Squat Technique

"The Crow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know I know, not another squat question. But yes, I'm afraid so.

When I squat, my knees come forward over my toes. When I try and correct this
and keep them back, I over-balance backwards. I didn't notice it so much
until I started to try and take this more seriously, and lift a bit more.

My worry is this. I have badly buggered feet. My bone structure in my knees
and feet is not at all right. My feet point outwards at quite an angle,
thirty five to forty degrees, and my arches are ultra-badly collapsed. I am
worried that this is going to knacker any chance I have of doing decent squats
without injuring myself. A friend said I should stick to the leg press, in
order to avoid injury.

When I walk, to give you a little more information, I have to kind of push off
the inside of my feet, because they stick out so much, kind of like a speed
skater on ice. I don't know if you can picture this, but it goes a long way
towards showing how my feet and knees function.

Like I say, when I try and squat, I either goe down with my knees too far over
my toes, or over balance backwards if I try and keep them in line. Do you
think I should persist with trying to alter my squat technique, or seek an
alternative? Any ideas welcome, thanks.

Custom orthotics might help.

Bob Garrison said:

Custom orthotics might help.

Or try it with heavy 'combat' or hiking boots.

The Crow said:

I know I know, not another squat question. But yes, I'm afraid so.

When I squat, my knees come forward over my toes. When I try and correct
this and keep them back, I over-balance backwards. I didn't notice it so
much until I started to try and take this more seriously, and lift a bit
more.

Are you doing back squats or front squats? Are you using safety
equipment YET? What's your bar position?

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

In article <[email hidden]>,

The Crow said:

I know I know, not another squat question. But yes, I'm afraid so.

When I squat, my knees come forward over my toes. When I try and correct
this and keep them back, I over-balance backwards. I didn't notice it so
much until I started to try and take this more seriously, and lift a bit
more.

My worry is this. I have badly buggered feet. My bone structure in my
knees and feet is not at all right. My feet point outwards at quite an
angle, thirty five to forty degrees, and my arches are ultra-badly
collapsed. I am worried that this is going to knacker any chance I have of
doing decent squats without injuring myself. A friend said I should stick
to the leg press, in order to avoid injury.

When I walk, to give you a little more information, I have to kind of push
off the inside of my feet, because they stick out so much, kind of like a
speed skater on ice. I don't know if you can picture this, but it goes a
long way towards showing how my feet and knees function.

Like I say, when I try and squat, I either goe down with my knees too far
over my toes, or over balance backwards if I try and keep them in line. Do
you think I should persist with trying to alter my squat technique, or seek
an alternative? Any ideas welcome, thanks.

Look into Orthotics for your feet.

Seriously.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=orthotics

Cheers!
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

In article <[email hidden]>,

Paul Cassel said:

Bob Garrison said:

Custom orthotics might help.

Or try it with heavy 'combat' or hiking boots.

Cowboy boots. ;-)

With orthotic insoles

Just kidding about the cowboy boots.

Boots or high top shoes would be beneficial.
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

The Crow said:

I know I know, not another squat question. But yes, I'm afraid so.

What, and disrupt our conversations to talk about weightlifting? There
oughta be a law...

Quoted message said:

When I squat, my knees come forward over my toes. When I try and correct
this and keep them back, I over-balance backwards. I didn't notice it so
much until I started to try and take this more seriously, and lift a bit
more.

Since everyone else says orthotics, I'll chime in with the idea of just
putting a mat under your heels.

Another point is to really stretch your hip flexors and hamstrings. I
warm-up and then kneel on one leg and jut my hips forward, loosening up
the top of the front of my thigh and find that it helps my hips, but I
also do a lot of hamstring stretches (mostly involving shoving my ass
into the air, I'll spare you jpegs.)

The idea behind all this is to keep your pelvis tilted a bit - don't let
it drop. I can go much lower if I let my tail droop, but it's not worth it.

Here are more squat stretches: note that Mistress Krista has revamped
her site to make it more searchable and get rid of the icky frames:

http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=55

Dally

Are you doing back squats or front squats?
back

Are you using safety

Quoted message said:

equipment YET?

no, although it's in hand.

What's your bar position?

Quoted message said:

as it should be, this much I know.

"The Crow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know I know, not another squat question. But yes, I'm afraid so.

When I squat, my knees come forward over my toes. When I try and
correct this and keep them back, I over-balance backwards. I didn't
notice it so much until I started to try and take this more seriously,
and lift a bit more.

My worry is this. I have badly buggered feet. My bone structure in
my knees and feet is not at all right. My feet point outwards at
quite an angle, thirty five to forty degrees, and my arches are
ultra-badly collapsed. I am worried that this is going to knacker any
chance I have of doing decent squats without injuring myself. A
friend said I should stick to the leg press, in order to avoid injury.

When I walk, to give you a little more information, I have to kind of
push off the inside of my feet, because they stick out so much, kind
of like a speed skater on ice. I don't know if you can picture this,
but it goes a long way towards showing how my feet and knees function.

Like I say, when I try and squat, I either goe down with my knees too
far over my toes, or over balance backwards if I try and keep them in
line. Do you think I should persist with trying to alter my squat
technique, or seek an alternative? Any ideas welcome, thanks.

Like Dally says, this probably has more to do with hamstring flexibility
than anything else - that's an Internet guess but it's the first thing
to check on. Take a careful look at this little drawing from Thomas
Kurz' site

http://www.stadion.com/gif/goodmorn.jpg

Note that the waist doesn't bend *at all*, and that the butt is pushed
back. Try it with no weight at all, and really lift up on your chest
(think soldier at attention, chest out, chin up, throughout the entire
movement). The only thing that happens is your hips move backwards. Do
it slowly and carefully, and if your hips stop moving backwards, stop
right there, do not bend, even a little, at the waist. You should feel
you lower back working hard trying to keep your hips pulled up in the
back, and you should also feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Most
people can't bend over anywhere near as far as that picture while
keeping their back arched in, and your back should be arched in, just
like it was when you stood up at the beginning.

If you work on this regularly, maybe even before you squat, it can help
your squatting.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

The Crow said:

Are you doing back squats or front squats?
back

Are you using safety

Quoted message said:

equipment YET?

no, although it's in hand.

What's your bar position?

Quoted message said:

as it should be, this much I know.

Then you really don't know: there is more than one bar position for the
back squat, and it can make a big difference in the movement. I
prefer(ed) low bar myself. I found it much more stable and allowed me to
get greater depth.

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

I had the same problem. My hamstrings are relatively flexible, so I think it
has more to do with my torso/leg length ratio. The solution for me was box
squats, which really did the trick.

The Crow said:

When I squat, my knees come forward over my toes. When I try and correct
this and keep them back, I over-balance backwards. I didn't notice it so
much until I started to try and take this more seriously, and lift a bit
more.

Quit worrying about that. Just make sure your knees don't go excessively
forward. The 'don't let knees past the toes' thing is for wide stance
squats like for powerlifting.

Quoted message said:

My worry is this. I have badly buggered feet. My bone structure in my
knees and feet is not at all right. My feet point outwards at quite an
angle, thirty five to forty degrees, and my arches are ultra-badly
collapsed. I am worried that this is going to knacker any chance I have of
doing decent squats without injuring myself. A friend said I should stick
to the leg press, in order to avoid injury.

You need proper lifting foot ware.

Quoted message said:

When I walk, to give you a little more information, I have to kind of push
off the inside of my feet, because they stick out so much, kind of like a
speed skater on ice. I don't know if you can picture this, but it goes a
long way towards showing how my feet and knees function.

OK.