems you're using a wide stance, I do the same. I'm no expert though...I'll leave that to FLEX.

Thanks, yes I am doing a wider stance, it's always felt easier for me.

Is there a reason you are using the straps? I would imagine you would have better control if you had your hands on the bar. If it's because the bar is sliding off, you may have it too low.

Getting your feet in would def help. It looks like you could be sitting back a bit more. It looks like you are dropping down which is more what you would do with a hi bar squat. Breaking more at the hip and sitting back would be what you would do on a low bar.

Even as is, the squat itself is in good form. I would really only worry about altering form if you wanted to compete and wanted to get the most out of your form/technique.

Take what I say with a grain of salt... I'm still in the novice stages of squats myself.

Yes I've been using the straps like that for almost 2yrs after a pretty bad shoulder injury. I think I could force my arms back there but I don't want to push my luck and not be able to bench for a month because I did that. Sounds good, I'm not too familiar with all the differences of low/high bar but I should find out. I have a feeling it's going to be kind of a combo of the two just because I need to do those with the straps like that. Thanks for the input.

[acrawlingchaos]

As far as shoulders, you'll probably find that high bar is a little easier on the shoulder, but you push a little less weight with it. here is a vid that shows the main differences.

[-=FLEX=-]

Looked good from that angle.

But for squats you really want the camera at 4 o'clock or 8 o'clock behind you at waist level and showing your whole body, including feet.

Only advice I'd give at this point is lower the safeties so you're not bouncing the bar off them.

Isn't that distracting? Would mess me up for sure.

But overall good job, H.

[Sen8or]

Thanks for that vid, interesting watch acrawlingchaos. I noticed the bar hitting the safeties too, seemed to give you a bit of a wobble on the way back up. Solid stuff though

[drudixon]

Hi Hobbes. Good vids! You're right, squatting is hard as hell. Squats have been my bane since I began lifting. After resetting my squats twice, watching every vid I can find, watching people on here, I finally have a decent form squat. I only say this because it's been a 3 year evolution. Getting help from people on here - critiques, has been a huge help, so you're already way ahead of most.

Here's a few observations.

Your tempo is great. You could change to a pause at bottom, but it's not necessary. I pause at the bottom of rom because historically, for me, a fast rebound gets me out of whack coming back up.

Laterally (left to right balance) you're great. Your knees don't cave inwards at the bottom, which tells me you do a good job pushing out with your hips. Your knees also appear to track very well throughout the movement.

You lead the movement with your butt, both down and up which is great.

Your main issue is front to back balance. I can't tell from the vid, but it looks like you're wearing shoes. I say this because your weight appears to be on the toes, not the heels. This is part of the reason you collapse on a few reps, and you're lifting so much with the low back. Yes, the low back should be in the lift, but it shouldn't be a "good morning".

Stick your chest out as far as you can. You're using high elbows which can make doing this harder, but you still need to do it. Each rep, take a huge gulp of air and press your sternum as far as it goes. Think less about shoulders back, and more about chest out. This helps move the bar to your heels, which helps with aforementioned collapsing. It also helps with general stability throughout the squat. You can change to low elbows, but that can lead to elbow pain, so just weigh one versus the other. The collapse is evident when your bar path deviates from straight up and down to bowing forward in the middle.

Your depth will improve greatly if you narrow your stance a tad. I go ATG on squats now because it's easier on my knees, and it takes the guess work out of depth. I can't go ATG wide, only medium or narrow. I'm sure this is a hip mobility issue, but seeing as I'm not a power lifter, I'm fine with that.

You don't have any hip pop. The single greatest thing to help me move more weight is when I stopped thinking about standing, or using my legs, and switched to snapping my butt forward. The hip flexors and abs need to be doing their fair share of the work here, and from what I can see in the vid, you're doing all the work with your legs, except when you get out of position and your back goes into over-drive. Rippetoe calls the squat a hip exercise (granted he low bar squats).

I can't really tell if you're doing high or low bar squats. Your body position at the bottom is that of low bar, but I've seen when folks have a high bar squat, but use low bar body positioning, they make the movement twice as hard as it needs to be. When I moved the bar from on top of the scapula to just below the little ridge of bone at the top of the scapula, my balance improved a ton.

