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Mobility is much more important to get right before going heavy or going deep in squats. You can injure your back really easily doing squats w/o good form. I w

by bigdubs 10y ago

Mobility is much more important to get right before going heavy or going deep in squats. You can injure your back really easily doing squats w/o good form. I would probably say, if you can't straight back past vertical hips don't go heavy yet, stretch daily until you can. Otherwise, yes this is a great place to start it's just not trivial.

CalChris 10y ago
Yes, but these are bodyweight squats and you are not going to injure your back doing bodyweight squats. Definitely form is key. Doing olympic ATG squats, you will naturally use less weight which will proportionately be easier on your back. You can also low bar squat. BTW, I used to have back pain. Squatting made my whole posterior chain a lot stronger. No more back pain. Plus if I do say so myself, I have a nice ass. A key issue with squat mobility is dorsiflexion, ankle mobility, which I guess you can improve (to a degree) with calf stretches. That's gonna translate to how much butt wink you have. Also the structure of your hip bones is going to be different from pretty much everyone else. So you can't just look at Arnold and try to do it exactly the same way. You have to find the foot position and knee tracking which is right for your skeleton. There's a ton of useful video on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWzAs2m0ck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWzAs2m0ck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy28eq2PjcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy28eq2PjcM
- typomatic 10y ago
  > Yes, but these are bodyweight squats and you are not going to injure your back doing bodyweight squats. Definitely form is key. This is really bad information to be relaying. You have no idea what is the health profile of the people reading this advice, and what damage believing it might do. You can very easily hurt yourself with bodyweight exercises, especially if you're very out of shape.
  - treehau5 10y ago
    Even more important than mobility in the back is knee stability. Also people think that injuries happen at the gym, this is very rarely the case. Usually you do the small amount of damage at the gym that then cascades later on due to your improper seating posture, your slouching, then bending over to lift something at home doing yardwork, then bam all of a sudden you are in the shower and your back locks up. In the case of improper squating without proper knee stability -- you won't notice a microscopic tear immediately, but it's very possible. You'll tweak something and say "hm, that felt weird." Then a week later you get out of bed to check on the kids, step on a lego and bam -- blown knee. Don't read pseudo-science lifter articles folks -- you can't rush into this. Do your stretches, and build your stabilizer muscles. Squatting builds your glutes, but you need stable hips and knees.
  - tomsthumb 10y ago
    All fitness advice assumes some context. It doesn't make it bad advice, just contextual. Part of the difficulty with communicating this info over the internet is that you can't see people's mechanics nor do they often give you their full situation. E.g., telling a 400 pound person that squatting is good for them is not the advice which should be prioritized and doesn't really make sense compared to other approaches. Telling a random dude on the internet that he needs more volume to hit 2x bodyweight deadlift might make sense until you learn that he's 5'8" 115 pounds and needs to get out of caloric deficit. Additionally, the "form is key" part covers your point already. If you're doing it with proper form and you still get hurt then that's pretty weird, and not really on the parent.
- cholantesh 10y ago
  >So you can't just look at Arnold and try to do it exactly the same way Or listen to him on a lot of things. I find that he shares quite a bit of broscience (eg 'shock the muscle', etc). He is very inspiring, though.
  - CalChris 10y ago
    Well, to be fair, Arnold comes from an earlier era. Whenever I look at his Encyclopedia I think it was maybe useful then but not now. But Pumping Iron is just an awesome movie. There's a shit ton of useful information now written by people who want you to learn. Arnold had his day but this is the golden age. https://www.strongerbyscience.com/ https://www.strongerbyscience.com/
    - cholantesh 10y ago
      Nuckols is great; his deadlifting guide is absolutely incredible. I'm happy that my physio is so big on strength and evidence-based treatment, he's recommended a lot of great resources including Stuart McGill and Alan Aragon, the latter of whom I especially like for his mythbusting.
xenihn 10y ago
I don't think it's as simple as stretching if you have anterior pelvic tilt and spend the majority of your day in a position that either makes it worse or keeps it in its current state.

by bigdubs 10y ago

CalChris 10y ago

Yes, but these are bodyweight squats and you are not going to injure your back doing bodyweight squats. Definitely form is key. Doing olympic ATG squats, you will naturally use less weight which will proportionately be easier on your back. You can also low bar squat. BTW, I used to have back pain. Squatting made my whole posterior chain a lot stronger. No more back pain. Plus if I do say so myself, I have a nice ass. A key issue with squat mobility is dorsiflexion, ankle mobility, which I guess you can improve (to a degree) with calf stretches. That's gonna translate to how much butt wink you have. Also the structure of your hip bones is going to be different from pretty much everyone else. So you can't just look at Arnold and try to do it exactly the same way. You have to find the foot position and knee tracking which is right for your skeleton. There's a ton of useful video on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWzAs2m0ck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWzAs2m0ck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy28eq2PjcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy28eq2PjcM

typomatic 10y ago
> Yes, but these are bodyweight squats and you are not going to injure your back doing bodyweight squats. Definitely form is key. This is really bad information to be relaying. You have no idea what is the health profile of the people reading this advice, and what damage believing it might do. You can very easily hurt yourself with bodyweight exercises, especially if you're very out of shape.
- treehau5 10y ago
  Even more important than mobility in the back is knee stability. Also people think that injuries happen at the gym, this is very rarely the case. Usually you do the small amount of damage at the gym that then cascades later on due to your improper seating posture, your slouching, then bending over to lift something at home doing yardwork, then bam all of a sudden you are in the shower and your back locks up. In the case of improper squating without proper knee stability -- you won't notice a microscopic tear immediately, but it's very possible. You'll tweak something and say "hm, that felt weird." Then a week later you get out of bed to check on the kids, step on a lego and bam -- blown knee. Don't read pseudo-science lifter articles folks -- you can't rush into this. Do your stretches, and build your stabilizer muscles. Squatting builds your glutes, but you need stable hips and knees.
- tomsthumb 10y ago
  All fitness advice assumes some context. It doesn't make it bad advice, just contextual. Part of the difficulty with communicating this info over the internet is that you can't see people's mechanics nor do they often give you their full situation. E.g., telling a 400 pound person that squatting is good for them is not the advice which should be prioritized and doesn't really make sense compared to other approaches. Telling a random dude on the internet that he needs more volume to hit 2x bodyweight deadlift might make sense until you learn that he's 5'8" 115 pounds and needs to get out of caloric deficit. Additionally, the "form is key" part covers your point already. If you're doing it with proper form and you still get hurt then that's pretty weird, and not really on the parent.
cholantesh 10y ago
>So you can't just look at Arnold and try to do it exactly the same way Or listen to him on a lot of things. I find that he shares quite a bit of broscience (eg 'shock the muscle', etc). He is very inspiring, though.
- CalChris 10y ago
  Well, to be fair, Arnold comes from an earlier era. Whenever I look at his Encyclopedia I think it was maybe useful then but not now. But Pumping Iron is just an awesome movie. There's a shit ton of useful information now written by people who want you to learn. Arnold had his day but this is the golden age. https://www.strongerbyscience.com/ https://www.strongerbyscience.com/
  - cholantesh 10y ago
    Nuckols is great; his deadlifting guide is absolutely incredible. I'm happy that my physio is so big on strength and evidence-based treatment, he's recommended a lot of great resources including Stuart McGill and Alan Aragon, the latter of whom I especially like for his mythbusting.

xenihn 10y ago

I don't think it's as simple as stretching if you have anterior pelvic tilt and spend the majority of your day in a position that either makes it worse or keeps it in its current state.