Hey!
I have this problem, no matter how straight i try to keep the lift, when getting up at heavy weights, i tend to good morning my way out of the “hole”. It is not that the weights are superheavy, but more that I’m not flexible enough… but I’m not sure, any ideas on exercises that will help strenghten that part of the lift? or just focus on technique on lighter weights combined with stretching?
Three things to try;
jmo
jack
Mobility drills might help.
Have you tried a giant cambered bar?
and with your feet turned out, concentrate on spreading the floor apart with your feet. And stronger abs never hurt, are you doing weighted ab work? cause you are doing weighted low back work!!
go to todays articles at elitefts.com
Hey!
Thanks for the tips guys! will try! I’ll try to film a lift so you can see how it looks.
When it comes to weighted ab-work, I do sidebends with quite nice weights for the side of the stomach, but I have problems finding an exercise that hit the abs nicely, any suggestions?
ball crunches, leg lifts, sit ups,bosu board leg lifts, bosu crunches, hanging leg lifts
OK this should be obvious. You said your not flexible enough so start doing stretches for your hips and hamstrings. Not before you lift (that might reduce your strength). Just do 10 minutes of stretching everynight and within a month you will be much more upright.
How wide is your stance? I am tall (6 feet 4 inches) and long-legged. If I squat to parallel or deeper in a normal power rack, my stance limited by the rack’s frame. If I am to reach depth with this limited stance, I need to use more quad and back strength. As a result, I lean quite a bit. However, squatting in a monolift, I can go much wider with my stance use more hip strength and stay more upright.
Thanks again for tips!
My stance is a work in progress, the culture over here is that narrow squatting is “da bomb” and that everyone that squats deep is never getting a real depth OR get hurt in the process (mark, not my ideas… so don’t start flaming me please).
this fall i had this stance: http://unixgen.com/~thul/kneboy3.png
I’m about 10-12cm wider now.
[quote]Adamsson wrote:
Hey!
I have this problem, no matter how straight i try to keep the lift, when getting up at heavy weights, i tend to good morning my way out of the “hole”. It is not that the weights are superheavy, but more that I’m not flexible enough… but I’m not sure, any ideas on exercises that will help strenghten that part of the lift? or just focus on technique on lighter weights combined with stretching?[/quote]
Possible solutions:
1)Use a higher box and work your way down. Using a low box with bad form will only hurt you.
2)You may be sitting back too far. The box squat should mimic squat form; if you’re sitting back so far that you’d fall backwards if you were actually squatting then you’re sitting back too far.
3)Stretch, obviously. Not just outside of the gym either. I usually spend about 15 minutes stretching before I box squat. My personal favorite stretch for this is to hold onto the bar while it’s on the pins and lower myself down into a squat stance, slowly working lower and lower.
[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:
Adamsson wrote:
Possible solutions:
1)Use a higher box and work your way down. Using a low box with bad form will only hurt you.
[quote]
I had the same problem when I started on the box for high school football. I fixed it by stacking a few 45 plates to make the box higher, and worked my way down by progressively taking off plates whenever I did a workout with good form. By the time I was using just the box without plate shims it felt natural and my form was pretty good.
I used to have this same problem. It got fixed when I bought a Kettlebell and started doing the drills, especially the swings. That made my lower back and mid-section really strong and very conditioned. You could do this with dumbbells, too. Give it a shot, and you’ll see what burner it can be on the lower back and abdomen. Good luck!
Good looking squat! I can kind of see it both ways on stance. There’s a lot that’s good about using a narrow stance. You can set up easier, especially if you aren’t in a monolift. Even if you do squat in a monolift, you will be much more stable.
I like my wide stance, I am stronger with it and I can pop out of the hole better. However, I have come close to falling over many times with max weight. This has never happened when I have used a narrow stance.
Also, I think some gear benefits wide stance more than narrow and some gear benefits narrow stance more. It seems like single ply and some othe more stretchy poly gear helps a narrow stance better, enabling the lifter bounce out of the hole, versus stiffer gear that just binds up and supports the hips of a wide stance squatter.
