Squat Help, Please

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

[quote]Jingle99 wrote:
First, thanks for all the help everyone, I do listen to criticism. I think half of my problem is lifting in a commercial gym where if you lift heavy weight or go past a 1/8th squat people think you are doing well. So coming on here and throwing my faults to the e-world is a good idea.

I fixed depth and it shows what I was originally concerned with, the rocking out of the hole. I have spent most of my free time this weekend searching T-Nation and elite for tips on the upper back, but this has mostly led to articles telling me to flex the upper back.

Someone mentioned elbows forward and I came across that while searching. I have tried it and I feel like any tightness I can make I lose when pushing them forward. Any one else had this problem and came up with a solution for it?

As for the shoes, currently dead/squat barefoot (only 1 warning to put on shoes in a year and a half of it!) but only due to my cheap ass not being able to afford ordering shoes solely for squating.

I have tried the wall squat, I have had a lot of trouble with it as my face seems to always want to be inline with my toes or I fall backwards. I will continue it as part of my stretching which I am now doing pre, during and attempting in mornings and night.

The less is more lesson, I plan to squat twice a week with some bar squats on stretch days. Going to give 5/3/1 another go through and I figure squats as accessory on deads with light light weight will be what I need to practice form and build on it.

Thanks again for the help. I will come back to this thread if I think I get any significant progress and want to share or stumble some more.

Appreciate it.[/quote]

Elbows forward is a cue to get your upper back arched really hard. The way I do it and that I focus on trying to pronate my wrist (which puts my shoulder into external rotation mode which makes a nice shelf and a lot of tightness) and making my chest really really big (arched upper back), while trying to tear the bar apart over my back especially in the bottom.[/quote]

And push the chest out, and pull the bar down into you. Thats how I think about it.

[quote]Jingle99 wrote:

I fixed depth and it shows what I was originally concerned with, the rocking out of the hole. I have spent most of my free time this weekend searching T-Nation and elite for tips on the upper back, but this has mostly led to articles telling me to flex the upper back.

Someone mentioned elbows forward and I came across that while searching. I have tried it and I feel like any tightness I can make I lose when pushing them forward. Any one else had this problem and came up with a solution for it?

As for the shoes, currently dead/squat barefoot (only 1 warning to put on shoes in a year and a half of it!) but only due to my cheap ass not being able to afford ordering shoes solely for squating.

I have tried the wall squat, I have had a lot of trouble with it as my face seems to always want to be inline with my toes or I fall backwards. I will continue it as part of my stretching which I am now doing pre, during and attempting in mornings and night.

The less is more lesson, I plan to squat twice a week with some bar squats on stretch days. Going to give 5/3/1 another go through and I figure squats as accessory on deads with light light weight will be what I need to practice form and build on it.

Thanks again for the help. I will come back to this thread if I think I get any significant progress and want to share or stumble some more.

Appreciate it.[/quote]

Strengthen the back too. Lots of rows and face pulls.

Get chuck taylors…cheap

Not being able to wall squat is a sign you need to.

Women don’t actually workout. Your video is obviously fake.

I have nothing genuinely helpful to contribute.

I like your style.

By the way, which Goodlife is this filmed at? I used to be a loyal employee of that fairly homosexual organization.

Waterloo Weber. Through Uni and high school I used to go to the Milton one (home town). Which one did you work at?

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:

This is the POWER LIFTING forum right? not the OLYMPIC squat thread… lol

I can do that wall technique with a shoulder width stance. The fundamentals of a squat are basically the same regardless of stance width. The main point of the wall squat is to teach to keep the chest up and start the movement with the hips breaking backwards. Like any other advice on message boards the “asker” should decide if the free advice given applies to his or her situation. Since your perspective on the wall squat seems to be from reading about it on other forums why don’t you go find a wall and a broomstick and try it out yourself. Then YOU can decide if it sucks for you or not. Sorry if I sound like a dick. :slight_smile:
[/quote]

I just don’t understand why people get so rude just because they’re sitting behind their computer. Where did civility go?

