Barbell Form Check (Low-Bar Squat: 320# x 5)

[Toomuch4]

This is a video of a set of five low-bar squats with 320#. I'm pretty sure that I burned myself out earlier in the week with a really hard swing/jump-rope session. I had no pain until rep five. You can see that my hips shift in a weird way at around the 47 second mark. Can anyone tell me what gave out during that fifth rep? Low-Bar Squat: 320# x 5

Edit: Sorry, that's 325# x 5.

 

[Boris Bachmann]

Looks like you tucked your hips and shifted the knees forward to shift stress off the hips and hamstrings and put yourself in a more upright position. There's nothing wrong with squatting upright per se, but the shift as you fatigue like that could be bad. The extension of the knees and hips should be occurring more or less in a synchronized fashion - you should never be re-flexing the knee.

 

[Anna C]

Strong squats.

I'd recommend cutting about 2 inches off your depth as it's hard to maintain tightness when going that far down. I like hip crease just below the top of the knee (just below parallel).

Your back angle changes, more so as the reps go on. Ideally it will be very much the same for most of the descent and most of the ascent. Probably a bit more leaning over on the descent will help. The 5th rep doesn't look different to me, so much as a continuation of what's going on with all the reps... the back angle changing.

I'd also want to check the initial bar placement and see if it shifts up at all during your set. And keep the upper back tight! I think on that 5th rep the bar is shifting up just a bit and the upper back loses some tightness... aggravating the back angle change (hips up faster than shoulders) and making the whole rep harder.

It's good to see some low bar squats!