Squat Form (Female Friend - Getting Frustrated)

She should be doing goblet squats.

Edit-

Opps, should have read the OP closer.

What exactly did you do with the goblet squat? How heavy did she go with it?

It looks like she simply doesn’t have the flexibility and movement pattern down, and she’s plain not strong enough.

A lot of info thanks Magick. Her knees admittedly do move in slightly, but trust me it’s ever so slightly. When i posted this they used to meet!! So we’ve come a long way in that regards. I assumed the slight caving in was her working at a 5rep max.

In response to your question, with goblet squats she held a 10kg plate out in front, elbows slightly bent and that was perfect form. By that i mean, excellent depth, body upright, knees out wide etc… I just assumed if she can nail holding 10kg then she should be able to do the bar and if she can’t then something aside flexibility is wrong. If it’s strength then just keep lifting was the latest conclusion with as much focus on form, but still limited progress.

We do, deadlifts, glute bridges, dumbbell swings, lunges, bulgarian split squats and the usual extensions/curls/calf raises. This should cover all lower body right?

[quote]TrapsLatsnHat wrote:
A lot of info thanks Magick. Her knees admittedly do move in slightly, but trust me it’s ever so slightly. When i posted this they used to meet!! So we’ve come a long way in that regards. I assumed the slight caving in was her working at a 5rep max.

In response to your question, with goblet squats she held a 10kg plate out in front, elbows slightly bent and that was perfect form. By that i mean, excellent depth, body upright, knees out wide etc… I just assumed if she can nail holding 10kg then she should be able to do the bar and if she can’t then something aside flexibility is wrong. If it’s strength then just keep lifting was the latest conclusion with as much focus on form, but still limited progress.

We do, deadlifts, glute bridges, dumbbell swings, lunges, bulgarian split squats and the usual extensions/curls/calf raises. This should cover all lower body right? [/quote]

I second moving back to goblets but suggest doing them a bit different.

With the goblet squats, it’s very easy to sit back and be vertical when you hold the weight out in front of you. It’s a counter-balance.

Have her hold a dumbbell with the top end sitting in the heels of her hands. This is more comfortable and stable than wrapping your hands around the handle and “iso-curling”, which allows for more weight/reps.

Doing them this way puts the weight closer to the heels and forces the body to maintain it’s upright position more actively. The heavier you get, the more it feels like the DB is pulling you forward.

I would also suggest putting a mini-band around her knees during these to force the glutes to fire and strengthen as well as facilitate learning “knees out”.

Edit: After watching the video again, her ankle mobility needs work. I can see her heels coming up midway through. Also, work on sitting down between the knees, not behind. Full range with the goblets should help this, but you have to have her go ALL the way down, as if she was just gong to sit there for a while.

[quote]TrapsLatsnHat wrote:
In response to your question, with goblet squats she held a 10kg plate out in front, elbows slightly bent and that was perfect form. By that i mean, excellent depth, body upright, knees out wide etc… I just assumed if she can nail holding 10kg then she should be able to do the bar and if she can’t then something aside flexibility is wrong. If it’s strength then just keep lifting was the latest conclusion with as much focus on form, but still limited progress.
[/quote]

Ya, I agree with what Cueball wrote. Actually do goblet squats with dumbbells. And go DEEP. You don’t have to go that deep with the actual barbell squats, but it helps a lot to just go deep and learn how to stretch and move everything out.

Going purely off what I’ve read, because there isn’t a working vid of your friend, it sounds like ankle mobility issues. It could also be just tight hip flexors and weak glutes, but again, a vid would help.

I actually had big time issues with my ankle mobility when I sprained both my ankles skating. this happened a year and a half ago and I still have issues because I never corrected these issues when they first appeared. Though my squat # and my squat form has gotten better, these issues still display when I lift heavy weight and I believe they always will because of not giving them the attention they needed in a timely manner.

Decreased ankle mobility inhibits the knee from bending at certain ROM depending on how long the femur is to other levers such as the lower leg or the torso. With bad ankle mobility and longer femurs than in comparison to other levers (such as the lower legs) will have more sticking points, causing the torso to excessively lean forward in order to lower the bar more. If your friend has long femurs, definitely work the glutes, quads and hamstrings for strength. But, w/o ankle mobility work (if this is really the issue) strength will be harder to come by.

