I have not done squats in two months. Anyways, yesterday i did them and it seem that when lower my upper body goes to far forward and when coming up it seems like i am using all back. Any tips or ideas on how to correct this.
timebomb
It’s difficult to say without seeing you perfrom your squats, but there is one thing that I have seen help many with this problem.
Your body will follow your head! Pick a spot in front of you that is located high on the wall. Now stare at it during your set. Don’t take your eyes off of it as you squat down or when you come up. Since you will not be dropping your head, your body should remain solid through the entire movement.
Eventually, you will not need that spot, but right now it will help with proper form.
I had to change my stance to get squats correctly and now they are very comfortable. It took me widening my stance quite a bit with my feet splayed out somewhat. When I did that, it seemed that I could drop down in a fluid motion and come back up with balance. Before it always felt like I needed to “tippy toe” to get a squat up with a narrow stance.
Good luck!
What shoes are you wearing when you squat?
I just got these new shoes specifically for squatting and deadlifting… Adidas Delta X. They are flat, thin, padded, and feel like slippers (they are slip-ons, actually). They have an anti-slip sole which is definitely anti-slip. If I didn’t get these I would use my indoor soccer shoes which I think would also be excellent.
Do you feel tight in the hips?
From the two months of not performing squats, you could have lost that flexibility allowing you to lower easily. As well as the necessary hip explosiveness.
Did you go right back into training with either the same poundages or near to what you were doing before? You may need to lighten the load and maybe even take a bit more time to warm up.
I’ve had a similar problem. Basically I’ve had to reduce the weight to embarassing levels and teach myself to squat all over again. My pride has taken a hit, but my quads are loving it.
I think the Dave Tate box squatting article that is being rerun this current issue of the mag has some tips you might find beneficial. For example, he recommends driving your head back against the bar as your first movement coming out of the hole so you don’t end up leaning too far forward. When I max out, I know I have this problem so it is something I’m working on.
Patricia
I don’t where shoes when i squat. I thought that a lost in flexibility might be the cause. I didn’t think about explosiveness. Any suggestion on how to get both flexibility and explosiveness back.
You quite easily have tight psoas muscles and/or a weakness in your core, predominately from weakened back extensors(lumbar spine). To solve this problem, seriously begin an intensive stretching program for your hip flexors and work on building up your lower-back strength by doing plenty of hip and back extension exercises(goodmorning,romanian deadlift, hyperextensions,reverse hyperextension,glute-ham raise). Another thing; Are you doing box squats or traditional squats? You mention you use flat shoes. These are only good for box squats. If you are trying to do traditional squats with flat shoes, then you will encounter the “leaning forward problem”. This is why weightlifters use shoes that have a heal that is elevated anywhere from 1-2 inches. Don’t be afraid to have a little heal lift under your shoes if you are doing traditional squats. I injured myself in the past by attempting this. When I first started Olympic Weightlifting, I coudn’t afford to purchase weightlifting shoes so I trained with regular crosstrainers and seriously injured my left psoas and sartorius trying to catch a heavy snatch in the full squat position. Train smart: no heal=box squat, with heal=traditional squat. Hope that helps, good luck!