295 Squat Check Form

First time poster here. I’ve been a lurker for quite a while, and have grown to highly respect the knowledge base found here, so I figured I’d give this a shot.

I’m looking to see how my form looks to those more experienced than I am.

I’ve been doing 5/3/1 for about 6 months now, and have lifted plenty prior to then (just not as smart), but squat has never felt comfortable for me; not as in discomfort, but I just don’t feel strong like I do with deadlift, press, or bench. I have to concentrate a lot more to keep my form strong.

Also, looking to see how my form looks with lifting shoes versus barefoot. Looking at it now, I don’t think I came down low enough, but that may have simply been due to not having enough weight to get me down.

Have you tried putting the bar high on your traps, and just sitting down? Because that’s normal. I have trouble with lowbar myself, but highbar feels so natural, just sitting down. We used to take a dump like that for millions of years.

You’re letting your knees go too far forward, IMO. The more your knees shot forward, the farther you have to chase them in order to break parallel.

Also long time lurker, decided to sign up today on a whim. Hard to tell from some of the angles but some of the squats look fine for depth as in your hitting parallel (hip crease at or slight below top of the knee) and some a little high. I’m sure some of the long time posters will have better advice for you but to me it looks like your leaning forward too much and not keeping your chest up.

I believe ideally you want the bar to travel in a straight path up and down. If you keep your chest up and maintain an arched lower back it should make you squat deeper. A straighter torso should allow you to squat deeper since leaning from my experience limits how low I can drop my hips.

[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
You’re letting your knees go too far forward, IMO. The more your knees shot forward, the farther you have to chase them in order to break parallel. [/quote]

I could be wrong but hes not doing a powerlifting squat. Knees go forward in an olympic squat.

I would work on hamstring mobility, stretching etc. It looks like your hips are tilting anterior at the bottom of your first set of reps.

If your hamstrings were more flexible you could squat as deep without the hip tilt at the bottom, the only time I’ve hurt my back is when my hips/lower back rounds at the bottom of a squat.

You want your back to stay in one position to protect it once you start getting stronger.

To answer the question; you are parallel, some even deeper.

As for your form, forget about the advice on your knees, that will be fixed with your hips. Look at your video and you can see you first break at the knees. Hips/ass back first will fix that. You will feel strong once you get use to it and soon your squats will take off.

One other thing, don’t snap the top, your joints will thank you.

Simple question here - not trying to judge: Do you need a belt at 205? If you truly do then I guess it is fine but if you don’t then ditch it until you really do need it. Don’t use it as a crutch and try to strengthen your core.