Having some trouble with my squats. The things I’m aware of are my lack of glute “activation”, and the stress on my groin, and my lack of hamstring flexibility.
No telling what else (video below so anything else can be pointed out/fixed).
Glutes: I’ve felt them after a workout ONCE. Not sure how I managed to use them as I can’t recreate it lol. I e read all kinds of stuff like “hold it in like you had some bad sushi” to “ screw your legs into the ground…” any time I try and do any of those my hips rotate forward curving my lower spine, not only that but as soon as I start to lower I lose what ever I managed to “squeeze”.
Groin: I’ve never felt my quads struggle to move the weight… it’s always my groin that yells at me. (Where the crease is in my upper thigh/pubic area). I’ve tried all kinds of odd stretches and what not but it always seems tight and is my limiting factor on weight. I’ve played around with foot width and toe angle and I can make it worse, but not better.
Hamstring flexibility: every single stretch labeled for hammies seems to stretch right behind my knee and not the middle/upper of the back of my leg. The only thing I’ve found helpful is sitting legs spread apart wide, and leaning forward. Also squatting with a semi wide stance and wrapping my arms around my thighs and squeezing my torso down. I do these daily and it seems I’ve made zero progress. Any ideas?
Weight in videos is 225, this was my old working weight (25 total reps), I moved to 255, but between the hammy flexibility and the groin I’m stepping back down till I can figure this out as to not injure myself. No idea what max is.
Watching the videos again in slow motion and noticed my feet shift wider at the bottom of the squat… seems odd lol. Any idea what that means?
I don’t understand, was that a joke or ? Why would I turn around? (Genuinely asking)
Edit: I’m guessing your talking about walking out/backing in to the holders? They are movable and I can put them anyway on any side (titan rack). I’ve tried both ways and prefer this way lol.
Edit 2:
BUT, I am new to this and suck, so I’m am 110% down with changing how I walk out/in if I should change it. If it’s all justpersonal preference then I’ll probably leave it like this, should it be more proper or actually better then I will most definitely change.
I get that you are learning. But you will not get set up right, by backing up to the bar.
I started out this way too. 
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I shall watch the video and make changes! Thank you for your insight and the video! (I’ve watched a few of his, they are awesome!!).
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@ChickenLittle watched the video, I think I will be able to inpliment his technique no problem! I already have a ritual I do every time before lifting the bar, so all I need to do it swap up the ritual just a touch and make it more gooder! Here is a short clip that I edited out of the other videos that’s shows my (poor) ritual lol
For me I pull my shoulders down and back using the bar and then hold that while I set the bar where I like. I like his method and shall be implementing it next session.
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It takes time to learn just like anything else, and it’s not one size fits all. The first video I put up everybody kept saying… you aren’t tight enough. I was like WTF? What do mean not tight enough?
I didn’t get it. Then one day after many days of trying to get tight enough… shazam! I got it! Then I understood what they were talking about.
At this point don’t be afraid to drop some weight off the bar to learn technique. It will be the right thing to do in the long run. Starting out doing wrong repeatedly only reinforces bad habits.
On one of my start overs (don’t ask) I wanted to get back where I was too quickly. All that did was lead to a shit show of hip shifting.
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I get very serious about my hobbies, I’ve taken some to some pretty high levels and weight lifting is my new hobby! Although not directed to weight lifting, I have hundreds of thousands of hours of dedicated practice and I agree that the foundation we build off of can make or break you. I’m trying hard to read and study and ask, ideally I’d love to find a good coach and just buy a little of his time here and there, but I don’t know of any locally that pass the smell test. Like most things it’s all very odd until you finally have that “aha” moment.
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