Squat form acceptable or not?

[Adam Carling]

Hey pretty new to strength training and teaching myself the front and back squat and just curious if the forms are acceptable my back squat is not quite vertical as I would like I feel a more comfortable with the front than back, been really working on flexability. Any thoughts or tips well be extremly appreciate. Thanks Adam

Front Squat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY-2pyEzw_Q&feature=plcp
Back Squat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8xtznDngTA
Back Squat double http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=i1bU_b_hTio

[Chad Lammert]

good things: in the front squat your elbows stay high and in both squats it looks like you have a vertical bar path.

The problem is you wont be able to maintain this positioning when weight gets heavier because your not underneath the bar as much as you could be.

On both the front and back squats your hips are way behind your heels. I can't quite tell from the angle, but my guess is that you forward pointing knees and feet. Open the angle of your feet and that way when you squat and you push your knees open (feel a stretch/tension on the inside of your legs--that's the adductors) you'll be able to keep your hips more on top of your heels and your body will be under the bar rather than sliding out behind it. Look at Greg's videos for demonstrations of these ideas and watch how his hips are over his heels and his knees are pushed out allowing for a vertical spine.

Hips forward!

[Chad Lammert]

And tell the deadlift guy he's doing it wrong.

[Adam Carling]

Hey, thanks for the advice. My feet are slightly out but not to far I well definitely watch this my next day and see if I can get my hips farther in have been working alot on abductor flexbility of late. I do have long hamstrings but I think I can work on my stance to help out with that. Was curius if maybe it was a weak postier chain not allowing me to keep up right. Lol I well inform next time I see him. Thanks again

[Javier Sanjuan]

Originally Posted by Chad Lammert

And tell the deadlift guy he's doing it wrong.

Hahaha ...

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Adam Carling

Hey pretty new to strength training and teaching myself the front and back squat and just curious if the forms are acceptable my back squat is not quite vertical as I would like I feel a more comfortable with the front than back, been really working on flexability. Any thoughts or tips well be extremly appreciate. Thanks Adam

Front Squat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY-2pyEzw_Q&feature=plcp
Back Squat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8xtznDngTA
Back Squat double http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=i1bU_b_hTio

First thing, look to the obvious stuff...You are lanky: Long legs, proportional to short torso and your femurs are hella long. They are in fact too long to adopt a full upright oly squat you are picturing in your head . Unless you get your feet out very wide (think sumo style PL squat) you're not going to mimic that idealized semi vertical shin, upright torso squat form.

So...don't.

Second obvious thing. The squat itself looks ok. The bar stays over your midfoot most of the way,you have a pronounced sticky point and you need to open those hips up a bit.

Try nudging your feet out a shade, opening your hips more and let the bar stay where it needs to be (over your midfoot) regardless of back angle.

Also...have trod this rode leverage wise.I think you'll benefit from repetition squatting for a while,sets of 5-8 and pause squats. Set of 3. This will help you mightily with the next thing that is going to flair up. Upper back tightness. but...for now,at these weights,your back is doing a good job and the overall form can be worked with.

Hope this helps.

[Adam Carling]

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it. I squatted today with my feet a bit past shoulder width and flared out a bit more and opened my hips as far as I could on the decent seemed help a out a bit more.

[Adam Carling]

Played with my stance a little today widened it out about 2-3 " past shoulder helped out a fair bit. Well keep it there and work a lot on my flexibility.