Hi everyone, I would really like some feedback regarding my squat. I struggle a lot with squats and I really want to improve my form. I'm 5'10" with long femurs and I always seem to fall forward. Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you
@finnallen101 For core tightness, breathe into your stomach, not high in your chest. Tuck your ribcage a little and breathe into the space below it. A lot of great tips here on not falling forward, but this will help too.
@finnallen101 Don't move your arms up and down between reps. You'll lose upper back tightness and the bar will start to feel heavy. You'll lose your mojo.
You are bouncing on your knees when you fully descend. You'll injure your knee joint if you keep doing that.
@finnallen101 I think overall this looks pretty good, you're falling over a bit more in the last few reps. For me a helpful cue is trying to use my core to keep my back as upright as possible. You should feel your core and lower back starting to fatigue if you engage them correctly.
@finnallen101 I have long femurs as well and falling forward is common for long femur lifters bc that's just how our leverages work. Some things you should consider are your feet position, tracking your knees over your toes and ankle mobility.
Whether I squat high bar or low bar, I keep a narrow stance (bc I have narrow hips) and I always turn my toes slightly outwards. So when I squat I force my knees out and align them with my toes. A good cue I like to use is to imagine there are screws in your heels and you are twisting them into the ground without actually moving your feet. This way you force the angle of your knees outward so when you squat your femurs are out of way. And if you look at your squat from the side it'll look like your femurs are shorter. Your knees should go above and past your toes (if you're hitting proper depth).
Ankle mobility is usually overlooked but if you have long femurs is soo important to stretch your ankles. Because when people with long femurs squat their knees have to travel past their toes to be able to hit depth and having proper ankle mobility allows for that.
@finnallen101 Your form is perfectly fine. Don't fall down the rabbit hole of constantly psyching yourself out on form issues. If it works without causing injury or excessive butt wink, IT WORKS.
@finnallen101 I think your form looks pretty perfect! I switched from low bar to high bar as I was tending to lean forward when I got about 100lbs. Now I'm doing the same weight as you and I haven't had any feeling of leaning forward like I used to (so far!) Keep it up and great job!
@finnallen101 You have a lot of slack in the upper back. Either move your arms closer together or really focus on keeping tension (imagine you're trying to bend the bar apart - pull out and down with both hands). When you breathe in to do your valsalva maneuver you shouldn't be shrugging your shoulders like you are.
The actual move itself looks fine to me. Your stance is a bit narrow and it looks like from a distance your lower back is rounding slightly towards the bottom - this may be due to "butt winking". If you widen your stance slightly you should bottom out before you butt wink and a wider stance more easily supports a neutral spine.
When you get to the last rep or two, it looks like you're driving with your back. Do you get sore in your lower back? If so, the cue to drive your elbows back and hips forward might help with engaging your posterior chain to provide the drive rather than your lumbar erectors.
@finnallen101 It's a lot to remember, but having a nice tight upper back platform really helps. I like to point my toes out just a bit when I squat as well, as my knees have a tendency to cave in. Play around with it and find something comfortable!
@chelleaiken81 second all this and definitely try a lower bar position. I'm 5'9" and all legs and I have a really low bar stance.
It might be the angle of the video but it looks like you're leaning into your right side to drive back up on reps 3-5 and a little bit of stanky leg action (knees wiggling in). so locking in your upper back and maybe thinking about "engage with glutes" and not just folding, like what /@popc said would definitely take your numbers up in a hurry and probably feel better.
@finnallen101 It kinda looks like your upper body isn't engaged enough. If you can move your arms like that at the beginning, you aren't squeezing your shoulder blades. For a full compound movement like the squat, you should be "squeezing" your shoulder blades and also clenching your tummy at the top.
When you first put the bar up, don't use your back! Squat the bar, like lift with your legs, not your back.
