If you have the flexibility, widen your stance and place the bar lower on your traps. Single legged bulgarian, romanian deadlifts, back extensions and goodmornings helped me alot. Yes, you will lose your balance on those but that is part of it. Your weaker side could be holding you back.
[quote]Swolle wrote:
Several things come to mind whenever I read this topic. First and I am not saying you fall into this category but there are definatly people who were not built to squat. What I mean by this they have a very poor mechanical advantage.
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Correct, some people, usually taller people, find squatting harder, mostly because of the distance that they have to travel. Altho, I’m not overly a big believer in this reason (or excuse), as a shorter person, I find squatting…well…easy enough.
I load up the bar with sufficent weight & have the bar pretty far down on my traps. Hold the bar with a wide grip. Sometimes I use 5lb plates to step off when starting out.
But yeah, assuming your NOT one of the people who find squatting hard due to mechanics, check out your form, do a few sets of your bodyweight once or twice a week & get use to the motion. Good luck!
p.s. i regret telling you to do smolov, I didn’t mean it!
Do a youtube search for “squat rx” or a search here on T-Nation even, thos vids are gold for squats.
And if it ain’t a full squat, it ain’t a squat!
My squats suck because my knees are trashed. I can leg press 5x5 600lb no problem, I do 20x3 400lb donkey calf, etc.
When it comes to squats, hack squat 300’s and my knees fold, back squat 145 and my knees fold, front squat 160 and my knees fold.
[quote]Pluto wrote:
the form is fine and all that is okay, just the weight. doing legs on wednesday, so i will go for my max on that day, see if it has changed any[/quote]
if your knees are coming in any time during your squat, i wouldnt recommend max loads. you’re just setting yourself up for injury. go back to the drawing board and get your form perfect. i had to do it this summer. went from squatting 495 for 6 reps to 225 for 15s, but making sure to keep my form perfect and make sure my knees never came in. it sucked, and took time. but now the muscles have balanced out and the movement is becoming natural.
^ Amen. Knee’s going in, when squatting, is primarily something you don’t want, it’s juz asking for trouble. Start doing super light squats, so you get the form right, then as you progress & progressively go heavier, your knee’s will hopefully behave!
my hams > my quads
my squat still sucks. could be a combination of a fucked lowerback, bad knees, and long legs, or who knows. either way i really plan on taking the reps down a bit maybe in the 5-8 range over 4-6 sets and just get that weight up.