Excessive Forward Lean on Squat TLDR I fold like a cheap suit, why?

[Shane]

Your lean is not extreme at all, but haven't seen it at depth. Also - your camera is tilted noticeably clockwise which will exaggerate perceptions of lean.

[Murelli]

@bobmen10000, just let your knees travel forward. Don't think about sitting back, think about sitting down. A stance that is too wide will hinder depth (I'll join the chorus about the camera angle not being conducive to gauging depth here) and impede proper forward knee travel, so maybe it's also your stance.

Also, don't worry about how "funny", "weird", "fat" you look. Worry about getting strong.

[bobmen10000]

Lots of videos. Depth is a problem but it doesn't look as awful as I previously thought. Leveraged Belt squats are weird. And hard.

[TimK]

Again, I am basing this on viewing other peoples videos and pictures, but since an SSB is kind-of-sort-of-like a front squat because the camber angle, I shouldn't have such a pronounced lean.

regarding the SSB, a lot of people say that about the SSB --> front squat.
But in practice, it doesn't work out that way many times.

I, too, am very skeptical of this claim. If there's a camber angle involved, the "wheel" is so small as to be basically irrelevant. The angle would be more like a HBBS, in my assessment.

As someone who squats exclusively high bar and just used a SSB for the first time today, I would say that there is a big difference. I had to use much less weight and I really had to fight to maintain thoracic extension. I don't know how it compares to a front squat (never done them) but it's definitely not equivalent to high bar.

[PatrickDB]

I looked at the videos of barbell squats. I think your "lean" is fine and entirely normal.

I am more interested in the fact that they are high, and also that your grip is weird and looks like it's preventing you from pinning your elbows to your sides and getting a tight "shelf" for the bar.

You might also consider setting the J-hooks one notch lower. It looks like you're having some trouble getting the bar back in the rack. You should be able to walk it straight in, but it looks like what you're doing in stopping short then getting up on your toes to put it in the hooks (though I can't tell for sure because of the lighting).

But I don't know squat about squatting, so I'll wait for fishwife to show up.

[michael]

You need to get tight and squat the bar out of the stands. You sorta good morninged it. I agree with Patrick that your J-hooks are high. These are high bar squats. Is that intentional? Anyhow you're going to need more forward knee travel for high bar squats to get depth. You are getting loose in the hole and your lower back is moving. Hold everything rigid.

[Murelli]

The bar looks too high on your traps, your stance looks a touch too wide, narrow it down by 1" or 2 on each side, think about sitting down and not back when you squat, your hips are backing up too much and your knees are not going forward.

Try to find you bottom position statically (without the bar here) by playing with stance width, toe angle and knee/hip angles. Once you find a position in which you are both tight and comfortable, try to memorize it (sit there for a while) then squat up and down a few times to get how it feels. Then proceed to do your warmups.

Your depth was bad at 225 and worse at 275. Maybe you should deload a bit to build your squat back up once you are consistently hitting depth.

[damufunman]

Your depth was bad at 225 and worse at 275. Maybe you should deload a bit to build your squat back up once you are consistently hitting depth.

This was the biggest thing that stood out to me.

Do you have a preference for high bar or low bar? If you do one over the other I think there are different ways of getting to depth. I found (last week with my aunt with a fake knee) that for low bar making sure to sit back actually helped depth. Might also be a knees out thing. For high bar I've found that going quite a lot narrower helps get my hips in the right position, and to really push my knees out.
Also, finding what stance works for depth, then hanging out there should help you get a feel for it, and stretch a bit. I really think getting your knees out will be helpful though.

[bobmen10000]

Your depth was bad at 225 and worse at 275. Maybe you should deload a bit to build your squat back up once you are consistently hitting depth.

This was the biggest thing that stood out to me.

Do you have a preference for high bar or low bar? If you do one over the other I think there are different ways of getting to depth. I found (last week with my aunt with a fake knee) that for low bar making sure to sit back actually helped depth. Might also be a knees out thing. For high bar I've found that going quite a lot narrower helps get my hips in the right position, and to really push my knees out.
Also, finding what stance works for depth, then hanging out there should help you get a feel for it, and stretch a bit. I really think getting your knees out will be helpful though.

I always struggled with depth - trainer used to have me touch and go on a box; again, I never actually videoed my squats then (two years ago or so) but he claimed I was below depth on a 12" box. Stance is way too wide for high bar. Since squatting again, about 4 months ago, I have almost exclusively used a safety squat bar but even then, I suspect my stance is too wide. However, unlike the last time I trained with squats, I am significantly heavier (50 pounds+) with a hanging gut that I think might be impeding movement - don't actually feel it when squatting I also noticed I have a case of happy feet, need to find a comfortable stance that allows depth and drill my feet into the floor. I have/had poor shoulder mobility, to the point where I could barley squat with hands on the collars and even the it resulted in instantaneous pain. Mobility work and a few massages later I can kind of stand having my grip in, although it is with that really tight and bent wrist setup - feels really awkward but the wrist-wraps seem to minimize the pain. Back when I had a trainer/coach, I used a manta ray for most of my working sets and would have take it off for back down sets - I recall having a fairly wide stance then though. I never really successfully low bar squatted.

From what I can see, my warm-up set at 135 doesn't seem to have very good depth either, I was hoping wearing the hip band would open up my knees a bit more. I don't think the weight is the main issue, although lighter is probably safer until I can find depth and proper foot & bar position.

