I’ve been lifting for a while now, but I still can’t seem to really master the squat form. I always end up starting to feel some wobble in my lower back and stop before I hurt myself.
I know you’re supposed to sit BACK rather than straight DOWN, and everyone who’s seen me squat says that this is my problem. My current form takes me straight down, with my knees going out past my toes, and my torso bending forward, so that I end up in a position like this: o
/
_
And like I said, squatting in that position puts akward strain on my lower back.
Here’s the thing: I can’t even sit back without any weight at all without going staright to the floor. I’ve been told to sit back like I’m sitting in a chair, or, more crudely, like I’m dropping a deuce. If I try this even without any weight, though, I can’t keep my balance.
[quote]hobscrk777 wrote:
I’ve been lifting for a while now, but I still can’t seem to really master the squat form. I always end up starting to feel some wobble in my lower back and stop before I hurt myself.
I know you’re supposed to sit BACK rather than straight DOWN, and everyone who’s seen me squat says that this is my problem. My current form takes me straight down, with my knees going out past my toes, and my torso bending forward, so that I end up in a position like this: o
/
_
And like I said, squatting in that position puts akward strain on my lower back.
Here’s the thing: I can’t even sit back without any weight at all without going staright to the floor. I’ve been told to sit back like I’m sitting in a chair, or, more crudely, like I’m dropping a deuce. If I try this even without any weight, though, I can’t keep my balance.
Does anyone have some tips or suggestions?[/quote]
Strengthen your posterior chain maybe. Work on your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.
Keep your shoulders, knees, and feet relatively lined up. Your knees should not drift forwards much at all and your shins should stay near 90 degrees with the ground.
Try to make the first part of the movement with your hips, this helped me a lot to remember when I was learning the form.
Also, as mentioned earlier, work on your posterior chain.
Try doing bodyweight box squats. This may help you learn the stability that you need to be able to squat properly.
If all else fails, you could just leg press a lot, apparently, leg pressing 900 lbs makes you really hardcore at most gyms.
On the subject on lining up the knees, shoulders and feet, it seems for this to happen the torso needs to come forward during the descent, so that it is significantly more leaned forward that at the beginning of the squat. It seems that when I squat down to parallel (wide or narrow) my knees go slightly past my shoes unless I lean significantly forward. Is leaning something I’m supposed to do or am I just supposed to let the knees go forward a little?
Yeah, it took me awhile to learn how to “sit back” and squat properly. Here’s what I did:
Accept the fact that doing bodyweight squats are ok for now.
Assume an athletic stance, feet slightly wider than shoulders.
Extend both arms forward.
In a mirror, watch your hips initiate the movement as you sit back into the squat. Your extended arms will provide the balance you need to sit back properly without leaning forward excessively.
Once you’re comfortable with the movement, you’re ready for goblet squats and DB squats. And then you can load up the bar and really get going.
Make sure your back stays nice and tight with it’s neutral arch but don’t be afraid to lean forward as much as necessary to feel secure with the weight.
For a while I got into the problem where I wasn’t leaning forward enough so I felt really unstable coming out of the hole because the weight was getting pushed off my heels not the middle of my foot.
To get the right stability it felt like I was leaning way over but that wasn’t the case, just poor kinetic awareness on my part. It took some time and some help getting the right lean before it felt natural.
Other suggestions:
Think about bar position. If the bar is high on your traps (Olympic style) try setting it lower so that it is resting on your shoulders more. The lower center of gravity may help your stability.
Try overhead squats. Not only will they strengthen your posterior chain, I found I got a much better sense of what my back was doing after a few weeks of these.
Check out Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength it’s a very thorough guide through the core lifts. The chapter on back squats is roughly 50 pages.
Well, I’m hardly one to be giving coaching tips on squats, but here’s one that helped me with a similar leaning problem: Concentrate on driving your head back into the bar where it rests on your shoulders. The upper body wants to follow the head - if the head comes forward and down, the shoulders will follow it and you will lean too far forward. Conciously try to pull the back of your head back towards the bar as you start your descent, and keep it there when you drive up into the ascent.
When I started doing this, I immediately noticed a more even pressure on my feet from toes to heels, and I was able to squat much lower without feeling like I was about to topple over.
[quote]chillain wrote:
5. Once you’re comfortable with the movement, you’re ready for goblet squats and DB squats. And then you can load up the bar and really get going.
[/quote]
[quote]fugative wrote:
chillain wrote:
5. Once you’re comfortable with the movement, you’re ready for goblet squats and DB squats. And then you can load up the bar and really get going.