Squat and Press problems

[Tommy1507]

Hi guys,
I feel like spamming lately, but I have some issues with my squat and my also Press sucks. Other lifts feel pretty good.
Highbar Squat:
Often times my weight will shift to the front of my feet into the balls, when I push myself out of the hole. So that even my heels come off the floor. Don't know how to get rid of that. Maybe you can see a possible reason or what i could try to change. Maybe initiate the descend more through the hips? So more sit back than down? Staying tighter in the upper body?
Here are some videos of the last time. PRs at my top set and lighter backoff sets from different angles.


Press
Maybe the weight just got too heavy at the end of my LP, but I feel like overarching my back, wobbling around, pushing with my knees etc.
Thank you!

[mgil]

For squats: try flat shoes or no shoes and see if that changes your mechanics.

For press: ditch that press 2.0/Olympic press bullshit and just do strict presses. Drop down to 40kg or so and run an easy LP focusing on making one fluid movement overhead. Looks like you’re on cue overload doing these things.

[Wilhelm]

Hi guys,
I feel like spamming lately, but I have some issues with my squat and my also Press sucks. Other lifts feel pretty good.

Welcome to the forums,Tommy!
Good to have you here.
Man, just look at my post count
Please, post as much as you want, that's what the site is here for

[Tommy1507]

@mgil
I'll try that again. I was squatting in Converse before that. And then the web convinced me to buy these weightlifting shoes as a must have.

Ok, thanks have to look up what to change to do a strict press.

@Wilhelm
Thanks for our nice words. Just feel bad that only I benefit from my posts right now. But maybe that changes over time

[mgil]

@Tommy1507, we are here to help.

Strict press is easy. Alan Thrall has some decent videos.

[Tommy1507]

His older video is helpful. In his newer How to OHP he talks a lot about the press 2.0. I also just read the press topics here.
I would focus on locking the knees, squeezing the glutes, and staying tight. Just so much layback that the bar can travel straight up, so that my face isn't blocking the bar? And would you keep the feet together? And Touch and Go or pause at the bottom? I just want make it harder to cheat.

[asdf]

Often times my weight will shift to the front of my feet into the balls, when I push myself out of the hole. So that even my heels come off the floor. Don't know how to get rid of that. Maybe you can see a possible reason or what i could try to change. Maybe initiate the descend more through the hips? So more sit back than down? Staying tighter in the upper body?

Use the first video. Find a rep where you come up on to your toes. Pause the video when you're at the very bottom of that rep. Then use the "." key (same as ">") on your keyboard to advance the video frame by frame. You will see exactly where the problem is. It's after your femurs are about halfway between horizontal and vertical. Your knees begin to move back, but your chest stays at essentially the same level, which has the effect of tipping you forward. How to fix?

Particularly at that part of the ascent, think about keeping your weight on your heels and/or think about pushing your upper back into the bar, backwards. These will be cuing over-corrections, but they will help you understand what's happening.

What you're doing is a mild version of a squat-morning, which is what people do because it's sometimes easier to let the hips rise first and then bring the chest up second.

Lighten the weight a bit and play with this. Once you understand what you're doing under the bar and how it feels, you will be able to stop it from happening.

Ultimately, it will become a very subtle feel. I often complete reps at the end of a set that those around me think looked fine, but I know (in my heart, haha) that I "cheated" by breaking position a tiny bit get through the sticking point. I really, really fight to not let that happen, ever. It's a bad habit to get into.

[asdf]

@@Tommy1507 Actually, that third video is even better. Because of the vertical lines in the background, you can clearly see that your hips are further back on the descend than on the way up. Especially when you pause the video and use the "." to step through the entire squat. You can see that the path of the bar is U-shaped, coming in from the right, hitting its lowest position, and then rising to the left. Maybe the fix is as a simple as thinking about keeping your hips back on the ascent.

[Tommy1507]

@asdf
I didn't know this feature. Very helpful! I can cleary see what you mentioned. Sometimes I also get a very tight and sour lower back from squats.
(Off course) I tried to push through the heels and keep them on the ground. But it sometimes just feels impossible to be honest. Also my upper back feels to weak to push it harder into the bar. Sometimes these thing work, sometimes not. I don't know why yet.
But as you do, I feel it when I cheat and when the weight get shifted forward, even if the video looks pretty ok on the first quick view.
Your cues seem to match nicely with Greg Nuckols cues in this article, which I read but can't make it work in practice
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/the-s ... -about-it/

As I was beginning to train I had this image of a beautiful squat with a upright torso in my mind. But I think with my
proportions this is not possible. mysquatmechanics.com also shows that I have to lean forward and pushing my hips more back at the descent.


