Hey guys, how’s my squat looking here? One of my friends says that I should place the bar higher, on the meat of my traps and squat with a narrower stance to stop that slight forward dip out of the whole. I’ve been trying it, but I’m way weaker with that style, (300x2 is hard) when I’ve squatted 340x5 easily with this style. Is it worth it to backtrack significantly to squat with a more vertical torso and narrower stance? Or are there other smaller tweaks I can make to my current form that would serve me better?
Hey guys, how’s my squat looking here? One of my friends says that I should place the bar higher, on the meat of my traps and squat with a narrower stance to stop that slight forward dip out of the whole. I’ve been trying it, but I’m way weaker with that style, (300x2 is hard) when I’ve squatted 340x5 easily with this style. Is it worth it to backtrack significantly to squat with a more vertical torso and narrower stance? Or are there other smaller tweaks I can make to my current form that would serve me better?
Bear with me if the YouTube embed didn’t work, I’m a tnation noob. [/quote]
Video did not work. Just put the link in the text and you should be good to go.
Squat doesn’t look too bad. However, I would say it would be worth it to move the bar placement up and take the hit to your strength in order to work on keeping your chest up and using your legs more and your back less. Recently I did this. It sucked to be weak for a few months, but in literally sub-6 months I was able to fix a ton of my problems AND improve my squat by 20 lbs.
More upright squat = more weight in the long run. Overall, you don’t look bad at all, but some slight tweaks will make you even better.
[quote]N.K. wrote:
Squat doesn’t look too bad. However, I would say it would be worth it to move the bar placement up and take the hit to your strength in order to work on keeping your chest up and using your legs more and your back less. Recently I did this. It sucked to be weak for a few months, but in literally sub-6 months I was able to fix a ton of my problems AND improve my squat by 20 lbs.
More upright squat = more weight in the long run. Overall, you don’t look bad at all, but some slight tweaks will make you even better. [/quote]
You too!? Mostly, I did it to spare my shoulders and hips since they kept on nagging me, getting hurt, and stalling progress.
Hey man, nice squats, you’re doing a great job with what you’ve got.
What I mean, is you have the toughest bodytype for squatting, being very long legs, and that’s one of the reasons you’re getting bentover so much.
What you need to do is:
stop sitting back - this is the biggest reason you’re getting bentover, it’s not your fault, sitting back is what you read all over the place… but it’s built on faulty logic. The main reason being that the hamstrings and glutes are stronger muscles, but the hamstrings don’t actually contract during the squat. Yes, they’re a hip extensor, but they’re also a knee flexor, so during the descent the hams flex, while they also stretch, causing an isometric contraction, the reverse is true for the ascent.
What this means, is that the glutes are responsible for the entire contraction, and when you sit back you take the quads out of the equation.
what you need to do is SIT BETWEEN YOUR LEGS - pretty much sit straight down and let your knees travel as far forward as they can. This will keep you upright and allow your quads to help out in the lift. Initially your squat will feel rough as you haven’t been using them, but in no time at all, your quads will catch up. Getting your front squat up to 80% of your back squat is vitally important.
As far as bar placement, go on top of the rear delts below the traps, that’s high enough and with the changes you’ll make you’ll already be plenty upright.
Something you’ll need to work on is your calf flexibility as they’ll be stretched much more with the new style, and with the front squatting.
Larry, I seem to have the same problems as the OP. Long legged, lean a bit too much forward and sit ‘back’ not down. Could you provide a video or two, of squatting going ‘down’ as opposed to ‘back’? Is it basically an Olympic Squat, just not ass to grass?
[quote]Larry10 wrote:
I’ll see what I can do[/quote]
Thanks. I appreciate all the help you provide on these forums. I haven’t even posted videos of my personal lifts and your posts have helped me tremendously.
Larry, I was actually noticing that as I was squatting yesterday, I was sitting back less and my torso stayed way more upright. My quads were also pumped and burning like hell after 275x8. I’m wondering. If this lack of quad drive is contributing to my dead lift being stalled. I’ve also started front squatting once a week.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Larry, I seem to have the same problems as the OP. Long legged, lean a bit too much forward and sit ‘back’ not down. Could you provide a video or two, of squatting going ‘down’ as opposed to ‘back’? Is it basically an Olympic Squat, just not ass to grass?[/quote]
Hey man, i’m a fairly short legged lifter, but this is an old video of me squatting wide and sitting back… notice the horrible depth and problems getting out of the hole due to my lack of quad loading.
This is a video of me sitting down and between my legs.
I’m not sure if that’s exactly what you’re looking for, but I do hope it helps.
Thanks Larry, those videos help. I’ve lightened the weight and started sitting ‘down’ as opposed to ‘back’ on my front squats today. Got much more depth (Basically ATG) and felt much better coming out of the hole. So I’ll work my way back up with your advice. Thanks.
