I just finished up Waterbury’s Big Boy Basics which involved doing back squats. I love squats of all form, but being that it had been about 6-8 months since touching weights (and my squats were never terribly high to start with), my back squats were pretty terrible.
My form felt off. I was doing high bar squat with my feet just wider than shoulder width. I can get atg with them, but when coming out of the hole, I feel like I am bending too far over-like my lower back is weak (I’ve started doing reverse hypers to hopefully correct that). Also, on the ascent, my right knee bows in about an inch to an inch and a half before correcting itself. Toes are pointed out slightly.
When I do front squats, I feel like I’m much stronger in my low back (i.e. not collapsing forward) and I can use more weight (about ten pounds). No knee problems here.
If it helps, I’m a climber so I’m not looking for mass, but I don’t want to have weak legs. Embarrassingly, I’m sitting at a 155 backsquat, 165 front squat and a 205 deadlift (all for 8 reps. It’s been too long since I’ve trained legs so I’m not yet comfortable maxing on any lifts yet). Back in December I pulled 405 for singles on dead’s and I’d like to get back there. My squats were probably at 225, but again, because I’ve never felt terribly strong in my low back doing them, I never maxed.
Any suggestions?