I started Madcow’s Intermediate 5x5 last week and started to get some lower back pain (not the good pain). I thought that bad form in the back squat might cause this. So I made a clip of me doing a back squat:
Points I noticed:
As far as I can tell I preserve an arch in my back even in the bottom position. Hm, maybe my form only starts to break down when using more weight doing multiple reps.
I seem to pull my left knee inwards when starting the ascent. Or I am shifting my weight to my stronger right leg?
My hips rise too early, having me lean forward and shift my weight to the front of my feet. Any tips how to fix this?
I will attach a clip with a front squat. For the front squat I noticed the following points:
Much less leaning forward and tighter arch even in the (lower) bottom position. I think that’s reason why I never get lower back pain from front squats.
Practice. You might want to mentally focus on lifting your butt at the bottom. This helped me keep tension on my hamstrings when coming out of the hole and helps keep weight on the heels. Other than that, your squat was good.
It kind of looked like you were doing a bit of a good morning out of the hole. Watch as you come up for a split second your hips are rising faster than your upper body. I have the same problem. To solve it I dropped the weight significantly and now do front squats with my arms out in front of me and the bar resting on my shoulders and chest. If I let my core go or lean forward just a bit the bar rolls off of me.
[quote]DanErickson wrote:
It kind of looked like you were doing a bit of a good morning out of the hole. Watch as you come up for a split second your hips are rising faster than your upper body. I have the same problem. To solve it I dropped the weight significantly and now do front squats with my arms out in front of me and the bar resting on my shoulders and chest. If I let my core go or lean forward just a bit the bar rolls off of me.[/quote]
Try looking up. I don’t know why, but whenever I look forward I shoot my hips back. When I look up I drive straight out of the hole every time.
Overall I would say nothing too ugly, as long as ALL your reps look like that. Form tends to deteriorate after the first few reps for most people.
Looking up and keeping my toes off the ground both have helped me to stop falling forward and rolling onto my toes. By keeping my toes off the ground I mean I curl them back toward my shin so only the ball of my foot to my heel are contacting the floor, I’ve noticed this helps a lot to keep me from going forward onto the toes. (I squat barefoot though, so its pretty easy to pull my toes up)
Hand placement: I want you to place both your indexes where the grip part of the bar meets the smooth silver. It’s going to be somewhat painful, and this signifies a flexibility issue. It’ll get easier.This will keep you back tight and the arch stable.
When you get under the bar, lock your head to the back of the bar. This means keeping the back of your skull practically touching the metal. By default you are now looking up.
If you maintain this form while squatting you will never break down again.
Hi guys,
thank you all for your help. So to summarize, I should:
look upwards instead of straight forward.
bring the hands as close together as possible (index finger on smooth part of the bar).
lower the weight in the front squat
I will try keeping the toes off the ground and see how that works. I am bit hesitant about changing my front squat grip because dropping the bar in the power rack does not seem so attractive.
Interesting material on Rippetoe’s startingstrength.wikia.com site. Though some tips of Rippetoe sound a bit strange:
Looking down during the squat (video on hip drive in the squat)
The only problem is that your hips raise slightly faster than your shoulders out of the bottom position.
You just need to focus on driving your hips FORWARD, instead of UP, out of the hole. You don’t need to “look up” or sit back further or anything like that, you just need to correct this slight technical error and you should be fine.
Looks like you have long femurs. This makes the back squat a poor choice for you for leg development. Your hips and low back will be very involved, even with a lighter weight. Your leverages just may not be the greatest for this lift. Not saying don’t do them as the squat is a very productive exercise but just be aware of how your mechanics work for your body.
@PRCalDude: Hm, Rippetoe is the only one I have heard that suggests looking down on the squat and it was also only in the video about hip drive.
@mr popular: I will try this. However, looking up has helped me so far and I will keep doing it.
@Michael Petrella: Hm, maybe my femurs only look long because my pants are pulled up too high. What ratio between upper and lower leg would you consider a long femur? I dug up an article by Chad Waterbury ( http://www.T-Nation.com/article/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/5_things_youre_missing ) that basically says, if you cannot do a wall squat within two weeks you’d better do front squats for quad development. I will check, if I can do a wall squat within two weeks.