This was a huge issue of mine for a while and these types of in-depth videos, specifically in regards to squatting, have helped me improve dramatically since subscribing. Thanks, man.
What I’ve observed with squatting is many people have trouble understanding the connection between the knees - hips and feet. When people bring there hips back they often tend to be too far back on their heels. Just like bringing the knees forward too much shifts the weight too far forward on their toes. I often cue people to break from the hips and knees together, while grabbing the floor with your whole foot. Weight distribution over the foot is a huge key in overall squat position. Great points!
Mr. Brazos, I’d like to absolutely join all these nicely articulated comments regarding your highly quality dense content. Personally I could successfully implement a lot of your takes into my squat and my numbers are constantly increasing ever since. I also like your approach of looking into all the details. It often times resonates with my way of seeing the things. Definitely the best content out there!! Thank you very much!
Great video once again Dave. I think you might be the best content creator out there when it comes to communicating nuanced ideas around strength training. The only others I'd rank near you are RTS and BBM (and BBM is much less powerlifting-centric). It's just refreshing when so much of the internet is saturated in myopic, simplistic takes like "missing your deadlift off the floor? Just do deficits" or "missing your squat out of the hole? Just do pause work." While either of these approaches are fine starting points, I find that they're often taught in very absolutist ways, and in ways that implicitly blame the trainee if something doesn't work. Your deliberate, precise delivery is greatly appreciated.
This video made me ditch weightlifting shoes. PR’d at 585 a few months ago but got hurt, and I think my excessive knee travel played a big role. The close grip bench analogy was helpful. Fire content
glad he mentions other muscles. Everyone immediately jumps to weak quads. Most people don't realise there is a huge mobility requirement for hips and the upper back. If you have ever injured your hips then you'll truly realise how important the hips are for keeping you upright during the squat. The hips shoot back in a rdl but everyone immediately think the hips shooting back is weak quads. This is just more personal experience but squatting more upright makes my hips sore and painful, same with the glutes, they get hella sore. My hips/adductors are just weak and tight so I can't squat upright, along with poor ankle mobility even though I technically can decently squat upright. Typically my quads barely have noticeable fatigue if I squat upright and I feel it all in my glutes and adductors
I'm a bit late but thank you for this video, its extremely relevant to my current lifting issues. I've really been struggling to improve my squat. I've noticed as I try to progress the weight my hips go farther and farther back, until my back fails. With some research, I thought that means my quads are weak and that I should be trying to squat as upright as possible to improve this quad weakness so that my hips dont shoot back. Which has murdered my squat lol. And from watching this, it makes sense why. So next session I'm going to work on trying to find and keep a more balanced position. My quads are still weak, but I wont be trying to intentionally squat upright to fix that.
been doing some adductor biased leg press. dont have belt squat. same as my lowbar. fun stuff. i got trust and patience off the floor from lots of pauses. i be just waiting. now i dont tip over.
Hey David. Thank you so much for those informative videos! Just a random question regarding knee sleeves, would you recommend one getting the tightest size he/she could ever wear? I've seen many lifters wearing them effortlessly, while on the other hand lifters tryna wear the tightest size possible (to the extent of getting numb legs). Is there any recommendation that you would give?
I get mine on pretty easily. Numb legs is incredibly stupid to me. One of the main ways knee sleeves help is improved proprioception of the legs and numb legs is pretty much the opposite of that. The sleeves should be snug but really forcing tighter sleeves does a lot more harm than good.
I been injuried for a year due to disc disease l5-s1 horrible sciatica pain. Now that i started squatting again i felt my hips shooting way too much. Considering this info, apparently im trying to push my knees forward so i reduce the hip hinge motion (most painful movement) so i always end up having to compensate mid rep by shooting up my hips. Would love to work on it but cant tolerate loaded hip hinge movements yet
Nice to see your take on this; I'm more of the older school of thought that it's due to weak glutes/posterior chain, so it's interesting hearing another perspective.
