A client of mine, Christina, is a strong woman. But she, like the rest of us, has some bad habits and difficult levers that make her squat look more like a good morning. It's probably the issue that a majority of lifters face in the squat. My attempt here is to walk you through how I would approach this issue and what steps we'll take to remedy it. Keep in mind I'm not trying to completely change her squat, but I am trying to work with her to make it more efficient aka STRONGER!
Early 2018 Squat
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVvrYBbRlo]
Her eccentric looks ok but as soon as she goes to reverse out of the hole she loses tension and reverts to her quads/low back to stand up with it. Pretty typical, right?
I needed to first understand if that was a mobility issue. My gut said probably not. It looks like she's loading her eccentric portion of the squat pretty well. So we tried a quick test- wall squats- and she passed. You can see the buttwink in the hole so there's likely an issue of tight hamstrings or hip flexors, or both. Keep in mind that isn't the major issue that we're addressing here, but will be something to keep in check as we move forward.
Wall squats (the quick test):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARJRECMTta4]
Since it's not a mobility issue, there is either a weakness or an inability to create tension. I suspected both after having worked with Christina for over 10 months.
In order to coach lifters remotely, you have to be a little creative. So I sat and thought about how I can force her into a better position without actually being there to poke and adjust her as she's squatting. It looked something like this...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6q4xsz5Njc]
A little fear never hurt anyone, plus it's something you can do in almost any gym, unless your gym is full of mono lifts with no power racks in sight. In that case, a PVC pipe in front of your face will do. Now this is not the safest thing to do- there's certainly a possibility of banging your face off a hook. So if you're going to try this, I'd recommend warming up this way and/or keeping it light. I trust Christina, plus she's a bit of a masochist, so she's up for anything...
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlwZf56_ngQ]
With light weight it looked pretty good! So she has the ability, even in a tougher 1-1/4 squat to maintain tightness, drive back into the bar, and keep tension in her hips. Now as we progressed with some heavier weight, I think she backed away from the rack a bit, and reverted to some old habits...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3DM4R-cwn8]
At this point, I can deduce (great word, look it up) that:
a) her low back is strong because of how she's been squatting
b) her mid back/lats/lower traps are weak because she hasn't been using them properly
c) she's quad dominant which I already knew
So the plan of attack will be:
1) Moderate good mornings in the 6-8 rep range (RPE8-9 for you geeks that like RPE) with the goal being to learn how to brace under tension for an extended period of time. We know her low back is strong, so we can rely on that while working on something that will transfer over to her squat. The trick will be getting her to separate the motor pattern of a good morning from a squat- I still want her to learn to drive into the bar out of the hole- so good mornings aren't necessarily the enemy here.
2) Light sumo chair deadlifts- bring up those hips!!
3) Heavy goblet squats to focus on opening up from the taint (see Ed Coan) and arching through her mid back to keep tension in her hips (as opposed to just pushing her hips straight back and going all quads/low back).
4) Continue 1-1/4 squats, stopping a rep before technique breaks down.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Stay creative.