They're all a little high. Some are obviously higher than others. You want the crease of your hip lower than the top of your knee.

Your weight looks like its a bit forward. Try to get back on your heels more if you can. Squatting barefoot or with shoes with a hard bottom would help.

You do not have to move so slow - especially on the way up. You want to explode up as quickly as possible.

You seem to keep your knees out well.

I can get them lower but when I do my knees pull forward a lot. The slowness is more so me trying to concentrate on doing them correctly.

thanks for the reply though

Finally managed to take some squat videos.

These are all HBBS cus as bad as I suck at these I suck worse at low bar and can't seem to figure out how to do them properly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR637QQk5Ww

that one is a warmup set to show comparison.......while I'm sure I'm doing plenty wrong they at least look somewhat reasonable to my untrained eye


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ExkXW1QhNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3aW_FRZPJw

Those are both around what my work set is, and you can see a clear difference I think from the first video to these two. The last one is a view from the back so you can better see the epic knee cave. It just seems as the weight gets heavier I have to lean forward some in order to be able to stand up and when I do that extreme knee cave results and I'm putting unwanted tension on my lower back.

Any thoughts/comments appreciated, esp. if you have exp. with high bar.

I am really struggling with the power clean. I can not seem to to get to the point where the elbows flip under the bar and I catch it cleanly on the upper chest/shoulders. Any help would be appreciated. I feel like I must be doing something kinda wrong before that point.

youtube: 3x125

youtube: 3x135

agame, your heels come on up on those squats and you are on your toes. keep your weight back, should fix a lot.

rleidle, ya your rack is bad. it looks like you catch it with your hands and then set it on your shoulders. it should land on your shoulders with your hands as guides. mebbe this would help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KevrEXB650

Yeah victor, I can't seem to get that part of it down. I feel like i must be doing something wrong before the rack part though?

Yeah rleidle there are some problems before the rack. You're bending your arms right as the bar gets about to your knees. You should do some hang cleans for a while to practice the 2nd pull. Stand up with the bar, shoulders back, slide your ass back and the bar will go down your leg, when it gets to about mid thigh just stand up quckly and the bar will fly up.

http://youtu.be/FQZam313ljk do that with a shrug, thats the motion you want to do. Get good at the hang position then move it back to the floor and it should be better.

I like this guide to help with the understanding of what you need to do: http://stronglifts.com/the-ultimate-...-power-cleans/

as sagan says, ya there are some problems prior to the rack. but id focus on one thing at a time and start with the rack and work your way down.

i think the heels come up due to ankle not being able to pivot forward any further as he gets lower

aka you need wl shoes

proly would help. can put heels on 5lb plates in the meantime.

@rleidle

You are pulling with your arms, so you aren't actually getting any power out of your hip extension.

Have you watched Glen Pedlay's series on how to clean? They are really good. Go here and click on the "Clean & Jerk" section on the right.

http://www.californiastrength.com/olwete.html

Related to this, I found a good exercise for helping my hip drive (and therefor relying less on arms) was doing hang clean high pulls (I think that's what they're called...), where you start in the hang position, bend your knees slightly, then bend at the hips, push them way back so you get a big hamstring stretch and the bar comes down to around knee level, then thrust your hips forward. Like a serious hard thrust. Think about the bend at the hips as loading up the hamstrings like a rubber band then letting it snap forward for your hip thrust.

nb: I don't know if that last point is how it actually works from a physiological point of view... I'm just sayin'

Thanks for all the advice guys, I will try to incorporate and report back in a few days =)

Cross-post from my log:

squat 150 lbs
press 75 lbs
deadlift 165 lbs

I'm very new to lifting and still unsure about lots of form stuff, so I'd appreciate any feedback you guys have.

looks pretty good to me. i'd maybe try to raise the elbows higher up on the squat. i have a recurring elbow issue that's aggravated when i support the bar with my hands like you do.

Would love some feedback, been trying to squat pretty much like this since and am currently trying to identify the source of a crazy squat-dl discrepancy.

@bixby

Looks ok but seems like your back is losing extension which is causing the weight to get away from the mid-foot. They might be a tad high but its hard to tell b/c of the sweat pants.

Yea I tried to mindfully keep my heels on the ground today and thought I did a decent job but it didn't fix my knee cave at all.

Is it possible the weight is just too heavy, or does me being able to get it with poor form mean that I should be able to get it up with the right form?

Agreed. It looks like you're not tightening your lower back enough before you start. Biiiig breath and really just tighten it as much as you possibly can. Will lead to better stability and keeping it extended all the way down.

agame,

your form looks a bit like a bastardization of LBBS and HBBS. Specifically, I'd change the following:
- Don't go back with your ass going down. You can see it particularly well on the side view of rep #3. HBBS is down, not back.
- Don't point your toes out that much, and maybe narrow your stance a bit
- I've found elbows directly under the bar is helpful for driving up out of the hole on the HBBS. So basically the opposite of the LBBS, rotate the elbows forward.

And as always, really, really tighten your lower back, which is critical for not gettting the forward lean.

I don't think your knees cave too bad at all btw. Heels coming off the floor is the biggest flaw with your squat, but in general it looks pretty ok.

So you're saying don't raise elbows out but keep them pointed down instead?

Also how do you consciously tighten your back?

agame, put 5lb plates under your heels. focus on driving thru your heels and midfoot.

Yep. And thumbs around the bar.


If you're not able to do this, it's kinda bad, but not uncommon. Try the superman exercise described in SS to get a feel for how it should feel.

you've got a lot of premature arm bend and aren't really getting any extension from your hips either.

edit: it also seems like you are trying to jump rather than that being a product of the way you are lifting.

maybe try and work from the hang for a bit to clean up the premature arm bend

edit again: the reason why you can't "flip the elbows under the bar" is because you are lifting with your arms (as a result of the arm bend). if the bar is moving up because of the momentum of your pulls there wouldn't be that same tension on your arms so you could get under it and "flip your elbows"

I've always heard it's a bad idea to lift on concrete because it's too hard.

squat check please! Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/user/FionnMac.../1/vjQg050HDdM