Ass to grass squats

[stevesmi]

How can you really do them incorrectly?

lots of guys i see who do deep squats or any squats for that matter don't use good form. the most common way to screw up deep squats is leaning forward or back too much .. you should be grounded strong ... your lower legs and feet have to be locked and balanced, no wobbling.. just straight up and down

 

[Eric1987]

Eric Squatting - YouTube

Can you tell me if I was doing them correctly?

 

[lweaver]

You should be able to unrack the weight and get into position with 2-3 steps...you weight shifted about nine times which really takes alot of energy once the weights get heavy. I notice you break at the knees far before you break at the hips, creating an incorrect bar path. You are sitting down and not back, compensating with quads and lower back with hamstrings not doing their job. You are also half-squatting, or not even coming close to breaking parallel. In fact the safeties are set so high that even with proper form you could not have squatted to parallel.

The good news is that you can fix this...google Mark Rippetoe, he does a great job at summing up the squat basics.

 

[Eric1987]

How am I not going low enough? My friend doesn't even touch the safety bars yet he goes low enough? Is there something I am missing? And break at the knees before the hips?

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDvm1Fvy9Fs

Video of said friend.

 

[moya]

^NO, break at the hips first... stick your ass out behind you... not, point your knees out in front...

 

[lweaver]

Your friend isn't breaking parallel either. Parallel with the floor is not parallel. Parallel is when your hip joint breaks even with your knee joint, which in most is lover than paralel to the floor. Sucks for lanky people, but I bet your deadlift is much easier...

Don't break at the knees first, in fact don't even think about your knees. The primary movement should be at the hip joint.

 

[zedhed]

Also looks like your putting the weight more over the ball of your foot. Looks like your heel is coming up or at least the weight is shifting forward. Keep your heels solidly on the floor by keeping the weight on your heels.

 

[lweaver]

Yep, cue your heels to stay down and spread the floor with your feet.

 

[kortisol]

Man it's better to do ass to grass with light weight then to barely move with heavy weight. For some reason i think it's good to geta feely bounce goin at the bottom of the rep before standing back up again. And do them close stance instead of wide stance. Either way is fne but close stance for me seems to add some extra difficulty without sacrificing natural postioning.

 

[zedhed]

No, no bounce ever at the bottom of any kind of squat. Bad bad bad.