I’d greatly appreciate it if someone with some experience explains how to get an arch and keep it in the low back? I don’t know if Louie Simmons literally means arch the low back or just to keep the entire back as straight and as tight as possible or what? Also, for the abs, I don’t really know what to do? I know you wanna push out but do u wanna push out your abs and then get them really tight? and how do you do that while keeping your low back tight?
Anything that isnt direclty moving the weight, and this is for every lift, needs to be so tight that you feel like you are going to explode. As soon as you think you are tight enough, get tighter.
Some things that I go through when I squat:
-Make the belt as tight as possible with your abs by pushing out.
-Hold your breath the whole rep.
-On the decent, try to touch your ass to the top of your head, this will cause an arch.
-On the decent, try to push your hips as far away from your knees as possible.
-When you get into the hole, instead of trying to get the bar lower, push your knees apart harder. Thinking of just getting the bar lower will cause you to loose the tightness in your back and you will lean forward over your feet (I think this is why most missed squats look like good mornings).
-Once out of the hole, flex your ass and stand up.
This is pretty much everything I think about while squatting. Every since I started keeping a mental checklist my form has improved dramatically… and so has my total!!!
Thanks for the fast respone! I will go through that check list when I work out tonight n will say how it goes. I wish i had a belt here cuz Louie also talked about that. J.w what you do for ur low back and abs also?
I’ll prolly start some back extensions, good mornings, and abs on the glute ham raise tonight n should prolly know of a couple different exercises. Thanks!
if numbers are low (wich i suposse because of your question) then i don’t recomend a belt.
Try videotaping your self while aquating, your chest shoul be forced out and your lower back in, like if you were trying to push something with your belly.
It’s low lol. I got a 360 lb. max box squat with no equip. i tried using a little belt in the vid i posted (275 lbs. just trying to keep everything tight) just to try to feel my abs pushing out. That felt ok but my low back still just doesn’t feel right like i can’t keep an arch? and in the vid it looks like my chest is hunched in and my knees go 2 far foward. also i tried good mornings using ct’s PR method and i got up to 155x3 which seems low compared to my max squat.
Can’t tell from the video, but for me, getting the bar as low as possible helps me keep an arch in the low back. When the bars resting on my traps, I tend to lean forward and lose the arch.
But I can’t really see any major problems with your form. Your knees will move forward naturally, they don’t look excessive. I don’t know, looks fine to me. Not a pro, though.
Looked fine to me as well, then again it was far from a max attempt. I also agree that getting the bar a bit lower could help. my coach told me that bar should be “cradled” between the top of your shoulder blade and your traps.
If you are worried about core strength for the squat, heavy, beltless front squats helped me a lot. I had problems folding out of the hole with near max weight and I credit much of my improvement to these.
I’m not experienced enough to give further input, hopefully some of the more experienced guys like maraudermeat will chime in.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Anything that isnt direclty moving the weight, and this is for every lift, needs to be so tight that you feel like you are going to explode. As soon as you think you are tight enough, get tighter.
Some things that I go through when I squat:
-Make the belt as tight as possible with your abs by pushing out.
-Hold your breath the whole rep.
-On the decent, try to touch your ass to the top of your head, this will cause an arch.
-On the decent, try to push your hips as far away from your knees as possible.
-When you get into the hole, instead of trying to get the bar lower, push your knees apart harder. Thinking of just getting the bar lower will cause you to loose the tightness in your back and you will lean forward over your feet (I think this is why most missed squats look like good mornings).
-Once out of the hole, flex your ass and stand up.
This is pretty much everything I think about while squatting. Every since I started keeping a mental checklist my form has improved dramatically… and so has my total!!!
feet are too narrow, you’re breaking at the knees first instead of the hips, you’re rocking off the box, and your knees are coming forward, you’re not sitting back enough, and you’re not spreading your knees apart hard enough. Your elbows are also a bit too far back, they should be pointed down more and squeezed together (which means your upper back is loose). You’re loose overall basically. Your hips are weak or at least under-used in this motion.
You’re sitting pretty much straight down. You should think of sitting back, not down. Like you’re getting ready to use the toilet almost. Break at the hips when you start down, not at the knees. You should be at least about 6-8 inches further back on the box given your foot placement in the video, although it’s hard to tell exact distances when it’s not in person.
The narrow stance box squat is a different animal all-together than the wide stance box squat–it’s used for different things although the technique cues are supposed to be fairly similar. I would move your stance out significantly wider to really try and understand what needs to happen. You need to get some chuck taylors to squat in and lace them up super tight, or squat barefoot–socks will lead to slippage when widestancing, and that’s potentially injurious.
I would work on hip/glute strength, ab strength, upper back strength in addition to technique work.
The abs question is hard to visualize, but the best way I can describe it is to say that–without a bar on your back–you should practice taking deep breaths and holding them. When you do this you should pay attention to your belly and shoulders–if your shoulders rise when taking your breath in you are breathing in your chest and NOT your belly. This is wrong. If your belly protrudes out and your shoulders do NOT rise, this is the correct way–you are breathing into your belly. Now hold that breath and clench your abs hard. that is what you should do.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Anything that isnt direclty moving the weight, and this is for every lift, needs to be so tight that you feel like you are going to explode. As soon as you think you are tight enough, get tighter.
Some things that I go through when I squat:
-Make the belt as tight as possible with your abs by pushing out.
