Squat form checks

[joshcurl]

My buddy and I are starting out on rippetoe's routine and want to make sure we are doing our squats correctly.

Me:



Friend:



Any input would be appreciated

 

[Justice 4 All]

"Me"

- Wrists need to be straight. They should function such that they hold the bar down on your delts, not support it up.
- Break at the hips more. As it is, you're bringing your knees forward too early. They should remain stationary for the first ~1/3 of the descent.

"Friend"

- Same wrist thing.
- Looks like the knees might be buckling in, they need to bend towards the toes. Try and consciously force them apart, stretching can sometimes be necessary.
- Needs to sit back more.
- Might need to try and stand up straighter at the end of the rep.

Otherwise it looks pretty good. The camera angles are sort of hard to judge from (especially in the first video). I can't see the depth accurately.

 

[Cratos]

OP, it looks like you are holding the bar on your back. Your upper back should be tight, creating a shelf with your rear delts, on which the bar will rest. The bar is bouncing all over the place on your back and it shouldn't be.

You have quite a bit of tail tuck, which can be fixed with stretching.

 

[scoopj]

Do you feel any pain in your wrists? Try a thumbless grip and make it so your hand is in the same plane as your forearms or it may become a problem for your wrists at heavier weights. Make sure your back is carrying the weight, not your arms.

 

[CoreCanyon]

it looks as if both (though I cannot really tell) of you guys knees are passing your toes in the bottom phase. In my experience, all people who complain about knee problems while squatting have this same issue.

Keeping your knee mid-foot through out the rep can/should fix all of the lower body problems mentioned above, aside from the tail tuck, which stretching is the cure.

 

[joshcurl]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

We're going to try using a thumb over the bar grip from now on, add in some hamstring stretches and work on sitting back more.

Would doing box squats be beneficial ?

 

[Poseylifts]

As far as the stretching, I would do dynamic stretching prior to working out vice static stretching. Things like jumping jacks, leg swings, BW lunges and squats are good to stretch your muscles out. Everything I've read suggests static stretching prior to weight lifting is a no-no.

 

[Lard-ass]

it looks as if both (though I cannot really tell) of you guys knees are passing your toes in the bottom phase. In my experience, all people who complain about knee problems while squatting have this same issue.

Keeping your knee mid-foot through out the rep can/should fix all of the lower body problems mentioned above, aside from the tail tuck, which stretching is the cure.

In my experience,all people who complain about knee passing your toes confuses PL squat with olympic squat or the squat that Rippetoes advocates.

 

[CoreCanyon]

In my experience,all people who complain about knee passing your toes confuses PL squat with olympic squat or the squat that Rippetoes advocates.

With these guys saying that they want to go the Rippetoe "way" I figured they would want to squat the way he talks about in Starting Strength, where your knees track your toes.

I'm not sure if you are saying I'm confusing something w/something else, though. I don't quite understand your comment.

 

[Tosa]

It's silly to worry about whether your knees are go past the toes. Would someone squat differently if their feet were smaller or larger? For example, for my size I have rather small feet; does this mean I need to sit back more than if my feet were larger? Of course not!

 

[Ghost Ape]

In my experience,all people who complain about knee passing your toes confuses PL squat with olympic squat or the squat that Rippetoes advocates.

"Knees over toes" don't really matter, but your knees shouldn't be moving forward a whole lot after the first part of the descent

It's more obvious in the second video. If you pause it at 10 seconds in, his knees shouldn't really be moving forward past this stage but his knees are still moving at 12 seconds. I'm pretty sure this is something you want to avoid regardless of the type of squat being done because both Rippetoe and the Squat Rx mention this and they primarily teach low bar and high bar respectively.

 

[CoreCanyon]

It's silly to worry about whether your knees are go past the toes. Would someone squat differently if their feet were smaller or larger? For example, for my size I have rather small feet; does this mean I need to sit back more than if my feet were larger? Of course not!

Its one of the things that Rippetoe specifically mentions in Starting Strength. He even has a "drill" to correct it where he puts a wooden block in front of the person squatting's foot, and has them squat w/o knocking the wood block over.

Why he talks about it has to do w/where the actual weight is positioned during the low bar squat. The difference is the force of the weight downward through your quads/hamstrings/hips or through your knees.

So, according to Rip, and starting strength, it does matter. If we are to advocate Starting Strength as much as this board does, I think it is very pertinent to discuss and bring to surface every aspect of it. Especially for those asking questions.

 

[Tosa]

Its one of the things that Rippetoe specifically mentions in Starting Strength. He even has a "drill" to correct it where he puts a wooden block in front of the person squatting's foot, and has them squat w/o knocking the wood block over.

