Not much wrong here but I agree with the list above it looked like were dive bombing a little. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and works well for lots of lifters as long as it is controlled with good bracing. I think you need to get a lot tighter, pull you lats together, big belly breath and brace hard. Slow the decent slightly and focus on staying tight everywhere. Can’t see if you are doing anything funky with your knees from this angle. If you haven’t squatted for ages you just need practice. Maybe one squat data a week within simple progression 5 sets 4-6 reps and then another day where you do tempo / pause squat to really drill the tightness.
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Any chance yours want to adopt a koala !!
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Squat looks really good mate. As others have said the descent is probably too fast but nothing glaringly wrong. Depth is great and back is straight.
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You just need to brace harder. You’re not divebombing in any way, you want to descend aggressively to maximise stretch. The trick is to stay tight while do so.
The bracing sequence I’ve been taught starts before you unrack (and it’s the same for deadlifts):
Pull your abs inwards, away from your belt
Hold your pee
Breathe into your gut
Squeeze down on your air and squeeze your gutes
Squeeze oranges in your armpits
Make a double chin
Then you unrack, walk out. Repeat those steps as necessary once the bar settles. Squat. Repeat
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I got tired out trying to run through that list like, 3 times while sitting on my couch.
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If you get the set up and bracing right, it’s not pleasant.
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Less unpleasant than a fucked back though
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It takes practice.
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I am confused now 
How is that not a dive bomb, if you don’t stay tight (sufficiently) and rely on stretch reflex? I’d argue that is the very definition of a dive bomb squat.
I still think that by cutting the squat a bit higher and having a more “deliberate” turning point (I am kinda missing the correct word here), you could keep a much more stable position.
And again: That is not at all a bad squat were seeing here, @dagill2. The devil is in the details.
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True sir very true.’
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It’s not a divebomb because the descent isn’t particularly fast. It’s just a not-slow descent with poor bracing.
The depth is excessive, but there doesn’t seem be any significant pelvic tilt or lower back rounding to allow it. All it will do is increase stretch, which is no bad thing as @dagill2 seems to have the hips to allow it.
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Upon rewatching the video I see your point. I might have exaggerated the speed of the descent but I’m not convinced about dropping down like that and relying on the stretch reflex.
I would really like to see a squat with a more challenging weight. Maybe that would proove me wrong.
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It gets drilled into us not to have a fast eccentric, which is too simplistic. It should be, don’t have a faster eccentric than you can remain in control during.
So the consensus is often just, slow down so you have more control except it would be more effective to say, learn how to brace and descend aggressively at the same time.
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Thanks guys. I’ll use the pause squats and an extra day of moderately heavy squats to try and hammer the movement with heavier weights. I did notice that on my “paused” squats yesterday, my pauses naturally become lots of little bounces so I’ll try to work on them becoming actual pauses.
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Work for today:
1 mile run. Sorry, “run”
5 x 10 v-ups.
I suck at running.
I’ve nixed daily presses in favour of daily sit ups. I’m not convinced the daily presses were doing anything but interfering with my ability to recover. If I was in a calorie surplus, maybe, but at the minute they feel too much like “more” and not “better”. Abs have always been one of my biggest weaknesses so I think I’ll try this for a month or so. Pick a sensible progression and see what happens over the course of a month.
Weigh in today: 202.4lbs. Finally some downward movement, took long enough
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Work for today:
Bottoms up kb press: 2 x 10 @ 9kg
Press: 3 x 5 @ 42.5kg
Giant set (5 rounds):
5 x squat @ 100kg
5 x ring pull ups
15 x push up, push up handles
Notes:
- I did it. Not much to add.
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I’ll chime in as well.
First I think divebombing vs a fast controlled descent is the divebomb you let the weight push you down losing bracing and tension in the muscles.
The fast descent is a deliberate controlled motion where you let the muscles pull you down, staying braced and with tension in all muscles.
About the squat rep 1, 3 and 5 shows that you pushes your butt back coming out of the hole, look at your shins they gets vertical very quickly, while your butt pushes back.
It happens on rep 2 and 4 as well but not as much.
I think your feeling is that you’re losing control of the bar when that happens, maybe like you feel you’re tipping forward.
I can’t really see it, but it appears that the bar travels a bit in front of you mid foot, and you’re trying to get it back over mid foot by pushing the butt back.
You could try putting the bar a bit lower on the back.
On your second squat day of the week try doing tempo squats 5 seconds down that is a long time stay in the hole for 1 second then 5 seconds up.
Do it with light weight, do it in control 5 seconds down and up in a fluid motion where you can feel what’s going on in the squat, where are your feet, legs, butt, back, head and what are they doing. Do 4 - 6 sets of 3 - 5 reps. Those are technique sets not strength training and not hypertrophy training. Maybe it has a hypertrophy potential because the muscles are tensed for a long time, but it’s not the purpose.
Then there’s the paused squat and the 1,5 rep paused squat, squat down pause for 1 second, go halfway up, pause for a second go back down and up no pause.
And of cause the traditional paused squat.
That squat will be good in no time my friend. You got the strength for much much more.
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You’re right here, for sure. I sometimes even feel a “shift back” when I come out of the hole.
I think @MarkKO had it absolutely bang on when he said the underlying issue is lack of tightness. Which makes sense when almost all my squatting recently has been done at very forgiving weights. It also makes sense that the two things that I implemented that immediately made big improvements to my squat were paused squats and high volume, low rep training with weights I needed to concentrate on.
Thanks for the input man.
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@dagill2 that’s an awesome squat. Would be nice to a three-quarters view.
If it was me squatting my stance would be wider than it seems like yours is but I see nothing wrong here. I’m with @MarkKO, that’s not a dive-bomb. Seems like you are good at utilising your stretch-reflex, so continue to encourage that.
To practice the bracing technique that @MarkKO posted (loved the cues) maybe do 4 sets of 3 with a pause at the bottom. Conceivably, front squats. Not so much focus on weight but rather staying in good position and keeping tight.
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I might film again from another angle when I attempt 120 x 5 next week. I’m extremely nervous about that one already, to the point of considering how I bail if it all goes to shit. I’m pretty confident I’ve never squatted 120kg for more than a single before so I’m going to need every moment of bracing practice I can get between now and then. I’ve bookmarked Mark’s post and I’m trying to practise the steps every night, just to try and make it automatic.
Edit: and yes, I’m doing my back off FSL sets as paused.
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