18
What you are describing suggests that your knee extensors, and particularly the single-joint quadriceps muscles—vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius—are weak. The closer that you are too the floor, the greater the moment produced at the knee. At 0°—that is, parallel to the floor—the moment is at a maximum due to the weights of the upper ...
10
Short of getting coached directly, the best tool for the job is taking video. There are a number of digital video recorders that have at least an hour of video available on the device. When you are training by yourself, you want a video recorder that can stable enough for you to stand up and trust that it won't fall over while you are lifting. You may ...
7
As with all squats you need flexibility in the calves, legs, hips, pelvis, back and shoulders. Other questions have addressed flexibility needed for squats in general:
What are some good stretches to help with squatting?
Is it normal when starting squats to not have flexible enough ankles?
For the Overhead Squat where the arms are overhead, tight ...
7
There can be many reasons for muscle spasms/pulls in the neck area, including (in no particular order):
Insufficient food: the muscles lack the glycogen stores required and overcompensate
Insufficient sleep: your nervous system is impacted when you are in a sleep deprived state, and I've had most of the neck spasm issues when in this state
Bad hydration: ...
6
First, I don't think you have the correct notion of ATG based on this sentence:
For example, if I lay on my side with my legs in line with my torso and try to pull one foot straight back, I can't get my heel to touch my glutes.
In an ATG squat you are going down until your calves are in contact with your hamstrings. Simple physics state that two ...
6
In order to use your hips to get your legs up, they need some opposition. This means all the muscles all the way up to the bar have to be active and involved in some way. Simple check is, if you feel your entire trunk equally involved, oblique muscles working just as hard as your center line, you have enough shoulder activation. If it feels like you're ...
6
There is a certain technique of foot strike that runners use for distance running, and that's known as midfoot striking.
Your issue, commonly known as runner's knee, seems to be likely from the biomechanical issue discussed in this article. In essence, if your footfalls are striking hard on the heel, then the entire shock of the impact is traveling ...
6
This has happened to me a lot over the years. I found it was caused by tightness of the levator scapulae and middle and upper trapezius and a weak lower trapezius and serratus. All largely sorted through fixing muscular imbalances, using a mixture of self myofascial release and targeted resistance work on the weak areas.
Release tension in pec major/minor, ...
6
The bottom line is you want your shoulder in a neutral position. That doesn't necessarily mean full scapular retraction, but it's a cue that helps a lot of people.
Considering your level of experience, and the fact you came off of injury I would advise you to use that scapular retraction, but only to the point where your shoulder is in a neutral position.
...
5
I just came across this article on lateral dominance. Apparently the right leg in most people is more coordinated (this shouldn't be of surprise to most people) but the surprising bit is that the left leg is stronger for most people.
So the majority of studies support that your left leg is the side of choice for strength or balancing needs, whether it be ...
5
Here's a link to Ripptone explaining how much to arch the back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lBNeeeTId1M
Some people have a 'big' arch, this is the person using the legs/hips to drive the bar, usually intended to push heavy weight. So, neither is wrong, it depends on what your goal is: building strength or building ego by ...
5
You can lay down flat on your stomach and then lift your feet up. You don't only lift your toes off the ground, but you also lift your feet up to the point where your knees are also leaving the ground. You then repeat this for several repetitions. This will cause you to feel a certain burning sensation in the lower back muscles. The idea is, once you feel ...
5
Everything depends on the coach; however, bad form will prevent you from lifting heavier weights. If anything, form is more important with power lifting where the goal is to have the highest total on the platform.
That said, there is a decently wide range of what constitutes good form, and it comes down to finding a coach who can help you find your optimal ...
4
I assume you are doing this to avoid strain on your wrists rather than to toughen up your hands for bare-knuckle boxing?
One option is to use push up "bars" or "handles" instead of your knuckles. This would have the additional benefit of getting you another 4" or so off the floor and increasing your possible range of motion. You can probably get a pair ...
