Low Bar Squat form check

Hey Pat,

Pretty good, but this looks a little closer to the technique in your OP than the second set of videos you posted, unfortunately. It’s not terrible, but your chest is lagging out of the bottom. As a result, your hips come up faster, your back angle gets flatter, and you end up doing a slight good morning to finish the rep. You can certainly add weight to the bar like this for a while, but at a certain point, the weight will get heavy enough where this technique is not sustainable.

Watch this video (feat. Leah). It doesn’t exactly apply to your situation - your elbows don’t come up like she describes in the video, but I think a lot of what she talks about may apply to you. You could really benefit from getting your upper back and shoulders set tighter and stronger, and maintaining this throughout the rep. When you’re coming out of the hole, think about the cue “proud chest” and drive your traps back into the bar hard. This should hopefully help you keep your chest moving up with your hips a little better.

Also, hammering front squats, as was previously suggested in this thread, would be a good idea in addition to the cues I gave. If your chest caves, you’re likely going to dump the bar or have to really fight to not do so. Getting stronger at front squats, which will strengthen your quads and upper back, and incorporating the cues I listed should help resolve this soon enough. I still don’t think you should “reset” necessarily, but I would advise you to not focus on adding weight to the bar if it causes your form to break down like this. Instead, focus on executing technically sound reps for the time being, and adjust your RPE based on how much weight you can squat while maintaining somewhat solid form. A slight change in back angle is perfectly fine (and normal for most people) but your current technique is a little problematic.

Good luck!

Edited to echo Rho’s advice - I suggested a while back to think about keeping your knees forward out of the bottom as well. If you haven’t tried this cue, definitely try that as well if you haven’t already. If you have been trying this and it hasn’t been working, try the proud chest and and driving your traps back into the bar cues. Cues that work for some people don’t always work as well for others.

1 Like