i literally just spoke with Ed Coan in March at the Arnold about head position when squatting. my son's high school lifting coach has told him numerous times to look up when he is squatting. This almost immediately causes problems with spine stability yet they all preach this. i spoke to Mr. Coan and he reiterated what Matt said about a neutral to slight elevated head position.
I've heard people talk about a "c-curve" in the back or even in this video how they stick their butts out and curve the lower back. Is it okay to have a load of weight on the back curved like that? I tried squats recently with my abs flexed and back more neutral and it seemed better. Opinions?
I lifted for years the way you are describing and I eventually injured my lower back. Now, I am not saying that your technique was the cause for sure, but I am saying that once I switched to Matt's style I could squat again.
You want to minimize that. Some curve is okay, since that is the natural spinal position, but really using that diaphragmatic breathing and filling your diaphragm with air, forcing your obliques out, and then bracing your abs, will protect your lower back and keep it more neutral. It felt better because you were more stable and weren't relaxing in the hole of the squat typically causing you to butt wink excessively. Think of it like a pop can. What's more stable? A can that is empty with a dent in it? Or a full fan with no dents? Put a little pressure on the empty dented one, and it doesn't like that. Same goes for your spine. So yes, protect it.
I like the mirrors to look at myself between sets but I totally understand what Matt is saying about the mirrors. I see in the gym all the time straining their neck to check there form in the mirror. That shit makes me cringe when I see people do that
Another excellent vid from Matt, but uh....no mention of athletic performance from the title, been really wondering about that....in theory a stronger squat should enable greater force production thus faster moves, but really, does it? Wonder if the 600-800lb squatters are especially fast in the 40 or 100 yd run?
I feel like they may mention squats, just not specific back or front or body. Squatting should be practiced by all humans; but they dont want the "oh well the book says this" trainees, its based off of preferences and your individual weaknesses. Just my opinion trying to learn too!
In other nsca video he actually mentioned that squat esp front squat is not very specific towards those tactical people. They will be most likely pulling people and picking them up off the floor so sumo deadlift is better for them.
I.a. in this video: ruclips.net/video/qmbU4YNVEsQ/видео.html Tom Platz (he also knows a thing or two about squatting) that squat is simply an up and down motion, not down and back - the exact opposite to Matt's teachings. Two living legends, two totally different squats, in fact so different that it's strange that both those movements are considered squat and not having different names to avoid confusion.
its cuz when u have weak hamstrings it's compensated by the quads, as u use hip drive u fail to use ur glutes and hams as it requires ur back to be flexed, this is due to poor technique, weak hamstrings, glutes, and maybe mobility issues
A bit confusing is the question of "sticking the butt out" (or "the butt has to be behing the bar"). Matt is obviously recommending hyperextension of the lumbar spine - which is exactly what other coaches are telling NOT to do, advocating instead keeping a neutral spine and bracing. Who is right? If both approaches are right, then it's hard to say there are any squat rules - there are just squat versions. The one rule acknowledged by everyone is probably not rounding (i.e. not flexing) the spine. Some respected coaches (e.g. Poliquin) advocate initiating the squat with the knees and shooting the knees forward, others - just the opposite, some advocate bracing and neutral spine, others - sticking the butt out (hyperextending the lubar spine). Confusing, as the diffences are not tiny, but quite spectacular and there is hardly a middle ground.
Sticking the butt out doesn't necessarily correlate with lumbar hyper extension. You will usually only experience that level of hyperextension if you're compensating from a lack of thoracic extension. A proper hip hinge style squat loads the Glutes to a large degree with a bit of extension in the low back to maintain tightness in the kinetic chain, so yes, a small degree of extension should be present, but not hyperextension. If you're falling into that pattern, I'd definitely look at your thoracic spine first before changing your squat style entirely. Cheers.
Matthew - watch another Matt's video (actually a series of videos under the title "so you think you can squat") - in part 2 Matt says explicitely to arch the lower back so that the butt (the tail bone) sticks out.
So how does the squat transfer to athletic performance? It appears as though the presenter is specialized in lifting heavy weight and not athletic in multi dimentional movement
The squat will improve most athletic movements like sprinting, jumping, kicking and stability. He's got over 10000 hours in strength and conditioning coaching of college students, armed forces and the first responders. He also has 2 degrees; BSc sport and exercise science and MSc sports biomechamics. He also has world records in the Squat and Bench press.
