how do you know if your air squatting correctly? page

[LockieKermit]

Im doing a system where in a week I have to complete 200-250 body weight squats - 200 pushups and 30-50 pull-ups. I have a piece of paper and throughout the day ill just drop down and do pushups or squats etc then mark it off on a piece of paper.

Anyways, with the squats I have a couple of questions. First, how do you get it so squatting targets the hamstrings? everyimte I do it I feel mostly quad work, some glute work barley any hamstring work and as far as I can tell zero calf work.

2nd, ive done about 90 squats today and my knees feel kind of weak/fatigued but I dont have any pain, its as if the muscle or tendons have been worked out but not in a bad way - is this possible?


Im almost 17 if that helps.

[Thor Falk]

Key thing is, keep the shins vertical. This means you need to stick your butt out of course for balance. If you don't feel it in the posterior chain but in the quads chances are you are pushing the knees forward. This is asking for knee trouble. Have a look at The first rule of Squat Club | Thor Falk if you want, but the rules are simple: (1) shins vertical, (2) stay on your heels (this is a corollary of 1 of course), (3) keep your back straight, especially the lower back, (4) go down at least to parallel, but watch your back: wider stance, toes out if necessar; stretch your hammies

Loads of good material out there on the web!

[HelloMeteor]

Key thing is, keep the shins vertical. This means you need to stick your butt out of course for balance. If you don't feel it in the posterior chain but in the quads chances are you are pushing the knees forward. This is asking for knee trouble. Have a look at The first rule of Squat Club | Thor Falk if you want, but the rules are simple: (1) shins vertical, (2) stay on your heels (this is a corollary of 1 of course), (3) keep your back straight, especially the lower back, (4) go down at least to parallel, but watch your back: wider stance, toes out if necessar; stretch your hammies

Loads of good material out there on the web!

Seriously? Shins vertical? Seems like the most awkward way to possibly squat.

[tfarny]

Knees are supposed to approach the toe line in every version of good squatting I've ever heard.
What is good about 250 bodyweight squats per week that isn't better with 50 weighted squats per week? High rep bw squats have always seemed like a waste of time - if you can do a lot of something, you should be doing a harder version, is my take.

[Grumpycakes]

Yeah. Try pistol squats. Then when those get too easy, shrimp squats.

[Thor Falk]

Seriously? Shins vertical? Seems like the most awkward way to possibly squat.

well, you gotta stick your bum out for this. gets easier with weight though as when you have 1-2x bodyweight on your back it does not really matter where the rest of your body is, as long as the barbell is exactly over your feet :-)

But seriously - Kelly Starrett for example has written and recorded quite a few things about this in the CrossFit Journal (subscription). Forgot the exact details, but as soon as the tibia is no longer vertical there is some friction going on in the knee.

I wont argue here about whether vertical means 90 degrees or whether the knees can go slightly forward by the way - AFAIK knees over toes is still OK

[TheFastCat]

this is all you need

[Al_Kavadlo]

I did a blog about squats that addresses the vertical shins/ankle flexion issue.

[Thor Falk]

Here the reference to the CrossFit Journal vid of Kelly Starrett. The vid is behind the paywall, but the 25 bucks is a good investmemt if you are serious about exercise Solving Knee Problems, Part 1 by Kelly Starrett - CrossFit Journal

[Raphaella]

I'm doing them so wrong, seems like no matter what stance I try my tailbone region just like, bends in/rounds in. I've always had this issue, maybe I should stop trying to do low squats since I'm obviously not doing them right.