Squat Form Checklist

theNuge

theNuge

Brown Belt
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
2,645
Reaction score
0
I was checking out more squat form videos this week when I noticed that on my last workout day I forgot to keep my elbows back. This explained some of my problems with my squats. I'm a noob if you couldn't tell.

I was wondering if we could start a "must-do when squatting" checklist. My contribution is the following:

- Keep Elbows Back
 
I always thought you were supposed to keep elbows down..
 
-Feet and hands symmetric
-Eyes always pointed at one spot one the wall
-Lower back tight
-Knees always point in same direction as feel
-Go at least to parallel
-Belly full of air
-Head goes up first
 
-Feet and hands symmetrical
-Eyes always pointed at one spot one the wall
-Lower back tight
-Knees always point in same direction as feel
-Go at below parallel
-Belly full of air
-Head goes up first
-Elbows back, upper back tight, chest lifted
-Drive through heels

I think it'd work better if each person added to the previous list in their post so we'd have a master list as the last post. IMO.
 
push knees out - don't, under any circumstances, let them buckle
 
Set up
-Feet and hands symmetrical
-Head up, looking up
-Lower back tight
-Abs tight
-Shoulder blades pulled back, pressing chest out
-Elbows down
-Belly full of air

Descent
-Sit back and down
-Push your knees out
-Keep your weight on your heels
-Lower legs stays mainly perpedicular with ground
-Keep your body tight
-Go down quick and controlled
-Hit parallel or your asshole of the ground

Coming back up
-Drive your head and neck into the bar
-Drive through your heels
-Head moves first
-Fire you glutes and move your hips forward not up
-Keep your speed up
 
Bizarro said:
I always thought you were supposed to keep elbows down..
Click to expand...

Elbows back forces you shoulder blades to come together, making a shelf to lay the bar on with your traps.
 
Elbows back is retarded.

Elbows should be down perpendicular to the ground at all times.

You can retract your scapula and keep your upper back tight while doing this.
 
For us pencil necks it is a godsend. Sure, I can pull my scapula back without putting my elbows back, but the difference in the concentration of my traps is night and day.
 
Careful with the drive through the heels thing. Doing that with either the squat or the DL usually leads to the hips coming up far too quickly.

You should lead with the head/shoulders on both lifts. For the squat, when I am coming out of the hole, I imagine trying to toss the bar off my back.

Don't even think about your feet once your stance is set.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. This will really help.
 
So long as we're on the subject, I've got a question --

I know you're supposed to push to push outward with your feet/knees (ie. "try to spread the floor") on the ascent. No argument there.

One of the guys in the PL club told me to also do the same thing on the way down. Okay, I can do that.

Problem is, at rock bottom of the squat it's very hard to do. So I let up the pressure for a second as I approach and reach rock bottom and then turn it on again as I start to come out of hole.

Thoughts on this?
 
flak said:
Problem is, at rock bottom of the squat it's very hard to do. So I let up the pressure for a second as I approach and reach rock bottom and then turn it on again as I start to come out of hole.
Click to expand...
It is laughable that I am providing advice on the squat, however... I think that is probably a flexibility problem. Lack of flexibility causes many problems at the bottom, like lower back rounding or knees coming in.
 
Old Man said:
It is laughable that I am providing advice on the squat, however... I think that is probably a flexibility problem. Lack of flexibility causes many problems at the bottom, like lower back rounding or knees coming in.
Click to expand...

No doubt I'd do better with it if I were more flexible. But I think the bigger issue is that human anatomy just isn't set up to let you exert a lot of outward force with your legs when you're crouched down low and still descending.
 
flak said:
No doubt I'd do better with it if I were more flexible. But I think the bigger issue is that human anatomy just isn't set up to let you exert a lot of outward force with your legs when you're crouched down low and still descending.
Click to expand...

It can, and the old cat is 100% right. And it's not even that you have to be flexible, just flexible in the right place.

If you're power squatting, your hips and hams need to have decent mobility at the very least.

Pushing the knees out becomes much less exaggerated if you're doing narrow stance squatting. But overall flexibility requirements sky rocket.
 
Carnal, any suggestions on increasing flexibility so's I can do a better outward push when I'm close to rock bottom?

I usually do PL squats, and I'm really trying to get my form ironed out.

I do stretches where I get into a squat stance, sit back and try to maintain the position for 30 seconds or so. In other words, simulating a PL squat without the barbell. I haven't been doing the outward push during the stretch, but I could try it.
 
theNuge said:
I was checking out more squat form videos this week when I noticed that on my last workout day I forgot to keep my elbows back. This explained some of my problems with my squats. I'm a noob if you couldn't tell.

I was wondering if we could start a "must-do when squatting" checklist. My contribution is the following:

- Keep Elbows Back
Click to expand...

if you're purposely keep your elbows back, then you're purposely not recruiting your lats which contribute a lot to your torso stability. In other words you should be pulling the bar down towards your upper upper back, which is kind of difficult if you're purposely keeping your elbows back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,243,540
Messages
55,918,568
Members
174,999
Latest member
King Jinping

Share this page

Back
Top