Reply To: technique
1. The bar travels in a vertical plane that goes through the centre of your feet. (or slightly forward of centre)
2. Knees must stay aligned with your toes. Do not allow them to rotate or to fold inwards. Hip, knee and ankle stay aligned.
3. Keep your head straight. Don’t look down. That changes the position of your spine. Pick a spot about waist high, on the wall in front of you and try to stare a hole in the wall.
4. Squatting is not like sitting in a chair. I was told the same thing. You have to remain balanced over your feet. Squatting is more like crapping over a cliff. Push your ass out and bend your torso forward to maintain balance. That way your shins don’t really move much.
At the bottom of the movement, your shoulders will still be higher than your hips but not a lot. There is a lot of movement in the hip joint, don’t round the lower back in order to get down. The spine acts as a unit, it really shouldn’t bend much at all when squatting.
5. The entire movement is slow and controlled. If you want to break something, just start jerking and bouncing while you squat.
Lower the weight slowly and concentrate on form. If your back begins to round then your hips aren’t bending enough. If your heels lift, you’re backside isn’t far enough out and the bar has moved forward. If your knees don’t feel solid, you have work to do there and probably need to reduce the weight in the mean time. If your toes lift then your torso is too upright (hips not bending) and the bar has moved backward.
At the bottom of the movement, pause briefly then squeeze the shoulders back into the bar and drive the hips forward to lift it.
Simple as that. 😀