Alan's torso is positioned forward in the video. Chest definitely stays up, regardless of the back angle.

I wouldn't get hung up on head position. Rippetoe seems to think looking slightly down helps with hip drive. Other guys disagree

It looks like you don't have a stable bottom position.

Choice of clothing makes it tough to determine, but it does appear that your lower back could be more flat.

You also make the mistake of breaking at the knees on the lowering, its apparent because of the bar drift over the knees. A deadlift lowering breaks at the hips first and then as the bar comes at the knees that's when the knees can bend. The bars path will stay vertical then.

The same advice as previously applies. You indeed look as if you forgot how to apply most of it. You can brace much harder, and the fact you are rounding in both upper as lower back shows you are not being tight enough, or not strong enough to keep that tightness.

1) I would slow down the downward part of the squat. Try to FEEL what's going on as you try to fight with your cues.

2) Focus on being TIGHT AS HELL and keeping that CHEST UP. Also try to stand up tall, you're leaning over even just standing there with the bar and your head is in front of you.

3) Shows us some of your warmup sets next time in stead. If you can show us good warmups, then you know you're doing the right thing but you need to keep working on the strength and rigidity to do the same in heavier squats.

4) Before you start squatting, try to do 4x10 air squats in your warmup with your toes touching a wall. This will force you to shove knees out and keep chest high. If you fall backwards, leave a tiny space between your toes and the wall. Keep working every time on trying to get closer to the wall without falling over.

Thanks for the advice. I realize the thing about my clothes, but I am lifting in my unsinsulated basement and there is still snow outside, so temperatures were below freezing when I did this video. Should get better videos in spring
I have to admit I haven't focussed on the descent as much as on my way up. Will pay attention to that next time. Thanks again.

I have started logging and also put up a deadlift video with a slightly better angle: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...ition-1653367/
My lower back seems okay to my untrained eyes.

Tried to clarify a bit below in bold
I used a head up position and had the same issue as Alan so I'm trying to fix that. I don't see the head position issue in Kaby's squats, so I would just do what is comfortable for now. If start driving your head up/back then you should consider looking down. Rippetoe goes with looking down as gospel to minimize the issue down the road (he has obviously seen a lot of people with the issue). As AJ said, it isn't always necessary and I have seen numerous people with a head up and solid form.

Thought I quoted Syndrom's post, but I don't see it. I agree with the tightness thing. You need to get your upper back tight as hell when setting up to place the bar on your back - this tightness needs to be kept throughout the lift. Before removing it from the rack you need to tighten up the rest of your body and treat it like you are finishing a lift, this will help drill keeping tight into your memory so it becomes second nature. Doing this on all of your reps and sets will help, including an empty bar warmup.

Hey guys can I get a critique on my sumo? I've decided to switch to sumo for all my heavy sets in an effort to protect my back. However I'm still having some issues.

This is today. On the 275 set, my shins were more or less 90* to the floor. Obviously I see my hips are starting way too low, so I know to fix that, but I'd be keen to hear other tips. Between the first drop set and the amrap seen in the video, I gradually widened my stance. By the time I got to the 5th set, my toes were almost at the plates. Is there any shame in this? Or reason not to?

Thanks for the advice guys!

Tried to focus more on bracing/getting tight etc. When thinking about this I remembered that a month ago I could like feel veins on my skull beating when bracing, not the case anymore, so def lost some intensity there. Also tried to keep chest up in mind.

For the air squats, I had to put my toes like 5cm from the wall (in weightlifting shoes). The bottleneck is that my head has nowhere to go and that makes me fall backwards, not my knees. Is that normal?

WU 5xbar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4zMYEBxKtY
WU 5x30kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUfer2y_RIs
WU 4x40kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV7nS_-kf08
WU 3x50kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDH4n0rf5Ww
WU 2x60kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rZD5BCtFTk
WU 2x70kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKKVwYezuLg
WS1 5x97.5kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWRk1CRLoAM
WS2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ym-ZBQon8U
WS3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1QmPaBtNso

bonus: trap bar dl 5x105kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU8RjXN1jLI

So imho my warmups are as bad as my work sets, indicating it's not a strength issue? My back seems fine in trap bar (right?).

Here's a couple front squats. Some form loss because this was my final max set for the day. Any input/ideas appreciated






Random Q: anyone curl the bar with their fingers while they front squat? Just started this and not sure if it's a bad habit that could injure, or if it's helping me keep my fingers/the bar in the right place throughout the movement

Air squats yes it's normal, keep working on getting closer to the wall. It will help your mobility a lot.

With regard to your squats, I would go back to the first advice given here by BPA/myself/others. It will take time to fix this. Keep working on it long term.

Widen your stance slightly, this will make you more stable and upright.