I think we can logically always say that we shift away from “weak” muscles when things fail. So backwards shift would pretty much be the opposite of that to me and the only way to finish once we have shifted back is to get more from back/hip extension than what we were getting from the legs before the shift. I appreciate the open mindedness though and cordiality in your comment!
@@BrazosValleyStrength I appreciate your response! In case you are interested, this is my take. My understanding is the opposite of what you said, weakness of a muscle is expressed by its inability to perform its function relative to the other muscles involved in a movement, and we move into more slowly through the range of motion of that muscle precisely as a result of this weakness. For failure of the spinal erectors for example, the back will round over, or stay rounded longer, because the function of the spinal erectors is to straighten the trunk; when the triceps are weak on the bench press, they will fail to extend the arms relative to their adduction and elevation by the pecs and front delts, resulting in a slower lockout. If I apply this concept to hips rising, it is because the glutes are struggling to extend the torso away from the femurs, relative to the rate at which the quads are extending the shins. The greater the glute weakness relative to everything else, the deeper the torso will be pitched forward as the legs straighten, until the position becomes untenable either due to increased load on the spinal erectors as you mentioned, or continued failure of the glutes to extend the torso. To be clear, I'm not saying the exercises you recommend wouldn't still work to resolve the issue; leg presses and hack squats both train hip extension (you're still extending the femurs away from the torso under load, just without involvement of the spinal erectors), and leg extensions are still important for joint integrity and longevity; this all said, this is my personal understanding of the matter.
I think the most useful thing for you would be to consider what muscles work through hinge patterns. All the posterior chain muscles, right? So when we shift back in the squat, we are shifting into a position that the quads don't really have leverage over the movement anymore and that the demands in that position are much much more on the hip/back extension muscles. So the demands have now gone up there, but we are still able to finish the lift. That doesn't really line up for me if we are saying that the glutes are the weakness. It really might work here to do what I said in the video and imagine a single muscle as being infinitely strong. Imagine that your glutes had infinite strength and would never ever fail. So at the bottom of the squat, what happens at that point? We are able to drive with our glutes hard, pushing the hips forward, increasing the shin angle at the bottom and increasing demands around the knee. So even if the glutes were infinitely strong, I think we would still have to shift back because we are putting more load around the knee joint than can be overcome in that position. Additionally, the more upright you are, we will have lower requirements from hip/back extension, right? So if it was glutes failing, why would they be failing in a position that has much lower demand in that position than what the quads do. I guess you might be cueing to extend your hips really hard through the concentric portion of the squat, which I would just definitely argue is not necessary and counterproductive anyway for the reasons mentioned in the second paragraph.
@@BrazosValleyStrength Deeply appreciate such an extensive response. For your first point we do shift our torso angle back relative to the ground when our hips rise, but not necessarily torso angle relative to the femur, which is the actual range of motion of the posterior chain. As long as this angle is still decreasing and becoming more advantageous throughout the lift, the glute is succeeding to complete its job, just at a slower rate relative to the extension of the shins by the quads. As long as the torso is more upright relative to the femur, the posterior chain is still in a state of progression: though the forward lean relative to the ground adds an element of increased resistance, it isn't a categorically increasing range of motion like you would see when a muscle has actually failed. I like the example of infinite strength because we actually have instances of infinitely strong glutes relative to quads whenever we see the gruesome examples of double quad detachments in the squat (any value becomes infinite when contrasted with complete absence). When quads suddenly lose all strength in this circumstance, we get the inverse of hips rising: the lifter's hips and knees shoot forward and they end up in a kneeling sissy squat position with the bar falling behind them. Again very much appreciate your response, really challenging me to examine my views about this stuff.
