T Nation

Back Squat and Deadlift Form Check

Beginners
#1

hey guys, its me again. previously i posted a vid of me doing a back squat, but the weight i was squatting in that vid was quite light, so here i am, posting another vid of myself squatting and deadlifting, but with much heavier weights so you guys can better critique my form.

for my squats, im still having a sharp stabbing pain in my hip flexors when in the concentric motion of the squat. is this due to my form? i stayed away from squatting for a whole month and slowly worked up the weights but as the weights got heavier the pain just appears again. and i was wondering whether it is okay to have a slight rebound at the bottom of my squats.

a vid of me doing 95kg for 3 sets of 5 (this is the last set) @ 61kg bodyweight

a vid of me doing 130kg deadlift for a set of 5

any feedback for the above two videos will be greatly appreciated guys!

#2

Hey man, nice squats. My only comment would be to try to avoid bouncing too much off of the calves in the hole, that might keep you from maintaining your tightness at heavier weights in the long run.

As for deadlifts: looks like you’re essentially performing a stiff-legged deadlift, and there’s some lower-back rounding issues you need to deal with. I recommend starting with the hips lower, focussing on driving through the floor with your feet to initiate the movement, and working on bringing the hips to the bar towards lockout.

You’ve probably got the hip strength and overall flexibility to avoid all this lower back rounding, as evidenced by the form of your squat at depth. You might also benefit from training sumo for a while, have you tried that yet?

#3

hey kgildner, thanks for the reply, but im more worried about this sharp kinda stabbing like pain in my hips when i squat. i feel it when im about to go up from the hole in my squat. initially i wanted to post this thread under injury and rehab, but i thought there might be something wrong in my squat form so i posted it here.

ive been lurking around on the forums for awhile to find what is exactly causing the pain in my hips, but im still as confused as ever cause now it could be a possibility of tight hip flexors, femoral anterior glide syndrome, or hip impingement. not sure which of the three it is, but if i were to explain the pain, it would be somewhat of a sharp pain when im pushing out of the hole and also when i try to do internal rotation of the hips, something like this.

i found out that the above is a test for hip impingement, and that if there is pain in internal hip rotation, there most definately is hip impingement. my question is could tight hip flexors also cause pain in the above test? i havent went to the doc to check yet cause im afraid it would be quite expensive to go for an xray or an mri, so im trying my best to self diagnose the injury lol.

and the funny thing is that the only movement that causes this pain is squatting, i dont feel any pain in deadlifts whatsoever :confused:

i really wanna continue squatting, but at this rate i feel that i might be limping out of the gym instead of getting stronger everytime i end a session lol, any feedback will be greatly appreciated guys!

#4

oh and kgildner, i might give sumo a try, but correct me if im wrong it looks a bit heavy on the hips. im afraid if i do sumo, my hips would start hurting like how it is with my squats at the moment. actually, im kinda trying to stay away from anything wide stanced :confused: (powerlifting squat, sumos etc etc)

#5

First things first; you have to control that weight in your squat! Slow your decent and try to stay tight through the entire squat. You can get away with it now but you won’t when you add a couple 100 more pounds. It may help if you get a set of knee wraps so you do not feel like you need to bounce out of the bottom. Coast into that top and stop snapping the end of the movement.

Now for your dead; you are using a reverse grip? Try to stay physically and mentally locked on the lift and avoid letting go and walking away. Not that you can not re-grasp, but stay set. You are probably going to get ripped apart for using all that back with a close stance. My problem giving you advice on that is, that is how I do it.

#6

[quote]doublelung84 wrote:
First things first; you have to control that weight in your squat! Slow your decent and try to stay tight through the entire squat. You can get away with it now but you won’t when you add a couple 100 more pounds. It may help if you get a set of knee wraps so you do not feel like you need to bounce out of the bottom. Coast into that top and stop snapping the end of the movement.