Timing. I get out of sync all the time with this. Like you, my hips rise too fast sometimes, then my low back get's pissed because I shifted all the load onto it. I wish there was a insta-trick to fix this, but there really isn't. Just practice.

Weight, right is better than heavy. I've deloaded twice because I'm so frustrated about my sucky squats. I went from 250 all the way to 135, back up to 250, still unhappy, so back to 135 and now maybe 225 (for reps, I don't max squats). I think I may be able to make true progress now that my form's better.

Some great vids are any Rippetoe vids, and the "so you think you can squat series" from EliteFTS.

Acknowledgements. None of what I'm saying is original ideas. Each of those has been said to me. I've gotten great advice from: Flex, Skiboy, Iceman, Ironwill, GetSum, Hammerfelt, and many more. These guys know how to do it and are superb coaches.

To show you the evolution I've tried to go through, here's two of my squats.

March 18, 2011 - Ok form, but not great. High bar with low bar positioning. No hip pop. Bad balance. Poor depth.


Oct 8 2012 - better form. more depth, more hip pop (I hit the safeties just like u) If I did no pause and stopped at parallel now, I might be able to do 300, but I really don't care @ max weight atm.


I sincerely hope this helps. It's a journey no doubt. I'm only an intermediate, so any of the folks listed above know more @ this than I do.

[ilovethe80s]

Hobbes, those were killer! Really, they looked great to me. The only thing I think I noticed MILDLY happening was possibly losing tightness at the bottom a bit when you would hit the safeties (as others have mentioned). It seemed like after you hit the safeties, the bar drifted forward a bit on the initial drive back up so it went on a bit of a forward arc rather than perfectly straight. and I wouldn't say you were going an exaggerated good morning squat or anything, but did see a bit of a shift out of the bar's straight path. It was mild though, and also could have just been because it toward the end of your sets and heavy.

Everything else looked stellar to me, you seem to be pushing your hips back and have a really good handle on the perfect timing for breaking the knees and pushing them apart and hitting depth. Chest looked lifted throughout, even when the hips came up a little ahead, the chest still seemed lifted to me, I think that is just the cue that we all have trouble with -- driving the neck/ trap area into the bar first on the way up. It is so tempting to raise the hips first and I think most of us do that as it gets heavy and form breaks down.

Awesome, awesome all around

[Juggertha]

drudixon has it right.

Your form is good, until it's not. As soon as it's going, you pitch forward. In fact, I was surprised you went heavier than 135. I thought you could have spent more time at that weight focusing on your form.

Personally though, I'm not a fan of the camera angle. I like to see a squat from various angles to see what's really going on.

Keep at it, man.

[MrNismo]

You don't have any hip pop. The single greatest thing to help me move more weight is when I stopped thinking about standing, or using my legs, and switched to snapping my butt forward. The hip flexors and abs need to be doing their fair share of the work here, and from what I can see in the vid, you're doing all the work with your legs, except when you get out of position and your back goes into over-drive. Rippetoe calls the squat a hip exercise (granted he low bar squats).

That is exactly the thing I felt like I noticed in your vids as well. Overall form looks great, you have good control, good depth etc. But I don't seem to notice any hip thrust/drive. It sounds 'weird' or whatever but, at least to an immature guy like me, it's easiest to think of 'humping the air' when I am driving up. Think about doing exactly what you are doing now since your form is so good but add in that thought of driving your butt forward as hard as you can on the way up.

[-=FLEX=-]

Looks solid my man.

Keep at it, man.

OP is a woman, guys.

A very strong woman, I might add.

[eternalprimate]

OP is a woman, guys.

A very strong woman, I might add.

Yaaaa I listened with no sound and only saw baggy clothes and a head hidden behind plates

Sick lifts, stronger than 99% of male Miscers.

[NOLAGUY52]

Hi OV35ers, thought I'd post here to get some of your infinite squat wisdom. Squats are by far the most difficult lift for me. I'll get to halfway decent weight and then BOOM - form issues and I have to drop it back down. I have some vids from today's session. They don't look terrible IMO but I need some work. One problem I've run into recently was doing my reps too fast, so I tried to slow it down this time.