[quote]Adamsson wrote:
Thanks again for tips!
My stance is a work in progress, the culture over here is that narrow squatting is “da bomb” and that everyone that squats deep is never getting a real depth OR get hurt in the process (mark, not my ideas… so don’t start flaming me please).
this fall i had this stance: http://unixgen.com/~thul/kneboy3.png
I’m about 10-12cm wider now. [/quote]
[quote]Adamsson wrote:
Thanks again for tips!
My stance is a work in progress, the culture over here is that narrow squatting is “da bomb” and that everyone that squats deep is never getting a real depth OR get hurt in the process (mark, not my ideas… so don’t start flaming me please).
this fall i had this stance: http://unixgen.com/~thul/kneboy3.png
I’m about 10-12cm wider now. [/quote]
From the angle, it appears you have some weakness in the mid back area. I like arched back goodmornings to solve this. Also, check your bar placement. Looks like it could be further down on the back.
You can improve your flexibility with dynamic mobility work. The Parisi DVD is quite good. Dave Tate also wrote an article about mobility – “Just Because you have a Blackberry doesn’t mean your Mobile.” Or something like that. Check out his website for both – www.elitefs.com
[quote]Adamsson wrote:
Hey!
Thanks for the tips guys! will try! I’ll try to film a lift so you can see how it looks.
When it comes to weighted ab-work, I do sidebends with quite nice weights for the side of the stomach, but I have problems finding an exercise that hit the abs nicely, any suggestions?[/quote]
One of my favorites is doing sit-ups in the cable-cross. Hook a “triceps-rope” to the lower pulley, lay down on the floor with the feet hooked under the opposite side, knees bent to app 90 degrees. Grab the rope and sit up! Add resistance to get the rep range you want.Works great, finish of with a few sets of “wood-chops” and your done.
Claes
Hey guys!
I appriciate all the tips, have started working more on my flexibility already! and goodmornings to strenghten my back!
Here is a vid that shows how it looks… I kind of feel that I’m loosing the “tightness” when i hit the box, it looks good on the way down, but after i “sink together” on the box, it sort of goes bad on the way up… I guess I have to try working on keeping it tight down in the hole too! (i set up the box a bit higher here, to try removing the problem)
http://unixgen.com/~thul/box-squat.avi
Edit: fixed the movie.
[quote]Adamsson wrote:
Hey guys!
I appriciate all the tips, have started working more on my flexibility already! and goodmornings to strenghten my back!
Here is a vid that shows how it looks… I kind of feel that I’m loosing the “tightness” when i hit the box, it looks good on the way down, but after i “sink together” on the box, it sort of goes bad on the way up… I guess I have to try working on keeping it tight down in the hole too! (i set up the box a bit higher here, to try removing the problem)
http://unixgen.com/~thul/box-squat.avi
Edit: fixed the movie.[/quote]
It looks like you start pushing with your legs. Try instead to start by pushing your head back and your chest out, really driving your traps into the bar. Also try to keep your elbows pointing more down towards the floor.
Hope that will help??
Claes
I haven’t really read any of the other replies, so sorry if this is redundant.
You are breaking your knees before your hips, or at the very best, simultaneously. Make sure you lock your hips and knees before you start the lift, and lead the lift with your hips.
Watch your knees as you descend. Now pay attention to what they do when you start to ascend. They drift back about 2-3" while your hips come up, then when they hit a certain position, you actually beging to squat the weight up instead of GM’ing it.
I would suggest that this indicates you are not sitting back far enough. Learning to break the hips first and pushing your knees out as you descend should help alot.
It would help alot to see your complete set-up, from unrack to completion of the lift, and if possible, a view from behind or in front of you to see what your knees are doing as you descend and start the ascent.
I think you need to move your bar position down about 1". It looks to me like you are fighting the bar position, as well.
It looks to me like you have relatively long legs and a short torso. You are going to have to play around with stance and bar position to get it right.
Good luck.
