ok I know its not special, its not supposed to be, its 310, light weight, the problem is I'm not hitting depth, and its not because I am a pussy and dont want to squat like a real man, its that when I get farther than my first reps, my knees what to cave in. Can someone help me? I feel like a failure by posting this.

damn your hips must be tight. during the day, try grabbing an open door by the handles (so you're looking at it edge-on) and sink down into your hips all sorts of ways... just move around and feel what's tight and try to stretch gently. try a wide stance and shift from foot to foot. i think it's called "prying".

it won't solve everything, but if you do that a couple times per day every day i bet your hips will get a lot looser and then you can go from there.

some hip mobility during the day and before lifting will help. However, i think a slight change in your groove will help an assload too. it seems like you squat down and then back; almost as if youre plummeting to try to force depth with speed and force. relax a little. sit back and down and let the weight sink. relax in the descent just a little bit. also, with your knees coming in problem, think about rolling your ankles outward like youre twisting an ankle. it will feel like youre literally about to roll your ankle, but you wont, and your knees and hips will open up.

i am no expert but drop some weight and just squat deeper, and like grett said you might be tight, and do you use uni lateral excerises ei; a lot of single leg stuff? maybe jus maybe it could be strength imbalances between your posterior chain and your front?

i dont know how tight or losse you are in your hips and all the other stuff around there, but if your already not stretching then you should be,

hope you improve

Are you sure the weight's not just too heavy? You don't look comfortable under the bar at any point.

CAn you hit depth with less weight and a narrower stance?

Do you box squat?


That's also a good idea about leaving the handle off the mono so the hooks swing out so you don't need to walk it out.

If you knees are coming in, imaging you are standing on a towel & try to rip the towel in two by forcing your feet outward.

You say light weight but your red face yelling combined with shaky knees suggest otherwise.

Drop the weight and just sink until you cant sink anymore.

I dont know one person that just stops in mid air when they try to squat down (be it bodyweight or bb squating) because of poor mobility.

I dont think someones mobility can be THAT bad.....especially for your age and weight.

Well I thank you all, and yes Hanley, I can do 365 ass to grass, I did it with a walkout too, Its not that I cant get down in depth better, its just that as soon as I get down, they want to cave in even more, and my back falls forward.

Im doing Cosack squats and hit stretches before I squat and deadlift.

this is my 365 squat at the meet: http://vids.myspace.com/...ideoid=61096080

How does that work? You took 365 ass to grass but cant comfortably squat 310 down to depth?

Should rename the video to 310 x 0

It looks like your stance is narrower at the meet. Your knees still cave in though. You probably want to think about pushing your knees out more.

FWIW I squat much narrower raw. I think the wider stance works better with gear.

Dude its your hips and glutes. This is not even narrow so its not a biomechanical disadvantage. Your hips are too tight so your knees start caving into to compensate for the lack of flexibility there.

I recommend getting the following resource and having a session before every workout (regardless of how homo it looks):
Magnificent Mobility by Eric Cressey and Mark Robertson.

This is actually very common. Its a combination of tight hip flexors and also weak hips, namely all your external rotators. Your knees buckle in and your back caves out because your hips aren't strong enough to drive through and push your knees out. There is an exercise on EliteFTS for this specific problem.

http://asp.elitefts.com/...577&tid=101

Keep working on the flexibility and if your don't do it already, foam roll for fuck sake.

The whole issue with your hips is a physical tracking problem, IMO. and my opinion doesnt account for much. i squat moderately wide regardless of gear just because i lack the flexibility to squat narrow. but from squatting wide i learned about spreading the floor and letting your hips open up. its almost like youre forcing your knees outward rather than squatting down. I feel this more in gear than raw but when i squat down and i think about literally opening up my hips and groin it makes a huge difference in flexibility and depth for me.

Do you box squat?

yea, go stupidly light for a few weeks and keep your form TIGHT. I'm talkin like 135x10, the following week, 185x10, etc. just to groove the form. keep the volume up, and sink it reeally deep. if you feel your hips are tight, try this www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-10-03.html

worked great for me