Squat Videos: 545 x 3

Hey all-

I lift in the USAPL and have had problems with getting depth in the squat, as well as staying upright. I have been told several times that my squats more closely resemble good mornings!

I suspected moving my grip closer (I used to hold the bar all the way out, where my hands were touching the plates) would help me stay upright and get lower. Here is a video of a few warmup sets, then a ME triple with 545. Criticism and comments are appreciated.

Thad

I have a somewhat similar problem. I can’t get depth without near maximum weight (I have to lean over as you do at lower weights). I discovered, by testing depth without weight and with light weight, that the problem for me was in my hips.

My hips were TIGHT as hell and it almost hurt to try and achieve depth with a wide stance and no weight. I worked hard on stretching and focused on slow DEEP squats on warmups. Whatever happens with your squat you can at least know that your back is strong as shit.

My first thought watching the video is try bringing your stance in a good bit. You look pretty damn wide to be raw squatting to IPF legal depth. But you can squat a hell of a lot more than me, lol.

man is your deadlift like 700+?

You’re so much frigging stronger than me I feel ridiculous giving you advice. But that being said, its pretty clear that your upper back is caving over in the hole. It’s possible that this is a muscular issue, but I think it’s probably a technical one. What I would think about if I were you, is as soon as you hit the hole and begin the transition to the upwards phase of the lift, 1) force your elbows under teh bar and 2) push your head BACK (not up) into the bar.

Especially #1; take a look at the third rep of the 545 adn the second of the 555. Your elbows are actually the first body part to move, and they’re going up, not underneath the bar. Even if you just mimic the action while youre sitting at the computer you can see how that sort of forces your shoulders into rounding over. Dont take this the wrong way, but I am impressed that you doubled 555 with form like that. I honestly believe that if you are able to fix this it’ll be a big break through for you.

Dude, you hardly had any rest between sets.

I am going to preface my comments by saying that you, sir, are strong as hell. I am impressed.

That being said, it seems like your squat is more suited toward geared lifting. You have the bar so low and sit so far back into the squat that you end up getting bent over, thus doing a half-squat half-good morning. I have this problem as well, and I think it has to do with reading so much about sitting back into the squat. However for a raw squat this does not help as much. Jim Wendler wrote an article (“Casual Friday”) in which he talked about sitting back but also squatting down. Since raw you don’t have the suit to catch you, you have to squat down as well. Don’t be afraid to let your knees move forward. That’s not to say turn it into an Olympic squat, but try to find a happy medium so you don’t end up doubled over.

Best of luck and stay strong!

[quote]ultimatethor wrote:
I am going to preface my comments by saying that you, sir, are strong as hell. I am impressed.

That being said, it seems like your squat is more suited toward geared lifting. You have the bar so low and sit so far back into the squat that you end up getting bent over, thus doing a half-squat half-good morning. I have this problem as well, and I think it has to do with reading so much about sitting back into the squat. However for a raw squat this does not help as much. Jim Wendler wrote an article (“Casual Friday”) in which he talked about sitting back but also squatting down. Since raw you don’t have the suit to catch you, you have to squat down as well. Don’t be afraid to let your knees move forward. That’s not to say turn it into an Olympic squat, but try to find a happy medium so you don’t end up doubled over.

Best of luck and stay strong![/quote]

Really good post.

My only input would be to simply take your stance in a bit, sit back AND down, and drive your elbows forward.

You are looking brutally strong tho!

Is that Fedor spotting you?

Hi Tuna Monkey,

I can appreciate the advice you have been given so far, but I would also ask you to question if that is just your squatting style.

I think we sometimes get caught up in the idea that there is a right way to do things, however, if you ever watch steve goggins squat, he looks a lot like you do.

I have seen him “good morning” over 1000lbs in the squat.

Check out this link:

I hope this helps.

holy shit that’s a god damn good morning

you must have a beastly deadlift. From the speed of that squat I’d say low 700s?

I’m unqualified to give advice and some good stuff has gotten posted already. Not sure if this has been mentioned but your hips are rolling under at the bottom, I’m guessing that’s just you trying to make depth. If you sit down a little more and back less you’d make the same depth without that happening maybe, but idk. What happens when you miss? That’s gotta be tough to spot.

youtube vids are awesome btw, keep up the strong lifting man

It seems to me that when you try to go for that last inch or so at the bottom, you drop the glutes a lot which makes it seem like the back is rounding.