@@placeholder8671 Not really familiar with biomechanics, but I don't think you can talk about torso/femur angle as the determinant of the advantage of the glute/posterior chain. As the hips go back, this is the axis of rotation also moving back, creating a longer moment arm away from the center of mass. This, I believe, is what determines the torque created at the hip joint, and thus the force that needs to be produced produced by the posterior chain (glutes/adductors) to counteract this torque and increase the angle of the torso relative to the femur. This angle seems only really relevant in terms of the muscle lengths (and thus strength curves) of the posterior chain, which tend to be stronger at shorter muscle lengths. Again, I have no expertise in biomechanics, but I feel this is important to consider regarding your point. On David's point, if the posterior chain is increasingly disadvantaged as the hips go back (as explained above), but a lifter can still complete the lift at heavy loads, I can't see any way in which its relative weakness is creating this shifting pattern. If the lifters hips shoot back and they instantly miss the lift (as long as its not just crazy heavy) then I can certainly see how the posterior chains relative weakness might be a problem.
@5:07 How does hips shifting back during a high bar squat increase the distance of the barbell from the hips? From a biomechanical standpoint; this is impossible. Do you perhaps mean the distance of the hips to the path of movement of the barbell?
Would it make sense to replace deadlifts wit trap bar deadlift for some time to get more quad work in? I don't want to add in assistance exercises to keep the workout simple and short.
@@BrazosValleyStrength is it normal that when I leg press I can only feel my quads when I arch my back or fight for extension by pushing my lower back/pelvis into an extended position against the seat
It’s so crazy how he’s giving out these information for free, I’m so thankful I found his content ❤️👏🏽
This was a huge issue of mine for a while and these types of in-depth videos, specifically in regards to squatting, have helped me improve dramatically since subscribing. Thanks, man.
What I’ve observed with squatting is many people have trouble understanding the connection between the knees - hips and feet. When people bring there hips back they often tend to be too far back on their heels. Just like bringing the knees forward too much shifts the weight too far forward on their toes. I often cue people to break from the hips and knees together, while grabbing the floor with your whole foot. Weight distribution over the foot is a huge key in overall squat position. Great points!
very good at mimicking what the failure states look like. definitely helps me understand when i'm failing myself.
Mr. Brazos, I’d like to absolutely join all these nicely articulated comments regarding your highly quality dense content.
Personally I could successfully implement a lot of your takes into my squat and my numbers are constantly increasing ever since.
I also like your approach of looking into all the details. It often times resonates with my way of seeing the things.
Definitely the best content out there!! Thank you very much!
Great video once again Dave. I think you might be the best content creator out there when it comes to communicating nuanced ideas around strength training. The only others I'd rank near you are RTS and BBM (and BBM is much less powerlifting-centric).
It's just refreshing when so much of the internet is saturated in myopic, simplistic takes like "missing your deadlift off the floor? Just do deficits" or "missing your squat out of the hole? Just do pause work." While either of these approaches are fine starting points, I find that they're often taught in very absolutist ways, and in ways that implicitly blame the trainee if something doesn't work. Your deliberate, precise delivery is greatly appreciated.
I appreciate the kind words here!
Wow this is some top level information. Thank you very much.
This video made me ditch weightlifting shoes. PR’d at 585 a few months ago but got hurt, and I think my excessive knee travel played a big role. The close grip bench analogy was helpful. Fire content
Great video and great examples shown
Great points! Balance, bracing and proprioception for the win!
glad he mentions other muscles. Everyone immediately jumps to weak quads. Most people don't realise there is a huge mobility requirement for hips and the upper back. If you have ever injured your hips then you'll truly realise how important the hips are for keeping you upright during the squat. The hips shoot back in a rdl but everyone immediately think the hips shooting back is weak quads.
This is just more personal experience but squatting more upright makes my hips sore and painful, same with the glutes, they get hella sore. My hips/adductors are just weak and tight so I can't squat upright, along with poor ankle mobility even though I technically can decently squat upright. Typically my quads barely have noticeable fatigue if I squat upright and I feel it all in my glutes and adductors
Another great video! I love it!
Love the video. Do you do individualized technique reviews for non clients?
Shoes update?
Loving all the videos so far
Jeeez. You are the GOAT.
