I’ve been on a 5x5 program for some time and have had good improvements in all the major lifts. When i was squatting i was noticing that my lower back and hamstrings were doing most of the work, so i recorded myself. My suspicions were confirmed, i was ‘good morning’ the bar on the way up.
I am now concentrating on trying to keep an upright torso throughout but should i keep the 5x5 template for squats and just seriously reduce the weight and focus on technique more than weight lifed? or should i adopt a more high volume approach (3 or 4 x 10??) to squats whist continuing the rest of my program in a 5x5 manner?
When i recorded myself i also noticed that when i reach the bottom of my squat the left side of the bar is closer to the safety bars (slightly lower) than the right, how should i go about fixing this?
And i thought i was making great progress with squats…
squats are tricky just like deads. once you feel you found a grove everything can get mixed up. Most important thing is not to panic and try to change your routine. Keep doing what your doing and throw in some stretching and more dynamci warmup stuff. Focus on form in your warmup sets then let loose on the higher weights. It will fix itself
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Put the vid on youtube and let us see
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Train your abs. HARD. That should go a large way towards solving your problem.
I don’t know how “correct” this is, but your core’s essentially where the power from your lower body is transferred to the bar on your shoulders. If it’s not strong enough your hips will tend to shoot up as your lower back compensates.
Read up on the proper set-up before each rep as well. Having a crisp set-up makes it much easier to maintain correct form throughout a rep.
I second the ab training comment too. Heavy and hard ab training should improve your ability to maintain correct posture against heavy loads.
For the uneven bar problem…I would have to see the video, but sometimes one leg can be more mobile than the other and this causes oone limb to get more range of motion.
Ab work, as has been stated will ALWAYS help. Push your head back into the bar as well. A lot of times when guys get bent over, or start to lose the weight forward, its because their head is drifting forward away from the bar.
Might Try to bring your grip in a bit, and think of trying to wrap the bar around your back towards your waist too. This will ensure a tight upper back, which helps with an arched lower back.
Jason
Curious, what do people recommend for core work to improve squats?
Overhead holds. Planks, rope pull downs and stuff along that line.
My obliques were severely under-utilized until I started holding heavy-ass weights overhead.
I read about quite a few powerlifters doing decline crunches after any kind of back work.
i need to activate my glutes more
[quote]PhilD wrote:
i need to activate my glutes more[/quote]
Squat deeper
Jason
[quote]JPeggEFS wrote:
PhilD wrote:
i need to activate my glutes more
Squat deeper
Jason
[/quote]
i squat atg but i end up with too much forward lean on the way up so it turns into a GM
[quote]PhilD wrote:
JPeggEFS wrote:
PhilD wrote:
i need to activate my glutes more
Squat deeper
Jason
i squat atg but i end up with too much forward lean on the way up so it turns into a GM[/quote]
You might want to try some glute activation exercises. Bridges are a good place to start. Also, I often try to extend my hips as hard as I can and get a good strong glute contraction, several times a day. I feel like consciously trying to contract the muscle as hard as possible improves your ability to recruit motor units (which is basically what I would define as activation) - sort of a mind-muscle connection.
You might want to try contracting your glutes hard at the top of the range of motion of any hip extension movement, for a few seconds. I found this to be particularly effective on band pull-throughs. It might also be good to try this on Romanian deadlifts and good mornings.
Also, I completely agree with what Hanley said about the core and force transfer. You might want to try exercises that force your core to stabilize the rest of your body - such as planks or ab rollouts. Also the fact that one side of your body is lower than the other might have to do with a unilateral imbalance in your core musculature.
Check out this article by Mike Robertson, I think it might help.
He also wrote some very good core training articles that you might want to consider reading.