What to do about my squats?

[Wolfwood]

I'm having a problem with squats.

The proper form is bending at your hips and having your knees behind your toes.

I can't really do that.

I usually do "Frog Squats" with seems just the most natural movement to me, my knees go in front of my toes, and I go all the way down, going parallel to the floor just did not do it for me, but every where I look it's hammered in that my knees MUST be behind my toes, or Florida will sink in to the ocean or something terrible, like cats and dogs living together.

But at the same time, it just doesn't feel "Natural" also, I keep falling on my ass, with just turns in to more of a "Try to squat, roll backwards, get up, try again, roll backwards" kind of workout, would it be better to go do squats the way that their "Supposed" to be done, and if so, what would help someone like me who can't balance for his life while trying to preform squats properly?

Maybe I should just go with Lunges :/

Also, It's been two weeks since I've started, so hurray for me.

[Woodsrider]

The trainer at our gym has new people squat to a box. That will help build the muscles and avoid falling over until you can do it properly.

[161803398874989]

Practice air squats for a bit, with your heels firmly on the floor.

[cline]

Air squats to a low box or really big medicine ball. Start with 20" or so high and work down to 12" high. If you "miss", you'll just end up sitting. But you still need to get back up.

Also, keep the chest lifted, back contracted. Chest lift helps. BUT remember to rise from hips (push through heels). Something I struggle with constantly.

[Morrigainz]

Who is telling you to keep your knees behind your toes?

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

The more weight I have on my shoulders, the easier it is to keep my knees in the right spot. Honestly, forward/backward is going to vary with body length ratios and is not nearly as important as keeping the knees out.

[cline]

^^^^^ YES! I've had this talk many times with folks - if putting your knees in front of your toes was going to ruin your legs, they wouldn't go that way. Seriously. It's a balance thing. Good call on the Rip vid.

[Knightwatch]

Yeah, it's not that your knees can never ever ever ever ever ever go past your toes. If that's the way you're built, that's the way you're built.

The issue, which is the one you may or may not be doing, is when people's weight is mostly on their ball of their feet, and their torso drops straight down, making room for it by your knees going forward. That is problematic, regardless of where your knees are at in relation to your toes.

What I would do is post a video of yourself doing it the way you think feels natural, and the way you think you're supposed to.

But I can pretty much guarantee that you can indeed do it the proper way. Maybe not to wonderful depth, but it's a start. Basically, how do you sit down into a chair? You don't straddle the seat and then drop straight down into it, right? You stand in front of it, and sit back. Next time to sit down into your desk or office chair, think about it. Watch your knees. I bet they don't shoot way forward.

And, really, that's all the squat is.

[VorJoshigan]

I have similar issues with balance doing a regular squat (could be my big fat belly). I have no idea if I'm doing it right, but I've been spreading my legs really wide like Maori do when they do the Haka. It brings my feet more in line with the plane of my body & I don't feel like I'm hurting anything. I think this also might be called a sumo squat.

[Wolfwood]

I've watched videos of others doing squats, and I've heard it from a few places (NerdFitness being one of them) and they all have the same form, so I kind of just assumed that was the correct way to do it.

I think the biggest problem is that I'm not on my heels, I'm standing on the balls of my feet when I do squats, I also don't use any extra weight, I have plenty of that already.

I think it's because I do everything on the balls of my feet, I stand that way, walk that way, run that way and just about anything else, It's not that I CAN'T walk/run/stand on my heels, I just kind of "Do it" without thinking.

So, this morning I tried keeping my heels flat on the ground, which was weird as all hell, but I still tried, I couldn't even get my thighs parallel to the floor, my hamstrings just said "Nope" and wouldn't budge.

I'm going to put a bit more "Umph" in to my hamstring stretching, but until I can do a full heel squat, should I keep doing my weird "Bend at the hips, while standing on my toes with my knees forward" or should I switch to something like Lunges until I can get it right?

After spelling it all out, my legs are really weird, who the hell walks around on their toes?

[Pat G]

Walking around light on your feet isn't a bad thing. Think light on your feet boxers etc etc.

For the squat, You want to keep the load on your heel, much easier for balance because your centre of gravity will be over your midfoot, easier to keep your knees tracking out over your feet and toes (yes you can go past them), the movement is transferable from bodyweight squats to loaded back squats.

If you can't get to parallel due to inflexibility, just stretch your hamstrings (and maybe glutes & hip flexors- on the front of your legs up the top) out as regularly as possible. If you can get down to a full squat with your feet flat on the floor (ass to grass), just hang out down there, grab onto something in front of you and let the stretch happen.

[cline]

Yup - stretch the whole lower body - hip flexors, glutes, hammies, and quads. ALSO be sure you are doing dynamic warming up = primes your body. Going in to squats after static stretching is probably not a great idea.

Some ideas - work on just getting parallel. No shame in that. If you really look around at others doing squats (gym, xfit, etc.) a lot aren't below parallel. That's a goal, not necessarily your current end point.

Also, hold on to something. Work some air squats - think hips/butt back, weight in heels. Only go 1/4 down until you get it and can feel the heels. Then work on 1/2 way down, etc. Hold on to a handrail, a pole, a giant rubber band, use that to help pull you up.