I do squat with straps on the bar (have a really hard time getting my arms back there otherwise), and always squat barefoot (yes home gym lol.) Also I wear my belt at 135 and up (probably don't need to wear it until I get to bw, but I've always done it like that.)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


135x10



150x8



165x6

No expert but here is what I see. Looks like you are breaking at the knees on decent your toes go forward over your toes creating back strain. Try changing form to break at hips sit back arch back to avoid hips from turning under ( butt wink). Natural thrusting movement for males knees should stay over ankles. Try with no weight on the bar may have to rest bar lower on shoulders be sure to gaze at the ceiling to help with balance. Squat ATG get form down then ads one plate a a time. You will progress fast has worked wonders for me

[thehobbes]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

As far as shoulders, you'll probably find that high bar is a little easier on the shoulder, but you push a little less weight with it. here is a vid that shows the main differences.

Good vid, makes sense. I think I'll stick with low bar and my straps though, even with high bar I can't really get my arms back there. They're saying low bar is more for PL anyways, that's what I'm going for.

Looked good from that angle.

But for squats you really want the camera at 4 o'clock or 8 o'clock behind you at waist level and showing your whole body, including feet.

Only advice I'd give at this point is lower the safeties so you're not bouncing the bar off them.

Isn't that distracting? Would mess me up for sure.

But overall good job, H.

Thanks Flex, I'll set it up like that next time. Ah yeah damn safeties, I really didn't notice that but once or twice until I rewatched the vids.

Thanks for that vid, interesting watch acrawlingchaos. I noticed the bar hitting the safeties too, seemed to give you a bit of a wobble on the way back up. Solid stuff though

Yeah I'm sure it doesn't help the balance lol.


Drudixon - thanks for the post, yes that helps quite a bit! HUGE difference in your vids, nice work correcting all that! I used to have the knee cave issue, not terrible but it was there, took me freaking months to get that under control. I am squatting barefoot (was easier once I ditched the shoes even though I have flat lifting shoes.) I do feel the weight shifting to my toes on some reps, when I start to lean too forward, I'll have to watch out for that. Tried to get a nice variety of sets/wts for you guys (I don't even go that heavy all the time) just to see where things were breaking down. I'll back it off a little and practice some more. Honestly I have no interest in atg, I'm not sure if it's poor flexibility or what but any time I've tried narrower stance and/or atg it doesn't go well. Maybe I'll revisit that at some point, but I'm ok with the PL style atm and getting parallel. It's low bar (if I let go of those straps the bar would fall straight down my back lol.) I find it easier to balance with it further back there and I figure since I'm doing the straps may as well use that to allow myself to get that bar pretty far back there. Yeah I guess it's gonna come down to a ton more practice at squats. It doesn't seem like there's one big thing I'm doing horribly wrong, just a lot of smaller tweaks. I'll do some light weights next squat day and work on all this, nope won't be maxing anytime soon (almost never do on squats anyways.)

[thehobbes]

Hobbes, those were killer! Really, they looked great to me. The only thing I think I noticed MILDLY happening was possibly losing tightness at the bottom a bit when you would hit the safeties (as others have mentioned). It seemed like after you hit the safeties, the bar drifted forward a bit on the initial drive back up so it went on a bit of a forward arc rather than perfectly straight. and I wouldn't say you were going an exaggerated good morning squat or anything, but did see a bit of a shift out of the bar's straight path. It was mild though, and also could have just been because it toward the end of your sets and heavy.

Everything else looked stellar to me, you seem to be pushing your hips back and have a really good handle on the perfect timing for breaking the knees and pushing them apart and hitting depth. Chest looked lifted throughout, even when the hips came up a little ahead, the chest still seemed lifted to me, I think that is just the cue that we all have trouble with -- driving the neck/ trap area into the bar first on the way up. It is so tempting to raise the hips first and I think most of us do that as it gets heavy and form breaks down.

Awesome, awesome all around

Thanks for the input! Yes those vids were me trying as hard as possible on the form, and slowing down the reps made it seem much heavier haha. Going in I know ok I have to remember these 8 things (lol stupid squats trying to confuse me) and as you guys know it is easier said than done. A lot of you are pointing out how the hitting the safeties really screwed me up, I'll be sure to move them down a couple notches. At least I'm in the right ballpark for most of the basics. Ah yeah trying to get out of the hole without starting into a goodmorning is a struggle as I go heavier.

drudixon has it right.

