500 lb PR Squat Form Check

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

First few sets are just warmups (don’t laugh at my wife’s dancing lol). so, they are a little high sometimes as I get stretched out.

I’ve changed my form on all lifts recently, trying to at least, and squat is the only one that has panned out so far. I am squatting with a wider stance and low bar now.

I wasn’t shooting for a PR on that day, I just wanted to get 500, (which is a PR). I thought about going heavier, but stopped.

Recently my squat training has been nuts, I’ve been adding 5 lbs every session (2 times a week) and just doing a single. I’ve been doing this for about 3 weeks now, and don’t plan to stop until I fail, then I’ll go into a program again.

So, how does it look? Good, bad, terrible, flagged at meet, passing, etc? I haven’t competed yet, but plan to in November in a UPA federation.

2

Hard to tell your depth from that camera angle, at least for me. I laughed at your wife’s dancing.

3

Based on the title, I assumed you only wanted a form check on the 500lb squat, so that’s what I looked at. That being said, if your concern is if this will get passed in a meet, you need to film it from the angle it would be viewed from in a meet. You will have a judge directly in front of you and one directly on each side. From this current angle, I can’t really say how it would do.

If your goal is depth, definitely get a view directly from the side. You could even have your wife hold the camera while sitting in a folding chair at that angle to really get a grasp on it. Some judges will call depth from the front, but normally, if you’re going to get a depth call, it’s going to be from the side judge.

In terms of just form proper, it looked like a squat to me. No real issues.

4

Doesn’t look to bad to me at all. I would try to sit back a bit more and load my hams and glutes more. That’s one of the biggest advantages to the low bar wide squat is the increased Posterior Chain leverage and strength that is able to be used. Also looks like your still trying to just squat up and down rather than really using your hips to power your self through at lock out any way. Watch my hips you can see at about a 45 degree angle I stop really trying to just stand up but, instead squeeze my glutes hard and almost just wedge my self between the bar and the ground buy hip hinging through. Maybe not for every one but it works for me.

5

Good point on the pushing of the hips through, i’ll try to incorporate that on my next lift. Although I don’t have a problem locking out, once it starts going, it finishes, at least so far. I do engage the hips by trying to spread out my knees, but pushing through will get glutes nicely.

I’ll get some videos from side angle to see how they look.

I’m not concerned with if it would be flagged or not as much as overall form.

I’m still getting newbie gains (started lifting a year ago for powerlifting, max squat has gone from about 250 to 500 in 10 months), and I attest 60% of that to form fixing, so I’m always looking for good advice.

Yes, my wife is a tool.

6

Here is today’s squat session. I really notice here I don’t drive my hips through. I sort of did on the 495 rep and it popped up.

Please critique form and depth. I gave side views also.

I said what the hell, let’s try 545.

I’m pretty sure my max was 375 in January, came a long way with everyone help

7

Form looked pretty nice. Can’t tell for sure since camera angled up slightly but looks like your 495 and 545 may be just smidge high.

8

I agree with Reed. Despite that, you’re in a fairly good place technically and you’re probably getting mentally comfortable with 500+ on your back. I’m cautious about giving programming advice because I’m not in your shoes, but I’ll suggest devote some sessions where you work on sets with lower weights that are slightly deeper (and deeper doesn’t mean some ATG, ballerina back butt winking dogshit).

Good work.

9

yeah these look a little higher than your first video, you maybe getting some of that extra weight by cutting a little depth. Seen them passed that high but usually failed. Although it depends on the Fed (and definitely not talking IPF).

I also noticed in your first video it appears like when you come out of bottom you moved slightly to you right. Keep a check on that, an imbalance like that will eventually add up to problems

10

Thanks guys for the advice. I also noticed I slight right on the ascend, but that only happens on lighter weight, doesn’t appear to happen on heavier weight. I do have one leg 1/4 inch longer than the other, maybe part of that issue, but dunno.

I plan to do more deeper squats in my routine, if anything, on all warmup sets. (warmup sets in my mind are everything up to my heaviest weight). Until I can do the warmup in a deeper squat, I don’t move to the next weight.

11

[quote]dzirkelb wrote:
Thanks guys for the advice. I also noticed I slight right on the ascend, but that only happens on lighter weight, doesn’t appear to happen on heavier weight. I do have one leg 1/4 inch longer than the other, maybe part of that issue, but dunno.

