***Gym Exercise Guide, and Form Discussion/Feedback***

Syla5 said:
Stance is quite wide and feet are quite pointed out, I would suggest narrow the stance bringing each foot in 2-4" and have your feet no more the 10 degrees from straight. You need to smooth out the squat and I think a wide stance is something to develop in to, not to start with.
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This.

Get your heels around shoulder width, and I tend to have my toes at around five to one.

Looks like your hamstrings and adductors and hips are all very tight!
 
That is quite wide, but I'm not sure if narrower would help or not. Try it, but you're torso:leg length ratio is going to need either a slightly wider than normal stance or lots of ankle flexion.

Keep practising, and keep trying to make it smooth.

Are you doing any adductor stretches yet? They are more important to you than t-spine mobilisation.
 
Thanks guys, I'll try a narrower stance and see how that goes. I swear my body is so fragile and doesn't want me to lift :p Now my elbow is hurting from squatting. I think maybe it's my grip that's causing it, maybe it's too narrow?

@ice, for the adductors, I did the lateral lunges you recommended, and also spent some time on the hip machine (oh the shame of saying I used a machine :o). Also the MWOD hip opener stretches my adductors a lot, though from watching the video it seems it should be targeting my abductors more.
 
I know you ave big erectors (hurr hurr) but is your mid back completely straight? Looks like you develop and hold an arch mid-spine, but I could be wrong.

And dayamn you look big in a tshirt! :eek:
 
mrthingyx said:
I know you ave big erectors (hurr hurr) but is your mid back completely straight? Looks like you develop and hold an arch mid-spine, but I could be wrong.

And dayamn you look big in a tshirt! :eek:
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i try so hard to get that back totally straight..it just doesnt seem natural at all to me..weird eh. I have a dodgy issue (a few years old) with botom of back and hip joint...deadlifts have always given me grief with this, i have tended in years past to stay away from them. Ive seen chiroprator 2 times in last week or so...they think im all good..apart from the hip joint issue. It doesnt feell good..lol
 
I think mrthingy has it right.

It's probably worth dropping the weight for a few weeks and really exaggerating a flat back, even if it takes a couple of seconds to reset between reps.
 
I can't really see much wrong with that if I'm honest, it looks pretty good. On the first rep the bar is too far away from you but the rest are fine on this front. It looks like the anterior part of your hips are tight from the fact that you have a bit of lumbar extension at the top of the rep. Spend a good amount of time stretching them thusly :):
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/09/episode-29-use-your-tv-to-time-your.html

Can you describe what kind of back problems in as much detail as possible?
 
icecold said:
I think mrthingy has it right.

It's probably worth dropping the weight for a few weeks and really exaggerating a flat back, even if it takes a couple of seconds to reset between reps.
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thats what ive tried to do...thats where the 'boucing' was coming from. Trying to force my hips down which I thought would straighten me up. Ill try working on the top part too..with really low weights.

I can't really see much wrong with that if I'm honest, it looks pretty good. On the first rep the bar is too far away from you but the rest are fine on this front. It looks like the anterior part of your hips are tight from the fact that you have a bit of lumbar extension at the top of the rep. Spend a good amount of time stretching them thusly :):
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/09/e...time-your.html

Can you describe what kind of back problems in as much detail as possible?
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I already do lots of glute and lower back mobility work..buit theres a few things there I could add in.
The problem, kinda hard to explain..I strained a muslce a few years back in the uper left glute..feels like it right in my ass bone most of the time. According to Chiropractior when I saw a few years back..it froze up my left hip/pelvic joint and stopped it moving properly/freely...so over 3-4 sessions they worked at getting the joint moveing properly again. It took ages to start squating etc again, but when ever I tried to deadlift it felt crap, so i left it out until about 4 months ago. A few weeks back after a leg session, i got up out of chair and it went again, probably just out of stiffness and being an old bugger now :) It done this a few times last few weeks and again ive been for some treatment where they are just trying to slacken it up and get it moving. I do the tennis ball and roller thing on top of left gluite along with lots of stretching but at the moment its very dodgy. So I think its a case drop the weight big time and keep working on it :( It was bad today after doing 140 x 5...last rep something went, which is why I posted vid, to see if I was doing anything crazy stupid..or if its just a probelm I have i need to deal with. I can drop the deads if its going to cause too much grief again, but I dont want to drop squats etc. At the moment..it will affect these also.
 
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I wouldn't mind some comments on my squats if any one can.

First is just with the bar. Looks OK ish. I am sure there is plenty to fix.


Second is with weight. Still only 40 Kg but even I can see my form is terrible. Watched a few videos after that session so I can see some of the stuff I am doing wrong but feedback would be helpful. In particular my feet are coming off the ground at the heels. Still unsure about my back as some videos say keep it straight but some say that the lower back should be slightly sloping.

 
Slightly wider than shoulders with feet turned out a little. I will take videos from behind as well next time to ensure this. In general I think there are a lot of muscles being used that are lacking. 40 Kg isn't heavy but I felt it on reps.

Edit: actually I think my feet are at about shoulder width. Just from a quick practice a minute ago that is where I naturally put them.
 
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Left your toes, that'll stop you pushing off the ground with them if anything temporarily :p

Looking back at it though, it does look like its a bit forward, could just be how you are sitting in to the movement though. Try it with no shows on next time or something, they probably aren't helping ,matters.
 
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Some outrageous ankle mobility in there for what looks like a potentially awesome high bar squat (unweighted).

Take a vid from the back so we can see what your knees are doing. Also, keep your upper back tight as you go though the movement. :)
 
Gents, something interesting I've found. Squatting with a pool cue or broomstick feels the same as squatting with that 10kg bar I've been doing. Theoretically couldn't I just do loads of mobility work at home and squat with those objects until my form and mobility are good enough?
 
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That's a potential avenue, however you run the risk of embedding a duff movement pattern in your head, tat will need unpicking when the time comes to add the weight back on. :)

Do you ave any access to resistance bands?
 
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