how do ifix this? mobility?
most likely ankle mobility. check mobilitywod for some remedies.
failing that, next most likely is glutes and adductors. same location for the fix.
I made a vid on this topic and believe the advice applies to you being more of a form issue than flexibility problem
I try to squat deep using low bar, should I not do that then cuz you mention you are gunna get butt wink pretty much no matter what with a deep low bar squat.
This to me looks a little bit better, im still getting a bit of a wink at the bottom but like you said it takes time. It just tough to reach parallel with low bar with no butt wink.
The advice in the video is to bend your knees at the beginning of the squat instead of keeping your knees perpendicular. Good video and good advice, but I don’t think your solution will help everyone with buttwink. You are lucky to be built for squatting, with shorter femurs relative to your torso. Those with longer femurs do need to work on their flexibility (really, mobility or active range-of-motion) in order to squat without buttwink. They also need to work on their core stiffness.
I first heard the cue to fire the hip flexors from Dr. Stuart McGill (the guy who wrote Low Back Disorders) and I think it is a great one. It pushes you through a little more ROM at the bottom of the squat while keeping your core tight and encouraging low back extension (the hip flexors extend the low back when they fire).
Many people don’t know what to do when they hear the cue fire the hip flexors but one way to think of it is to try to raise your knees up when you are squatting down. Another way to learn the cue is to do an exercise described in a recent article where you attach a band to the top bar of a squat rack, stretch it down under your arms, and squat, pulling yourself down with your hip flexors against the resistance of the band. I’ve found the hip flexor cue to be great for reducing buttwink once I understood how to apply it.
raa08007, one suggestion I have for you (not sure if it will help at all, but it helped me), is to make sure your UPPER back is tight and arched hard, especially at the bottom of the lift. Jim Wendler said in his 531 book that when the upper back is arched, the lower back will maintain its arch as well. Make sure your chest is up and your shoulder blades are down and back (I know it is hard to do with a low bar squat).
One way to practice good thoracic extension is to do overhead squats. The bar should be a sufficient amount of weight to get your spine in the right position.
For me it was stretching the hip flexors. Cleared it up instantly. I would do a bodyweight squat with butt wink, then go stretch my hip flexors and try again, fixed it up every time. I’m not knowledgable enough to get into if it’s a form issue vs mobility, just wanted to share my 2 cents cause if its as easy as stretching the hip flexors before squatting you’ll kick yourself later for not trying that to start. Good luck
thanks for the advice, iv heard using the overhead squat really helps from multiple people so im definitley going to give that a try.
[quote]smallmike wrote:
The advice in the video is to bend your knees at the beginning of the squat instead of keeping your knees perpendicular. Good video and good advice, but I don’t think your solution will help everyone with buttwink. You are lucky to be built for squatting, with shorter femurs relative to your torso.[/quote]
I agree with what you are saying. I dont have particularly short femurs vs torso though, I measured it once, my legs are just really big so they give that appearance. But I think I actually have a pretty short torso in comparison to legs. I think the thing is that I am really flexible from being a long jumper in the past, and still doing much the plyos and explosive work I learned from that. So I dont really think its simply a genetic thing.
But in the end I agree, these issues rarely ever have one answer. Generally it is all of them combined. Chances are there is a form error, which may have been caused by a flexibility inefficiency, and then the improper form over time just makes it even worse! That is why forcing perfect form from the start is so important
[quote]@JC_Tree_Trunks wrote:
I made a vid on this topic and believe the advice applies to you being more of a form issue than flexibility problem
Great video dude, I actually just subscribed to your channel. Is there any reason you train high bar most of the time and low bar occasionally? I know low bar with let you handle more weight so why not do that all the time?