Hips swaying on the concentric portion of the squat?

[AceDeuce]

I've noticed this in two of my friends. When the weight gets heavy in the squat, their hips will shift drastically to one side when trying to drive up. What is the culprit here most likely? Weak ______? Non-firing ________? Other?

[Cynic]

I had/have this problem. I believe it's a imbalance in strength between left and right, but it also might indicate excessive tightness in one of the legs/hips or what I've hearded refered to as an overactive ITB/TFL:

Two things they should do:

1. Incorporate lunge manuevers into their routine. Alwyn uses them freely in NROL and they've helped a lot.
2. Foam roll the lower body, including the hips and hip flexors.

[BjsAust]

Its happenned to me occassionally, generally its if I lose concentration and I sway onto my right (strong) side to power the lift up.

Other times are if I dont take the weight out evenly distributed :p.

[Chris Correia]

Is this like, "I have a friend with a problem . . ."

Bill Hartman may pop in and blast my input/theories to smithereens. But . . .

1. Lighten the load and have them only do the movement the proper way. They have to do it right first before they can do it more/heavier. Form first!

2. In lieu of the above (or in addition to it), do unilateral work: split squats, lunges, bulgarians, step ups. I would think use the same load and do the same reps on both legs (do only as many as the weaker side can handle).

3. Do some assessment of postural and related imbalances. Get the JP summit DVD from last year with Bill as the presenter. Great presentation. Alternatively, get Bill's golf flexibility DVD and/or Gray Cook's book or book and DVD.

[karky]

Ive had this problem too, when it started i just really started focusing on NOT doing it, and after some time, it passed.

[Deserve]

I have the same thing happen to me. Between Cynic and Chris they've covered everything I'm working on to correct the issue. I believe my issue is mainly caused by an imbalance. Once I focused on getting the glutes more involved as well as the opposite leg. I'm OK.

[John Izzo]

I have had clients that suffer form this. It's an indication of weakness, more so than tightness. I have had them place a band around both legs (preferrably above the knees) and squat with much lighter weight. Word to the wise...when you see such a deviation, drop the weight and master the lift with at least 5% less increments in poundage than the max that exposes the weakness.

Gray Cook was the first to use "reactive training" (I belive thats what he coined it), to improve weaknesses.