@@danielday3374 And there are plenty of other qualified individuals who would say this type of squat would have very little carryover to the types of movements athletes will see. When's the last time you saw a sprinter take the blocks with his feet spread as far as he possibly could? The squat absolutely will improve athletic movements, this however is just a glorified hip hinge. There's a reason he keeps falling back to talking about heavy weight and 1rm's. Athletes don't give a damn what's on the bar so long as it's providing the desired training stimulus, only powerlifters should be worried about the total on the bar.
@@MrCdrant I think this type of squat is more so for exposing weaknesses. He talks a lot about that in his videos. If you can squat this way with heavy weight then all your other types of squats will be strong also. Athletes rely a lot on compensatory strength. This type of squat minimizes that ability because it exposes weaknesses; which you can now improve upon. Since Matt champions Conjugate training, I doubt he'd run this form of squat year round anyway. He still does olympic full squats, box squats etc etc. I think athletes will benefit from 1RM training though. High maximal strength is always a good thing for most sports.
I am confused about pushing the heals out part. I push my knees way out and set back into the squat...i think i do good, but pushing the heal out is confusig
AllAluminum It can be confusing and hard to imagine, but if you consciously think about and mentally "feel" your glutes driving outward (spreading the floor) you start to get it. Getting the mind/muscle connection is the first step. After that you're on your way to improving.
Great material. But when you listen to Matt's advice to keep your head up and look slightly upward and sit back, and also you watch Mark Rippetoe video with an opposite piece of advice (head in line with the spine, look down, hips and knees break simoultaneously) and also watch Charles Poliquin videos on squats in which he advises to first break at the knees and let the knees travel well over toes to load mainly the quads - you may get really confused. And all of them are really accomplished, respected and experienced coaches. Are they all right but only prefer different versions of the squat for different purposes? Or is one of them right and the other two wrong?
Sooo what? Two other coaches do not seem to be less knowledgeble and do not have less "in the trenches" experience. They just prefer quite different versions of the squat (Poliquin's squat is clearly focused on quads as opposed to hip-heavy versions preferred by Mark and Matt). I would like to hear Matt's opinion on why the other two squat versions are inferior. Nonetheless, each of them maintains that their respective version of the squat is the sole proper one.
they're probably all right and their way works for them. you should experiment and see what works for you and pay attention to why they squat that way and the pros and cons of each
@ Matt, I have very weak posterior relative to my anterior and when I sumo deadlift or squat with a wider stance my Psoa or left hip hurts from a previous torn labrum. What do you suggest I do to bypass the pain in order to sumo DL/ wider stance squat? Thank you so much!
My personal advice is if it hurts, Dont do it until it doesnt hurt anymore. Maybe u just gotta wait til ur injury fully recovered. Before that, you sud squat with whatever stance that wont put any strain on ur psoa
Matt presents an opposite approach to what Tom Platz preaches. I.e. Tom argues that squat is an up and down movement (not down and back then up and forward), with knees going forward and quads being the prime mover. The difference between Matt and Tom might reflect the difference between a low bar powerlifting squat (mainly targeting the hips) and a high bar bodybuilding squat mainly targeting the quads.
I think if you have longer femurs, you will naturally use your quads more because the shin angle will be more acute as it is more difficult to maintain a vertical shank.
biglabrador with that being said, Tom platz was worried about building muscle, not lifting as efficiently as possible and Matt is concerned about real world applications
Consider their physical differences. Platz is a shorter guy who is genetically built to squat, he has fantastic leverages for it. Matt is 6'1 and doesn't have good squatting leverages so he had to find a form that would let him glean every pound he could of the lift.
22:15 is Wenning implying that letting the knees travel forward in a squat will cause them to explode? Very dogmatic to believe there’s only one way to squat to move the most weight and for longevity. I agree with a lot of what he says but the knees over the toes thing has been dispelled and proven wrong many times
I’ve heard him say before that letting the knees go over has a place in training, you just don’t want to let the quads be the main muscle when your hamstring and glutes can help. Also for lower weights it’s beneficial. I figure it’s like with anything, you do it too much, you’ll run into problems. He even says it about barbell squats, it’s so compressing that if you do it all the time; you’ll run into issues.
