I am a very tall football player (6’6, 6’7) and ive always had a problem with back squats. I weigh 285 pounds but I am far from fat. When I get to heavy weights (350+) I fall forwards a bit on the way up and use my back a little bit to lift the weight sometimes. Very dangerous I know and could lead to damage down the track. I do box squats and I am a bit better with these. I have good form on the way down with back squats but on the way up with heavy weight is the problem. I believe it is a flexibility issue, maybe even spine stability issue aswell. The next day after squats I rarely feel like I have worked my legs, glutes or hips as hard as I would have liked, sometimes I have a sore lower back.
However when I do front squats (PR is 1x315) (with clean grip) I feel like my form is quite good and I can feel my quads, hips and abs really working hard. Its not unusual for them to be sore the next day. I have no problems going beyond paralell with front squats.
I am thinking of asking my coach if over summer I can do front squats instead of back squats. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Any suggestions on how to fix my back squat problem? I know there is an article on elitefts that addresses this and I have been working on it, but still not much improvement yet. I am not sure but I think Arnold preferred front squats over back squats due to his frame?
first off some forward lean comes from lack of calve flexibility. dont stand on the plates to address this, just stretch your calves more. it could also be a technique issue. where is the bar, is it high bar or low bar squats. also when box squatting, if you goal is to get the best squat, you should box squat with squat form and vice versa. if you are driving your head up and into the bar and extending the hips you shouldnt have excessive lean. when doing the high bar squats and going down to parallel and below, it often requires the lifter to bend a little and thus the weight causes you to lean forward (resembling a good morning). also make sure to arch your back tightly, especially when driving the head into the bar.
as for the front squats, they are great if you are trying to bodybuild the quads, but if you want the strong posterior chain and a big ass squat then you would go back squat. what are your goals and what are you trying to accomplish?
People can still have a problem with their calf flexibility without raising onto thier toes. Prescribing a deadlift without being able to master a squat is also slightly wrong. If the athlete is unable to squat efficiently then it is unlikely that they will be able to achive the ‘ready’ position in the deadlift. To squat correctly you must be strong in the following areas:( in no particular order )
This might have been mentioned before, but I find many athletes have excessive forward lean because of poor posterior chain strength…It’s not that your legs aren’t strong enough…find the weak link, and attack it.
cccp21 wrote:
Can anyone be taught to squat all the way to the deck like a competitive Oly lifter? What would be progression to work on before squatting fully?
Brando Green
CT:
From my experience some peoples will have a hard time doing a proper full squat, even more so in our “computerized” world. Most youngsters I’ve worked with have an horrendous posture due to slouching on the couch, in class or at the computer all day long. I workd with over 400 young athletes from 26 different sports, some of them are Canadian junior champs… yet, at least 75% of them have a hard time (or simply cannot) arch their back while bending forward at the same time (as in a romanian deadlift). So they also have a hard time keeping their lower back tight while squatting. We’ve been able to correct the problem, but it took some time. Most of the time these guys had very tight psoas; when they squat they quickly reach a “tail under” position.
Youngsters also tend to have very tight calves so they have problems keeping their heels on the ground while full squatting.
Then you have the case of the super long limbed individual. Full squatting is harder to master for these guys.
I will say that with proper work; at least 90% of the gym population could learn how to full squat. However to do so it is important that the coach immediately spot the weakest link in the chain.
Most of the time it will either be:
a. tight psoas
b. tight calves
c. weak trunk (abs and lower back)
d. weak hamstrings
Correct these problems and you will be well on your way.
IMHO the best drills to teach somebody to do a proper olympic-style squat are the front squat and overhead squats (only use when the flexibility and/or strength problems are fixed). In these exercises you must absolutely maintain an upright trunk position and this can be transfered to the back squat afterwards.
Is it worth mentioning that front squats release some of the tension out of the hp flexors for those that are used to back squatting?
At some point last year I experimented with machine front squats for a few sessions. (not a recomendation.)
What I noticed is that it had a fantastic potentiation effect on my vertical jump. Apart from getting the legs to drive the body upwards, this front squat released the tension out of my hip-flexors. Consequently my posture changed straight away and I felt much “free-er” in my posture with less pelvis tilt etc.
This IMEDIATLY puts another 2 inches on your vertical leap if you previously had tight hip-flexors. You walk and run more upright, more relaxed.
If only sprinting was less posterior chain driven, the front squat would be an awesome exercise.
I stoppe doing the machine front squat becuase my thighs hypertrophied but my butt did not. I wasnt even looking for hypertrophy but it did let me know that the front squat was not really developing my posterior chain strength.
Never the less, at some point in Marion Jones career, she was combining front squats with power cleans.
This is also a method used by Bulgarian Olympic lifters training for the 2002 european championships with just front squats, clean and snatch (tho I wouldnt recomend snatch for football player.) (No back squats in the 2002 european championships prep program for bulgarian lifters), to no ill effect for what THEIR goals were.