10 TIPS to Help You DOMINATE the Starting Strength Squat (2 Minutes!)

Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers 10 rules to help you get a bigger, better squat . . . TODAY.
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[@user-fl5lr1nm5v]

Excellent!

[@TestifySC]

Thanks very much!

[@agreat8745]

Thanks Man. I've learned so many useful tips from your content, and I definitely enjoy the short and concise format.
Your lifters all have such good form and are visually strong people... especially noticeable with the ladies and older crew.
And I'm pretty sure I've seen you pull 600 in a video or two... Man, I am super impressed with your results.
Great work team Nebraska :-)

[@TestifySC]

Thanks very much for all of the kind words, and I'm glad our videos have been useful for you. I'm also glad you like the short format. We do some longer ones occasionally, but the 2-4 minute range is definitely more typical for our videos.

[@user-cl6er7fq3c]

Thanks, always short and informative.

[@TestifySC]

You’re very welcome, and thank you as well.

[@strawberryyogurt0]

Doesn’t most of this apply to low bar squat, especially when you first mentioned where the bar should be placed in tip #!? Looking down, chest down, etc. mostly applies to low bar. Shooting hips up first is a low bar thing. I do highbar so barbell is on the traps rather than delts I think. One very useful tip I’ve seen from another youtuber Zack Telander (does olympic lifts) says is to drive the knees down when trying to get out of the hole. That keeps the knees forward - something that another youtube channel juggernaut training systems says for people that tend to shoot their hips back when coming out of get hole. A good video talking about that point is " Squat School | Jackie Perez | " But I’ll try to apply some of your tips to my highbar back squat session today.

[@TestifySC]

Thanks for your comment, and indeed, at Testify (and as I'm a Starting Strength Coach), when we say "squat," we're referring to what is often termed a low bar squat since that's the squat we teach to everyone. An exception to that would be for people with poor shoulder flexibility or poor shoulder ROM due to a previous injury, and in those cases, we teach them to place the bar in the high bar position, in which case we refer to it as a high bar squat. Some of those lifters will eventually be able to achieve a low bar position, but for some, they might have to stick with the high bar position.
The bar's higher position (and the lack of the traps securing the bar from above) in such a squat means that - although there will still be some reaching back of the hips and a certain amount of horizontal back angle - it will be have to be less than that of the squat (i.e., low bar squat). To facilitate this, we'll move the focal point further out on the floor than we would for someone who has the bar in the low bar position.
In regard to the hips shooting up, we do indeed want to drive the hips up, but they should not shoot up before the rest of the body. Any squat that's heavy/challenging enough - whether low bar, high bar, and even front and overhead - will always see a slight change in back angle at the initiation of the drive up out of the hole, but it should be exactly that - a slight change.
The cues "drive the hips up" along with "stay in your lean" help ensure that the lifter utilizes the musculature of both the hips and the knees efficiently (as you'll notice that the knees have to straighten for the hips to go up) and they help prevent the lifter from trying to get their torso too vertical too soon as they come up out of the hole, which makes for a weaker and less efficient squat.
A rather long response, but I hope it was helpful!