Eddie got in contact wanting to improve his squat technique. This is a side by side of our very first session. I’ll pick on the main things we worked on, as his errors are common in many people and hopefully, this can help whoever is reading this.
I wouldn’t usually give so many new cues at one time. But in Eddie’s case, he could pick things up pretty quickly, so we covered a lot. Main things we focused on were
On the left side –
The eyes were looking straight ahead with an extended neck / head position
The bar was too high on his neck (Eddie wants to get a stronger squat, so doing a lower bar position now)
He was leading with the chest too much. When he is at the bottom of the movement and standing back up, you can marginally see the lower back going into extension (bending like a banana) and the chest position changing (high/proud looking chest). The angle of the chest/torso as one is descending should remain in the same position when ascending.
His breaking at the hips too much at the start. His weight is initially shifting backwards, but then it swings forward towards the toes as he squats down = poor balance.
He is not bracing his mid-section nor pulling down on the bar and getting his upper back tight and looks ‘loose’.
He is squatting too deep
Things I’d like to work on next week on the right side –
Could pull the knees back a bit more and be a little more hinged over at the torso. The chest still looks a bit high, I feel like he’s still using too much of his knees + weight is going into knees a bit too much as he stands up. More emphasis should be placed on driving with the hips and not leading with the chest. But those are things to tidy up next time.
I made the above post about 4 weeks ago and forgot to post it. So if you let the video play out, the next clip is his most recent squat technique from today. In the newer technique, we focused on the (next week things to work on) cues. He’s doing a better job not drifting into his knees too much and not driving with his chest as much. I think there can be a little more hip drive and a better lock out at the top. But overall, very good improvements!
