Hey, I’m having trouble going deep on my squats. The only way I can break parallel or even get to parallel is to do wide stance squats (beyond shoulder with). I would like to work with close stance squats, but I usually can’t get to parallel. I’ve got a history of bad ankle sprains and bad scar tissue (I believe), so I wonder if that prevents me from going lower. I really want to avoid elevating my heels with a board if I can. Any help from the mighty forum would be great, or if anyone needs more info. let me know. Thanks in advance.
I have no idea if flexibility is the underlying cause, but it won’t hurt you to read (or reread) Ian King’s Lazy Guide to stretching. Also, how are you performing the squats? Is your initial movement pushing the hips and glutes back or bending the knees? You should be pushing your hips back first - this helped me a lot to get down farther. Also, don’t expect to go down real far with close-stance squats, it’s really difficult, and you might be going down far enough already.
It could be from either an inflexibility in the achilles area or more commonly (although people usually assume the achilles area) in the hips. tight hips will definitely prevent you from achieving a deep enough position in the squat. I would caution you from routinely elevating heels as according to dr ken kinakin, this shuts down some of the muscles of the posterior chain.
You need to use a lighter weight. If you want to use more weight, the natural response is to adopt a wider stance. The wider the stance, the more leverage you have. If you want to use a narrow stance, you can try a light weight, followed by or preceded by heavier weights with a wider stance.
You didn’t say anything about the weight you are using. Can you get past parallel with no weight at all? I have to use a board under my heels to get my ass to the ground, even with no weight at all, i’m just not flexible enough. if you can’t do it ‘unloaded’ you may need to just use the board…or try some flexibility work as someone else suggested.
It’s a flexibility and balance issue. Work on the erectors, hamstrings, quads, calf(posterior and anterior), and glute region. Ian king has a great flexibility training article on tmag. Work on bodyweight squats until you can just break parallel. Then increase the weight. Make sure the movement is initiated at the nhip joint by sitting back and down and not at the knee. You knee will naturally bend. I teach bodyweight squats as a rehab tool for pts. for homework. It will come, just be patient. When you can bang out 50-100 reps bodyweight, you should be able to use some weight.
You might find it easier to use a broomstick or an unloaded bar to practice form. Put your hans out wide, back tight and arched as you sit back. Depending on you build, you’ll have to experiment on you foot position, wide to narrow. Think of it as a hip and lower back exercise. Good luck.
It could be a physiological issue also. I can do the splits (side-to-side and front-to-back) and cannot squat past parallel without my heels coming off the ground. It’s O.K. An aspiring powerlifting competitor helped me a couple of weeks ago: Go as low as you can- PAUSE (2 sec)- Blast back up. My legs are noticably bigger and my squat is up 45lbs in 2weeks! BTW- the dude flat benches 575 for 2- he can give me all the advice he wants!
Great responses and suggestion everyone. Thanks so much. Just to respond back to some of the posts - I would love to hear more about hip flexibility and how that would hinder my squat depth. I feel that may be a contributing factor. I have tried squatting with no weight at all and I achieve about the same depth, as I approach about 15 or so degrees above parallel, I start leaning way forward (but still with a straight back, no rounding out). If I try to push down further to parallel, two things start happening. I feel the tibialis anterior tighten up like crazy and I start to fall backwards. i can only stay upright if I put both arms straight out in front of me as if I were reaching for something. This is with feet positioned just a bit more than shoulder with apart. If it helps to know, I stand at 6’0’’ and legs longer than my torso. I’ve heard this might affect my balance. Anyway, I’ll try out some of your suggestions and check out the King artice. Thanks again everyone!
I’ve been recently narrowing my squat stance a little in an attempt to place more emphasis on the quads and less on the adductors. Here’s the struggle I’ve been going through – when narrowing the stance, the tendency is to bring the feet closer to parallel. Don’t do this! What happens is that the thighs then become more parallel, and as the hip closes, there’s interference between the thighs and torso. Keep the feet splayed some, and keep the thighs out so your body has somewhere to go.
I can also do with some help with the Squat. I can (for me) squat fairly heavy for reps, but havent had access to a squat rack for six months and have been somehwhat limited. Just bought a power rack, and want to perfect my form, getting down real low, ass to calves like. I also have a tightness in my tibialis muscle when I go low, and I start to go forward, even though my back is straight and tight(form ideal). I too am six foot, and have long legs(they are the bodypart that naturally grows). I have tried the pause technique and that really helps. Irondoc - on the bodyweight squats, I cant get down low at all, when I have a weight on my back i seem to get alot lower. I was thinking of trying box squats, and progressively decreasing the height. Any thoughts anyone?