I love squats. Aside from deadlifts it’s my favourite exercise because it’s one of my strongest. Or was one of my strongest, till I found out my form was absolutely horrendous.
I needed a plan of attack. I knew HOW to do a squat, but getting into those positions wasn’t possible for me at that time. I was stuck.
First: search MobilityWod.com for squat. Test myself. Boom, short hamstrings, no internal hip rotation on my left side, poor external rotation on my right side, hip impingement, lack of ROM in right ankle.
Second: Get to work!
Third: Search google for more help. Find Tony Gentilcore’s article on T-Nation about making your squat deeper – GAME CHANGER!
Fourth: Take Sable’s advice about box squats – REVELATION!
Fifth: Get my lovely wife to watch my form and let me know where my back is rounding so I can set the box at the right height. Move it down a bit, focus on form.
And that’s where I’m at. I’m just at, or maybe 1/2″ above, parallel. What I’m planning to focus on is stretching my hammys more, and trying to work what I think is my IT band. I also want to stretch my quads, or whatever muscle (front-outside thigh) in my left leg that feels tight when I deadlift.
When I’m next able, I need to get Mary to take some video of my form.
I just FINALLY got back to you about warming up — I replied in my comments section but I’m gonna copy & paste it over here too:
Sorry I didn’t get to this til now! It’s been a craaaazy weekend haha! Honestly I think 5-7 minutes is about the maximum I’d take for a warm-up. Sometimes I have a whole bunch of mobility work I want to do, because my thoracic mobility kiiind of sucks, but if it doesn’t fit in the time I allot for mobility drills (3 minutes), I just tag it on to the end of the workout.
For warm-ups, typically I’ll do 3 sets, relatively quickly: 1×5 @ 40% 1rm, 1×5 @ 50% 1rm, 1×3 @ 60% 1rm, then 3 minutes of mobility work, then about 2 minutes of foam/tennis-ball-rolling, really focusing on problem spots. I also foam-roll after my workouts, sometimes waiting until I get home, and on off days.
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Also WOOOOHOOO sounds like you’re really really getting there with your squats!!!!
so exciting!
Annnnd look what I just found! http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/6_dirty_tricks_to_instantly_increase_muscle_and_boost_performance Scroll down to the “Dave Tate warmup.” That is A LOT more warmup than I do…..but Tate also benches approximately a million times what I do. haha!