"Don't squat in heeled shoes." Everyone is in running shoes with heels. Olympic shoes are designed for lateral stability, that's the entire point of the shoe. It's physically impossible to have vertical shins with a high-bar position. Butt wink is from everything that isn't the hamstrings relaxing causing tilt. He charges 250/hr for this? Jesus Christ.
Odd never seen you at a national convention. I’m always ready to learn something !!! It’s rare to find such advanced guys like you to help us all be enlightened
Bulgaria only achieved 2 or 3 silver medals and 1 bronze in weightlifting from 1950 until 1969 in the World Championships. So I don't know if all those "straight shank" snatches and cleans really did much for their success during that time... things didn't really pick up until the infamous Ivan "The Butcher" Abajiev (one of the most decorated weightlifting coaches of all time), became Bulgaria's head coach in 1968, this also happened to be around 9 years after the popular anabolic agent Stanozolol became available. Another coincidence relates to the fact that Abajiev had eliminated most of the Bulgarian team's accessory work and prescribed only the competition Snatch/CJ along with their respective power variations, usually finishing the workout with front or back squats. From the literature and other video footage available, accompanied with firsthand reports from athletes training under Abajiev, performing most any variation of the lifts (be it from the hang, from blocks, from a deficit) was likely discouraged as Abajiev wanted the training to mimic competition conditions as much as possible. So I HIGHLY DOUBT the top level athletes practiced Matt's "straight shank" snatches too often. The Bulgarian team dethroned weightlifting powerhouses like Russia, the USA, Japan, Iran, and other countries beginning in the 1970's through extreme sports specific training, drug use, and plain hard work. Not some magical assistance exercise like "straight shank" snatches that put 20% on everyone's total in one training cycle. Quit selling the snake oil Matt.
Sorry but I have yet to see a high level powerlifter squat as well as a high level weightlifter. Its insulting that he says they can squat as well the other way, if this were true they would be winning medals in the Olympics.
Best hour i spend on youtube...
Great video, also the vid talking about sumo deadlift! 👌🏼👌🏼
I listen to these seminars at work and come home smarter than I was when i left, EVERY DAY THOUGH. Thanks Matt!
Is it possible to get a transcript for the questions? Amazing fucking video with so many Gems. Thanks for making it.
I'm sorry but we don't have a record of the un-mic'd questions. If I couldn't hear it in the video, it isn't in the transcript.
Best video on squats so far learnt alot from this never been taught this
Will.try tomorrow
Best of luck!
Matt's so huge, he makes the squat rack look like it's for children
Thank you MATT WENNING
i literally just spoke with Ed Coan in March at the Arnold about head position when squatting. my son's high school lifting coach has told him numerous times to look up when he is squatting. This almost immediately causes problems with spine stability yet they all preach this. i spoke to Mr. Coan and he reiterated what Matt said about a neutral to slight elevated head position.
Matt says to warmup and stretch those 'critical areas' of low back, hamstrings, glutes. Where are his warmup and stretching drills?
He says trained and warmed-up, not stretched and says a list of them right after that statement.
Matt really knows his shit
I've heard people talk about a "c-curve" in the back or even in this video how they stick their butts out and curve the lower back. Is it okay to have a load of weight on the back curved like that? I tried squats recently with my abs flexed and back more neutral and it seemed better. Opinions?
I lifted for years the way you are describing and I eventually injured my lower back. Now, I am not saying that your technique was the cause for sure, but I am saying that once I switched to Matt's style I could squat again.
You want to minimize that. Some curve is okay, since that is the natural spinal position, but really using that diaphragmatic breathing and filling your diaphragm with air, forcing your obliques out, and then bracing your abs, will protect your lower back and keep it more neutral.
It felt better because you were more stable and weren't relaxing in the hole of the squat typically causing you to butt wink excessively. Think of it like a pop can. What's more stable? A can that is empty with a dent in it? Or a full fan with no dents? Put a little pressure on the empty dented one, and it doesn't like that. Same goes for your spine. So yes, protect it.
I like the mirrors to look at myself between sets but I totally understand what Matt is saying about the mirrors. I see in the gym all the time straining their neck to check there form in the mirror. That shit makes me cringe when I see people do that
This guy knows something listen he can help you tremendously. 😎
Another excellent vid from Matt, but uh....no mention of athletic performance from the title, been really wondering about that....in theory a stronger squat should enable greater force production thus faster moves, but really, does it? Wonder if the 600-800lb squatters are especially fast in the 40 or 100 yd run?