[Les]

I think pushing your knees out harder will help you sit into the pocket better. You may have to bring your stance in a tad if you don't have the flexibility for it, but I don't think your current stance is excessively wide by any means. Try to film it more from the side too. This view is harder to determine depth, especially with thicker legs. I still think they are high, but when you are 1" away from parallel or just at it, you really can't tell that well from the back view. If it looks really low from the rear quarter view, it is probably way below parallel.

[KDW]

I got an excessive forward lean for ya right here (your lean is fine...this is me during my noob year of squatting):

[fishwife]

As someone who squats exclusively high bar and just used a SSB for the first time today, I would say that there is a big difference. I had to use much less weight and I really had to fight to maintain thoracic extension. I don't know how it compares to a front squat (never done them) but it's definitely not equivalent to high bar.

Is it that how the weight is supported makes thoracic extension harder, or is it that the balance of mass is actually like a front squat? I'm not saying the safety bar squat should FEEL exactly like a high bar squat. More that I don't see a good argument for why the body angles should be like a front squat.

[fishwife]

You might also consider setting the J-hooks one notch lower.

I agree with this.

As for forward lean, I'm less concerned with that and more watchful about that thoracic flexion, which is a bit of a bigger deal with the HBBS than with the LBBS.

I would suggest taking the weight way down and practicing two things:

1) Once the weight of the bar is on your upper back, think about pointing your nipples at the very top of the wall in front of you. Just practice standing like that for a while, feeling how your body feels with the bar balancing over your midfoot while your thoracic spine is properly extended. After you feel like you can do that and have the bar feel stable, then try actual squatting while keeping your thoracic spine extended throughout the movement. Nipples should never point down--always at the wall in front of you.

2) If you're going to HBBS, you need to get your knees not just out but also more forward. I have weird proportions for the HBBS and front squat that make it hard to not lean over, so when I HBBS or front squat, as I descend, I think less about sinking the crotch straight down and more about spreading my knees and about touching my heels with my butt. It's just a visualization, as it's never going to happen for me with my personal proportions and flexibility, but it just helps me to get my knees forward and make my quads do more work. As I ascend, I push my hips forward. They don't actually go forward, since it's once again a visualization that keeps me doing things right so that I don't lean forward too much and get too hip-dominant.

Again, take the weight way down, as these tactics may or may not work for you; plus you may find yourself having to figure out how to maintain lumbar stability while changing up the visualization.

[TimK]

As someone who squats exclusively high bar and just used a SSB for the first time today, I would say that there is a big difference. I had to use much less weight and I really had to fight to maintain thoracic extension. I don't know how it compares to a front squat (never done them) but it's definitely not equivalent to high bar.

Is it that how the weight is supported makes thoracic extension harder, or is it that the balance of mass is actually like a front squat? I'm not saying the safety bar squat should FEEL exactly like a high bar squat. More that I don't see a good argument for why the body angles should be like a front squat.

I don't know for sure, probably a little of both. It does look like I have a more vertical back angle and my knees come farther forward using the SSB, but it's not as much of a difference as I expected to see before actually looking at these images next to each other:

[bobmen10000]

Added videos trying to touch & go at 12" box. It looks like 12" is at or slightly above parallel - my old coach said it was below, to be fair that was 50 pounds, almost all seemingly in my gut, ago. It felt deep. A few videos are shirtless because: 1)I am dead sexy 2) without the baggy shirt it is easier to see my hip crease (I guess, can't figure out where my hip crease is regardless.)

I think my belly chub is getting in the way, something that is fairly noticeable in the shirtless videos.

[fishwife]

Re: the squats without using the touch and go on the box

The ones that are high aren't that high. Less than an inch high. Most are borderline, and a few are definitely to regulation depth.

I think if you just let your knees travel forward a little more and think about really trying to bury the depth, you'll be fine.

It doesn't look to me like your belly is all that much of an obstacle. Sometimes, the amount of flesh is an issue with hitting depth, but people who primarily have "beer belly" fat patterns usually don't have as much problem with it.

ETA: Also, although it's not directly visible from this angle, it looks to me that your upper back extension is much improved. Do you feel like that's gotten better?

[bobmen10000]

Re: the squats without using the touch and go on the box

The ones that are high aren't that high. Less than an inch high. Most are borderline, and a few are definitely to regulation depth.

I think if you just let your knees travel forward a little more and think about really trying to bury the depth, you'll be fine.

It doesn't look to me like your belly is all that much of an obstacle. Sometimes, the amount of flesh is an issue with hitting depth, but people who primarily have "beer belly" fat patterns usually don't have as much problem with it.

ETA: Also, although it's not directly visible from this angle, it looks to me that your upper back extension is much improved. Do you feel like that's gotten better?

I made a point to really pull apart the bar which helped staying tight and thoracic extension - my wrists will probably regret it tomorrow however, my shoulder mobility has really improved the last few weeks; I might try low bar and see what happens.

[Murelli]

You are really using low bar cues, hips back mostly, in a high bar squat. Think about sitting down and hitting your ankles with your glutes (think about it during the descent).

[bobmen10000]

I tried no shoes after finding that preferable when doing belt squats.



Still not sure about depth but they felt so much better, although it was after finishing 3x5 squats and 5x8 belt squats so I could have just been really warmed up.

[Murelli]

Your stance is still too wide, hence your knees are not going forward.