You want to try to get your hips back a bit more. It looks like the weight is shifting forward a bit onto your toes at the bottom of the squats. You drop your chest a bit (like I do) as you hit the bottom, got to try and stay really tight.
You should try to pack your neck back into the bar. Your head juts forward.
When you sit back (and not just down), you cannot have a vertical torso. I've tried the gaze as Rip suggests, but it didn't feel right to me. Actually, I haven't tried the Rip gaze in awhile, maybe I should try it again. You can likely keep your gaze where it is and move your head back an inch or two in order to "pack in" your neck, as Aidan calls it.
Renton - Your neck position was the first thing I saw. Does your neck jut forward like that normally when you're standing or walking around? Maybe you don't have great posture but I'd imagine it isn't super bad....but maybe it is.
If your "normal" neck position isn't super forward in everyday life, then I'd guess that the problem is not getting a "big chest" or getting your "chest up". Are you tightening your lats really tight and tightening your shoulder blades together when you set up so your chest "juts up" like you are hot ****? This will also help with not letting your torso lag behind your legs as you come out of the bottom of your squat since your back hopefully will be tighter.
And has already been mentioned, it seems you aren't staying back on your heels.
It may be helpful to do a "tightening" routine before you stand up with the bar (and kind of "re-do" it before the actual squat). I guess the way I do my setup is:
- Set my left hand position
- Set my right hand position
- Get under bar and tighten my shoulder blades together and make sure my hands feel locked on the bar
- tighten my hamstrings
- tighten my glutes "outward" (as if I am about to push my knees out)
- take a deep breath and push my abs out (don't suck them in on squat, out will give you a better platform)
- set my lower back (Ripp has a video on this if you don't know how to do it)
- bring my lats down tight and get my "chest up"
Squat
I'm not sure why I take my breath after tightening my lower body but before my upper body....probably b/c that's what I do on deadlifts. But anyway, the point is that I can try to "tighten everything" but it only works b/c I spent months tightening things by committee. I don't seem to have a great kinesthetic sense of what my body is doing so that approach helped me stay focused.
Kidcolin is the one who seems to be able to get a ton from his tightness and technique when squatting so I maybe he can chime in. But I'm sure he has a much better feel than I do of tightening everything all at once and just continuing to do so through the rep.
Rentdog has made a ton of progress. I still think weight on the heels is the #1 thing. He's doing better with it but he does a bunch of bouncing around on the balls of his feet pre-rep.
Packing the neck would be good. A decent cue for that is giving yourself a double chin.
Would like to see elbows under the bar instead of jacked up, too, but it's hard to explain. I've explained it before. Paul Carter (lift-run-bang) is apparently doing a lbbs vid tonight specifically addressing elbows/arms/shoulders.
But all-in-all I think they look pretty decent and worlds better than just a week ago.
Didn't know people were still discussing my vids. Thanks for the advice and encouragement fellas. I basically agree with all of it except that I'm pretty sure I was on my heels during 90% of those last squats (although hard to remember 100% of such details with the weight on my back). I'll take them into consideration when I squat today.
