I think it needs to be said that you should get your back centered on the weight before you lift it off the rack. I know sometimes there are errors in the plates or bars that make this a little more complicated than it should be, but it will be alot simpler than doing it once the weight is on your back.
From my point of view watching those videos, if you keep doing this as your squats continue to improve, it is very likely that something very, very bad will happen. You don’t want to find out what that something is. Correct it!
P.S. Why are you pulling your pants up before you squat? Mental thing?
Should I be worried about my knees slightly jiggling left and right when coming out of the hole? (I try as hard as possible to keep them stable)[/quote]
I do that on my heavy set too. I don’t think its anything to worry about
Should I be worried about my knees slightly jiggling left and right when coming out of the hole? (I try as hard as possible to keep them stable)
I do that on my heavy set too. I don’t think its anything to worry about[/quote]
I think this is from weak glutes or the glutes not activating, right? I used to do this to and was told it was because my quads are stronger and were trying to handle the weight as opposed to glutes/hams.
Maybe it is just me, but you seem to be combining different types of squat forms.
What I mean by this is you have a wide powerlifting stance, and yet you have the bar high on your traps. If you drop the bar lower on your your traps it will help you stay more upright and let you sit back better.
Or bring your stance in and keep the high bar, but with the rounding of your lower back I don’t think this is what you want to do. This is especially true as you are also doing the more quad dominant front squats. Powerlifting squats will help balance your front and back.
everyone pretty much covered things i would say, but i do want to comment you seem to take a lot of steps to get set up. i would try to minimize the amount of steps you need to get in position. i try to limit it to 2-4 steps if i absolutely need to. you are wearing yourself out doing that and when you get into heavier weights all those little steps will make you lose your tightness…
not everyone will agree with that, but it is what i have noticed with myself and also many top name lifters when they have to do walkouts
Who ever say that is a wide powerlifting stance is out of their mind. That’s pretty narrow in my opinion.
I think that you should move your bar position down a little. That shit is on your neck. Your hips tend to come up early. This means you are driving with your feet before you drive your back into the bar.
Knees coming in probably mean that you need to strengthen your hamstrings.
Get the bar in right place before you unrack it. I can’t imagine how you can keep your back tight or keep the bar in right place with that weird maneuver you did to balance the bar. Plus, you are not going to be able to that with heavier weight.
Your upper back caves a little as you come out of the hole. Pull those elbow forward hard and do more upper back work.
.and you absolute want to explode out of the hole. You shouldn’t change your stroke to work around a weakness(knees coming in). You should fix the weakness.
[quote]Pemdas wrote:
Who ever say that is a wide powerlifting stance is out of their mind. That’s pretty narrow in my opinion.
[/quote]
It could be the angle, but if you look in the first video his stance looks much wider than in the second, I’ll agree it looks fairly narrow in the second. I hadn’t bothered wading past the first one.
I don’t mean to sound like a dick but I think you’ve got this backwards. You work on your form before you add all the weight.
In other words, your form screams that you’ve overlooked a few things technique-wise in order to tak on more weight. Okay, maybe ‘screams’ isn’t the right word because you do seem to have a general idea of how it should look but there a few concerning things here:
You have little glute activation through your concentric phase. You dip a little bit about halfway through the movement.
You’re largely compromising the intensity/training stimulus with this weight. There seems to be little to no focus on TUT through both phases (concentric & eccentric). In other words you speed through your reps after about the first two.
Your depth looked okay, but you have to remember that you cannot JUST go lower and hope you’ll get more glute recruitment. You need the flexibility in order to faciliate the movement. Otherwise you’re compromising you structure through your lumbar region.
[quote]coolnatedawg wrote:
everyone pretty much covered things i would say, but i do want to comment you seem to take a lot of steps to get set up. i would try to minimize the amount of steps you need to get in position. i try to limit it to 2-4 steps if i absolutely need to. you are wearing yourself out doing that and when you get into heavier weights all those little steps will make you lose your tightness…
not everyone will agree with that, but it is what i have noticed with myself and also many top name lifters when they have to do walkouts[/quote]
I agree. You take too many steps. Just get the weight out and start the set. Balance your position while the weight is racked. I think your form looks good though
You’re looking for more flexibility in your hamstrings. This will just provide you with a more stable form when going below paraellel. As far as glute activation, it’s a mental thing as well as the form. The best way I can describe it is with these two analogies;
a) On the concentric phase (up) pretend as if you have a walnut between your ass cheeks. Squeeze them as if your trying to crack it.
b) Also invision yourself standing on a cooking sheet (weird I know), but as you rise up slowly thrust your pelvis inward and think as if your trying to spread your feet outward to tear the sheet in two.
Also, are power lifting squats simply a high bar with a wide stance?[/quote]
Low bar with a wide stance. This will put more emphsis on the P-chain. Spread the floor with your feet and push through your heels, curl your toes up if you need to, to stay off the balls of your feet.
Glute bridges and x band walks will help you with glute activation. I highly recommend Cressy’s Magnificent Mobility for activation and mobility drills.
