I would like some critique on these videos, if you please. This is 185# x5
1st set at 205#
2nd set at 205
3rd set at 205
[quote]j_willy3 wrote:
Way to go on the pr’s soldog. You did some good work today.[/quote]
Thanks J - it felt pretty good after a week off.
Bring your stance out a bit and point the toes out - that’ll get the inner thigh muscles into the act and make you more stable.
Control the descent more, staying tight through the torso - you’re tending to fold a bit at the bottom because of the speed you’re coming down with. Keep the chest stuck out, elbows down and look in front of you.
At the bottom, force the elbows forward, that’ll make you chest come up and put the weight towards the center of gravity, letting you drive with the legs rather than attempt to lever it with the back and buttocks.
I would recommend a couple of sawhorses on either side of you so you can dump the bar, if a powercage is too expensive. Or practice dumping the bar from the bottom a couple of times so you don’t get ‘surprised.’
You look really strong on those squats. Fixing the form will allow you to put more energy into the bar rather than being absorbed by loose torso structures and push more weight sooner.
Hope that helps.
Looking good and strong. Are you’re racks as high as they can go? Looks like you’re starting really low to me. Using energy just getting the bar off the racks. Could just be your personnal preference.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Bring your stance out a bit and point the toes out - that’ll get the inner thigh muscles into the act and make you more stable. [/quote]
I’ve been wondering about my stance width. I keep playing with it but haven’t settled on anything that really feels right.
Check! I felt like I was coming down too fast and the videos really showed that.
Hadn’t thought about what my elbows are doing at all. I just started reading “Starting Strength” and am trying to incorporate those instructions on bar position and grip.
That is a stellar idea! I’ve been worried about getting hit with a failed set.
[quote]
You look really strong on those squats. Fixing the form will allow you to put more energy into the bar rather than being absorbed by loose torso structures and push more weight sooner.
Hope that helps.[/quote]
That helps alot Skid! Thanks for taking the time!
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Looking good and strong. Are you’re racks as high as they can go? Looks like you’re starting really low to me. Using energy just getting the bar off the racks. Could just be your personnal preference.[/quote]
Thanks hel! That is the highest those racks go. And a power cage isn’t in the works for a while. We’re starting a remodel and space is going to be limited. 'sides the wife says I’ve been spending to much on my “toys”.
[quote]soldog wrote:
hel320 wrote:
Looking good and strong. Are you’re racks as high as they can go? Looks like you’re starting really low to me. Using energy just getting the bar off the racks. Could just be your personnal preference.
Thanks hel! That is the highest those racks go. And a power cage isn’t in the works for a while. We’re starting a remodel and space is going to be limited. 'sides the wife says I’ve been spending to much on my “toys”.[/quote]
Skidmark hit it better than I would have. I’ve a nephew who squats a lot (he is into crossfit, though med school has slowed him down a bit) and I’m just learning about it. Mostly watching the back and the but, making sure the lift is a thrust with the legs and not the back.
You are looking strong though.
You are right though, wives can be so practical 
I’m going to chime in here a little late, but FWIW, it looks to me like your weight is mostly on your toes, which means you are not pushing through your heels. Turning your toes out a bit should help. Shoulder the bar then wiggle your toes every couple of reps to check yourself. I also think you should lower the weight and practice squatting between your thighs. You are sitting back a bit too much in the descent. Really squeeze your shoulder blades together and keep them that way throughout so your upper back can’t start to round. Watch that little hip rotation/roll thingie you do as you come up out of the hole.
Cappy
The Squat RX series on youtube is pretty good for improving form.
There are loads of them.
Hope it helps.
Chris’s and Phil’s comments in the other forum were very apropos as well. You might be able to lay down some plywood in your squat area and squat barefoot, increasing force transfer and stability.
A option to address the lack of a power cage I’ve been thinking of lately (since I nearly had to sell mine) was using chains and loading pins attached to the bar to do squats. I was going to suspend the chains attached to the loading pins loaded with weight and do bottoms up squats that way. By adjusting the length of the chains you could take the weight from a platform safely (conderblocks), step back to the squatting area, do your usual squat depth and then replace the weight on the platforms.
If you got stuck in the hole, you could just squat the rest of the way down so the weight rested on the floor, making it a simple matter to get out from under the bar. The only downside here is that there might end up being some swing to the weights on execution. But this is one of the the advantages cambered bars are supposed to have and is good for “chaos” training.
So for the price of 2 lengths of chain, 4 carabiners and 2 loading pins you can have the equivalent of a power cage and a new type of bar.
Seems like it would work.
Wow - Thanks for all the comments! These will take a while to digest. I will be changing around my setup to a more stable area. Don’t know if I’ll be “allowed” to put plywood down on the carpet or not but at least I’ll get rid of the extra layers.
