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Are there any quick fixes for leaning to far forward when doing squats?

kindred

kindred

New member
Are there any quick fixes for leaning to far forward when doing squats?

I just recored myself doing some squats and i lean way forward. I didnt even know i did that!

I saw this clip where the guy kept his feet strait and shoulder width apart. He claimed that if you do squats with a slightly wider stance and feet slightly pointed out you engage the wrong muscles. Can anyone verify this???

Mistakes You Make When Squatting That Help To Injure Your Knees

And yes I know I ask alot of questions about squats but god damn it i am determined to be able to do them properly with no knee pain!!!!
 
You're best to show us the vid of yourself so we can see what's happening.

Ideally the bar is directly over the middle of the foot during the entire lift. Depending on your individual build, that may mean more or less of a lean forward; the relative length of people's legs and torsos varies, this will make their lean different.

If the lean goes so far that the bar is past the foot, what is usually happening is simply that the weight is too much for you. A lean forward almost always goes with the lower back rounding. The lower back rounds because your glutes and hamstrings are weak relative to your quads and lower back, rounding is how your body gets the lower back and quads more into it.

You deal with this by dropping the weight and improving your form. If you're leaning and rounding, then remember the cues arse back, chest up, knees out.

Ignore anyone who says that this or that foot stance is necessary generally. There are many kinds of squats, each has its own purpose. In general, the closer your feet are together, the more your quads are brought into the lift, and the less deep you'll be able to go. A wider stance works the glutes and hamstrings more.

For the typical person in the West who spends their work and leisure and transport life sitting on their bum, their glutes and hamstrings are relatively weak, so a wider stance will be better for them.

This wider stance may mean you can't go below parallel without rounding your lower back. Just go as deep as you can without rounding; this is "the bottom of the squat" for you. Over time your range of motion will increase.

But really we need a vid. These are general comments only.
 
Maybe i am doing it right then cause the bar is in the middle of my foot. It just looks really far forward. I will work on posting the video on youtube and post it up.
 
Your lower back's rounding, and you're keeping this bend as you come up. The bar goes beyond your toes at the bottom of your squat.

Look at the vid, when your bum reaches the level of the top of the bench behind you, your lower back rounds. Your hips tilt back, your bum tucks in.

Chest up. Chest up the whole time. The "chest up" cue makes you extend your back and straighten it. Go as deep as you can while keeping your back straight. This will be above parallel for you, that's okay - as I said, this range of motion will get bigger over time.

Just think of it as when you go camping, if you need to go to the toilet, but it's just a ditch, you don't want a mess on your shoes. So you bring your chest up and put your arse back.
 
Your squat resembles a good morning kindred.

You have two movements happening here, your upper torso must extend with your legs.
 
First it's form, Morgan. Core strength comes after that. Squatting's not something we do much in day to day life in the West. We sit down on chairs but then slump our lower backs. We just don't know how to squat, and that then gives us weak midsections.

If he squats with correct form, his core strength will increase. Working it directly won't be good for him. He's a big guy, planks or crunches or whatever will destroy his lower back long before they strengthen his abs. He just needs to squat properly, and with the longest range of motion he can manage while keeping his back extended. I've a client just like him physically.

Chest up! :)

Oh and Kindred, bolt that rack down or put it outside on the concrete, it's a bit wobbly, one day you'll unrack or rack and it'll fall over and even if it doesn't hurt you it'll put a hole in the wall :D
 
As your'e coming out of the hole, imagine you are trying to crack a walnut with your arse cheeks and also... move the hip forward whilst imageing this.

Glutes play a role.
 
Yeah I noticed that. Not much I can do at this point in time. I will keep the weight low and try the chest thing for awhile. I had a go with 60kg just then and almost lost the weight im so weak right now.
 
Just try some squats with no bar now. Keep the chest up. In fact, lift your arms forwards, keep them parallel to the ground and your head up looking straight ahead.

As you descend into the squat, at some point you'll feel yourself get a bit less stable. Your knees might wobble, you'll feel the urge to bend over to balance. Don't. Just keep chest up and knees out.

That instability is the "core weakness" Morgan spoke of. Like other kinds of weakness from being sedentary this disappears pretty quickly. In a month or two you'll be going straight up and down without trouble, nice and deep.

The width of stance isn't an issue, you'd have this difficulty with your heels together or wide apart like a sumo. But for bigger and taller guys, a wider stance is often more comfortable, with a narrower stance your gut gets in the way. Sorry I don't know how to put that politely.

Film your deadlifts, too. If you're rounding your back on squats you will almost certainly be doing that on deadlifts. You may find sumo deadlifts more comfortable. With big blokes, as they descend to pick up the bar, the belly gets in the way, makes them put their knees out, so their grip has to be ridiculously wide. Having the grip inside the knees sorts this out.

As with squats, so with deadlifts - "chest up!" Again, keeping your back in extension is most important. You may not be able to go all the way to the ground with your back in extension. That's okay. If you can't, begin with the bar around your knees. The progression for you then, instead of increasing weights and reps, will be increasing reps, and increasing range of motion.

For everyone, more weight, more reps and more sets are progressions. For the beginner, more range of motion is, too. It's not as satisfying as whacking another 10kg on the bar, I know. But it's a progression, increase safe range of motion and you're getting stronger.

I wish you were in Melbourne, mate, I know just the bloke to introduce you to, client of mine. He's an IT and rpg geek, too. And he's got stronger and dropped some weight off.
 
Big fella, all you need to do is get some weightlifting shoes and start doing front squats and overhead squats, thats it.

I've had this issue heaps at PTC, stop with the back squats for now.

The form Nazi's arent that big a help. Andy got it spot on, its 2 movements. Morgan was also right, your core is weak. Front squats decimates your core. Ever seen an OL with a weak core?

Not everybody is built to squat. I had one boy, Tim, and Asian boy, he was worse than you, he front squatted for a year, no back squats, end result was perfect form with 1 1/2 x bw for reps in the back squat. He could kiss his sack squatting 40kg when he started.
 
They're making Asians all wrong these days - they can't even squat! Our ancestors are rolling in their graves!
 
Try and move your hips foward on the press part of the squat rather than pushing from your knees.

Always look foward nad keep your chest out.
 
kindred said:
I give it all a shot and incorporate front squats. I dont have the room for overhead squats.
Click to expand...

Good! Practice everyday, 3 sets of 10.
Practice makes perfect, but do it perfectly otherwise you will make perfect mistakes.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
I am finding front squats are helping heaps, i tend to bend forward to much aswell when I am tired or go too heavy, you will feel how different your body sets up when you do them..

from you vid your ass is coming up first, before you back,as your ass comes up your shoulders need to come up and back aswell, you get this from the hip drive.

We have all said to have a high chest, I found if you focus on something high on the wall it helps, in the gym it is the top of the mirrors, ~ 2m up, try putting a pic on the wall, just above head height.
 
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