I wasn’t suggesting that this was an Oly thread. There are PLers who squat narrow stance. And of course I’ve tried wall squats. I can do them wide stance but not narrow stance. And since the OP squats narrow stance, my point was merely that this exercise may not work for him. However, I stand corrected that they can be a good exercise for narrow-stance squatters since you’ve said that you can do them with this stance.

FYI, I have done six PL meets and hold all USAPL state records for both raw and geared in my age/weight class. So I’m not an idiot.

you seem like a visual learner, so another trick: watch a lot of videos of different pro lifters and how they squat. Keep a mental checklist of the things people have told you here. Then practice that movement without a bar, with a bar, with light weight, etc. Practice makes perfect, and the more comfortable you get with proper technique, the easier it will be to assess what you’re doing.

Your depth is obviously better, good job on setting the ego aside. Next, If you setup with a loose back and slumped chest your power out of the hole will suffer. Stick your chest out like your posing at the beach, flex your lats once you’ve gripped the bar(should basically feel like your trying to do a lat spread), then unrack. The tighter you setup the easier it is to keep tightness in the hole. Your break at the hips looks fine but you need to go down tight so you have less rocking on your feet going down and coming up.

Squat light for a couple weeks, do a larger volume of sets ie. 8x3 or something similar and focus on finding your optimal stretch point. Everyone has it. You know where you need to be depth wise, stop looking at the mirror to judge your depth use a friend and/or the camera. It fucks with you. You might even be losing tightness because of it. Ignore what you look like and focus on feeling the movement.

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:

This is the POWER LIFTING forum right? not the OLYMPIC squat thread… lol

I can do that wall technique with a shoulder width stance. The fundamentals of a squat are basically the same regardless of stance width. The main point of the wall squat is to teach to keep the chest up and start the movement with the hips breaking backwards. Like any other advice on message boards the “asker” should decide if the free advice given applies to his or her situation. Since your perspective on the wall squat seems to be from reading about it on other forums why don’t you go find a wall and a broomstick and try it out yourself. Then YOU can decide if it sucks for you or not. Sorry if I sound like a dick. :slight_smile:
[/quote]

I just don’t understand why people get so rude just because they’re sitting behind their computer. Where did civility go?

I wasn’t suggesting that this was an Oly thread. There are PLers who squat narrow stance. And of course I’ve tried wall squats. I can do them wide stance but not narrow stance. And since the OP squats narrow stance, my point was merely that this exercise may not work for him. However, I stand corrected that they can be a good exercise for narrow-stance squatters since you’ve said that you can do them with this stance.[/quote]

I did write LOL, apologized for sounding like a dick and put a smiley face at the end. What more could I have done?? IDK, so I’ll say sorry and move on.

never said you were / are? And congrats on those accomplishments.

You stated something to the effect of “the wall is is all the rage on other forums” so I assumed that you had maybe never done them & suggested that you try them to get first hand experience. Since you have then ok.

Not trying to sound like a tough guy over here, Let’s start over ok, see you around the boards.

I had the same problem for a while but worse than stopping high I would butt wink to get lower which repeatedly led to a hurt lower back. After years of this merry go round I stopped back squatting out of spite. I have recently started squatting again after putting in lots of work to loosen the culprits - my psoas and other hip flexors.

Things are much better now. Stretch those buggers out, they may be preventing you from keeping a good position with your lower back out of the hole. There are some good articles and posts on this site with advice on how to do so. Good work, keep it up.

Keep working at it… Looks like things are coming together for you… if you need anymore help feel free to contact me … i have alot of tips and different workouts to get your strength up once you get your form in tact… i look foward to hearing from you…

btw i would the girl in the purple. feel weird giving squat advice since its my worst lift but here it goes. starting from top to bottom.first things first, GO DEEPER!. Also, personally i would try using a wider grip. imo, the wider your hands are and the more comfortable you are and the less strain you have on your shoulders/wrists, the easier its gonna be to have that text book form. personally, i recommend a wide grip to everyone. and, the whole rocking thing you do on your way up looks like just a stability problem. also looks as if your lower back cant support the weight. when your trying to get your squat up training the posterior chain and abs is gonna be your best friend, especially when taking really deep squats. hope this helped.