Squats

susiemac

Member
I have a questions about doing squats. I am a CPT and I know that proper form is to keep your chest up when squatting down. My girlfriend does squats and cannot for the life of her keep proper form - she collapses her chest down toward her legs and when I even try to hold her erect she falls backwards! Believe me, we get a good laugh out of this. But seriously, what are the risks of not doing this correctly, or are there any if she just can't do it?

Thanks!
 
Hi Susiemac! I'm curious how her core strength is? Many times a weak core will provoke this type of response. I'll respond more after I hear back from you :)
 
Well, I don't usually workout with her, I just happened to be with her when I saw her doing the squats, so I can't really give an accurate opinion of her core strength. But her abs are tight and I know she does crunches, on and off a stability ball, and some pilates exercises in her ab workouts. So I'd say she has decent core strength. She's just started working out pretty hard in the last 3-4 months, but she looks in great shape.

I've asked her how she sits in a chair, does she just fall in? ;o) But she just folds up like an accordian!

Thanks Cathe!
Susiemac
 
Hi Susiemac! Being that you say she just started working out, it will be easier for her to correct and address any form and alignment issues now before she developes any long term serious imbalances and or injuries.

Since she continues to collapse her chest while doing squats, the first thing that she has to do right away is use no weight at all and master her technique. Is there any chance that you can work with her to help her with this? It sounds to me that she really needs to have a trainer work with her if she is unable to keep her chest from collapsing. There is no doubt in my mind that this tendancy is in some way carrying over into her other exercises too and keeping her from getting a fully safe, effective, and beneficial workout.

If for some reason she's unable to train with you, perhaps she can look into getting another trainer at least for her initial phase of workouts to get on the right track with form and technique. I think the value of this is worth its weight in gold, especially to someone just starting out.

Best of luck to you both.
 
Thank you so much for your input, Cathe! I will try to work with her and help her out.

Hearing from you personally is awesome. I am thrilled to have checked out your site and found this. I workout with your shows all the time on FitTv and I have several of your dvd's. You're the best and keep me inspired!

Have you ever thought of adding a nutrition section to your site? I'd love to know what your diet is to look like that!

Take care and hope you get well soon...
 

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