There is a lot more to the last paragraph then what i mentioned, but that was my situation so yea…

I do a lot of single leg work, foam rolling, static and dynamic stretching (daily/almost hourly), and lateral work. Some exercises i suggest and do for my own mobility are

·Resisted dorsiflexion w/ bands
·Total knee extensions w/ bands
·Single leg DL
·Single leg squat
·Single Leg barbell RDLs or regular RDLs
·Walking Lunges
·Transverse lunges
·side lunges
·Step ups
·Air squats w/ mini band around knees
·Front/Goblet squats
·Band lateral walks

Extra stretching:

Soleus stretches
Calf stretches (especially lateral sides)
Abdominal stretches (seal stretch is my fav)

Foam roll:
Hamstrings, quads, calves, and adductors.

I also used to have a lot of problems with my back squat (a bit simmilar), up to the point I had a rectus femoris inflammation that lasted for 6 months.

I can squat with pretty descent form now. But I always backsquat with elevetad heels due to lack of flexiblity.

Her major issues: heels come of the ground, and knees cave in. she needs to push her knees out

How i solved most of it:

  1. Two months goblet box squats, focus on pushing with heels, and knees do not pass toes, narrow stance
  2. high rep front squat 4*20 (focus on pushing with heels) for two months, starting very low. narrow stance
  3. same but wider stance: 1 month
  4. high bar back squat with elevated heels: high reps low weight

and switch often with point 1 and 2

I only do heavy weights with deadlifts or deficit deadlifts.

I am no expert, but i hope it helps. I wished I knew this forum before starting to squat

I had pretty much the same problem when I started to squat, probably caused by very poor ankle flexibility. I fixed it by:

  1. elevating my heels, and gradually reducing the elevation over a couple of years (remember life is a marathon, not a sprint)
  2. pointing my toes farther out
  3. widening my stance slightly
  4. picturing sitting down between my feet (with the slightly wider stance)

Have you tried giving her pointers as she squats instead of touching her butt and learning the correct way to spot someone?

[quote]jtamez17 wrote:
Have you tried giving her pointers as she squats instead of touching her butt and learning the correct way to spot someone?[/quote]

Correct. It’s difficult for a woman to focus on her squat form when she is being sexually assaulted. I’m sure OP is long gone at this point but fellas, no matter how tempting, never delude yourselves into thinking its appropriate to spot a girl at her ass. This poor girl in particular who is already falling forward is getting pushed on the ass, the last place (perversion aside) to be touching someone who is falling forward. Well actually, I’ve had someone push on my mid-back before while “spotting” me. Unrequested spot btw. So, let me amend that to 2nd to last place to touch someone who is falling forward.

The only way to spot a woman who is a beginner is arms or hands under the bar. That way, if her feeble knees collapse you can lift the bar straight up. If she falls forward, you’ve got the bar and all is good.

That’s all academic. In the case of this girl, she should never be Back Sqatting with anything more than a broom stick. There’s no way in effing hell her Gobblet and Box Squats are fine as the OP claims. With the form she is showing in that video there’s no chance her form is “fine” in any squat variation.

I step into these training threads and am quickly reminded why I hardly ever step into these training threads. Damn.

Post a video that will help.Is she tall or short?long or short legged all this info is important to determin a solution to the problem.

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Two words. Box squat.

Get a pylo box that when she sits down she is completely parallel.
Teach her to slowly sit on the box.
From there she can take a breath and then work on standing straight up.
This removes the mental and physical barriers.

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It looks like no one said it before, but take the shoes off and squat barefeet. Makes a huge difference for me and i feel a lot more balanced

I sort of had the same problem. I used to be addicted to working out and competed a couple of times. I’m here now for motivation to get back into it.
I ran across your thread.

I have bulged disks in my neck and in my lower back. My left ankle has had 3 surgeries and my right foot one. I know that those are my issues with squats. I can do them light weight but that is it. I usually do leg press so my back has something to support it.

Agree . I can not see the video of the woman in question. However Ihad simmilar described issues.Squatting to a box solves them. I have long femurs compared to my tibia/fibia and a long torso. Squating gave me fits! Squatting to a box definitely has helped. My form breaks down below parralel. So my box brings me to no more than parralel and my glutes are on board where as thwy never were before. Squat to a box medium stance. Low bar it as much as possible. I’m knew here what do I know!

Thank you to everyone for your responses. We do have full ROM now with the squats so thank you. I can’t say what exactly solved the issue as we did a few things but in short, it was core strength and a lot of box squats. How exactly that lead to the desired result I will leave to an expert, but I assume, being stronger especially in the core allowed her to sit better therefore sit deeper.

Many thanks :slight_smile: