Hey guys, the squat has been the hardest thing for me to get down. My elbows keep twitching when I come up. Any suggestions? I keep hearing the “Back Extension” but at this point I feel like any more extension and I’ll be hyperextending
Any advice?
1 @ 8
Back off
Thanks for the help!
I don’t have any advice on that point and I wouldn’t think it’s a problem per se as opposed to a symptom of the bar being unstable.
I do notice your wrists are quite extended as opposed to neutral. Are you able to setup with neutral wrists?
ETA - wrote flexed rather than extended.
I think one thing that may help you is trying to focus on squeezing your upper back muscles as much as you can. Try and bring your shoulder blades as close together as you can. I can’t tell if you’re squeezing them in the video very well. That may help you lock your shoulders back and hopefully keep your elbows from moving at all.
One other thing is adjusting your grip on the bar so that there is less of a moment arm between the base of your wrist and the bar. The position is similar to overhead press. Your wrist position relative to the bar looks like the middle image below but on your back. I think you want something more like the right image with the bar right below the wrist, but on your back and without thumbs.
I struggle with the same things as you but not by this amount. You could try to widen your stance and/or grip to see what difference it makes. However taken your body proportions you’ll most likely can never squat in an “optimal” style or fix your overextended wrists.
Overall your squat looks pretty good, the bar stays balanced and the depth is good, it’s a three white lights from me.
Only one comment for the technique: you should try to maintain the same back angle when you come up from the bottom position.
Wow, you’ve got some long legs. Pretty good looking squat, though! I also have struggled in the past with keeping my elbows down in my squat. One thing that helped me was to deliberately crank my elbows down prior to descending, and thinking about maintaining this position throughout the rep. Widening my grip a few inches helped with the “cranking down” part. Your chest does drop a little on the ascent, but it isn’t awful. As you come out of the bottom of the squat, try to imagine your upper back as the primary mover of the barbell and drive it hard into the bar as you ascend. This may help you keep your chest up and maintain your back angle a little better.
