Hello. Can you please take a look at these squats and provide any feedback? Am I pausing too long at the bottom and not getting any bounce? Thanks!
You’re not pausing at all, so no.
Head needs to be more neutral, eyes forward not at the ground, elbows cranked down tight, break at the hips first not the knees, externally rotate to open up the hips.
Overall not terrible but probably not optimal.
These are not paused squats.
But honestly the squat looks pretty good, I would just keep my eye straight or slightly up.
Just keep squatting and getting stronger man!
BTW, I squat 500 and I wish my calves looked like yours!
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The issue is that you are not forcefully reversing the movement when you hit the bottom, you are kind of easing the weight back up. If you get used to exploding up with lighter weights (like what you are lifting here, as opposed to near max weight) then it will become automatic and will help you to lift more weight. The faster you are moving when you hit the ticking point, the more likely you will finish the lift.
The other thing is that your descent is a bit weird, you start off descending fast but then you put the breaks on towards the bottom, which may be what you are describing as a pause. A slow descent is fine, descending faster can get you more of a bounce out the hole but you have to be able to stay tight and in control for that to work so one is not necessarily better than the other for all people. I don’t think that the way you are descending is terrible, but it would likely be better if it was smoother, same speed from top to bottom and then blast out of the hole. Dropping and then catching yourself halfway down is going to use energy that could be put towards lifting it back up.
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Overall though, your technique is better than 99% of the people who post form check videos here. Only other thing is your head position, for most people looking straight ahead of slightly up is going to work better.
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What everyone else said
- my coach cues “back of head into the bar” on the way up. I heard in a KMS seminar that stalling from the bottom could be from weak adductors, so maybe some inner thigh work could help. I do side lunges with a slider as my PT
I have this same problem. When I come into the hole, its like I am slowly trying to reverse out of it, rather than squatting down and immediately powering back up.
So far, when I crack PRs in this peak, its usually because I reverse immediately when coming to the hole. When I miss a squat its because I just slow down to much in the hole and spend too much time there.
Do you have any cues I could use to make sure everytime I squat, its squat down and powerfully reverse as soon as you hit that hole? When I do manage to do this, it seems a bit of a fluke on my part, not consistent.
There isn’t really a cue, you just have to explode up one you hit the bottom. I used to have a painfully slow squat at one time, the things that helped the most are low rep submaximal squats (like 70-80% for sets of 2-3 reps) focusing on explosiveness and dead squats. If you are already peaking then it’s a not the right time to try new stuff.
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