[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
maraudermeat wrote:
just watched your vids. the lower body is doing what it’s supposed to but you need to work on the bar placement and getting those elbows directly under the bar.
you missed the last set because the weight got in front of you.
to have power through the entire range of motion the weight needs to stay directly over the hips. this is not a natural act. as you squat down the body naturally wants to dump that weight forward and as the weight is dumped forward the ass shoots up first to try and compensate.
my suggestions to you is to experiment on getting that bar lower on your upper back. it’s going to be very uncomfortable and to keep that weight in a low bar position, your arms are going to have to brace it. think of doing a behind the neck press. that is the position you need to be in and stay in throughout the squat. right now your elbows are way back and the weight has no stability. it sits high on top of your traps and as you initiate your drive out of the hole, the weight immidiately gets in front of you. this in turn leads to the hips rising first, quicker and quicker as the weight gets heavier and heavier.
if you don’t have a pair of elbow sleeves you are going to NEED them. getting that low bar position and bracing it puts a ton of stress on the biceps and forarms. this is the price to pay for a strong squat.
getting the elbows down and bracing the bar is just the beginning. as you drive out of the hole you need to push your elbows forward. this will fight the weights natural motion to get in front of you. pushing the elbows forward will also maintain your arch and keep the weight over the hips.
as for ways to train this. i would start doing squats in the eccentric only off of pins. set up a bar on pins at a position where you are in the hole on a squat. get tight under the bar with your arms braced and squat that shit up. bring it back down and let it rest on the pins. stand up and then reset up starting over. this will engrain that need to brace the weight and force the elbows forward. if you do it wrong, it’s going to look like a good morning.
i’ve attached a vid of one of my near max attempts on squat. the reason i was able to power out of the hole was because i kept the weight over my hips and kept my elbows down. then i really forced them forward hard out of the hole.
let me know if you need me to clarify anything.
Thanks so much for the feedback. The minute I read your comments about elbows on SteelyD’s log I thought that was the big weak link in my chain.
Since I’ve started squatting my bar position has been high and tight with my hands right at my shoulders. I may have to widen my grip to get a bit lower. I think my squat numbers will go up just based on that alone for the mechanics and the distance the bar has to travel. In fact, the more I watch the videos, the more my bar position looks like where Olympic lifters put the bar to squat.
Man, I have a lot of work to rebuild that groove.
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getting a low bar position, especially for leaner, less bulky people, can be very difficult. the arms have to carry a lot of the weight. definitely get some elbow sleeves. they will help a lot.
Because most of the lifters I know are much bigger than me, I’m stuck comparing myself to them so I’m always playing the imaginary numbers game.