I plan to do more deeper squats in my routine, if anything, on all warmup sets. (warmup sets in my mind are everything up to my heaviest weight). Until I can do the warmup in a deeper squat, I don’t move to the next weight.[/quote]

i have never seen a 500+ squater take such small jumps (insult to injury the other way around), also … alpha as fuck squating 5 plates with your children yelling daddy

12

[quote]dutchie1 wrote:

[quote]dzirkelb wrote:
Thanks guys for the advice. I also noticed I slight right on the ascend, but that only happens on lighter weight, doesn’t appear to happen on heavier weight. I do have one leg 1/4 inch longer than the other, maybe part of that issue, but dunno.

I plan to do more deeper squats in my routine, if anything, on all warmup sets. (warmup sets in my mind are everything up to my heaviest weight). Until I can do the warmup in a deeper squat, I don’t move to the next weight.[/quote]

i have never seen a 500+ squater take such small jumps (insult to injury the other way around), also … alpha as fuck squating 5 plates with your children yelling daddy[/quote]

I do the same with my squat my warm UPS where I get all my volume for example

Bar: 10
135 for 8
225 for 6
275 for 5
315 for 5
365 for 3
405 for 3
455 for 3

  • add wraps unless doing heavy unwrapped work -
    495 for 3-5
    520-600 for work sets
13

[quote]Reed wrote:

[quote]dutchie1 wrote:

[quote]dzirkelb wrote:
Thanks guys for the advice. I also noticed I slight right on the ascend, but that only happens on lighter weight, doesn’t appear to happen on heavier weight. I do have one leg 1/4 inch longer than the other, maybe part of that issue, but dunno.

I plan to do more deeper squats in my routine, if anything, on all warmup sets. (warmup sets in my mind are everything up to my heaviest weight). Until I can do the warmup in a deeper squat, I don’t move to the next weight.[/quote]

i have never seen a 500+ squater take such small jumps (insult to injury the other way around), also … alpha as fuck squating 5 plates with your children yelling daddy[/quote]

I do the same with my squat my warm UPS where I get all my volume for example

Bar: 10
135 for 8
225 for 6
275 for 5
315 for 5
365 for 3
405 for 3
455 for 3

  • add wraps unless doing heavy unwrapped work -
    495 for 3-5
    520-600 for work sets[/quote]

Volume from warm ups, gotta try that one day ussually i get it from back off sets

14

Haha, you should watch some of my other videos, I’ll be lifting to some heavy metal / cussing music, then it flips over to Little Mermaid for a PR and crap like that, aka, my daughter walked in, it’s hilarious.

My favorite is when I did a hard rep, then did a 2nd, she started screaming “you did 2 daddy!!”, she’s 3, I felt awesome :slight_smile:

I get all my volume in the warm up sets also, I sometimes do a backdown set, but not anymore. My typical squat session is as follows:

Bar until I can feel I am getting depth
135 until I can feel I’m going ATG
185 until I can feel ATG
225x5
275x4
315x3
365x2
405x1
455x1
495+x1

Generally wrap up at 405, but probably going to skip the 405 wrap to shorten up the length of the workout. Also, the 405 and up sets fluctuate every week, generally adding 10 pounds to each lift, each week. So, next week it would be 415x1, 465x1, 505x1.

Also, I’m changing my squat routine a tad so instead of doing 495x1, i’ll do 3 to 5 sets of 495x1, depends on how I feel, really concentrating on hitting depth.

Lastly, the warm up sets may be less reps, just depends on when I feel loose and am certain I’m hitting depth. My hips take a while to get stretched out. The first set with just the bar is about a 1/4 set, and it is the lowest I can go lol. Adding weight each time stretches it out that much more. I do need to do more work with straps on though as it find that they sort of make it hard to hit depth, but I don’t know if it is due to more weight, or if I just wrap them that tight. I have no hair in the wrap area anymore and a lot of bruising hehe.

I find that making the last weight jumps mimic what I would do in a meet working very well for me, makes me very comfortable with the heavy weight. Last set I try to make it 90-95% of my max, or what I think my max is.

15

looks good man. You need more aggressive music