Take it for what its worth, you’ve got 200 lbs on the squat than me, but it really does seem to be that youre stretching the back a bit.

I disagree witht eh comments saying that youre sitting back too far/you need to let your knees come forward further. Watching the videos, your hips and knees break at the same time. I would strive NOT to let your knees come any further forward than they already are.

[quote]vision1 wrote:
Is that Fedor spotting you?[/quote]

No, it was me. I’m nowhere near as strong as Thad (Tunamonkey) but I’m working on it.

Check out my log at www.westcarybarbell.com/toms_log/

There are tons of videos of Thad and me at http://www.youtube.com/simonatwcbb

I basically agree with everything KBC has said, except it looks to me like your hips are breaking ever so slightly before your knees, which is good. You seem to be sitting back and down fine.

I think your stance width looks fine, but it can be hard to judge this in videos.

The biggest thing I think you should work on is your hand/elbow placement. You definitely need to get your elbows more underneath the bar, and if you can you may want to bring your hands in closer. A couple suggestions that may help this are to not wrap your thumbs around the bar and to hold the bar lower on your palm. Your wrists almost look hyper-extended, which in many cases can lead to your elbows pointing back and not down, depending on your flexibility.

One more basic pointer that I can’t tell off of the video is to make sure that you are retracting your scapulae, and keeping them back throughout the lift.

I also agree somewhat with MikeShank. Sometimes your bodies leverages will dictate your form, and you need to keep in mind that that is a lot of weight you are moving. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement.

Finally, increasing your hip flexibility may help a bit, too.

I can’t help but re-state what I said before. I feel like, after watching again, I am watching myself squat when I had the hip flexibility issues. Does it feel like your hips are super tight the more you try and sit back? I know bending like that relieved tremendous pressure on my hips until I got the stretching in. It even looks like you have issues obtaining depth on the first rep moreso than the following reps. Again, that is EXACTLY the problem I had (and am still working on). I squat very similar weights to you and with near identical form (unrack, walkout, setup, bouncy at the top). I might be totally off base but it is just some anecdotal information from me.

I think louie simmons said that when squatting you should think about pushing your back against the bar rather than thinking about pushing with your feet/legs. Are you able to get the bar a little lower on your back?

That’s a tough angle to evaluate.

The main thing I am struck by is I basically don’t see any effort at the start of the lift to lift your chest up and maintain that position.

In other words, the body position you elect at the start of the lift is likely contributing to the forward lean.

As you know being a USAPL lifter you have to lock the knees and hips to get the start. To me, and again the video angle makes it tough to judge, you are pretty soft in the knees and hips.

The first thing I would have you do is start squeezing your ass hard at the start of the lift, treating each rep the same, and working on lifting your chest up and pushing the elbows forward before you descend.

Somewhere I saw somebody recommend a slower descent. This is BS advice b/c given the way you currently squat, all descending slower is going to accomplish is give you more time during the execution of the lift to lean in.

You would be better off maintaining your current speed and working on tightening up and winding up the squat before you descend.

[quote]Gianacakos wrote:
I can’t help but re-state what I said before. I feel like, after watching again, I am watching myself squat when I had the hip flexibility issues. Does it feel like your hips are super tight the more you try and sit back? I know bending like that relieved tremendous pressure on my hips until I got the stretching in. It even looks like you have issues obtaining depth on the first rep moreso than the following reps. Again, that is EXACTLY the problem I had (and am still working on). I squat very similar weights to you and with near identical form (unrack, walkout, setup, bouncy at the top). I might be totally off base but it is just some anecdotal information from me.[/quote]

I am the world’s least flexible person and my hips always feel tight, especially during warmups (ironically, 135 hurts more than 600!). What kind of hip stretches do you do?

[quote]Donut62 wrote:
My first thought watching the video is try bringing your stance in a good bit. You look pretty damn wide to be raw squatting to IPF legal depth. But you can squat a hell of a lot more than me, lol.[/quote]

I used to squat very narrow and moved my stance out because I thought it would help me get depth. I moved it out around the same time I started lifting in gear.