[quote]Chris87 wrote:
[quote]mr_ben wrote:
[quote]captain slow wrote:
Form looked ok. Ur depth was lacking if u were attempting to hit parralell though :)[/quote]
thanks mate. any tips on improving depth? or like any accessory exercise to be worked on?[/quote]
Learning how to squat would help. Look up the “so you think you can squat” videos on elite[/quote]
wow, nice squat tips in those vids.
It’s not about squatting back it’s about mentally focusing on sitting back. Adopting a frame of reference like that can help you out more than simply convincing yourself to ‘squat down.’ After all, isn’t the person’s perception of squatting down actually the problem?
Looks like your pushing forward with your knees instead of breaking with your hips.
Also knees out , slightly wider stance etc, what everyone else said basically.
Push your ass BACK. You should feel like you’re showing everyone in the gym watchu workin’ wit.
As you sit BACK, using your ass to guide you, your knees will naturally bend.
Use your ass and your hams to push UP. Your head should be pushed into the bar.
The principle of breaking at the hips first applies to squats of all stances, though the range of hip motion varies depending on stance.
EDIT: I feel like I should mention I never really understood “sitting” back until I began sitting in a chair like I would squat. The whole purpose of a box squat is to “splash” the box with your butt, not fall down and get back up (yeah, I know the whole “eliminating the stretch reflex” deal…you can still achieve that with a controlled “touch”) As I would guide my butt towards the chair, my knees would inevitably break. I only relaxed my core and back (the primary muscle groups keeping you upright in the hole) once I had touched the chair with my butt, allowing me to sit in the chair normally.
The whole “sitting” this is deceptive in that it implies a loss of tightness at the bottom. It’s not sitting, its coordinating your hips and knees to allow you to “tap” while remaining tight.
Sorry if I’m rephrasing anything everyone else has said. I’ve been studying for finals all night and I’m going fucking nuts.
watch those vids, they can help some, but for raw lifter im with Meat, BUT i think that you could break at your hips to start movement and then go down, widen your stance, spread the floor, push your knees out. 
You will need to take off a plate on each side once you start hitting depth.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Squatting on a box is a different movement than squatting without one. Lots of coaches don’t like it for teaching depth. Squatting on a box=squatting back, squatting without one=squatting down.
If flexibility is the issue elevate your heels and then reduce the elevation over time as you continue to reach correct depth. Obviously perform mobility drills/warm ups as well.[/quote]
I’m not sure if this was a response to my post, but i was not saying to do box squats. I was saying that his depth was equal to one of a box squat. I was telling him to go lower, much lower.
Do you know what an Asian squat is? Google turns up lots of hits. That is the position you want to be in at the bottom of your squat. Visualize putting your belly between your legs, forcing your legs as far apart as possible. Try to keep your knee from moving forward over your foot, this will help keep your ass going where it should be. On the way up, don’t do a Good Morning… chest up, head up, tight traps and arched lower back.
Lots of great advice in this thread, but the only way you’re going to truly get the hang of it is to find someone who has good form and ask for help.
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
i don’t agree with those giving the advice to sit back. as a raw lifter i’ve never understood “sitting back” sit back into what?? if i have gear on i could see it but not without. I squat straight down and straight up like a piston. squatting down allows me to us more of my quads as well as the hips and glutes.
what this guy desperately needs to do is open up the groin and SPREAD THE FLOOR. take a wider stance, turn those feet out some and force the knees out throughout the lift. I’m sure you will have no problem hitting depth then. [/quote]
Great advice.
As a teen someone taught me to squat properly by “dropping into the hole” so to speak. Over the years that advice got pounded out by the drone of “sit back into your squats”.
If I had squatted properly since the beginning, I’d probably have healthier knees to this day.
Did anyone mention wall squats? Where you face a wall (start off a few inches away) and get closer and closer. I believe I originally learned that from Dan John and just saw it again from Pavel. If you can’t do it than chances are your off already.
Hope I’m in the right with that! That’s all I could think of doing on your own and making sure your in the right.
You don’t want to sit back an insane amount, that is for geared lifters. You want your initial movement to be back (break at the hips) but as you descend in the hole there is a point where you spread your knees out and actually drop in between your legs, which will give you good quad activation.
This article helped me tremendously.
didnt read anyone’s comments… Not good dude, you’ve completely lost your lumbar arch, you stop short of parallel (i advocate lower than that even), and you’re almost doing partial squats. When you get to the top, you dont stand up all the way and complete the rep, looks like you’re in a rush throughout the movement. Control down, explode up, pause; repeat. Sit on your heels, look up, and keep your back in it’s natural “S”. your up,down,up,down,up,down pace leaves much to be desired. You can see your tempo affect your already poor form when you get into the heavier weight, once you begin to press up from the bottom, you lean forward and your butt rises before your upper body, and your shoulders dip forward, there should be no movement in the transverse plane. butt should be out, shoulders almost over your knees. I’d highly suggest practicing box squats with a short box.
