Today I tried to perform Box Squats and perfect my form. My new training partner noticed that when I go down to the box I lead with my hips like I should but I seem to drop straight down when I get down to the box. Wondering what causes this. I am 6’4" with very long legs and seem to have trouble sitting all of the way back. I do all supplemental work such as reverse hyper, good mornings, glute hams, and most west side exercises. Don’t seem to understand why sitting back is so difficult. Could be weaknesses but I don’t know where the weaknesses are. Any suggestions would be helpful.
i dont think you have trouble sitting back. i think you have trouble sitting back with whatever weight you’re using.
start with just the bar. possibly, the best way to know how well your powerlifting squat form is is by the angle and movement of your shins.
your shins should move only when you come out of knee-lock to about 1/8 squat. the rest of the way down to the box your shins should be vertical and not move at all.
do this and you’ll find that you never really had trouble sitting back in the first place.
Thanks for the response but I’m a little confused by it. Sitting back seems to be not easy for me. Should I try a higher box. I’m using minimal weight but I feel its a form issue. My friend use to do a form of rocking box squat and his squat and dead went up considerable. Do you think that might help. By the way I try to keep my shins at least vertical if not better when I box squat. Also I have a t5endency to fall forward on heavy deads. I’m hoping that if I fix this issue with my box squats I’ll sit back better with my deads. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated
Jay
It is tough to say what exactly the problem is without seeing you squat but off the top of my head:
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If you are new to squatting then you need to learn the motor ability of sitting back through the whole lift.
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Hip flexibility is usually a big issue in not sitting back far enough. In this case I would use a higher box and lower it as hip flexibility increases. You should make sure your hips are thouroughly warmed up too. Leg swings, over unders, and duck walks are good for this. You could also grab onto the rack and squat back very far for a few seconds and then come up to your regular squat position and hold it. Do this in between sets and with bodyweight. If you have tight hips you most likely have tight hams too.
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As far as weaknesses are concerned, it is hard to say because you say you train the post chain but I dont know how intense or often you train it.
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For the deadlifts: If your squat goes up your deadlift usually goes up but not always. Many times it is a form issue, and also depends on where your sticking point is. But if you are falling forward I would say make sure your shoulders are behind the bar well enough, which again leads back to the hip flexibility issue.
Again I dont know you or what level you are and never have seen you lift so these are just ideas off the top of my head. So good luck and I hope I helped atleast a little.
I have never understood this either (please forgive my ignorance). I am 6’4" and have “long legs” as well.
If you are sitting on the box (with or without a load) and you drew a line from one ankle to the other ankle (call it a “baseline” for this discussion), should the squat bar be moved up and down on the same plane as the baseline?
I have found that the only way for me to do this is to have a stance (my right leg to midsection to left leg form an approximate 90 degree angle).
Am I way off on my form?
jsal,
Being that you come forward in deads and squats i know you have superior stength in quads compared to hams. i know this because im the same way and have just started to correct the imbalance. as far as flexibility is concerned, try overhead squats with the bar.
dk,
if you keep good form the bar will follow the necessary path. in powerlifting squats you wanna spread your legs as wide as possible while being able to squat parellel to the floor. this is a bitch to do without a good rack and partner. for many people, not being able to sit back is a problem of not having a wide enough stance (longer legs means wider stance) and not letting the upper body come forward. this can be confusing because, realistically, the upper body doesn’t come forward. it only looks like it does to someone who narrow-stance-quad-dominant squats all the time.