Oh yeah, and squats are about way more than just legs. CORE! core core core and chest and back. It's a compound movement.

[engineman312]

switching to a barefoot style shoe, like the New Balance Minimus, helped out my lifting by forcing my heels lower to the floor. also, air (body weight) squats helped too.

but the biggest thing i did to improve my squats was turning around so i DIDN'T face the mirror anymore. i stopped looking at my form and started to feel it instead.

[Morrigainz]

Good point about the shoes. A lot of people wear running shoes to the gym and they really can interfere with your lifting. I bought a pair of Chuck Taylors on sale for $20 and I feel so much better now.

[Wolfwood]

I do all my workouts Barefoot (Because take THAT, society!) but I'll definitely try to keep my heels planted on the ground, I just need my legs to be all around more flexible, but they just default to "Toe" mode whenever I'm not paying attention.

I've been looking around online for a list of stretches for each body part, can anyone point me in the right direction? So far, I've found a few resources, but not enough for my tastes.

[epaleocookbooks]

There are two ways to help correct your squat form. If you're lifting too much weight and you're used to your knees going out over your toes, you run the risk of pitching forward, and with all that weight, that's no bueno.

Like a few had suggested, start practicing your squats with a box or bench behind you. Stick out your chest, arch your back and stick out your butt, stare straight ahead and lower down until your butt just touches the box/bench. Then raise back up.

Also, try wearing flat-soled shoes, like converse all-stars, so you're not tempted to roll unto the balls of your feet when you squat. Really focus on digging in with your heels. (which you want to do with any lift, even benchpress. You get a lot more leverage that way.)

[andygates]

Like ETF said upthread, I find weighted squats much easier to get the heel drive on than air squats. With air squats I have to hang onto a support (the cage) or go over on my arse -- my weight wants to come forward over the balls of my feet. But once I slap a load on my back, the relative distraction of my arse-mass out back is less, and heels just work.

Oh, and chest up.

[TheSavageBean]

What you do is squat more. Learn. Watch. Try. Repeat.

Ass to grass BW squats are part of my stretch routine. They're an excellent way of opening up the hips. Also try fire hydrants.

Squatting is a natural human movement. It's how we take a poo in the jungle without a toilet. You can poo, therefore you can squat.

[Shoshie]

I have similar issues with balance doing a regular squat (could be my big fat belly). I have no idea if I'm doing it right, but I've been spreading my legs really wide like Maori do when they do the Haka. It brings my feet more in line with the plane of my body & I don't feel like I'm hurting anything. I think this also might be called a sumo squat.

I forgot where I saw this, but it's important to remember that you squat between your legs. Totally makes sense, right? If you have a wide body, your legs need to make room for it, otherwise your knees will push forward to make room. I got completely confused by everything saying that your legs should be shoulder width apart. My hips are WAY wider than my shoulders, so my legs needed to be way wider than I was putting them. Once I did that it felt nice and natural to squat with my knees tracking over my feet.

[Shoshie]

Wolfwood- I wear VFF or go barefoot most of the time, so I do lots of toe walking, which I find to be easier on my leg joints (ankles and knees). But part of the tradeoff is a tight achilles tendon, as pointed out by my physical therapist. Stretch those calf muscles and dig into the back of your calf with a tennis ball.

I also find that the bit of weight from a dumbell in the form of goblet squats really helps keep me grounded and loosens up those hip flexors. If I'm tight, doing a couple sets of light goblet squats can get me from barely breaking parallel to nearly ass-to-grass.

[rocksupreme]

This video has some tips for your squat form. We like to use a support to pull forward while learning to sink the weight back... It's easier to see then read:

We also posted some stretches for getting a deeper squat a friend's site earlier this week:

http://jcdfitness.com/2012/05/get-your-butt-out-of-the-hole-how-to-improve-your-squat/

Those should help in addition to some of the good advice others have posted above.

[jeramieb]

What helped me a lot was keeping my head(eyes) up while squatting. I normally looked at myself in the mirror when I was squatting and didnt realize that it was hindering my form. Check out the "So you think you can squat" video series. Some good stuff in there that helped my form.

[gymell]

What helped me a lot was keeping my head(eyes) up while squatting. I normally looked at myself in the mirror when I was squatting and didnt realize that it was hindering my form. Check out the "So you think you can squat" video series. Some good stuff in there that helped my form.

Depends on if you are high bar or low bar squatting. Look up for the former, down for the latter.

[jeramieb]

Depends on if you are high bar or low bar squatting. Look up for the former, down for the latter.

Really? That's not what I got out of watching that video series. Huh...

[gymell]

In Starting Strength, the recommendation is to look at a point on the floor 6'-10' feet in front of you. If you look up, you'll lose your hip drive. It's discussed in the book and also on the DVD. Actually on the DVD he does an experiment where he has the lifter look up, to show how hip drive is lost. See the following diagram:

From left to right: front squat, high bar back squat, low bar back squat.

EDIT: Going back to the OP, notice from this diagram that in all cases, the knees are past the toes. Especially in the front squat, where you remain the most upright. So having the knees track over the the toes, while keeping the weight over the mid foot is a good thing.