Another Squat Question - JP Fitness Forums

Charger · 08-24-2004, 08:51 AM

I finally feel that I'm gettting to use some real weight in my squats. I've worked hard on trying to get the correct form, and now I'm on Phase 9 of HGM I'm doing low rep - high weight squats. I'm going for parallel squats and I try to lean over only as much as I need to to get to that point without falling backwards. I'm feeling alot of pressure in the middle of my back. To the point where I don't want to up the weights even though I think my legs can take it. Should I just suck it up and figure my back muscles will get stronger, or should I tweek my form?

Newlife · 08-24-2004, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Charger:
I finally feel that I'm gettting to use some real weight in my squats. I've worked hard on trying to get the correct form, and now I'm on Phase 9 of HGM I'm doing low rep - high weight squats. I'm going for parallel squats and I try to lean over only as much as I need to to get to that point without falling backwards. I'm feeling alot of pressure in the middle of my back. To the point where I don't want to up the weights even though I think my legs can take it. Should I just suck it up and figure my back muscles will get stronger, or should I tweek my form?

Sounds like a weak back. Do you train your back in anyway? Deadlifts and hyper extensions work wonders to improve this. My back is my weakest link and is for many others...

I would not increase weight until I resolved this. Back injury is the worst. If you hurt your back, plan on not lifting.

Maybe you could do more sets? Are you warming up first?

Mahler · 08-24-2004, 09:17 AM

Newlife,
Great advice. The posterior chain is one of the areas that you want to strengthen if you are ever going to lift some serious weight.

In Fitness & Friendship,
Mahler

Charger · 08-24-2004, 09:41 AM

I'm actually doing both deadlifts and hyper extensions in this phase, so I'll make sure to keep those up. I'll keep the weight the same for squats and try to work harder on my deadlifts. Thanks.

joshman · 08-24-2004, 09:49 AM

I'm interested in this as well as my brother who has been lifting for about five months is experiencing the same.

I can't tell whether he's done damage to his back or whether it's just fatigue, but he is completely incapable of doing a good morning without rounding his lower back.

I'm having him work on flexibility of his glutes and hams but am even running into problems there; I tried to have him attempt a ISO-hold-until-you-stretch (sorry, I can't remember the name of these) in a deadlift position with the bar. He couldn't even hold it at the weak point for 25 seconds without complaining of tightness in his lower back and stopping.

The only reason this is strange to me is that he started using Dave Tate's beginner Westside routine, but I cut the volume in half and had him work up to five rep maxes for the first two months. After that we added some volume and he went to three rep maxes. With all of the work on his posterior chain, he went from not being able to squat (due to flexibility) to a 235 x 3 squat with solid form (from my judgement). He's still improving on squat, but I've noticed his flexibility seems to be decreasing over the past couple of weeks -- probably due to this 'pain'.

Is this just an over-use injury? Does anyone have any suggestions for nipping this in the bud?

Thanks for the help,
Josh

Jimbolia · 08-24-2004, 10:59 AM

You said:

"I'm going for parallel squats and I try to lean over only as much as I need to to get to that point without falling backwards. I'm feeling alot of pressure in the middle of my back."

I question whether your form is good based on that statement. If you can't lower yourself to parallel with good form, you should stop at a point before your form goes bad.

With squats, you want to lower yourself backwards so that your knees don't travel in front of your toes, your back stays neutral and YOUR HEAD STAYS COMFORTABLY LEVEL.

If you can't lower yourself to parallel, then you have two choices: 1) you can roll your back (which is asking for an injury) or 2) you can consider that the low point of your squat.

In order to increase the depth of your squat, you have to work on flexibility. Trainers should be able to tell you specific stretches for increasing the "safe" depth of your squats.

I hope this helps