I think I will lower the weight and add some volume to practice this.

[asdf]

Paused squats can help fix this as well. It's easier to feel and understand what's happening with your hips, knees, etc. on the ascent when you begin from a full stop.

Good luck!

[Tommy1507]

Thanks! Maybe a bit of slowing down on the ascent would also help. Now I have couple of things to work on and try.

[Tommy1507]

@@Tommy1507 Actually, that third video is even better. Because of the vertical lines in the background, you can clearly see that your hips are further back on the descend than on the way up. Especially when you pause the video and use the "." to step through the entire squat. You can see that the path of the bar is U-shaped, coming in from the right, hitting its lowest position, and then rising to the left. Maybe the fix is as a simple as thinking about keeping your hips back on the ascent.

Did you edit this post? Wasn't it shorter at first?
I also see clearly now that my hips are more forward on the ascent. I don't really get how I can get my hips to stay more back on the ascent? When I push my upper back into the bar and push through the heels, that would bring my hips more forward and "unfold" my body so that my torso is more upright? So exactly the opposite than keeping the hips backwards.
In the Greg Nuckols article I mentioned above, he suggest getting the hips under the bar and getting upright as quick as possible at the ascent. (If I don't misunderstand it)
So would you say these are 2 different options?
1) Trying to push through heels and back into bar
2) Trying to keep the hips back at ascent?

[asdf]

I think different things are going on at different stages of your ascent and also there's a good bit of rep to rep variability.

A better strategy might be to load the bar with something light and then go to the bottom and sit there. Feel where your weight is distributed in your foot. It should be evenly balanced and feel firm. Keep that feeling as you ascend. Add more weight and repeat.

Sometimes I can only back squat once per week. If I do that for too long, I can lose my groove. Pause squats and higher reps help me get it back fairly quickly everytime.

P.S. I may have edited the post. I often post quickly and then revise before anyone else responds. Not to be devious. I'm just impulsive and lack self-discipline.

P.P.S. There's a lot of people on this forum who know a whole lot more than I do. I hope they chime in. (By the way, this is being added immediately after I posted!)

[Tommy1507]

@asdf Thanks again for your suggestions. In the meantime when exodus was down, i also got a lot of help on the discord channel.
What i feel is that i am way too soft in my core and whole torso. Sometime i lose the whole tension at the bottom. Sometimes not. Feels so different.
So i just write down what people suggested me. Maybe some are doubled or say the same thing.

• Work on upper back and torso tightness. Push the back into the bar. Staying tight and don't lose it. Work on setup. I also feel like this is a huge reason as the softness allows the bar to travel forward.

• Let knees travel forward earlier, so that they don't slide forward at the bottom and i shift forward. They should travel forward at the beginning of the descent. Before that i activeley tried to push my hips back at the start. Now i try to break at the same time at knees and hips

• Squat variations. Spend more time at the bottom. Pause, Pin, Tempo squats. I can't do pin squats at the moment, but the other variations i want to try.

• Stay more upright, maybe chest out at ascent.

That are a lot of things to work on. I don't want to overcomplicate that, but I will give it a try.

[Tommy1507]

I think i had an aha-moment when squatting. Managed to get my knees out at the descent. Feels weird and weak, but maybe that can help with my problems. But as they come in right in the beginning of the ascent, i don't know if that makes any difference.
In set 4 and 5 i think i shoveled my knees out far more than for example in set 3. I feel it much more in the back of my legs than before.

Here is a picture of set 4 ( knees more out) set 3 (normal squat, knees in).


Tomorrow i will talk to an online coach and see what he says and what cues he has to offer. I think it will be not much different stuff than the things i have heard here. It's very hard to get affordable hands-on coaching at the moment because of gyms closed and contact restrictions. And when he would come to me it would be very expensive. Maybe that will be possible in some weeks.

[mgil]

Set 4 mechanics looked solid. The knees will want to come back in, the cue is to combat that to keep the adductors under tension.

[Tommy1507]

Yes but the heels also came up. Maybe with some practice and the cue for the tension they will stay. Will see it in next sessions