Chao-G

I don't have much of a problem reaching parallel provided I keep my stance pretty wide, which completely burns out my adductors at the end of my squats more than anything, but yes, I have stopped doing back squats and am now focusing on goblet squats and light front squats to improve mobility and form I think yes, my knees going over my toes is not really a bad thing since my femur is quite long compared to my shin, so unless I let my knees go over my toes, I simply cannot keep the bar directly in line with my feet. The problem with forward lean is that I have a low-bar degree of lean while squatting high bar and I simply cannot do a low bar without my back feeling like it's about to break in half. I give myself a mental cue of keeping the weight on my heels because I tend to go up on my toes at a certain point in the squat, which is to blame on my mobility. I am yet to film myself properly, but I will do so in my next training session and post it here. Anyway, thanks everyone, for your input. Squat is being a major pain for me and it sucks considering how most serious lifters are really good at it.

Thanks all! I just tried the goblet squat. It seems like mobility really is the issue. I felt my calves pulling my heels up as I went near parallel. Another question: Is it advisable to entirely ditch heavy squats for the time being and work on my form and mobility using the goblet squat and stretches? I plan to increase my deadlift volume instead.

I started lifting few months ago and have progressed just fine in terms of strength in 3 out of 4 major movements. I can deadlift 245 lb for 5 reps without any problem, so I'm quite sure it's not weakness, but my squat really sucks. I can't go past 175 lb without my form breaking down terribly. I believe it is my mobility. After some analysis of my form, I noticed the following flaws: - My knees go well past my toes, even when I point my toes out and have a stance wider than my shoulders - My torso leans forward, even in a high bar squat - I can't keep an upright torso without putting the weight on my toes instead of keeping it on my heels - I can't keep the weight on my heels, go below parallel while keeping an upright torso without falling back on my butt Some of the possible reasons for this: - I have incredibly tight hamstrings and calves, hindering my hip and ankle mobility. I can't touch my toes without bending my knees. I can only reach till my shins with my knees locked. - I have a significantly heavier lower body (big quads, hamstrings and ass, with skinny arms and torso), which means my center of gravity is significantly behind my feet, causing me to fall back when I force myself to stay on my heels in a squat. I can't completely collapse my torso in such a case, but that's far from ideal. However, I can squat properly - with my torso at no less than 45 degrees with the floor, knees not going too far forward, etc, if I raise my heels. What is the most likely cause? Are my hips and legs too weak to haul myself up from a "good" squat position or is my lack of mobility to blame? Should I work on stretching my calves and hamstrings to increase mobility or should I scrap all weight I was previous squatting and start all over again - relearn the squat? Or should I work on upper body hypertrophy and add some weight to it, culling the possibility of the center of gravity problem I mentioned?

I have been following a 5x5 training program for the past 6 months. The numbers have gone up as I expected but I am now trying to focus on improving my form further. Till now, the weight that I have been lifting has been rather light (although heavy enough for me to not be able to go past 5 reps), but I have now reached 175 lb on squat and 230 lb on deadlift, which is still light by a lot of people's standards, but rather heavy for me. I have started becoming rather skeptical about how I go about contracting my abdominal and lower back muscles during the squat and the deadlift. Here is how I do it: - I take a deep breath, making sure I am not puffing my chest and shoulders during that - I then pull my stomach all the way in, as tightly as possible - While trying to maintain that, I perform the movement However, I find that I cannot breathe while I have pulled my stomach in, and from whatever I have read and heard from reputable sources, you should be able to breathe properly while your core is braces and that is not the case with me. I just cannot continue breathing without letting go the tension in my abdominals. That means that I have to reset and and try to brace my core again after each rep. Where exactly am I going wrong? I feel I have misinterpreted the meaning of "contracting" the abdominal muscles. Do I need to push my abdominals all the way out instead of pulling it in? Or am I doing it right but missing out on some impotant details

