Hey guys,
I’ve been working on my squat form a lot and want to get this right before going really heavy. Here is a video from different angles with different weights. THanks!
Close your stance, it’s too wide. A lot.
Get your elbows under the bar more, you are all over the place on your walkout. And just lose the lifting gloves
Hi Nik, I’m going for wide/sumo stance squats (stance is wide intentionally). I dont yet have enough ankle mobility for narrow stance. Plus I Sumo-deadlift also.
cparker, why should i lose the lifting gloves?
[quote]beastwalker wrote:
why should i lose the lifting gloves?[/quote]
Because it doesn’t match your purse lol. On a serious note, get your hand used to the knurling bro.
You do need to keep working on depth. You seem pretty comfortable getting down to an inch above what would pass in a powerlifting competition, and no more. Not terrible, but needs some more work.
It looks like you’re wearing running shoes…I’d suggest getting flat sole shoes if you insist on squatting wide stance, and if you want to give narrower stance a shot, get some LIFTING shoes with a raised heel…which will help with your lack of ankle flexibility.
Any specific questions?
Hi Hungry4More,
Thanks for the comments. I’m not really into powerlifting. I’m only training for health and aesthetics. Do you think the depth is not good enough in that case? I actually thought i was going deep enough.
Re the shoes, agreed. The soles are pretty flat (apart from the slight curve at the back) but I’m going to get some new shoes soon.
Mina293, I’m actually curious as to why not using gloves is “good”. I’m not interested in going to competitions so what are the advantages? Not getting callouses is a big deal for me.
Only reason I can see for gloves is if you already have monster calluses that rip open and bleed everywhere. Even then it’s questionable.
No, you are not going deep enough.
[quote]beastwalker wrote:
Thanks for the comments. I’m not really into powerlifting. I’m only training for health and aesthetics. Do you think the depth is not good enough in that case? I actually thought i was going deep enough.[/quote]
I don’t think the depth is good enough either. Unless you have a very specific bodybuilding related reason where you’re training above parallel squats along with a ton of other leg work, I think you should be hitting at least parallel. (And that wasn’t parallel.)
What is the reason for the ultra-wide squats? What are you trying to accomplish with it? If you’re “training for health and aesthetics”, why did you choose that style?
I’m curious why you think you’ll get callouses holding the bar while doing squats. If you were doing power cleans or high pulls with gloves, I can actually understand where you’re coming from.
Hi LoRez. THanks for the feedback. I Just posted a picture from the video. How much lower than that do i need to be to be considered parrallel? Figured my Hips are parralel to the floor there.
I like ultra wide squats because they feel more comfortable. What advantages would narrowing my stance have ?
I am 6 1 and have very long limbs. Plus i’ve fractured my right ankle previously and I am only just getting back my ROM on that side.
With regards to gloves, I see lots of body builders lifting 2-3x what I’m that use them and they make the bar more comfortable for me so i’m going to keep using them.
But thanks for the feedback on that. Like I said, i have absolutely zero interest of ever entering any competition whatsoever so as long as something I’m doing is not going to cause me any sort of injury then i’m fine with it.
I would also recommend that you bring your stance in a bit, even if it means sacrificing ROM in the short term. It looks as though your knees and your foot arch are caving in, which is really not where you want to be. You could also work more on pushing the knees out.
Lower the J hooks too, you’re having to do calf raises to get the bar on and off.
[quote]beastwalker wrote:
Hi LoRez. THanks for the feedback. I Just posted a picture from the video. How much lower than that do i need to be to be considered parrallel? Figured my Hips are parralel to the floor there.
I like ultra wide squats because they feel more comfortable. What advantages would narrowing my stance have ?
I am 6 1 and have very long limbs. Plus i’ve fractured my right ankle previously and I am only just getting back my ROM on that side.
With regards to gloves, I see lots of body builders lifting 2-3x what I’m that use them and they make the bar more comfortable for me so i’m going to keep using them.
But thanks for the feedback on that. Like I said, i have absolutely zero interest of ever entering any competition whatsoever so as long as something I’m doing is not going to cause me any sort of injury then i’m fine with it.[/quote]
Parallel means that the hip crease is below the knee. In the picture shown, your hip crease is probably an inch or two above the knee. This is a fair bit high because as you go lower your knees will have to lower as well (as they move forward). You posted this in the powerlifting forum and your squat wouldn’t pass in a powerlifting competition, so you’re going to get responses telling you to go lower.
However, I’m not of the opinion that you need to focus on going lower. Going lower would have good benefits if you could do it and you should work on developing the mobility to go lower correctly. However, your knees and ankles are caving in as it is. This means you don’t have the hip mobility to squat lower with this wide stance. You’ve said that you don’t have the ankle mobility to squat low with a narrower stance. Forcing yourself to squat lower when you don’t have the mobility means that either your knees or your lower back are going to be compromised.
As was said, getting your footware sorted out could go a long way towards cleaning up your squatting. I would make that a priority. I would also second that you need to lower the j hooks. Unracking the bar from a quarter squat should not be a problem, but coming up on your toes will be a problem as the weight gets heavier.
To be fair on the depth it seemed like every rep was not to to same place so therefore some were lower while others higher.
Thanks Silyak,cparker,thorny!,
Ill lower the rack next time and work more on the form. Update soon.
I would consider posting this in the bodybuilding or BSL sub-forum (since you aren’t interested in powerlifting). You’ll get different responses.
x2
x3.
By posting this in the powerlifting forum, you are getting the perspective of the powerlifter. The goal of the powerlifter is to attain a particular depth for competition purposes, and to move as much weight as possible, as efficiently as possible. None of those things are related to your goals.
Agreed with everyone on the rack height, take that down a notch, agreed on the shoe issue, and agreed on the stance issue.
Just because the wide stance is comfortable to you right now doesn’t mean it is the stance that is best suited to attaining your goals. It is rare to see a bodybuilder use that kind of stance as his main stance for squats. Watch as many bodybuilders squatting on youtube as you can, and see if you agree. If you’re training for aesthetics, then bringing in your stance may very well engage more muscles that you aren’t accustomed to using. I’ve found that I’ve achieved the best leg development when I use a much narrower stance than what you are using. Since your knees are visibly caving with the wide stance, a narrower stance will likely promote long-term knee health as well, even if it feels uncomfortable to start.
Hi Flip,
Thanks for the feedback. I’m new here but I’ll make my next post in the bodybuilding sub-forum instead of powerlifting.
I agree on the rack height, shoes and my knees caving. Not sure I’m convinced that a narrow stance is “better”. Its what most people do and what most people are used to I know. But everyone has different bio-mechanics and there is more glute and posterior chain activation in the wide stance squats. If i go narrow, I cant hit depth without rounding my back …yet. Ill do more research on that and see whats best for me.
Thanks everyone again. appreciated.