Doing some squats,could you have a look at my technique?

[oselifer]

I had some knee pain issues after having some heavy squats so i checked things about technique and realized that my knees were passing the toes which is wrong and caused me problems..

After solving this my knee pain gone but now i have some problems with my lower back..

Could you have a look to see if i am doing sth wrong?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51ypQ8LGySQ

 

Its 20x100lbs..I can add much more weight but my pains keep me back..

Edited August 7, 2009 by oselifer

[chrisjs]

Form looks pretty good, you should probably try to look straight forward or a little up, not down like you're doing. That's probably causing you to round your upper/mid back but it's hard to tell from the video.

[xCx]

By the looks of it you're doing a high-bar squat? If that's the case you shouldn't be to anal about your knees going past your toes as that's pretty much impossible to do if you want decent depth, instead you should focus on your knees not buckling inwards.

 

I'm seeing three problems with your squat.

 

1: You have a tendency to hyperextend your lower back

2: You're not going below parallel..

3: SHOES You shouldn't really be squatting in a soft sole shoe as it'll screw up your stability

[oselifer]

By the looks of it you're doing a high-bar squat? If that's the case you shouldn't be to anal about your knees going past your toes as that's pretty much impossible to do if you want decent depth, instead you should focus on your knees not buckling inwards.

 

I'm seeing three problems with your squat.

 

1: You have a tendency to hyperextend your lower back

2: You're not going below parallel..

3: SHOES You shouldn't really be squatting in a soft sole shoe as it'll screw up your stability

 

1)I will try to keep my lower back straight

2)I am not going too deep as i had knee pain a month ago and don't want to strees my knees..

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

[VeganEssentials]

1. Another in agreement to look ahead or slightly upward, looking down can cause the lower back to get out of position more.

 

2. As was said, knees past toes is not a bad thing if you do narrow and/or high bar squats. Your knees won't go forward much with a wide powerlifting-style squat stance (their shins stay nearly completely vertical), but with a narrower stance and a high bar position, knees will go forward some. The old saying that it's bad for knee health has never been proven, so take that for what it is, just a saying that doesn't really mean much. I always point out, if you watch some olympic lifters doing deep squats and squat cleans, their knees are often WAY forward over toes, and even squatting daily or every other day, they rarely seem to have knee problems, so that's one more consideration.

 

3. Try to unlock the hips and push them back before you bend at the knees. Letting the knees lead the way might be throwing things off a bit, so put some extra focus into pushing your hips back as the first part of the movement, not going down an inch or two and then pushing your hips back. That might make things feel better.

 

4. While it would seem that going deep would be very aggravating to the knees, my knees are getting better and better again from making sure to always go below parallel. I wish I could find the article online from MILO magazine where one reader went from barely being able to walk (prior to knee replacement surger) to being able to squat 225 lbs. as low as possible just days before his surgery, all by doing squats as deep as possible. The man could barely move and rehabilitated his knee to get a full ROM and complete mobility back just from squatting deep - he still had the surgery to correct some long-term problems, but it showed the power of DEEP squatting for rehabilitation purposes. Going anything above parallel can cause additional knee shear and pain, so if you don't plan on going deep for any reason, make SURE you at least hit parallel!

 

5. If you decide to go deep, try paused bottom squats if you're feeling that bouncing out of the hole at bottom might be causing some aggravation. It'll alleviate any additional stress on the knee - set the pins as los as possible to where they're about 1-2" below your lowest point, go as deep as possible (start with just the bar or only a few kgs extra to begin) and let yourself go down low for a deep stretch, then rise quickly after spending a few seconds at the lowest position. From getting back to doing these, I no longer have knee pain when skateboarding, something that's been affecting me for the past few years.

 

6. High-bar squats require more focus on keeping the lower back heavily arched and tight to prevent rounding and forward lean. If you haven't tried going low-bar style, it might be helpful, but it will require a few form alterations to get used to the change.

 

7. I think xCx was saying that it looks like you're overly-arching your lower back (which can be done), but you don't want to keep it straight, perhaps not push to have as hard of an arch if it feels uncomfortable. You'll always want to keep an arch and never a straight back to protect the lower back, but overly-arching by hyperextending can also cause problems by throwing off ideal form and making you more prone to injury.

 

Hope the suggestions help!

[oselifer]

Veganessentials,thank you so so much!!!

I will post a new video when i improve my form..

[VeganEssentials]

Glad we could all be of assistance!

 

Here's some motivation for you in the way of form check for deep squats and variances of style:

 

Olympic high-bar squat showing knees forward from Chakarov, one of the best of his time:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/ninearms/Weightlifting/chakarov270.jpg

 

Clip of olympic-style high-bar squats in action for 20 reps @ 403 lbs. if I recall correctly -

 

Wade Hooper, powerlifting-style wide stance low-bar squat:

 

Enjoy!