Why he talks about it has to do w/where the actual weight is positioned during the low bar squat. The difference is the force of the weight downward through your quads/hamstrings/hips or through your knees.

So, according to Rip, and starting strength, it does matter. If we are to advocate Starting Strength as much as this board does, I think it is very pertinent to discuss and bring to surface every aspect of it. Especially for those asking questions.

What's happening in that drill, or the similar drill where someone squats with their toes touching a wall, is it's teaching sitting back and pushing the knees out. It's a reasonable drill, but I don't think it's necessary for the wall or block of wood to be right at the toes for this drill to be useful.

I think it's important to recognize that while Starting Strength is a good book, not everything in it is not the one and only objective truth. There are certain constants in any technically good squat, but there are also things that vary like whether the knees pass the toes. Another example is Rippetoe advocates looking down and forwards, at a spot on the floor 7ft ahead of you (or something like that), but you'll also see looking up given as a cue by people like Wendler. Is either wrong? no, not really.

Also, remember that technique cues don't necessarily describe what actually happens/should happen during a lift. And that the size of someone's feet have very little to do with squat mechanics.

 

[CoreCanyon]

What's happening in that drill, or the similar drill where someone squats with their toes touching a wall, is it's teaching sitting back and pushing the knees out. It's a reasonable drill, but I don't think it's necessary for the wall or block of wood to be right at the toes for this drill to be useful.

I think it's important to recognize that while Starting Strength is a good book, not everything in it is not the one and only objective truth. There are certain constants in any technically good squat, but there are also things that vary like whether the knees pass the toes. Another example is Rippetoe advocates looking down and forwards, at a spot on the floor 7ft ahead of you (or something like that), but you'll also see looking up given as a cue by people like Wendler. Is either wrong? no, not really.

Also, remember that technique cues don't necessarily describe what actually happens/should happen during a lift. And that the size of someone's feet have very little to do with squat mechanics.

Yeah, I don't want to argue about this really, but this is something that we work with with the powerlifting team, and something that we really stress. Basically, if your knees do not pass your toes, you are sitting back. Neither of the gentlemen really sat back in the squat, so it's an easy cue that eliminates potential problems at heavier weight. I didn't say anything about the size of anyone's foot, but even then, it shouldn't matter, and it will save lots of problems later (especially the inward dive knee problem that many beginner lifters have at lower weights).

As I said earlier, the OP and his buddy specifically mentioned Rippetoe, so I gave them what Rip would say through Starting Strength, because those things do matter, because it is what we will recommend over and over and over. Other wise, why even mention Starting Strength at all if we're going to just say, "Do starting strength, but only follow the parts you want to follow." You are a solid contributer here, and a strong dude, no doubt, so I know that you do not want to do that.

 

[Tosa]

"Do starting strength, but only follow the parts you want to follow."

How about instead of this, go with what I was actually saying, which was:

"In the case of other especially knowledgable and awesome people having opinions that run contary to what's stated in Starting Strength, we can weigh the various opinions, and follow what we think is best, even if that's not what's stated in Starting Strength".

Regardless, I too, have no interest in debating any further.

 

[Keosawa]

It's silly to worry about whether your knees are go past the toes. Would someone squat differently if their feet were smaller or larger? For example, for my size I have rather small feet; does this mean I need to sit back more than if my feet were larger? Of course not!

I guess the moral of the story is that next time, have you and your buddy wear clown shoes to squat. Problem solved.

 

[Ghost Ape]

Its one of the things that Rippetoe specifically mentions in Starting Strength. He even has a "drill" to correct it where he puts a wooden block in front of the person squatting's foot, and has them squat w/o knocking the wood block over.

Why he talks about it has to do w/where the actual weight is positioned during the low bar squat. The difference is the force of the weight downward through your quads/hamstrings/hips or through your knees.

So, according to Rip, and starting strength, it does matter. If we are to advocate Starting Strength as much as this board does, I think it is very pertinent to discuss and bring to surface every aspect of it. Especially for those asking questions.

You're slightly misinterpreting the drill and in actuality it is what Tosa is describing. Rippetoe never says not to put the knees over the toes, but instead to stop moving the knees forward as you descend. If you don't believe me, go take a look at the SS squat section again. Literally every picture/drawing of someone squatting has their knees over their toes (even on the cover lol).

EDIT: here I even looked it up:

Figure 2-51: Note that the knees, once they move forward to their position over the toes, do not move during the remainder of the squat until the ascent carries them back up to this point.