Your form is good, until it's not. As soon as it's going, you pitch forward. In fact, I was surprised you went heavier than 135. I thought you could have spent more time at that weight focusing on your form.

Personally though, I'm not a fan of the camera angle. I like to see a squat from various angles to see what's really going on.

Keep at it, man.

Will drop the weight next go around. I figured the form was getting worse on the heavier sets, wanted to see where that started to become an issue.

That is exactly the thing I felt like I noticed in your vids as well. Overall form looks great, you have good control, good depth etc. But I don't seem to notice any hip thrust/drive. It sounds 'weird' or whatever but, at least to an immature guy like me, it's easiest to think of 'humping the air' when I am driving up. Think about doing exactly what you are doing now since your form is so good but add in that thought of driving your butt forward as hard as you can on the way up.

No that makes sense, got my DL lockout improved by doing the whole hate fuk the bar thing srs. I'll try this.

No expert but here is what I see. Looks like you are breaking at the knees on decent your toes go forward over your toes creating back strain. Try changing form to break at hips sit back arch back to avoid hips from turning under ( butt wink). Natural thrusting movement for males knees should stay over ankles. Try with no weight on the bar may have to rest bar lower on shoulders be sure to gaze at the ceiling to help with balance. Squat ATG get form down then ads one plate a a time. You will progress fast has worked wonders for me

This is the opposite of what several others have said but thanks for the comments. That reminds me I had to stop warming up with an empty bar on these (now start with like 75), it's weird my form is all jacked up if I don't have any weight to hold everything in position I guess.

[thehobbes]

OP is a woman, guys.

A very strong woman, I might add.

Yaaaa I listened with no sound and only saw baggy clothes and a head hidden behind plates

LMAO! Gotta wear my basketball shorts for gym time, srs, women's gym/running shorts fit me horribly wrong and give me a wedgie like no other, really puts a damper on my workout. Jeez, should just change my avi back like it was:



Probably doesn't help at all but not a single fuk given, at least I looke like I lift.

Sick lifts, stronger than 99% of male Miscers.

Well this is true, haha. A lot of 145lbers over there too lulz, dotheyeveneat.jpg

[nebraskaheat]

No real advice, just ant to say thanks. Recently got the wife off the hamster wheels and into doing some light lifting, been trying to convince her to start squatting and deadlifting.. Going to use your vids and show her them tonight to get her motivated!

[HenrykMarczak]

What are your feet positions, straight, pointing out at an angle ?

[thehobbes]

No real advice, just ant to say thanks. Recently got the wife off the hamster wheels and into doing some light lifting, been trying to convince her to start squatting and deadlifting.. Going to use your vids and show her them tonight to get her motivated!

That's great, good luck to her! Squats and DL > everything else.

What are your feet positions, straight, pointing out at an angle ?

Pointed out around 30 degrees.

[drudixon]

No expert but here is what I see. Looks like you are breaking at the knees on decent your toes go forward over your toes creating back strain. Try changing form to break at hips sit back arch back to avoid hips from turning under ( butt wink). Natural thrusting movement for males knees should stay over ankles. Try with no weight on the bar may have to rest bar lower on shoulders be sure to gaze at the ceiling to help with balance. Squat ATG get form down then ads one plate a a time. You will progress fast has worked wonders for me

Sorry bud, that's not right.



From Ripp himself.

[JOHN GARGANI]

HOBBES: we see so many squat videos on here that are just plain awful...and I am one of the harshest critics when it pertains to this movement.

in your case, I like what I see! why? because you are truly driving up with the legs and hips from the bottom without the quasi good morning cheat effect that most people do on the vids as the weight get heavier.

only thing I might nit pick on is the spotter issue, which has already been pointed out...

you go girl!!

























MISSING AVATAR

[HenrykMarczak]

Pointed out around 30 degrees.

I was doing a Crossfit Bootcamp and they tell you not to have your feet pointing out too much and to have the hips go below the knee level. I use to always have my feet pointing out and now try to keep them straight doing a regular back squat, it's harder but get a better workout.

[NorwichGrad]

Ms. Hobbes,

You are so daggone strong you tricked a couple of members into thinking you were male. :-)

Outstanding work.