Now for your dead; you are using a reverse grip? Try to stay physically and mentally locked on the lift and avoid letting go and walking away. Not that you can not re-grasp, but stay set. You are probably going to get ripped apart for using all that back with a close stance. My problem giving you advice on that is, that is how I do it.
[/quote]

Alright noted, will try slowing down the weight more. And about the deadlifts, im using mixed grip, one underhand and one overhand. I guess I got kinda gassed out by the third rep, do you think this is due to the weight being too heavy, or is it more of a cardio deficiency? And I dont rly feel much in my back tho, but my hamstrings take alot of the toll when I do it this way. I used to put my hips lower in the past, but my lower back would hurt more than when I did it this way, and I have no idea why lol. Whats your opinion on it?

#7

[quote]rafsanjaniii wrote:

[quote]doublelung84 wrote:
First things first; you have to control that weight in your squat! Slow your decent and try to stay tight through the entire squat. You can get away with it now but you won’t when you add a couple 100 more pounds. It may help if you get a set of knee wraps so you do not feel like you need to bounce out of the bottom. Coast into that top and stop snapping the end of the movement.

Now for your dead; you are using a reverse grip? Try to stay physically and mentally locked on the lift and avoid letting go and walking away. Not that you can not re-grasp, but stay set. You are probably going to get ripped apart for using all that back with a close stance. My problem giving you advice on that is, that is how I do it.
[/quote]

Alright noted, will try slowing down the weight more. And about the deadlifts, im using mixed grip, one underhand and one overhand. I guess I got kinda gassed out by the third rep, do you think this is due to the weight being too heavy, or is it more of a cardio deficiency? And I dont rly feel much in my back tho, but my hamstrings take alot of the toll when I do it this way. I used to put my hips lower in the past, but my lower back would hurt more than when I did it this way, and I have no idea why lol. Whats your opinion on it?[/quote]

Ow I got ya on hitting the hamstrings. That was always one of my best body parts and I attribute it to DL and deep squats. By the way, how are you keeping the squat and deadlifting apart? At my heaviest lifts I hit one every four days.

#8

Im currently on my third week of starting strength, so my deadlifts are only once a week, and im squatting 3x a week. Ive been on and off starting strength for the past few months, didnt really get to follow it for atleast a good 8 weeks or so due to illnesses and other commitments. But hopefully I can make this one last for atleast 2 months I hope!

But my hip flexors are getting really sore and tight, so I might lay off squats for awhile :confused:

#9

[quote]rafsanjaniii wrote:

Im currently on my third week of starting strength, so my deadlifts are only once a week, and im squatting 3x a week. Ive been on and off starting strength for the past few months, didnt really get to follow it for atleast a good 8 weeks or so due to illnesses and other commitments. But hopefully I can make this one last for atleast 2 months I hope!

But my hip flexors are getting really sore and tight, so I might lay off squats for awhile :/[/quote]

Way way way to much my friend. You can’t recover in time. No wonder you having issues. Back that squat off to 1x a wk and stick with the DL 1x a week. You may see some small gains now but you will never be able to work your way up if you get hurt.

#10

  1. Your squat looks nice but stop bouncing. Also, if your hip hurts, I’d go see a doctor. We can’t what’s wrong by watching you on youtube. Get this checked out.

  2. lower your hips when deadlifting. But keep you back straight while doing so; I think you may have rounded it when you used to pull lower, hence the back pain. The way you do it right now look plain bad. Think of a proper deadlift as a medium between your current form and your squat in terms of hip placement.

  3. Yeah, Starting Strength will only take you so far; hate to say it but it’s true. Try Madcow 5x5 or 5/3/1 next.

BTW, NICE numbers for your weight and training age!

#11

[quote]nighthawkz wrote:

  1. Your squat looks nice but stop bouncing. Also, if your hip hurts, I’d go see a doctor. We can’t what’s wrong by watching you on youtube. Get this checked out.

  2. lower your hips when deadlifting. But keep you back straight while doing so; I think you may have rounded it when you used to pull lower, hence the back pain. The way you do it right now look plain bad. Think of a proper deadlift as a medium between your current form and your squat in terms of hip placement.

