Anybody care to comment my squat form?

[Atlantic Cod]

Beginner, training alone at home in the garage, performed my first squat ever two months ago. Reads BBT and have been reading the Q&A forum and studying other people's videos and the comments they've received, and trying to apply it to my own form check.

Still, there is something about hearing that other people see what I think I see, and maybe I've missed something. So any comments on the squat form in the video would be very appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHK97wpfvuc

(Yes, I do wear a lot of clothes in the video, the temperature in the garage was about 2 degrees C (about 35 F?). The joys of Norway in November.)

[Sami]

The most obvious thing to me as that you're dropping down too fast. The only way to drop that fast is to relax and this is not a good thing. You need to keep everything tight tight and then tighter. This is not quite the stretch reflex you may have been reading about. You're almost bouncing off your calves. Use the tension in the muscles to bounce out.

[nisora33]

I agree with Sami that you're not staying tight as you drop down. There is a fine line between descending fast enough to take advantage of the stretch reflex, and so fast that you have to overcome the added momentum of the bar traveling downward and trying to bend you over.

Also, what type of squat are you trying to do? This is not the general athletic squat that Rip teaches as far as I can tell: it appears that your stance is too narrow and your feet and knees are pointing straight ahead.

Thirdly, your knees are drifting forward during the last fourth of your squat, which means your taking the tension out of your hamstrings right at the point when you're going to need them the most.

The whole squat in general looks very "loose" and rushed to me.

-Stacey

[Atlantic Cod]

Thanks people, loose and rushed it definitely is.

I am actually trying to perform the squat as taught by Rip, even though I'm not that succesfull with. The stance and angle of feet is one of the few things that actually I think is ok, since I can check this before starting the squat. Next time I'll try to angle the camera to show the feet as well. And push the knees out.

[nisora33]

Atlantic:

Okay, just get your knees forward sooner, and to keep them from drifting forward, shove your knees out more than you think you need to, especially near the bottom.

S.

[confuzzl3don3]

Just another addition to what was said, maybe try looking down as well. I fall into the same trap too, when the weight is hard as i push back up i think UP and my head just instantly follows. But yeah looking down can help hip drive, although you already seem to have that good.

[scotts]

These are high bar squats. The bar is on your traps, right at the base of your neck. For low bar squats, the bar needs to be lower down on your back, as described in SS.