Quad imbalanced with Hamstrings

[lildog]

your hamstrings/glutes SHOULD be stronger than the quads. you WANT them to be stronger. you might even have overdeveloped quads which caused this injury. most likely though you were use a quad-dominant squat form (knees forward, not hitting parallel, bar placed high, etc...) that placed a lot of stress on that area

I do all those things. that sucks, and now i know and knowing is half the battle.:icon_chee

Thanks for the intuitive advice. If i'm not going past parallel is that o.k. I'm going to a box that is probably 15 inches tall. Why does having a high bar place more pressure on the quads? Just curious about the technique and what happens.

 

[PCP]

I do all those things. that sucks, and now i know and knowing is half the battle.:icon_chee

Thanks for the intuitive advice. If i'm not going past parallel is that o.k. I'm going to a box that is probably 15 inches tall. Why does having a high bar place more pressure on the quads? Just curious about the technique and what happens.

You need to break parallel. Stopping before parallel places a lot more stress on the quadriceps and knee. Squatting with a high bar placement results in a more vertical torso position, forcing forward knee drift, which causes the quadriceps, rather than the posterior chain, to do the brunt of the work. When you combine these two things (squatting above parallel + high bar placement + a lot of forward knee drift) you have a recipe for a quad injury. Place the bar low on your back, and focus on sitting back into the squat. You want to minimize the amount of forward knee drift. This places the stress on the hamstrings and glutes.

I advise you to take a week off from squatting, then begin a new raw squat cycle using correct form.

 

[turbozed]

High-bar versus low-bar back squats on Vimeo

Yup, that's exactly the one. Thanks mom.

 

[lildog]

Thanks for the advice and the good videos. I think my problem is technique. Hopefully i'll be able to get a video up on here when i start back up with squatting.

 

[miaou]

your hamstrings/glutes SHOULD be stronger than the quads. you WANT them to be stronger. you might even have overdeveloped quads which caused this injury. most likely though you were use a quad-dominant squat form (knees forward, not hitting parallel, bar placed high, etc...) that placed a lot of stress on that area

To my knowledge this is not correct.

For most sports the hamstring to quadriceps strength should be roughly around 0.7 to 1 for optimal performance. There are some exceptions depending on sport mechanics; in cycling for instance the ratio for optimal performance is 1 to 1. Around 0.7 to 1 is also the ratio that is considered conductive for optimal knee joint health. The strength of each muscle group is measured using an isokinetic machine.


I am not aware of any sources supporting there might be exceptions where hamstring strength should be higher than quad strength. If you can provide one I will appreciate it.


EDIT: upon re-reading your post, if you are somehow referring to the "total glute plus hamstring strength" then I guess I don't know if this is correct or not. But then again, I don't know how that could be measured.

 

[miaou]

lildog, I don't know how you've reached the conclusion there is an imbalance between your quads and hamstrings.

Nobody can tell for certain what went wrong, but I agree with the rest of the people that the most probable scenario is improper form and/or improper warm-up. There are many resources online that describe proper form on the main lifts. Good luck with the rehab and take the time to do your research in the meantime.

 

[PCP]

To my knowledge this is not correct.

For most sports the hamstring to quadriceps strength should be roughly around 0.7 to 1 for optimal performance. There are some exceptions depending on sport mechanics; in cycling for instance the ratio for optimal performance is 1 to 1. Around 0.7 to 1 is also the ratio that is considered conductive for optimal knee joint health. The strength of each muscle group is measured using an isokinetic machine.


I am not aware of any sources supporting there might be exceptions where hamstring strength should be higher than quad strength. If you can provide one I will appreciate it.


EDIT: upon re-reading your post, if you are somehow referring to the "total glute plus hamstring strength" then I guess I don't know if this is correct or not. But then again, I don't know how that could be measured.

1. We are not talking about training for a sport

2. We are not talking about the hamstrings in isolation

3. We have already established that the problem is caused by his form, which is placing way too much stress on his quadriceps

4. In powerlifting circles it is well known that glute and hamstring strength is far more important in building a large squat/deadlift than developing large quadriceps

 

[miaou]

1. We are not talking about training for a sport

2. We are not talking about the hamstrings in isolation

3. We have already established that the problem is caused by his form, which is placing way too much stress on his quadriceps

4. In powerlifting circles it is well known that glute and hamstring strength is far more important in building a large squat/deadlift than developing large quadriceps

It's ok man!

You are clearly speaking from a practical standpoint and I can see you are not referring to the glute/ham to quad relationship in absolute terms. I actually agree with the advice you gave the TS, and although I don't think we can be certain from the TS somewhat confused description (and no vids) on what the problem is, I also assume form (specifically not properly incorporating the posterior chain and lack of full ROM) is at least part of it.