-Hold your breath the whole rep.
-On the decent, try to touch your ass to the top of your head, this will cause an arch.
-On the decent, try to push your hips as far away from your knees as possible.
-When you get into the hole, instead of trying to get the bar lower, push your knees apart harder. Thinking of just getting the bar lower will cause you to loose the tightness in your back and you will lean forward over your feet (I think this is why most missed squats look like good mornings).
-Once out of the hole, flex your ass and stand up.
This is pretty much everything I think about while squatting. Every since I started keeping a mental checklist my form has improved dramatically… and so has my total!!!
Hope this helped.[/quote]
This is a GREAT quick and dirty overview. [/quote]
x2
thanks for the 5th point, I’ve got a record in my province for a squat that was essentially the heaviest GM I’ve ever done, maybe this pointer will help fix that.
[quote]Foreva44 wrote:
It’s low lol. I got a 360 lb. max box squat with no equip. i tried using a little belt in the vid i posted (275 lbs. just trying to keep everything tight) just to try to feel my abs pushing out. That felt ok but my low back still just doesn’t feel right like i can’t keep an arch? and in the vid it looks like my chest is hunched in and my knees go 2 far foward. also i tried good mornings using ct’s PR method and i got up to 155x3 which seems low compared to my max squat.
Any other observations?[/quote]
Lose the little kid play place mat’s under the box. Haha. You cant hold an arch on that thing cause its an inch or two too high. You have to relax your back in order to get your hamstring on top of the box and that’s putting you way the hell out of position. It also looks like thats the reason you are not sitting back far enough.
It’s fine to use a box to get some work on your form or do some speed work but, and I’m sure someone is going to rip my head off, I dont think it’s good for max effort work. Not singles anyway. Starting out, your squat form is only going to get better by squatting more. Thats just what I would recommend starting out. Intermediate and elite level lifters would be a totally different story.
I work with a ton of athletes and have noticed, weirdly enough, the lower the box the better the form. The weight will go down too at first but that doesnt matter. All that matters is getting stronger at what you suck at.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Anything that isnt direclty moving the weight, and this is for every lift, needs to be so tight that you feel like you are going to explode. As soon as you think you are tight enough, get tighter.
Some things that I go through when I squat:
-Make the belt as tight as possible with your abs by pushing out.
-Hold your breath the whole rep.
-On the decent, try to touch your ass to the top of your head, this will cause an arch.
-On the decent, try to push your hips as far away from your knees as possible.
-When you get into the hole, instead of trying to get the bar lower, push your knees apart harder. Thinking of just getting the bar lower will cause you to loose the tightness in your back and you will lean forward over your feet (I think this is why most missed squats look like good mornings).
-Once out of the hole, flex your ass and stand up.
This is pretty much everything I think about while squatting. Every since I started keeping a mental checklist my form has improved dramatically… and so has my total!!!
Hope this helped.[/quote]
This is a GREAT quick and dirty overview. [/quote]
x2
thanks for the 5th point, I’ve got a record in my province for a squat that was essentially the heaviest GM I’ve ever done, maybe this pointer will help fix that.
[/quote]
Haha, Yea, I’ve got the junior raw squat record for Maryland 275lb and it was the same way. At least I’m not afraid to try a 670lb good morning now.
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
The abs question is hard to visualize, but the best way I can describe it is to say that–without a bar on your back–you should practice taking deep breaths and holding them. When you do this you should pay attention to your belly and shoulders–if your shoulders rise when taking your breath in you are breathing in your chest and NOT your belly. This is wrong. If your belly protrudes out and your shoulders do NOT rise, this is the correct way–you are breathing into your belly. Now hold that breath and clench your abs hard. that is what you should do.[/quote]
Fantastic advice. I do this pretty much everytime I am driving in the car just to practice.
I tried some low bar last night also and couldn’t even get into the proper position unless i bent my wrist to parallel with the floor so i def. need to loosen my chest and work on my upper back.
Aragorn: thanks for all the advice and videos. I’ll try those things u pointed out in my technique workout tonight but i just tried breaking at the hips first and got to about 1/4 of the way down n felt a huge stretch and I actually felt like I could hold the arch in my back. I suppose y i sat down instead of back was me being very quad dominant and just bad coordination from being so tight in the hips/hamstrings? Also, thanks for narrowing down what I need to work on. In addition I’m going to add more stretching and i just got a foam roller also
Stormthebeach: that makes alot of sense and i agree with u for box squats to work on form which is what i def. need to do. I just wanted to get to about 75% of my max which is where my form seems to really break down to see what i need to work on. i’ll post another vid within the next couple days n hopefully there’s dramatic improvements
i sat back alil better than last time but still need to work on that
i think i kept my chest out alil better than last time
i moved the bar down into a powerlifting style
i spread my stance out
it looks like im still rocking off the box tho can someone tell me how to fix that? it feels like if i dont lean forward ill fall backwards
also, how does my low back look throughout the lift?
any other comments on things to work on?
sorry for all the posts but i got just 1 more thing. I found another great article by Louie Simmons found here: http://www.elitefts.com/documents/box-squat.htm
Towards the end he talks about how you should raise the traps into the bar first to ascend? and if u push off the floor with ur legs you’ll be in a good morning which is what i’m pretty much doing. Is he literally talking about doing a shoulder shrug i’m so confused and need mountains of help on my squat
