Hi,
I’ve been getting criticism from buddies in my gym that I bend too far forward during my ascent when I squat. I’ve always done this but I have been told it will eventually result in back injury. This is a video of me today squatting 360 lbs at 165 bw. Please let me know if this is an excessive forward lean and if so, are there any accessories to help me correct it?
I think by forward lean you mean the hips shooting up at the sticking point?
Does it happen on lighter weights? Then this is a learned motor pattern and you just have to mentally fix it.
or just higher %s? Then it is probably weak quads (or weak something being compensated for).
In both instances try front squats (aside from your normal squat work). They force you to stay upright (or drop the bar) so it will work on the weak muscles that are used to maintain a more upright posture (whether that be quads or not) and ingrain the desired motor patterns.
I could also see tempo squats being rxed for this but i have 0 experience with them…or desire to do them lol
EDIT: Sorry I should have read more carefully. Gym buddies be jealous and also mostly wrong. It will put more stress on your back but as you have said you have always done this so you have probably trained those muscles and this is probably mostly a learned motor pattern.
It also isnt necessarily terrible (everybody has different mechanics that work for them) but you asked how to change it.
I feel like I do it for all squats because I was originally called out on it when I was repping 245. I also don’t know if it’s also due to me squatting high bar. I’ll try adding front squats into the mix and see if it corrects eventually. I’ve tried trying to keep my chest up out of the hole but that doesn’t seem to do anything for me
Try thinking of driving your back into the bar and driving your hips forward.
When you were repping was it all reps or just the tired ones?
I feel like it was all reps but got worse as I fatigued
I would guess that it’s a combination of not great technique, weak quads, and relatively heavy weight. You said you got called on that when you squatted 245, did it happen on all reps or only after you started to fatigue? What is happening is that you are shifting the load from your quads to your hips and lower back, either because that’s how you learned to squat or because your quads can’t handle the weight.
Front squats could work, my personal recommendation would be SSB squats because you can handle more weight than with a front squat and the bar will try to fold you over, you will have no choice but to learn to stay upright. Leg press and hack squats could help add some quad mass as well.
Another thing to consider, maybe don’t push close to failure on any set. And don’t do heavy singles unless you are peaking for a meet. The more reps you do in a set the uglier they are likely to get, for example rather than 3 sets of 8 you would be better off doing 8 sets of 3 to actually practice the right movement pattern and then you can do some assistance work.
Looks fine. Just focus on keeping your knee forward, it will sort the hips shooting back issue.
Squat looks fine. Some guys pitch forward out of the hole. Steve Goggins and Ed Coan both folded up like lawn chairs in the hole. Just how some people squat. I wouldn’t worry about it at all. Ssb will force you to squat with a more upright posture, but imo what you’re doing looks fine.
I’ve had this problem as well and I’ve been doing pause half-way on the way up to keep me more upright and knees out. It’s still my sticking point