I'm a bit late but thank you for this video, its extremely relevant to my current lifting issues. I've really been struggling to improve my squat. I've noticed as I try to progress the weight my hips go farther and farther back, until my back fails. With some research, I thought that means my quads are weak and that I should be trying to squat as upright as possible to improve this quad weakness so that my hips dont shoot back. Which has murdered my squat lol. And from watching this, it makes sense why. So next session I'm going to work on trying to find and keep a more balanced position. My quads are still weak, but I wont be trying to intentionally squat upright to fix that.
Nailed it.
been doing some adductor biased leg press. dont have belt squat. same as my lowbar. fun stuff. i got trust and patience off the floor from lots of pauses. i be just waiting. now i dont tip over.
Thoughts on Pete Rubish dead stop back extensions?
a god in squat form
Hey David. Thank you so much for those informative videos!
Just a random question regarding knee sleeves, would you recommend one getting the tightest size he/she could ever wear? I've seen many lifters wearing them effortlessly, while on the other hand lifters tryna wear the tightest size possible (to the extent of getting numb legs).
Is there any recommendation that you would give?
I get mine on pretty easily. Numb legs is incredibly stupid to me. One of the main ways knee sleeves help is improved proprioception of the legs and numb legs is pretty much the opposite of that. The sleeves should be snug but really forcing tighter sleeves does a lot more harm than good.
I been injuried for a year due to disc disease l5-s1 horrible sciatica pain. Now that i started squatting again i felt my hips shooting way too much. Considering this info, apparently im trying to push my knees forward so i reduce the hip hinge motion (most painful movement) so i always end up having to compensate mid rep by shooting up my hips. Would love to work on it but cant tolerate loaded hip hinge movements yet
I'm gonna buy adidas total shoes if you don't drop a shoe review! :(
Jesus. Ok I hate the idea of that. I’m trying hard ok
Nice to see your take on this; I'm more of the older school of thought that it's due to weak glutes/posterior chain, so it's interesting hearing another perspective.
I think we can logically always say that we shift away from “weak” muscles when things fail. So backwards shift would pretty much be the opposite of that to me and the only way to finish once we have shifted back is to get more from back/hip extension than what we were getting from the legs before the shift.
I appreciate the open mindedness though and cordiality in your comment!
@@BrazosValleyStrength I appreciate your response! In case you are interested, this is my take. My understanding is the opposite of what you said, weakness of a muscle is expressed by its inability to perform its function relative to the other muscles involved in a movement, and we move into more slowly through the range of motion of that muscle precisely as a result of this weakness. For failure of the spinal erectors for example, the back will round over, or stay rounded longer, because the function of the spinal erectors is to straighten the trunk; when the triceps are weak on the bench press, they will fail to extend the arms relative to their adduction and elevation by the pecs and front delts, resulting in a slower lockout. If I apply this concept to hips rising, it is because the glutes are struggling to extend the torso away from the femurs, relative to the rate at which the quads are extending the shins. The greater the glute weakness relative to everything else, the deeper the torso will be pitched forward as the legs straighten, until the position becomes untenable either due to increased load on the spinal erectors as you mentioned, or continued failure of the glutes to extend the torso. To be clear, I'm not saying the exercises you recommend wouldn't still work to resolve the issue; leg presses and hack squats both train hip extension (you're still extending the femurs away from the torso under load, just without involvement of the spinal erectors), and leg extensions are still important for joint integrity and longevity; this all said, this is my personal understanding of the matter.
I think the most useful thing for you would be to consider what muscles work through hinge patterns. All the posterior chain muscles, right? So when we shift back in the squat, we are shifting into a position that the quads don't really have leverage over the movement anymore and that the demands in that position are much much more on the hip/back extension muscles. So the demands have now gone up there, but we are still able to finish the lift. That doesn't really line up for me if we are saying that the glutes are the weakness.