[quote]Capacity wrote:
I’m going to chime in here a little late, but FWIW, it looks to me like your weight is mostly on your toes, which means you are not pushing through your heels. Turning your toes out a bit should help. Shoulder the bar then wiggle your toes every couple of reps to check yourself. I also think you should lower the weight and practice squatting between your thighs. You are sitting back a bit too much in the descent. Really squeeze your shoulder blades together and keep them that way throughout so your upper back can’t start to round. Watch that little hip rotation/roll thingie you do as you come up out of the hole.
Cappy[/quote]
Cappy, Thanks for the comments but I’m a little confused by the seeming conflict between the weight on the toes comment and the sitting back too much comment. Is the difference just between the up and down parts of the squat?
Went to the Renaissance Festival today. Walked alot, drank alot of beer, ate alot of steak on a stake and totally ignored any semblance of a diet.
I guess I’d better amend some of my comments on squatting…
It depends on what kinds of squats you want to do. Rippetoe recommends keeping the elbows back during squat execution if I remember correctly. He advocates a low bar position as in powerlifting, but likes the close-set stance, like olympic lifters use, which changes the mechanics somewhat. Both powerlifting and olympic style squat aficionados recommend pointing the toes out.
The close stance squat descends a bit faster with max weight than a powerlifting squat (usually) as it really depends on the stretch reflex rebound out of the bottom to get you through the sticking point to where the quads can take over. Powerlifting squats don’t have as much of a sticking point since it’s not using as much coordination between quads and glute/hams. It’s all glutes and hams.
Past a certain weight the close stance squats can get really hard on the knees for older lifters. I had to change from close stance to wide stance a couple of years ago for that reason. Heavy close stance will tend to make you go to your toes to get better leverage in the sticking point and cause you to shoot the hips back forcing you into a good morning, particularly if the torso isn’t kept tight. Oly lifters wear a shoe with a built up heel so they can still drive with the hips through the heel even though they are basically on their toes.
Powerlifters often wear flat soled shoes and focus on keeping the weight on the heels or mid foot the whole way through the movement. The wide stance causes more torso bend to make up for the wider stance, but it’s a stronger position to squat big weights in, though it does require more development of the inner thighs, butt and lower back.
And here I’ve written another book. Thanks for your patience soldog.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
I guess I’d better amend some of my comments on squatting…
It depends on what kinds of squats you want to do. Rippetoe recommends keeping the elbows back during squat execution if I remember correctly.
He advocates a low bar position as in powerlifting, but likes the close-set stance, like olympic lifters use, which changes the mechanics somewhat. Both powerlifting and olympic style squat aficionados recommend pointing the toes out.[/quote]
“Starting Strength” is what I was attempting to model in my videos.
[quote]
The close stance squat descends a bit faster with max weight than a powerlifting squat (usually) as it really depends on the stretch reflex rebound out of the bottom to get you through the sticking point to where the quads can take over. Powerlifting squats don’t have as much of a sticking point since it’s not using as much coordination between quads and glute/hams. It’s all glutes and hams.
Past a certain weight the close stance squats can get really hard on the knees for older lifters. I had to change from close stance to wide stance a couple of years ago for that reason.
Heavy close stance will tend to make you go to your toes to get better leverage in the sticking point and cause you to shoot the hips back forcing you into a good morning, particularly if the torso isn’t kept tight. Oly lifters wear a shoe with a built up heel so they can still drive with the hips through the heel even though they are basically on their toes.[/quote]
My knees have been good now. But I have had one warning incident early last year. So going wider is probably a good plan for me.
[quote]
Powerlifters often wear flat soled shoes and focus on keeping the weight on the heels or mid foot the whole way through the movement. The wide stance causes more torso bend to make up for the wider stance, but it’s a stronger position to squat big weights in, though it does require more development of the inner thighs, butt and lower back.[/quote]
Shoes aren’t in the picture right now, but I’m going to try barefoot lifting for a while.[quote]
And here I’ve written another book. Thanks for your patience soldog.[/quote]
Thank you skidmark! for taking the time to attempt to educate this beginner…
I think I’m going to keep my squat weight down to around 185# and work on these form suggestions and go to higher reps for progression.
At the risk of being redundant, I think Skidmark’s answers have probably cleared up the question you asked me about toes, heels and stance. If not, feel free to rephrase!
Cappy
If you want to squat powerlifting style get a pair of Chuck Taylors. You are also walking the weight out too far. You might want to try taking just a half step on each foot away from the rack. I also noticed you were using a pad on the bar.
Personally I would ditch the pad because I feel it forces you to lean too far forward to put the weight out over the center of your feet. You get used to the pain from the bar without the pad after a while. Another tip is to think about spreading the floor with your feet when you come up with the weight. Box squats have helped me with my technique you might want to try them.