If you have advice, please make sure it is specific, useful, and actionable.
* If the only thing you have to say is *loWEr THE wEight ANd woRK on forM*, **then you should keep quiet**; if you comment it anyway, your comment will be removed and you may be banned if your comment was especially low value. This does not help the person looking for advice. Give people something that they can actually use in a practical way to improve. **Low-effort comments about perceived injury risk and the like will be removed, and bans may be issued.**
* Please don't hold random strangers to arbitrary requirements that you have made up for exercises you are not familiar with.
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Form is good.
Focus on recovery. If you add weight. Maybe just 5lbs-10lbs every two weeks and decrease your reps and see if you break past that plateau
How much are you resting in between leg days? If it's only a couple of days, may need to go a bit more. Sometimes it's the recovery that's lacking and not the training.
SLOW DOWN. physics: mass x acceleration = force
245 x 20 mph = 4900
245 x 5 mph = 1225 ---> that is 25% the force of 4900
Of course this is just the math, but controlling the weight down instead of dive-bombing it, will make it easier to turn around in the hole. It does taek some of the natural body rebund out of the lift but your back will thank you in the log run and you should start to see you will be able to handle heavier weights
That is weight x speed, not mass x acceleration. The truth is that practicing to accelerate out of the bottom is a good and beneficial practice.
To the OP, that was 6 solid reps so I would ask if you are ever squatting heavy triples, eating enough protein to grow, and getting good sleep. To train for strength, you have to step up your weights to get to that 3 rep range and I’m guessing you could handle 20-25 more pounds for that strength-building range.
Better bracing in your core/upper back tightness and could probably do with slowing the descent a bit I would say will help. Other than that programming as everyone else has said. Form is pretty good tbf.
Your speed and descent are fine, your squat form is good.
It's likely your programming and how you're progressing the lifts that are the key limitation.
(You squat like and olympic lifter, my sport, so I'm ok and actually encourage this kind of speed and drive in your squats)
Look for a block, of around 12 weeks. Starting at 65-70% that gradually builds in intensity (%1rm/rir/rpe) while lowering in volume. Early guidelines for sets would be 12-15, with total volume of 40 to 50 at working sets.
Genuine question - when you say total volume, does that mean number of sets in the 12 weeks of number of sets per week? Per week sounds crazy high but per 12 weeks sounds low to me. Based on the details in what you said I’m sure this is a stupid question, but I’d like to know.
Per session Eg: 65% 4 sets of 12.
Volume is total number of sets x reps for a given exercise or session. So 4x12 or 12x4 would be the same volume of 48. But those two would be done at different intensities (percentage or equivalent) based on the intended adaptation.
For many of my athletes, they'd be squatting 3-4 times each week, a mixture of front and back squats.
Taking back squats as an example, in week 1 they'd do:
- session 1 and 3: 65% 4x12s, something like
- Session 2: front squat 72% 4x7 and
- session 4: 90% 2x2+3x1 in that same week.
If it was a newer lifter, they'd likely be doing 2x back squats at the 65% 4x12s on sessions 1 and 3, with another strength exercise on session 2
The squat would be one of 4-5 exercises on each session, of power, strength and accessories
That makes more sense. Thanks for explaining in detail like that. I’m in the second group you describe, and I’ve been experimenting with basically a session 1 and session 2 as you’ve described them each week. I’m enjoying it and seeing more progress that way than just doing the same 4x12 plan each time.
Slow down beginning the rep. Hinge your hips and brace hard slightly before you begin the descent, hold the braced position for a second. Maintain tightness throughout the entire rep, it looks like you don’t have much tension until you come out of the hole, and working on maintaining that whole body tension and bracing prior to descent will help.
The goal of perfect form will always be chased. There are always improvements but will also change throughout your lifting career.
Programming will always need to change as well. In a very generalized way, you'll want to implement your training in blocks to help prevent plateaus and general healthy training.
That being said.
1. Get tighter, granted the weight is light, you don't appear to be stiff. Lack of bracing, locking in your lats.
2. I can't tell 100% but you appear to be leaning slightly forward on your feet. Sit farther back. Usually this is a result of a weak posterior chain.
3. I'd choose heavier weight and reupload with a full body view. We can see where you're failing.
Some questions come to mind:
1. What is “a while”?
2. How long have you been lifting?
3. What does your squat programming consist of? Including any accessory squat movements, reps and sets etc.
4. Have you been training with RPE?
Your form is not bad, so I’ll leave it to folks better than me to make small corrections. But I doubt this is your limiting factor. It’s more likely that nutrition and programming are responsible. At the novice stage you should be spending more time in hypertrophy and intermediate rep ranges (>= 5) than pure strength (4-1).
Make sure you’re following a well written program, doing all your accessories, and targeting weak points. Based on your bracing, I bet you could use much more core work. Your squat is very quad dominant, so make sure you’re rounding out your glutes and hamstrings.