It really might work here to do what I said in the video and imagine a single muscle as being infinitely strong. Imagine that your glutes had infinite strength and would never ever fail. So at the bottom of the squat, what happens at that point? We are able to drive with our glutes hard, pushing the hips forward, increasing the shin angle at the bottom and increasing demands around the knee. So even if the glutes were infinitely strong, I think we would still have to shift back because we are putting more load around the knee joint than can be overcome in that position.
Additionally, the more upright you are, we will have lower requirements from hip/back extension, right? So if it was glutes failing, why would they be failing in a position that has much lower demand in that position than what the quads do.
I guess you might be cueing to extend your hips really hard through the concentric portion of the squat, which I would just definitely argue is not necessary and counterproductive anyway for the reasons mentioned in the second paragraph.
@@BrazosValleyStrength Deeply appreciate such an extensive response. For your first point we do shift our torso angle back relative to the ground when our hips rise, but not necessarily torso angle relative to the femur, which is the actual range of motion of the posterior chain. As long as this angle is still decreasing and becoming more advantageous throughout the lift, the glute is succeeding to complete its job, just at a slower rate relative to the extension of the shins by the quads. As long as the torso is more upright relative to the femur, the posterior chain is still in a state of progression: though the forward lean relative to the ground adds an element of increased resistance, it isn't a categorically increasing range of motion like you would see when a muscle has actually failed.
I like the example of infinite strength because we actually have instances of infinitely strong glutes relative to quads whenever we see the gruesome examples of double quad detachments in the squat (any value becomes infinite when contrasted with complete absence). When quads suddenly lose all strength in this circumstance, we get the inverse of hips rising: the lifter's hips and knees shoot forward and they end up in a kneeling sissy squat position with the bar falling behind them. Again very much appreciate your response, really challenging me to examine my views about this stuff.
@@placeholder8671 Not really familiar with biomechanics, but I don't think you can talk about torso/femur angle as the determinant of the advantage of the glute/posterior chain. As the hips go back, this is the axis of rotation also moving back, creating a longer moment arm away from the center of mass. This, I believe, is what determines the torque created at the hip joint, and thus the force that needs to be produced produced by the posterior chain (glutes/adductors) to counteract this torque and increase the angle of the torso relative to the femur. This angle seems only really relevant in terms of the muscle lengths (and thus strength curves) of the posterior chain, which tend to be stronger at shorter muscle lengths. Again, I have no expertise in biomechanics, but I feel this is important to consider regarding your point.
On David's point, if the posterior chain is increasingly disadvantaged as the hips go back (as explained above), but a lifter can still complete the lift at heavy loads, I can't see any way in which its relative weakness is creating this shifting pattern. If the lifters hips shoot back and they instantly miss the lift (as long as its not just crazy heavy) then I can certainly see how the posterior chains relative weakness might be a problem.
@5:07 How does hips shifting back during a high bar squat increase the distance of the barbell from the hips? From a biomechanical standpoint; this is impossible. Do you perhaps mean the distance of the hips to the path of movement of the barbell?
The horizontal distance. That increases the moment.
@@BrazosValleyStrength Makes sense. Thanks!
12:10 exactly me
Would it make sense to replace deadlifts wit trap bar deadlift for some time to get more quad work in? I don't want to add in assistance exercises to keep the workout simple and short.
Give your thoughts on the vivos haha
I have
haha!
What do I do if my quads aren’t growing from squats and my squats are somewhat weak as a whole compared to my other lifts
Like I said in the video, you should do other exercises to grow the quads. Hack squat, leg press, belt squat, etc.
@@BrazosValleyStrength is it normal that when I leg press I can only feel my quads when I arch my back or fight for extension by pushing my lower back/pelvis into an extended position against the seat
Contextualizing what you are going to Contextualize is a bit much man. Just get into the topic.
omg his stance is so wide at the bottom
It’s even the same width at the top too!
@@BrazosValleyStrength my bad i miss spoke, I meant at the end of the video.
Bro yapped for the first 12 min
Correct. This channel explains things to people who are willing to listen!