I watched a ton of vids when learning to squat a few years ago, most of them with the “chest up” cue. I pretty much carried on with that and worked myself up to a 150kg beltless squat, feeling very comfortable and never thinking I was doing much wrong. No pain, load consistently going up.
During my current bulk, I often notice my protruding belly and a little bit of a duck walk. Yes, the extremely common anterior pelvic tilt. I know all the methods to remedy it and am currently working on correcting it. This led me down a path of rechecking my squat form and I definitely do overextend my lower back. I’m perhaps thinking strengthening this movement so much has actually contributed much to my current issue.
Anyway, I see so many people set up for their squat by raising their chests and lengthening the core - exactly what I’ve unintentionally been doing and exactly what I’m now trying to avoid. I’ve always known that a shortened core will be a stronger one but as the weights kept going up I never cared enough to look deeper. In my past couple of sessions I’ve focused more on “ribs down” and what the chest needs to be doing seems to come naturally when keeping the upper back tight.
I went straight in with the different form at my usual weights and albeit I may have reduced my range of motion a bit, I’m dealing with some mad DOMs right now over my entire leg musculature, especially the top of my hamstrings and glutes (come to think of it, a tiny bit in my upper back aswell). I just wondered if someone a bit more educated than me could explain if this is because of better activation of my legs with the “ribs down” cue, or just because it’s a bit of a novelty movement right now… probably a combination of both.
I’m just reading through some articles and watching some videos about it now. Doesn’t seem like i’m alone in these thoughts.
Do you guys think transitioning to a more proper form will be a quick adjustment or is it going to take a long while to retrain with this pattern in mind?
Cues are not the same for everyone. Chest up is a good one for those who goodmorning their squats but there are people who can remain so upright you actually dont want em to do “chest up”. There are different cues for different people and problems.
Yeah that’s fair enough. It seems like this can continue to change over time too. I’m now starting to understand why even the elite are often adjusting things and still need to be coached on form. It’s never binary.
I agree with Hank, cues are different person to person. Some dudes are butt winking back rounders and some dudes are over extending Good Morningers.
If you’re an overextended, chest breathing dude, the cue might be ribs down and take the air into your scapula region.
Over extending my back and getting into ATP takes stress off my glutes, hams and quads and puts it all onto my mid-back and into my adductors. Rather than a leg bending squat, it turns into hip extension move.
This is bad. It beats the shit out of my crotch, hips and lower back. And my legs and abs go under-stimulated. And the shitty pattern gets more built in. And it just gets worse.
I think you’re on the right track with your though process, and I would definitely thinking about making adjustments now. Instead of in the future when your shit is fucked up.
Yeah it’s always better to reign stuff in and do it properly, otherwise might end up not being able to do it at all! I’m not in a race with anyone. It’s a little annoying but hopefully comes quickly, weight felt super light on lift-off so it shows what potential is there. Just hope I can get into full depth with it when I try some lighter weights in a few days.
I seem to be the only person in my gym that doesn’t wear a belt aswell. Maybe something else I should be thinking about soon…
Theoretically, you might be able to speed up the process by doing some moves that really focus on hip tilt and working the leg muscles without having to worry about your back.
This whole move is Ribs Down while you keep neutral hip tilt, while hinging.