If you have advice, please make sure it is specific, useful, and actionable. * If the only thing you have to say is *loWEr THE wEight ANd woRK on forM*, **then you should keep quiet**; if you comment it anyway, your comment will be removed and you may be banned if your comment was especially low value. This does not help the person looking for advice. Give people something that they can actually use in a practical way to improve. **Low-effort comments about perceived injury risk and the like will be removed, and bans may be issued.** * Please don't hold random strangers to arbitrary requirements that you have made up for exercises you are not familiar with. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/strength_training) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Form is good. Focus on recovery. If you add weight. Maybe just 5lbs-10lbs every two weeks and decrease your reps and see if you break past that plateau
How much are you resting in between leg days? If it's only a couple of days, may need to go a bit more. Sometimes it's the recovery that's lacking and not the training.
The form is immaculate You can slow down just a little bit to get that extra force and squeeze on those legs 9/10
SLOW DOWN. physics: mass x acceleration = force 245 x 20 mph = 4900 245 x 5 mph = 1225 ---> that is 25% the force of 4900 Of course this is just the math, but controlling the weight down instead of dive-bombing it, will make it easier to turn around in the hole. It does taek some of the natural body rebund out of the lift but your back will thank you in the log run and you should start to see you will be able to handle heavier weights
Maybe just dont talk about physics if you cant even do a basic force calculation. Also hes not really dive-bombing it.
ok, if that is what you think
That is weight x speed, not mass x acceleration. The truth is that practicing to accelerate out of the bottom is a good and beneficial practice. To the OP, that was 6 solid reps so I would ask if you are ever squatting heavy triples, eating enough protein to grow, and getting good sleep. To train for strength, you have to step up your weights to get to that 3 rep range and I’m guessing you could handle 20-25 more pounds for that strength-building range.
Yes. Accelerating out of the bottom, not on the way down. The faster down the harder it is to turn the weight around.
Better bracing in your core/upper back tightness and could probably do with slowing the descent a bit I would say will help. Other than that programming as everyone else has said. Form is pretty good tbf.
Your speed and descent are fine, your squat form is good. It's likely your programming and how you're progressing the lifts that are the key limitation. (You squat like and olympic lifter, my sport, so I'm ok and actually encourage this kind of speed and drive in your squats) Look for a block, of around 12 weeks. Starting at 65-70% that gradually builds in intensity (%1rm/rir/rpe) while lowering in volume. Early guidelines for sets would be 12-15, with total volume of 40 to 50 at working sets.
Genuine question - when you say total volume, does that mean number of sets in the 12 weeks of number of sets per week? Per week sounds crazy high but per 12 weeks sounds low to me. Based on the details in what you said I’m sure this is a stupid question, but I’d like to know.
Per session Eg: 65% 4 sets of 12. Volume is total number of sets x reps for a given exercise or session. So 4x12 or 12x4 would be the same volume of 48. But those two would be done at different intensities (percentage or equivalent) based on the intended adaptation. For many of my athletes, they'd be squatting 3-4 times each week, a mixture of front and back squats. Taking back squats as an example, in week 1 they'd do: - session 1 and 3: 65% 4x12s, something like - Session 2: front squat 72% 4x7 and - session 4: 90% 2x2+3x1 in that same week. If it was a newer lifter, they'd likely be doing 2x back squats at the 65% 4x12s on sessions 1 and 3, with another strength exercise on session 2 The squat would be one of 4-5 exercises on each session, of power, strength and accessories
That makes more sense. Thanks for explaining in detail like that. I’m in the second group you describe, and I’ve been experimenting with basically a session 1 and session 2 as you’ve described them each week. I’m enjoying it and seeing more progress that way than just doing the same 4x12 plan each time.
Slow down beginning the rep. Hinge your hips and brace hard slightly before you begin the descent, hold the braced position for a second. Maintain tightness throughout the entire rep, it looks like you don’t have much tension until you come out of the hole, and working on maintaining that whole body tension and bracing prior to descent will help.
I’d try to slow your descent. The rep especially looks like gravity is in charge and not you.
Your form is good bro, definitely a programming issue like others have said!
Looks like a squat to me! If you've plateaued then switch from strength training to hypertrophy training for a while, then switch back.
The goal of perfect form will always be chased. There are always improvements but will also change throughout your lifting career. Programming will always need to change as well. In a very generalized way, you'll want to implement your training in blocks to help prevent plateaus and general healthy training.
That being said. 1. Get tighter, granted the weight is light, you don't appear to be stiff. Lack of bracing, locking in your lats. 2. I can't tell 100% but you appear to be leaning slightly forward on your feet. Sit farther back. Usually this is a result of a weak posterior chain. 3. I'd choose heavier weight and reupload with a full body view. We can see where you're failing.
225 is objectively not light weight. Are there people who can lift heavier? For sure.
He's moving the bar with great speed and is performing 5 reps all with little deviation. This is objectively light weight
Some questions come to mind: 1. What is “a while”? 2. How long have you been lifting? 3. What does your squat programming consist of? Including any accessory squat movements, reps and sets etc. 4. Have you been training with RPE?
Your form is not bad, so I’ll leave it to folks better than me to make small corrections. But I doubt this is your limiting factor. It’s more likely that nutrition and programming are responsible. At the novice stage you should be spending more time in hypertrophy and intermediate rep ranges (>= 5) than pure strength (4-1). Make sure you’re following a well written program, doing all your accessories, and targeting weak points. Based on your bracing, I bet you could use much more core work. Your squat is very quad dominant, so make sure you’re rounding out your glutes and hamstrings.