You want to extend your upper back, raise your chest, and keep your elbows up before you initiate the movement. When you go down, focus hard on keeping all this as upright as possible. As you hit the bottom and go back up, exaggerate this movement as well as punching your elbows "UP" as hard as you can. This well help your entire body to move as upright as possible which will be most efficient for the front squat.

Kaby,

Overall not bad. One issue is that you are rounding your back at the bottom...usually happens because you are trying to hit depth and you reach for it with your head basically...causing upper back to round.

Don't do that. At all. Keep your back locked in position and if all you can do is get to slightly above parallel or whatever, don't worry about it. Just keep working on the descent and trying to get deeper while keeping your back in position.

Other issue, you seem to lack flexibility to hit depth. I almost never believe this to be true when people claim it as a reason they cant get deep enough, but for you it looks like it might be.

Would like to see you just put some light to medium weight (enough to help you compress but not heavy) on bar and sit down and try to get your butt to touch your calves. If you can't easily stand up from that position, just dump it behind you.

Will work on the cues, thanks.

I already tell myself elbows up as I start to squat but I guess I'm not getting the desired result. I just started front squatting again and am getting progressively more upright.

Do you try to drive the elbows up and together, or let them angle out and drive up? If I start driving up and forcing them together I'm shaking even with light weight. I've been accidentally doing this only recently, but I've always had trouble keeping the elbows up/chest up.

Maybe a core/upper back problem

Basically doing starting strength. What do you all think of these squats? 3rd set of 280.

Switched form over from high bar ass to grass and am now concerned about depth

Can I get some critiques?
https://youtu.be/rJnU_PHYqP8

wutang,

Looks like you're hyperextending your lower back

Nice explosiveness/bar speed

You might benefit from getting more upright. Not sure how much of a heel your shoes have but Olympic weightlifting shoes enormously assist high-bar squats (as well as most other variations)

Wutang, AJ is on about your hyper extension at the bottom...definitely don't want to do that. Try to maintain the initial back position that you have as you descend.

How do I fix that?

Take two minutes to correct that in the gym.

Internet...more challenging.

Put some weight on the bar, nothing heavy but enough to feel it.

When upright, lock your back in position.

Although it's really your knees breaking, try and think about unhinging at your hips and dropping your ass through the hole and go as low as you can without your torso leaning forward or your back arching or hyper extending. When you hit whatever bottom you can, stand up.

Thx for the advice one again everyone.

That's def what it feels like yeah (reaching for depth with my head, although it's more like not falling backwards). Will cut depth a bit for now, might take some getting used to to feel.

Yeah, it feels like I can't get my hip angle more closed at the bottom and that leads to the lower part of my lower back staying more upright (pelvis not tilting enough?), and then rest of back compensates by rounding to go forward. Then again, my squats in #4716 were a lot better so ..

Round back or straight back? As a stretch or as a test? I'll try, but I don't see that happening without falling backwards

No doublepost thanks to the spam above!

Tried to go back to basics. Shove knees out & forward, chest up, and really get tight. The thing that seems to make the biggest difference is that I forgot about locking my throat up after the big breath. Really made a difference

Just did 60kg since legs were busto from a rather ambitious snowboarding + tennis combo Monday.

set 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7u2AMBG9aI
set 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt-DxtTRGGs
set 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6vcbyLo_xo


BPA, tried to do your thing. This is as deep as I could get. Second vid is with a narrower stance, which gets me deeper (or it at least feels that way). Didn't hold them for too long since they didn't feel good on hips/back. Don't think there was much to gain in going deeper though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALtMhQD2FgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKicrgREkl4

Here is my opinion on the bolded:

-Your hips are probably not feeling good due to flexibility. Doing more warmups like these (paused with increased paused lengths as your body adjusts and light weight) will probably help. May also want to try out some other stretches (couch stretch, ankle mobility stuff. air squat - stopping at bottom and pushing out your knees, etc.). Doing these and foam rolling have helped me move past my ankle mobility issues (reduced range of motion in my right ankle due to injuries).

-Your back isn't feeling good due to losing lower back tension causing your back to round. Trying to get your butt to touch your calves should be done while maintaining lower back tension which will alleviate the back pain. This next part is not based on anything but guesswork - hopefully someone else can correct it if wrong. It should also cause your knees to move a bit forward (because if your butt comes down and forward, your knees need to travel further forward) and affect your ankle mobility in a positive way (knees move forward and ankles need to bend more).

Do you guys retract the upper back in Front Squats, or keep it neutral? I just realized I'm not retracting at all.

I guess I am. Not entirely sure if what I'm doing is retracting my upper back, but I am cueing my chest up and really feeling it in my upper back. My back being able to maintain the position is actually the limiting factor in the lift ATM.

Retract upper back? Do you mean retract your scapula?

You should definitely extend the upper back as much as possible, keep chest up/high and tighten the lats. Overexaggerating "elbows and chest up" as you come out of the bottom and pushing through your heels helps a lot with staying upright.

I've never heard of retracting the scapula during a front squat.