4
Awareness
The first step is to discover the sensation of a flat back, of firing your lower back muscles, of arching your back, and of keeping or losing your back arch while the hips move. Practice "supermans" on the floor, lifting your legs and chest off the ground. Get into what you think is proper position, then feel with your hand or look in a mirror.
...
4
This problem is called "valgus" knee. Its is more common for females due to the anatomy - wider hip and slight larger Q angle. However, here are some very common problems for most people with valgus knee, especially during squatting and landing:
Weakness in hip abductors
Weakness in hip external rotators
Pronated feet (flat feet)
Weakness in posterior ...
4
The barbell squat is primarily a quadricep exercise. Secondary muscle groups include glutes, hamstrings, lower back, and even abs.
The best way to target your quads during a barbell squat is to keep your feet at shoulder width with your toes pointing out a little bit to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on your knees.
If you want to activate your glutes ...
4
Their answers hold weight... I've noticed the pull or tear when the weight was a little heavy or a lot heavy. Also every time you actually move your head forward or look down to do the weight, it's possible to strain or tear it. Keep good posture, eyes forward and head straight. Stabilize or don't use your neck while moving the weight.
4
I'm willing to bet you don't do single leg work at all. It's not fun, but it is necessary to deal with things like this. Single leg work that supports squats include things like the following:
Split squats
Lunges
Single leg press
Bulgarian split squats (one leg elevated on a bench)
Pistols
You'll want to do as many reps as you can with the strong leg, ...
4
When I start to pull, inevitably my knee angle "wants" to open first to the point that my back is horizontal before the bar actually leaves the ground
This sounds fine. Fully horizontal is a bit much, but lots of people get to near-horizontal and that's the way it should be. There's no need to keep your back angle constant from your setup. It's very common ...
4
Caveat: Proportions is an indicator of how your squat form could look. Actually measuring your limb and torso lengths and trying to mathematically deduce "correct" form is rarely beneficial, and can lead to someone trying too hard with a form that simply doesn't work for them.
This is partly because no one has a handle on all of the significant factors that ...
4
You were likely taught to cup you hand in some beginner class.
That's not so much "wrong," just ineffective & unnatural. It also doesn't add to your propulsive power as you may think.
The cup has proven to not add any difference in propulsive power through enough studies. It also forces you to focus on a minor matter that actually adds unnecessary ...
4
We usually refrain from offering diagnoses here, for obvious reasons, but you touch on something important: Bench press prep. So I'll touch on it too.
I would caution against doing the exact same prep on incline as you do on flat.
On a flat bench, we covet the arched back and pinched shoulderblades, because the weight is loaded on arms that are ...
4
Others have mentioned correct breathing but i might also suggest that:
1). The weight is too heavy. If you can't do the movement correctly the first response should be to lower the weight until you can. If you can't even do it with the empty bar then there may be another, more structural, issue at hand.
2). You are possibly going to low. For romain ...
3
I never performed that specific exercise, but it is listed on ExRx's database here, with alternative technique here. Generally, I trust that website (it is recommended by the ACSM, so it's not just your average website).
To answer your specific points:
1) Both can be used but I'd say that facing the machine is better. It probably makes the resistance ...
3
My guess is your issue is any one of the following.
You are resting the bar too far forward. I see a lot of people in my gym with the bar resting almost on their neck. This is very dangerous and hard to watch. It should be resting across your rear deltoid. Refer to the picture in @BerinLoritsch's answer to this question for proper bar placement. It should ...
3
So I believe it depends on your progression. When you just start training there is really no need for a mixed grip until you can deadlift with good form and reach heavier weigths. However doing mixed grip only on really heavy sets (>90% of 1RM) can result in injury due to not getting used to mixed grip. So training it is important.
Handeling really heavy ...
3
I see a couple things going on here with your question. First to answer the headline question:
The further away from your body you have your hands, the more you involve your chest. The trade-off is more stress on the shoulders and pectoral tendons.
This bit of advice also works for bench press. To further activate your chest, concentrate on tensing ...
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