5x102 with pause, I have exceptionally bad ankle and thoracic mobility, fix me 🫶
Thank you!
Your back rolls/hunches when you get to the bottom. Try to keep it locked through the whole movement.
This is the most important thing to focus on correcting.
Thank you!
We have the same shoes . By definition we are brothers
Oh man, you read the fine print wrong. It said lovers not brothers.
What are they called? They look pretty good
Can I join too? I’ve had these shoes for like a decade.
Pull your shoulders back and grip the bar tighter, your wrists are loose.
Wrists are broken which I think and have always thought is power loss. Lots lots lots of people break there wrists squatting but I think ultimately a stacked wrist is going to be stronger that the broken wrist and broken wrists will ultimately be a limiting factor. Hands should be on top of the bar and you should try to bend the bar over your back. This will necessitate a lower bar, which in turn necessitates a hip hinge to place the bar over the mid foot and creates a more powerful position over all.
Looks solid overall.
Mobility will come if you put the work in, and you are already aware of that anyway. What I will say in regard to the thoracic is that you really see it flex in the very bottom portion.
My advice here (in conjunction with the next) is to try and just go to the depth where it really flexes with a very large emphasis on keeping the back straight. Over time, you’ll get lower until you can bottom out with no flexion. Basically works on your mobility while you are squatting.
The second point is slow the descent. You don’t have to tempo squat it or anything like that, but just keep it a bit more slow and controlled. As mentioned, this will help stop your thoracic from flexing.
Thank you! I’ll try that
I agree with the rest. The squat looks strong but there’s a lot happening to your spine, instead of it being rigid all the way.
Concerning thoracic mobility, that is very much fixable. I had literally zero thoracic mobility a couple of years ago — I didn’t even know that part of the back was supposed to be able to move — and I pretty much reached above average mobility in six gruelling months of torturing myself with mobility training multiple times a week, sometimes even every day. First I bought a “peanut ball” to aggressively force my T-spine into extension with gravity and loosen up the tissues. This is awful but it opens the door towards more passive mobility, so your spine will be able to get into certain positions but you can’t control it. Then it’s just months and months of doing active mobility drills and learning to control the muscles that move the T-spine. This also very much sucks, but the end result is amazing. I am now at a point where I barely do any thoracic mobility drills, because my mobility there is good enough for pretty much anything I want to do.
Also, a tip for ankle mobility: when you “stretch” the back of your ankle, try to also “pull” on the front. That way you both loosen up the extensors and strengthen the flexors. Double the benefit. You can also actively pull yourself lower in the bottom of a squat to ingrain the movement pattern.
Thank you! That gives me some hope to keep working on it. Are there any t-spine specific drills you’d recommend?
Front squats, especially with straps, are I'd say your best bet here. You can do them with very light weight, just enough to force you into a correct rack position and a deep squat. You can also try doing a press-in-squat progression at the end of your session like this https://youtu.be/IE_eMaddahI?t=14
Also just hanging from a pull up bar and using a foam roller to overextend your t-spine before a session might help you get into better position in during the main workout. If you do all of this, I think you're gonna be set in a few months, at least that's my experience with most people.
Thank you! I’ve started doing a lot of dead hangs recently, I’ll incorporate the rolling pre-session as well
Mate, I was so determined to improve that I tried to do literally anything I could find online haha. I don’t even remember what specific drills gave the biggest result, but I tried probably 20-30 different ones over that time. Anyway, important to know is that improving side to side mobility directly improves flexion and extension mobility. But you just have to try some stuff and see what works for you.
One downside of improving T-spine mobility for me is that I now also get sore in that area. I used to never get sore there because it literally didn’t move.
Like the others posted, but said again for emphasis.
The bar is on your neck.
Your back is loose.
Why are you in a hurry to the bottom?
But, you're strong, that set looked easy.
hammies touching calves. g job
We have the same squat pattern. I also lost tension in my back, both lower and upper, when squatting to depth. What helped me was to keep my upper back really tight, by pulling my shoulder blades together and pulling on the bar. Also focus on bracing better.
Be patient and practice, it will get better!
This is simply called a weak core and weak lower back…. Squats like this is what gets you injured
True, if the core and lower back are actually weak. They can be strong but look weak if you do not brace properly. If I focus on keeping everything tight (something that I wasn’t aware of previously) my squat looks perfect.
That said, core and lower back exercises definitely help building better strength for the squat.
Me too brother
Dude looks great! Long femur gang gang 🤙🤙
Sliiight rounding of the back at the bottom but that’s honestly inevitable given the depth you’re hitting.
Fwiw, try putting the bar a lower so you can lean a liiiittle bit forward to avoid that butt wink.
Another thing - try tracking your knees out juuust a bit more, upper back tight, chest prouder, and more sitting in your hole at the bottom position.
All suggestions may or may not work. Honestly if they dont, you could always bottom out right before the winkings happening and you’ll still be hitting solid depth.
Keep core brace
Elbows under might help the back arch, your ability to get low might alter when you do this so don’t expect that range off the bat
Looks like come eccentrics would benefit you along with some time spent in the hole
I'd chop off six inches off your leg, buts thats just imo.
what is your experience with the Do Wins?
For me they were an excellent starter shoe, I used them as squat shoes for about a year. They’re cheap and they’re a lot better than nothing, but for me they weren’t as stiff/stable as I wanted as I started actually training specifically WL. I upgraded to rom 4s yesterday
Nice
You should go to kilo in st Paul, much better than the rec
I'm going to start commenting on these weightlifting videos just because reddit keeps putting them in my feed. I am not a coach.
In this video, the bar is too high, no hip hinge, not pressing mid foot, uneven stance (left foot is further from center that right).
Bar too high on your neck, potential injury. Why are you pausing? If you’re able to pause that long you should increase the weight by 50 to 70 pounds.
I’m doing a program that focuses heavily on pause squats. These were just cooldown reps from singles with 160
I'd move the bar a tiny bit lower on your trapezius. Seems to be sitting a bit high on your neck.
Keep your back tight.