[quote]FearFactory wrote:
You don’t want to sit back an insane amount, that is for geared lifters. You want your initial movement to be back (break at the hips) but as you descend in the hole there is a point where you spread your knees out and actually drop in between your legs, which will give you good quad activation.
This article helped me tremendously.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/Teaching_the_squat.htm[/quote]
thanks dude.
also, thanks everyone…will take note of advices. 
[quote]KcThrows wrote:
Did anyone mention wall squats? Where you face a wall (start off a few inches away) and get closer and closer. I believe I originally learned that from Dan John and just saw it again from Pavel. If you can’t do it than chances are your off already.
Hope I’m in the right with that! That’s all I could think of doing on your own and making sure your in the right. [/quote]
this is kinda challenging from the sound of it. 
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
i drop straight down into my squat and squat over 700 raw. [/quote]
wow. just think what you’d be able to squat if you adopted the ‘sitting back’ style favored by powerlifters because it focuses the movement on the glutes and hammies (which are capable of being much much stronger than the quads)
another thing nobody seems to have mentioned that sitting down vs sitting back will vary as a function of bar placement position.
think about the biomechanics…
the bar will be over your midfoot and it will move straight up and down.
if the bar is pretty high up on your traps then you won’t have much forward lean in the torso and you also won’t be able to sit your butt back very much. you will sit fairly straight down (this is how olympic weightlifters tend to squat since a requirement of olympic lifting is an upright torso).
if the bar is pretty low down on your back then you minimize the distance the bar has to travel for you to hit a depth squat and get back up. that makes it handy for such things as powerlifting. if it is pretty low down on your back then you will need some element of forwards lean in order for the weight to be over your midfoot so you don’t fall back on your ass.
powerlifters tend to adopt a low bar placement position and break from the hips setting their ass back back back back back (leaning the torso forwards forwards forwards forwards as much as is needed to keep the bar over the midfoot). places a great stretch on the hammies / glutes and (depending on degree of knee shoved out-ness) adductors. their shins stay fairly upright.
of course not ALL powerlifters squat like this…
but a lot of people think that if you take someone who doesn’t squat like this…
and you teach them to squat like this…
they will move greater weights at the end of the day.
however… oly lifters have better developed quads in part because their style of squatting is quad dominant.
anyway… OP… can you hit depth with just the bar?? cause if you can’t their ain’t much point loading IMHO
The squatting technique in “so you think you can squat” does not include sitting back and folding in half to the extreme… I think in the second vid (or third?) Wenning has the guy do his first proper squat (don’t remember exactly, so sue me)… You can see that he sits both back and between the legs without folding… The sitting back part is largely about keeping the pelvis in the proper position and not having the entire body shift forward too much rather than really sitting back. Don’t know how to put it into words properly.
It’s perfectly fine technique for raw squatting… I think the debate about sitting back comes from people having the squat-morning kind of geared technique in their heads when they hear that.
The vids are some of the best I’ve seen for teaching new guys or people who have been copying the knees together, buy ROM at the expense of pelvic tilt in the wrong direction, no tightness -kind of squat you see a lot in gyms, bodybuilding vids, etc that’s hell on the knees and back and usually ends with the guys’ knees so ruined they eventually don’t want to go over 315 or 405 anymore.
[quote]alexus wrote:
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
i drop straight down into my squat and squat over 700 raw. [/quote]
wow. just think what you’d be able to squat if you adopted the ‘sitting back’ style favored by powerlifters because it focuses the movement on the glutes and hammies (which are capable of being much much stronger than the quads)
[/quote]
Yep Meat, imagine how strong you’d be if you were doing what them powerlifters are doing.
You could even compete in powerlifting or something, maybe become the strongest competing raw powerlifter regularly posting on t-na- Oh, wait.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
[quote]alexus wrote:
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
i drop straight down into my squat and squat over 700 raw. [/quote]
wow. just think what you’d be able to squat if you adopted the ‘sitting back’ style favored by powerlifters because it focuses the movement on the glutes and hammies (which are capable of being much much stronger than the quads)
[/quote]
Yep Meat, imagine how strong you’d be if you were doing what them powerlifters are doing.
You could even compete in powerlifting or something, maybe become the strongest competing raw powerlifter regularly posting on t-na- Oh, wait.
[/quote]
Next he’ll try to give advice on bench pressing…
i lol’d