Just wondering what I should be doing differently… This is @ 160 lbs. Fairly late in my workout, so I’m not really going as low as I usually do, but it’s not bad. Excuse the underarmor, I was just doin the whole baseball thing before WO.
Assuming you’re focusing on building your quads, I’d drop the weight and go all the way down (go until your hams touch your calves) if you have the flexibility (no rounding of the lower back and no rising of the heels). Don’t be afraid of going lighter than usual until you get the form down. You have plenty of time to add weight to the bar.
Also, your knees seem to buckle inwards indicating inner-thigh weakness. You’ll want to focus on keeping your knees in line with your toes and start strengthening those inners to take care of that. see Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
Hope this helps.
Keep on lifting
Yeah to build your quads hit a shoulder width stance and go ass to grass. If you have to, drop the weight. Don’t be affraid to drop the weight because form is more important than the number right now. Also why are squats at the end of your workout? their the most important quad exercise. just my .02
The whole workout was squats, except for some lunges.
I agree with the knees being inline with the toes, but not with squatting that far down. Once you start going that far down you really do utiluse the posterior chain (not that there is anything wrong with that) and not the quads. If you really need to emphasize the quads then you can put something under the heels. But I do not recommend this unless there is a specific reason other than ‘I think I need to work on the quads’)
ass to grass, you have no idea what it will do to your performance, incredible is all I can say (just did 215 ass to grass, up 60 lbs since the end of summer)
alrighty
Hi lonelobo,
have you taken a look Mike Robertson’s article on squattin’ in t-mag issue 287. it helped me with my form quite alot. i would suggest that you bring your hands closer together on the bar. hope this all helps.
The knees bucking in wouldn’t be a sign of inner thigh weakness, more like an overactive inner thigh. If your knees are bucking inside you need to work on more posterior chain movements to keeps your hips flexed and your knees pulled to the outside. Drop the weight and do deep knee box squats and more good mornings.
That was a quarter squat. Some people think of this as a full squat(laugh), some think of it as a half-squat, but get this straight…that is a quarter squat. This always gets me going. I always here of 170lb guys talking about their 350lb squats. What they don’t realize is they are only doing quarter squats. If you want to make some improvement, go to the search and look for some videos posted by CoolColJ. Do the squats as he performs them and you’ll see results soon enough.
Oh, one more thing. You mention in your question post that it is late in your workout so you are not going as low as you usually do. You should never change your ROM due to fatigue. Change the weight if you have to or perform less reps but do not sacrifice proper form for the sake of any excuse!
Yeh I agree with the other posters. Go lower. Go ass to the grass or at least to parallel. You are quite a bit off parallel.
Also concentrate on pushing out to the sides of your shoes this will help stop your knees buckling in. Also you need to hit hip abductors. Use the housewives favourite sissy hip abduction machine.
I imagine the depth of your squat decreases in proportion to the load. You might want to consider box squats. Then you will always hit the same depth. Even a 17" bench would be ok to start with, you’d probably still be going lower than you do now.
i echo everyone’s opinion on ass to grass - you’re not really utilizing all the muscles in their full ROM for the squat. don’t cheat yourself out of size and strength.
my tips: do your squat first (or maybe second) in the workout - not at the end. its a full body compound movement that takes a lot of energy out of you per rep - energy you might not have at the end of a workout. secondly, if you look from both your profile and frontal view, you’re not dropping your hips (maybe cause your tired) but from the profile view especially, it looks like you’re leaning forward. maybe so much so that you can’t bring your hips down as your back would curve too early in the movement (my back curves out at the bottom and nowhere but there). try to focus on leaning back and pushing out from your heels. not only will you properly incorporate all the elements of your posterior chain, you will have greater stability and power on top of a rock solid core.
good luck! and make sure you read all the articles in here about squatting.
Thanks for the advice, but I am a little bit concerned about my knees. They were a little bit stiff when I woke up this morning, and in the past after doing full ROM squats, I’ve gotten discomfort/pain.
I think it’s funny when someone asks for advice but already has their mind made up. Everyone is offering the same advice, increase your range of motion, go full. Why ask if you’ve made up your mind about doing partials.
I’ll go easy on you though 'cus you’re young and just starting out. Read this carefully: decrease the weight you are using (I suggest you use 95 for a few weeks), go full and focus on form, then gradually increase the weight you use. If you are not working your hamstring, start doing those as well.
When I first started going full I experience a little discomfort in the knees, so I decreased the weight and focused on form. Eventually I could full squat with no knee discomfort.
If this sinks in you will probably thank everyone that suggested you go full in a few years for your incredible legs!
I notice that as you reach your bottom position, the bar travels forward. You’re getting the bar down those last few inches mainly by flexing at the hip. The bottom part of your squat isn’t stressing legs much; it’s all lower back.
I (used to) squat with form just like this. What happened to me was that over the years, I developed a mighty strong lower back, while hamstrings became relatively weaker and weaker. My squat really plateaued. I just couldn’t increase the weight. I eventually tried to bring up my hamstrings and squat deeper – and then I tore up my lower back. Trying to squat deeper brought knee pain, too, where I had never had ANY knee pain before.
Look at the picture of Dave Tate box squatting at Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION. His torso is far more upright than yours. Look at the relationship of the bar/weight position, his lower back, and the pull of gravity. There is hardly any force on his lower back.
Thats not Dave Tate is it? I thought dave tate had alot less hair.
Sorry, that was a bad assumption. I don’t know what Dave Tate looks like. I should have said, “Look at the model in Dave Tate’s article. . .”
Squat: