Keeping Erectors Tight During Squat?

When you squat, do you concentrate on keeping your erector muscles tight and contracted? I always thought that keeping your posture, i.e. keeping your chest and head up, was adequate, but lately have begun to think that I need to forcibly contract my erectors when I squat. Just wondering how many people do this.

Without a belt and with relatively light weight (60-70% of my max) this isn’t hard if I think about doing it right before I let my butt fall back during my descent, but when I put the belt on and increase my weight, I think I am losing lower back tightness.

Serious replies only please, no Viagra jokes about losing erector tightness…

Never have thought too consciously about keeping my erectors tight, but when I sit back and drive with my heels everything seems to stay pretty tight on my backside. My guess would be that you are leaning forward a little too far (like a good morning) and not getting enough drive with your hips.

Yes, I have to try and really arch hard on the way down when I SQ. One of the best cues I heard was from Marc Bartley who said you should try to arch even harder as you approach the hole in the SQ. I know it’s easy to forget to do these things when the weight gets heavy, so you just have to practice.

For me, I have to focus on pelvic tilt to keep my erectors tight, but only as I approach the hole.

Practicing on a box made a big difference. Even if I’m doing a free squat, I’ll do a few warm up sets just barely touching the box while focusing on a sitting back and keeping a tight arch.

[quote]TunaMonkey wrote:
When you squat, do you concentrate on keeping your erector muscles tight and contracted? I always thought that keeping your posture, i.e. keeping your chest and head up, was adequate, but lately have begun to think that I need to forcibly contract my erectors when I squat. Just wondering how many people do this.

[/quote]

Absolutely. I focus on squeezing the shit out of my spinal erectors and then rolling my chest up on the ascent. I think Wade Hooper is as good as anyone at this:

Head up, chest up.

[quote]Pinto wrote:
Head up, chest up.[/quote]

x2

I have heard from several sources that Wade Hooper is a good role model for squatting technique.

Today I really tried to keep my erectors tight, but it is hard to do this while simultaneously pushing my abs against my belt.

[quote]Pinto wrote:
Head up, chest up.[/quote]

This, but I concentrate on driving my head back, too.

I find that really pushing by abs and keeping them tight againist the belt helps tons.