Anyone have suggestions on how to get deeper in a wide stance squat. by wide i mean wider than shoulder width not westside wide. I get to a point where it feels like I cant go any lower yet i am still only at parralel.
Looks like you’ve got some serious inflexibility issues, either at the hip or the ankles or both.
You’ve got to stretch everything my friend.
You need to strengthen your hip flexors and learn to use them to pull yourself down into the hole. Try doing front squats, they will help.
Hi
Try doing wide stance box squats and lower the box height when possible.
Hope this helps,
Chris
Point your toes out.
Like apwsearch said, point your toes out. It opens your hips and makes it easier to dip in.
Get a really good warm up before squatting, for example doing some light pull-throughs with a wide stance is a good idea… they also wake up your glutes in case the ass is still feeling sleepy.
Attaining the flexibility needed for wide stance squats isn’t something that develops overnight, atleast for most of us… just squat and repeat, worked magic for me.
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
Point your toes out.[/quote]
I think that this can be bad advice. If the lifter is trying to point his toes straight, than yes, turning them out a bit will obviously help and is good advice. However, if his toes are already out some (say, bout 45deg. for arguments sake) than you are not really helping his main problem, which is most likely dynamic flexibility (or lack thereof).
What I would suggest, to maybe add a bit to what the others have, is the following:
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WARM-up. Make sure your body is nice and warm before squatting.
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Dynamic flexibilty drills. Invest in the Magnificent Mobility DVD sold on this site. If you get it, than off the top of my head, some of the drills I would do would be: Reverse lunge w/twist; Spiderman’s; Side/Side leg swings; Deep Wide-Out drops; X-band walks; Calf mobilizations. Also, add in some hurdle duck-unders as well (make sure you keep good posture).
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Train your hamstrings/glutes/etc. RDL’s, Glute/Hams, Reverse Hypers and the like. This way you can have the strength to sit back and down with ease.
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Make sure your form is good. Here is a link to what I think is a good article that should help:
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/causal_friday.htm
Pay attention to the technique changes section.
Good luck,
Pat
I usually stretch out for about ten minutes before squatting. First I do some close stance full ATG squats with just the bar, then I do two stretches that help out:
1)hold onto the bar (with the bar still on the pins), and get your feet in a squat stance. Slowly lower yourself as low as you can go. Come back up, bring your stance wider, and do it again.
- With one foot about two feet in front of the other, get into a squat stance. Now shift your weight far forward onto your front foot. You’ll know you’re doing it right if you feel it in the same muscles in your groin that you feel the stretch in when you squat down. Repeat for other foot.
Keep doing these stretches until you can get down without pain. (roughly ten minutes for me)
After doing this, I can do ass to grass squats with my ankles about 2.5 feet apart. It took me a while to get to that point, but you get the picture.
I think alot of us are forgetting some basic strength training principles. Stretching before doing something that requires alot of neural activity be it at the fast or slow end of the spectrum is not a good idea. If stretching right before you squat helps, it means you did not most likely warm up effectively because you are not going to increase your ROM in one stretching session.
Also, even at a semi-wide squat depth it is very hard to get deeper than parallell because there is not as much knee flexion as in the closer stances. It is not poor flexibility to not be able to do this, reaching paralell requires decent flexibility.
The best thing to do would be to start with a lower weight and work on getting the ROM you want. Stretching will not help with this, you need to take your muscles through ROM in which your muscles are electrically active.
[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
I think alot of us are forgetting some basic strength training principles. Stretching before doing something that requires alot of neural activity be it at the fast or slow end of the spectrum is not a good idea. If stretching right before you squat helps, it means you did not most likely warm up effectively because you are not going to increase your ROM in one stretching session.
Also, even at a semi-wide squat depth it is very hard to get deeper than parallell because there is not as much knee flexion as in the closer stances. It is not poor flexibility to not be able to do this, reaching paralell requires decent flexibility.
The best thing to do would be to start with a lower weight and work on getting the ROM you want. Stretching will not help with this, you need to take your muscles through ROM in which your muscles are electrically active.[/quote]
Like dynamic flexibilty drills?
Ralf -
Check out the “Magnificent Mobility” DVD in the Biotest Store (you can get there by clicking on the image in the upper-left hand corner of the screen). There’s quite a few mobility drills in there that should help you squat deeper.
Good luck!
Stay strong
MR
Mike, what other drills would you suggest from your DVD than the ones I listed above?
Thanks,
Pat
[quote]Mike Robertson wrote:
Ralf -
Check out the “Magnificent Mobility” DVD in the Biotest Store (you can get there by clicking on the image in the upper-left hand corner of the screen). There’s quite a few mobility drills in there that should help you squat deeper.
Good luck!
Stay strong
MR
www.robertsontrainingsystems.com[/quote]