Help with squats

[berry99]

Here is a little bit of my history. I love doing cardio and weight lifting upper body, but I have really ignored the lower body. I decided that this was probably not one of the best things to do so I started my New Year's Resolution early and did PLB last night. Most of the exercises went pretty well except for the squats.

I don't have a barbell so I was using dumbbells and holding them at my side, but my form was horrible and knees were going over the toes. What I ended up doing was dropping the dbs and doing squats w/o any weights and also bring my arms up in front of me everytime I squat. Seems to be the only way I can get myself to have good form.

Is this exercise just something that I have to practice and my form will start improving? Do any of you have any tricks to good form on squats? Where do you hold your dbs? Does a barbell actually help with form in this particular exercise?

Thanks
Karin

 

[Boybert]

I don't have a barbell. I put the dumbbells up on my shoulders. The trick is to find the footing that is comfortable to you. It should really not be more than shoulder width apart. Keep the weight pressed firmly through your heels when pushing up. You want to sit back as if you're about to sit in a chair. You can even put a chair behind you and try with no weights first to get the idea of form.


"you miss 100% of the shots you never take"


Debbie

 

[kathryn]

Sounds like you're very new to doing squats, is that right?
It does take a while to get the form down. Like many things, practice makes perfect (or at least a lot better!) I think it's best to concentrate on form rather than depth at first, and trying to go deeper than your body is ready for can lead to bad form.

You can do squats with a stability ball between your back and a wall, and it will help you keep your body better aligned by keeping your knees over the heels (or at least behind the toes). Just remember to push up through the heels when coming up, and neither arch or round your back, but keep it in regular lordosis.

Squats are very effective exercises, even without weights, so don't beat yourself up for not being able to use weights yet. You'll get there. I think it's much better to work with good form than to force the weights.

When I do squats with dumbbells, I usually hold them in front of my shoulders (like doing a hammer curl, then continuing the motion until the ends of the bells are right in front of my shoulders). I find I'm less likely to want to round my back with this position than if I hold them at my sides.

You could also try using a weight belt, and not have to worry about weights for now. My two, 5# ankle weights can be connected together to make a 10# weight belt, and I sometimes use them this way when doing Slim Series workouts with lots of squats in--the instructor doesn't use any weight.)

In Firm workout, the instructors actually place the dumbells ON their shoulders, but I find that very uncomfortable (maybe they are less boney than I am in that area? It doesn't look like it, though.)