so I tried to push for a decent arch tonight and as per LilP’s suggestion, start with a higher box.
its all “meh” to me right now.
I think that arch looks beee-u-tiful, but i don’t know exactly what you’re aiming to do here. Why do you feel its ‘meh’?
Apparently I do not know how to sit back. My knees move way over my feet when I squat. My problem is gravity and I have a big ass. Sitting back means falling over quite literally. I have no balance and no clue. I tried a wide stance, a narrow stance. doesn’t matter. The only way I squat to depth is with an uncontrolled dive bomb which can be dangerous when you start dealing with heavy weights.
Patience dear frenchie - you can learn.
Has your coach mentioned any flexibility issue that may be limiting you?
[quote]soldog wrote:
Patience dear frenchie - you can learn.
Has your coach mentioned any flexibility issue that may be limiting you?[/quote]
X 2 , it will come, it is not natural…but
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if you don’t want to break your tailbone, please don’t squat to something on wheels!!!, though I gather there are plenty of peeps who would love to massage it should it happen…lol
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keep tight the whole way to the box, don’t plop down…need to work on glute activation
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arch is cool
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do you do zerchers? I found zerchers to a box helped me with form, it might or might not work for you.
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you don’t need to change your form right before a meet…at this point do what you do naturally and work on form after…remember
THIS is FUN !!!
G - I’m about to kill something alright. Seriously coach mentioned hammies, achiles, groin, hips. I’m a tight wad below the belly buttom really. I tried the yoga for big bastards and it didn’t do it for me. I need a list of stretching exercises for all things concerning legs. I’m making this a priority. I know Veg menionned spiderman thing.
is this what you meant Veg?
LilP - you’d think I’d have glute activation in the bag. lol. That will also be a priority next week. Hip thrusts and pull throughs every week. I’ve done zerchers a few times but I’ll add those as well as front squats starting next week.
Since my bench and deads are fine I’m just gonna go commando on my squat and kill it. Resistance will be futile.
also check out DeFranco’s Agile 8 for hip mobility, I always do some dynamic stretches prior to both squats and bench. My training partner would always do the spidermans too, my dang legs are too short for that one…or I’m just way to tight
So funny 'cause I have stopped stretching at all before squatting or I drop too deep. Hee hee.
I agree with Lil Power (though that name is so NOT appropriate for her) that you should not be obsessing about form now. Stick with what works best for you right now and make changes after the meet.
[quote]nlmain wrote:
Apparently I do not know how to sit back. My knees move way over my feet when I squat. My problem is gravity and I have a big ass. Sitting back means falling over quite literally. I have no balance and no clue. I tried a wide stance, a narrow stance. doesn’t matter. The only way I squat to depth is with an uncontrolled dive bomb which can be dangerous when you start dealing with heavy weights.
[/quote]
Cool. Now stop thinking about it cos you ain’t gonna fix it in time for Saturday.
Just dive bomb those babies and GM the hell out of them if you have to, you have a strong back anyways! And we got spotters. What ever you do, don’t think.
Next week you go back to fixing things.
See ya Saturday!
-from the injured girl, probably not the best person to take advice from LOL.
a) gonna second and third everyone elses suggestions to stop fucking worrying about it right now. i know you think you need to, and that you’re being hard on yourself. i get that. right now its a safety issue- do whatever you KNOW to do at the meet, so you dont try to do too many things and get fucked up.
b) i has suggestion but i’m saving it for postmeet bc i know you wont wait to try it and im serious about point A up there.
c) love your ass. and your swearing.
Chill out . You’re all prepared, right? The ladies have spoken, you’re not changing anything now.
Since you asked, the spiderman crawl that I do is basically the spiderman lunge from the vid, but I move across the floor (just like the real Spiderman moves up a wall.) Kinda a walking lunge version of what he did.
yes - now isn’t the time to worry. just move the weight how you feel best able to move the weight. kick ass!
once the meet is over…
Buckets of salt needed -
Something that helped me a lot with squats was this idea of how your spinal erectors and hip flexors need to work together for pelvic control:
(Ignore what he says about knees drifting forwards etc)
When your lumbar curve gets pulled out it is because your hip flexors are shorter than your lumbar erectors. The fix is learning to use your hip flexors to pull yourself down into the squat (lengthening / stretching them on the descent).
So the idea of going as low as you can while maintaining your lumbar curve is the idea of going as low as your flexibility allows with your having pelvic control. It is okay to start high (above paralell). Once you get the feel of using your flexors / erectors in a balanced way (so you really sit down hard into the bottom of the squat - wherever that is for you) then you can work on pushing the depth lower (a little bit of weight often helps).
For me… Wall squats and box squats helped some with flexibility… What helped most for learning pelvic control was front loaded plate squats. Because they reduce the need to balance one is better able to focus on pelvic control.
While this makes sense to me in theory…
Alexus: squat PB: 42.5kg.
As I said, buckets of salt. YMMV.
Your arch is fine, your meet is just around the corner so just get low enough and get the weight up. You can worry about how pretty it is later.
you got this!
just go in, have fun…gain knowledge through experience…think about and tinker with all the details later to prepare for your next meet(cause we all know there WILL BE a next meet!) 
You’ll be fine. Your arch is incredible. Just make sure your opening weight is low enough that you know you can nail it no problem. Once that’s out of the way, everything will be fine.
I’ve no clue as to what you’re doing in those vids, but you look great doing it.
Not to echo for the 37th time what’s already said about just going in and doing what you do, without trying to “fix” anything a few days before gameday…so I’ll just say “Nice ass, Frenchy!”
LWI, my friend, LWI.
We always tell our karate students that you can’t cram for a tournament or a grading. I’m sure that could apply to powerlifting as well. I don’t think you can expect to change your technique in a couple of weeks. Keep working on what you are trying to improve, but don’t worry about it too much.
Get your feet wet at this meet and hit it hard.
Go back and train the technique you want then hit the next meet even harder.
I’m cheering for ya!
What ever you need to do to build confidence you should do. I have no doubt you’ll be ready.
I’m very much looking forward to hearing about your first meet experience.