Cannot seem to grasp good form on squats. Leg press machine good enough alternative?

[Participant]

Hi all. I'm early on in my quest to lose fat and retain muscle for my honeymoon in August. I'm 78kg and 5'11".

I've been doing predominantly dumbell exercises followed by an hour or so of cardio, revolving around two of: treadmill, cross trainer, and rowing machine. I do this three or four times a week.

The upper body exercises I've been doing so far have been seated shoulder press (DB), curl (BB), and bench press (DB). I'm going to start doing skull crushers and incline bench also.

In terms of legs though, I feel severely hampered by my inability to perform a squat, even with nothing on my shoulders. I'm very off balance and at the point that my thighs are parallel to the ground, I cannot stop myself from toppling backwards unless I lift my heels off the floor.

The way I see it is that I have three options:

- keep practising and try to perfect the squat (don't currently feel I can!)
- build myself up on other, easier to perform compound leg exercises that are easier to achieve decent form in
- stick to the leg press machine until I've got a bit more strength in the thighs, hoping that it will aid my squat

Anyone got any opinions on any of the above? Thanks in advance.

 

[Participant]

Thanks for the advice all. I read that link @if ®afiq and it covers the subject very well. It's made me resolve to keep practising it, and until I can do it with good form I will indeed use only the bar.

I really doubt that you can't squat your bodyweight, so maybe there's a problem with your form.

You are right; as I said in my original post, it's the form I can't do not the lifting part.

make sure your feet are positioned correctly, point them sideways

I think this has solved my problem. For some reason I had it in my mind that my feet should be pointing directly ahead and my knees also straight ahead. I've just practised in front of the mirror with my heels about shoulder width apart and pointing outwards, and it's much easier. Next time I go to the gym I'll grab the bar and give it a go .

Thanks all. Looking forward to getting some decent leg exercises under my belt.