  3. Yeah, Starting Strength will only take you so far; hate to say it but it’s true. Try Madcow 5x5 or 5/3/1 next.

BTW, NICE numbers for your weight and training age![/quote]

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll prob try to fix my hips lower the next time I deadlift! Oh and one more question, issit okay to just carry on with starting strength without doing the squats? Cause im thinking of resting my hip flexors and doing glute activation exercises instead of squats at the moment, cause I feel that all this pain in my flexors is due to weak glutes, what do you think?

And you mentioned about madcow and 5/3/1, at what stage of my training should I change to a diff program?

#12

[quote]rafsanjaniii wrote:

[quote]nighthawkz wrote:

  1. Your squat looks nice but stop bouncing. Also, if your hip hurts, I’d go see a doctor. We can’t what’s wrong by watching you on youtube. Get this checked out.

  2. lower your hips when deadlifting. But keep you back straight while doing so; I think you may have rounded it when you used to pull lower, hence the back pain. The way you do it right now look plain bad. Think of a proper deadlift as a medium between your current form and your squat in terms of hip placement.

  3. Yeah, Starting Strength will only take you so far; hate to say it but it’s true. Try Madcow 5x5 or 5/3/1 next.

BTW, NICE numbers for your weight and training age![/quote]

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll prob try to fix my hips lower the next time I deadlift! Oh and one more question, issit okay to just carry on with starting strength without doing the squats? Cause im thinking of resting my hip flexors and doing glute activation exercises instead of squats at the moment, cause I feel that all this pain in my flexors is due to weak glutes, what do you think?

And you mentioned about madcow and 5/3/1, at what stage of my training should I change to a diff program?

[/quote]

Starting Strength without squats isn’t starting strength. Here’s what I would do:

1- deload the squats to 75kg/165lbs
2- do Defranco’s limber 11 as your warm up and on off days if find the time

See if that helps. Then keep doing SS until you’ve stalled twice (as in, couldn’t increase weights over three workouts and had to deload). Once you reach this point, do Madcow 5x5 or - if you do not like the way it looks - go straight to 5/3/1.

#13

okay so today i tried to cut the weights for the squats, and the pain was too much i had to stop after my 1st work set. i tried doing the limber 11 and even some extra glute activation exercises, but i realised stretching the hip flexors tend to worsen the pain. i might have to post a thread abt this in the injury and rehab section for further help.

but other than that i tried to lower my hips in the deadlift today. was aiming for 135kg for 5 reps (5kg more than last week), but only managed to get in 4, the last rep kinda slipped off my hands due to poor grip lol. i dont know whether my hips were low enough in this video, maybe you guys could help point out whether im low enough or not.

anyway heres the video!

any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

#14

Yes, your hips are low enough but you lost your lower back arch; it’s badly rounded.

#15

Your friend is evil. You shouldn’t have pushed that last rep.

Look at your video. Do you notice how your lower back moves before your leg does? It does a sort of a humping motion, where it flexes and rounds to generate force before your leg actually does anything. Afaik, that’s no good.

It’s right at :10-:13. You start with a straight back. Then, as soon as you initiate the lift, your back rounds as you pull with your back, rather than letting your leg straighten out while your lower back stays flat, then completing the lift by pushing your hip forward. Your lower back should never move from its straight position.

#16

The only thing seriously wrong with your squats is that you need to tighten up your entire body. You are bouncing around like a noodle all the way through the lift. Try to concentrate on locking up every muscle in your body - in particular, try to pull the bar down onto your back and flex the hell out of your core.

That last video of the deadlifts…the first two looked pretty good to me. I think that what is happening is that you are getting close to your current limit here, and your form is simply breaking down as you try to push your way through it. This is totally natural. It is really, really hard to lift your max with perfect form, and it is inevitable that some reps will look less than perfect. I think you just may not yet be strong enough to lift 135kg 5 times yet, regardless of form. Be mindful of the form, absolutely, but don’t despair every time it breaks down. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t push your limits.