posted May 17, 2000 12:50 PM            

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I know I am setting myself up for a flame or two, but I need some help with squats. I usually have to do squats on the smith machine because my achilles is so forkin' tight that when I do them freebar, I can't even get to parallel without my heels coming off the floor. Any ideas on how to fix this problem? Thanx bro's!

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posted May 17, 2000 12:58 PM            

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loosen your panties bro......hehe. just kidding. hehe. fucker. turn on your im man!!!

when you do calf raises is your achilles that tight? do some deep calf raises.
hit up some straight leg d.l.s too. stretch that whole area out. calf/ham etc. for the time being hit up your squats with either boots with a heel(nasser style) or with a 2.5 under your heel.

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posted May 17, 2000 01:01 PM            

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p.s.

widen your stance a bit. ive seen it its kindof narrow. also angling your toes out a bit can help.

i dont know where your bar positioning is either. up high on the neck or lower on the traps and rear delts. up higher will cause you to tip forward more. lower on your traps can help you stay "more" vertical trunkwise.

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posted May 17, 2000 02:36 PM            

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Definately try pointing your toes out a little. This should make it easier, than as you get used to things and develop more flexibility start moving them back towards the front.

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posted May 17, 2000 06:09 PM            

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I do straight leg deadlifts, but I have been neglecting the calf raises. They seem to be growing on their own lately, so I've left them alone. I'll try pointing the toes out and widening my stance a bit. I guess along with that I'll have to check my ego at the door until I get stretched enough to do them with some reasonable weight. Any other ideas bros?

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posted May 17, 2000 06:20 PM         

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occasionally i see people wedge 2 and a half lb. plates under each heel- i tried it & didnt feel it was necessary, but maybe in your situation it would help...

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posted May 17, 2000 06:21 PM         

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1

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posted May 17, 2000 06:41 PM         

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Some of these suggestions are alright but is sounds to me as if it is not your achillies that is the problem. One way i like to describe the squat to people when i train them is think of it as if your trying to take a shit in the forest and you don't want the shit to hit you in the back of your legs right. So you have to push your ass back as far as possible. I hope that makes sense if not then here i will try to explain again. For starters when you unrack the bar make sure that your standing straight up and down once the weight is on your shoulders. Take a big breath in to help force your abs to stay really tight and keep your chest up. Now as you squat down. push your hips and ass back toward the wall behind you. Don't squat straight down Rather squat down and back. One way to notice if your not getting your hips back far enough is: have someone watch you squat. if your knees get out over your toes as you go down then your not sitting back on your heels enough. Another pointer. you have to keep your upper torso as erect as possible. when you sit down in the bottom of the lift make sure that you don't go soft in your back and let your shoulders collaps and roll forward. This motion will also cause you to come up on your toes because you will have shifted the weight forward over your toes. The main focus with squatting form is positioning of the weight. you have to center it and make sure that you control it and it doesn't push you forward. So hopefully you got something out of this and you could understand it. One last thing you can do would be try putting the bar in different locations on your back. I notice at one of the gyms that i train at that so many people place the bar high on their neck . The bar should actually sit in a natural grove that your upper back makes. So try putting the bar a little lower on your back see if that helps to keep the weight back on your heels.

Happy Squatting

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