Hi everyone,
The past couple workouts I’ve been having problems with my squats, so I taped my last session and wanted to get it critiqued. During this specific session I did not feel as stable as usual, and from what I’ve noticed in the video is that I fall forward a bit. I was wondering if anyone could point out any other areas that need work and ways to improve my form.
Any advice is welcome and thanks in advance
I think by fixing the following you form will be better and more stable:
1-Your elbows should be more under the bar especially near the hole. This will help you not to lean forward and keeping a proud chest.
2-force your knees out. this will enhance your stability , helps you maintain a flat/arched back and more glutes activation.
3-Use a wider stance especially for low bar squats. Your posterior chain will be more involved and you’'ll get more hip drive.
About the respiration: it’s not clear in the video but i don’t think your holding ur breath before the descent and exhaling at the end of the ascent. This will help big time keeping your core tight throughout the the repetition.
Thanks for the advice, its much appreciated. About the stance, what do you suggest is an optimal toe angle? I know it can be dependent on the lifter but that’s another minor issue that I have when squatting
[quote]ericu23 wrote:
Thanks for the advice, its much appreciated. About the stance, what do you suggest is an optimal toe angle? I know it can be dependent on the lifter but that’s another minor issue that I have when squatting[/quote]
Personally i prefer around 40 degrees.
Find your own comfort zone.
You need to get those knees out to allow yourself room to actually get in the hole. Each of those was a couple inches too high.
Get a little looser and play around with different squat stances/bar positions. Record each one if you can (even do them all in the same session), regardless of which feels the best you should have an idea of what looks better.
Also, if you’re unsure of your technique from now on, check the distance between the plates and the front vertical bars on the squat rack. The distance between where you start to squat, the transition, when you’re in the hole, and on the way up the bar should be the same distance from the rack the entire time. You’ll see you leaned forward in different positions for each of the 3 squats, but all as you came back up.
Notice also that you drop forward some on the way down. This is more than likely exacerbated when you are squatting back up since you’ll be both reinforcing this bad technique, as well as putting you in a harder position to stand up from.
Try a slightly higher bar position, and really a few stances and send back a video. Good luck.
Thanks for the in depth response, I will definitely try different stances, as well as a higher bar position, and record and report back