My form blows, long femurs, help

[papaquads]

I’m 5’8.5” 139lbs, and am trying to gain strength and mass. I’ve been lifting for a good while, on and off, but have never really been good at the squat. I started gslp recently, with my main focus being focusing on form with compound movements. My question is, how does one squat with long femurs? My legs are as long as my friends’s legs (6’ and above) and about a little over 2/3rds of these legs are femurs. I almost bring my back to parallel at the bottom. Should I just chase deadlifts instead of the squat?

[khaile]

Hey there

It depends on what your goal is. This is a powerlifting forum so people here are interested in increasing and refining their squat bench and deadlift.

As a long femurs squatter myself, you have general guidelines to make the squat more doable and passable for depth.

First, you want to take a wider stance (at least shoulder width) with toes pointed out at 45 degrees. This will shorten your femurs essentially from the side allowing you to go deeper.

Second, some people wear Olympic lifting shoes as it aids in people who lack ankle mobility. Since your femurs are longer and torso is shorter you will neeed more ankle mobility to hit depth. Oly shoes will help though it increased more forward knee travel which can be a prob if you have knee tendinitis (like me) of knee issues.


It’s all trial and error and learning and adjustment. Take videos of yourself and film to see. You will not have the most beautiful squat since your mechanics won’t allow it but that doesn’t mean you wont be able to squat to depth and get strong.

[DOMSPOWER]

I'm 6'2 with long femurs, and i'll say that in the initial stage, learning how to squat can be quite rough, but with proper work it becomes easy.

Few things you can do:

* Medium to wide stance (try different stances and pick one that seem best, though it might not feel good).

* Sumo Chair Deadlift to help open up and strengthen your inner thighs/entire hip socket musculature, thus making the bottom of a Squat feel more natural.

* A day before your Squat day(s), do a tactical frog pose.

* When Squatting, make sure to grab the floor with your toes and either push feet out or screw feet into the ground. Toes forward or a bit out depending on hip strengths and weaknesses.

* When warming up on Squat, do multiple sets with barbell and first 1-2 load additions. Pause in the bottom and - using proper foot cues - watch your body go deeper while maintaining correct position.

If you want individualised help, send me a message.

[vristang]

Great suggestions above of things to experiment with...
If you feel you are excessively dropping your shoulders at depth, maybe try a lower bar position on your back?

Post a video...

[Bailout987]

I’m 5’8.5” 139lbs, and am trying to gain strength and mass. I’ve been lifting for a good while, on and off, but have never really been good at the squat. I started gslp recently, with my main focus being focusing on form with compound movements. My question is, how does one squat with long femurs? My legs are as long as my friends’s legs (6’ and above) and about a little over 2/3rds of these legs are femurs. I almost bring my back to parallel at the bottom. Should I just chase deadlifts instead of the squat?

You definitely shouldn't just chase dead lifts instead of squats. You can always improve your form and progress at your own pace. Since you say you're almost at parallel near the bottom, I'm guessing you're squatting low-bar. If you're trying to chase numbers then I would say not to worry too much about leaning over a lot. You'll still be able to get great quad development, but not as much near the knee. However, if you're trying to maximally develop your quads then I would suggest carrying the bar higher. Some people may disagree but the higher position will give you better development closer to the knee. You'll end up with a more upright squat.