I have been weight training with Stronglifts 5x5 for the past four months and seeing some good results. However, I am supposed to vacate my current house and move to a new place, which means I will have no access to a gym or any equipment whatsoever for at least a fortnight following the move. I do not wish my workout routine to be stalled and have decided to do bodyweight training till the time I find a new gym close to the place I am moving to. To tackle the inevitable problem I would face due to this short hiatus from lifting, I have tried to think up of a solution to the problem and here is what I came up with: Since I weigh 67 kg and my power-to-weight ratio is not very high yet, a set of 6-7 pull ups is quite difficult for me, so I can use them as a replacement for rows, while I can use parallel bar dips as a replacement for the presses, but the real issue arises with squats. A set of 30 bodyweight squats is easy for me and does nothing except give me a burn/soreness near the hip area. What I wish to know is if there is any way to increase the intensity for bodyweight squats such that I can replicate the intensity of a 5x5 training program.

Thanks for all the help. I suppose I was just getting impatient and I should deload a bit before trying to up the weight. @mgage I am around 179cm. I know its quite light but I do have a significant amount of body fat (18%) and am skinny-fat so I am basically avoiding gaining too much weight unless it is muscle.

Hello, fellow rebels. I am a 22-year-old male, 67 kg bodyweight. I have been doing the stronglifts 5x5 program for the past three months and have seen some impressive gains. I started from an empty barbell and here is the weight I can currently move, inclusive of the bar weight: Squat - 55 kg Bench press - 50 kg Deadlift - 85 kg Rows - 55 kg Overhead press - 30 kg I know some of those weights are disproportionate, and although these stats may be irrelevant, I thought of including them just in case they may indicate any sort of imbalance that I need to work on. Anyway, to the point. Lately, for the past one week, I have noticed that I am hitting plateaus. I had to decrease my bench press weight from 55 to 52.5 and then to 50 kg because I was getting caught into a lockout. My form is correct, I am eating right and enough, and I am taking a day off between each training day. Just today, I had to fall back from the 57.5 kg that I was supposed to attempt today to 55 kg, and yet, I found myself struggling with even 4 reps. I eventually had to settle for 3x6 for squats. I am not sure what is happening here, since I've read almost everywhere that beginners get very rapid gains and hitting a plateau is very uncommon. I might be overtraining, but I get adequate rest and don't have any symptoms of burning out either physically, emotionally or mentally. I know I should b going back to a lighter weight again and not rush myself, but I just need to know if this is normal for beginners, since this is quite a bummer. Edit: 6x3, not 3x6

I have been doing strength-oriented compound lifts, such as bench press, squat and dealifts for a while now (two months) and I can see some strength gains. I choose a weight that makes it difficult for me to go beyond 5 repetitions while maintaining good form. However, the time under tension/tempo of each rep goes up to 2-3 seconds after the second repetition or so, even though I use all my strength. This tempo is not deliberate, but just a consequence of using heavy weights. I am wondering if this is normal or if it will be detrimental to my strength gains, since I am anything but explosive with these movements. Keep in mind that I do engage as many muscles as my brain allows me to in order to move that weight and I do it with as much strenght that I can muster.

Greetings, I am a 22-year old from India, who just discovered Nerd Fitness. I have been "working out" (hah) for the past four years, with absolutely no improvement in my physical appearance or level of fitness in general. I am 6 feet tall and weigh 75 kg, yet have virtually no visible muscle and I know for a fact that I have very light and thin bones. I suppose there were several things I had been doing wrong all this while, the main culprit being my lousy diet full of junk food, sweetened drinks packaged as "fruit juice" and processed food. Nerd Fitness introduced me to the Paleo diet and more primal workout routines, which I have started implementing from today. Currently, this is just an experiment for me, considering nothing worked out for me so far when it comes to fitness, but the number of success stories make it seem promising. I hope to get adequate information and resources through this community which will help me achieve my goal of being much fitter than I am right now.