Of course not. Big squatters are fat and slow.
Depends. If your 180 squatting 600 your gonna be a fucking sound athlete
Ben Johnson. 630 back squat x2
As I'm reading through NSCA's TSAC manual, I can't believe they do NOT include any form of 'back' squats...or Olympic-style movements! Any idea why?
I feel like they may mention squats, just not specific back or front or body. Squatting should be practiced by all humans; but they dont want the "oh well the book says this" trainees, its based off of preferences and your individual weaknesses. Just my opinion trying to learn too!
In other nsca video he actually mentioned that squat esp front squat is not very specific towards those tactical people. They will be most likely pulling people and picking them up off the floor so sumo deadlift is better for them.
Lol "fixed! Give me my money"
I.a. in this video: ruclips.net/video/qmbU4YNVEsQ/видео.html Tom Platz (he also knows a thing or two about squatting) that squat is simply an up and down motion, not down and back - the exact opposite to Matt's teachings. Two living legends, two totally different squats, in fact so different that it's strange that both those movements are considered squat and not having different names to avoid confusion.
This almost sounds like a low bar squat
Excellent info, much appreciated!
28:40 Oh BS alert .
The hamstring is short that's why he is pulling the pelvis which pulling the spine "theory" ..
DaviD the good ole “butt wink”
its cuz when u have weak hamstrings it's compensated by the quads, as u use hip drive u fail to use ur glutes and hams as it requires ur back to be flexed, this is due to poor technique, weak hamstrings, glutes, and maybe mobility issues
My brain grew
So , hitting depth is not a necessity.
Thank you!
A bit confusing is the question of "sticking the butt out" (or "the butt has to be behing the bar"). Matt is obviously recommending hyperextension of the lumbar spine - which is exactly what other coaches are telling NOT to do, advocating instead keeping a neutral spine and bracing. Who is right? If both approaches are right, then it's hard to say there are any squat rules - there are just squat versions. The one rule acknowledged by everyone is probably not rounding (i.e. not flexing) the spine. Some respected coaches (e.g. Poliquin) advocate initiating the squat with the knees and shooting the knees forward, others - just the opposite, some advocate bracing and neutral spine, others - sticking the butt out (hyperextending the lubar spine). Confusing, as the diffences are not tiny, but quite spectacular and there is hardly a middle ground.
Sticking the butt out doesn't necessarily correlate with lumbar hyper extension. You will usually only experience that level of hyperextension if you're compensating from a lack of thoracic extension. A proper hip hinge style squat loads the Glutes to a large degree with a bit of extension in the low back to maintain tightness in the kinetic chain, so yes, a small degree of extension should be present, but not hyperextension. If you're falling into that pattern, I'd definitely look at your thoracic spine first before changing your squat style entirely. Cheers.
Matthew - watch another Matt's video (actually a series of videos under the title "so you think you can squat") - in part 2 Matt says explicitely to arch the lower back so that the butt (the tail bone) sticks out.
Lots of misinformation here. I hope you forgot this video.
@@oliverallen5324and after this video still broke 2 more all time world records and my back is very healthy at 45. Your credibility??
Great 👌 video 💪
So how does the squat transfer to athletic performance? It appears as though the presenter is specialized in lifting heavy weight and not athletic in multi dimentional movement
The squat will improve most athletic movements like sprinting, jumping, kicking and stability. He's got over 10000 hours in strength and conditioning coaching of college students, armed forces and the first responders. He also has 2 degrees; BSc sport and exercise science and MSc sports biomechamics. He also has world records in the Squat and Bench press.
@@danielday3374 And there are plenty of other qualified individuals who would say this type of squat would have very little carryover to the types of movements athletes will see. When's the last time you saw a sprinter take the blocks with his feet spread as far as he possibly could? The squat absolutely will improve athletic movements, this however is just a glorified hip hinge. There's a reason he keeps falling back to talking about heavy weight and 1rm's. Athletes don't give a damn what's on the bar so long as it's providing the desired training stimulus, only powerlifters should be worried about the total on the bar.
@@MrCdrant I think this type of squat is more so for exposing weaknesses. He talks a lot about that in his videos. If you can squat this way with heavy weight then all your other types of squats will be strong also. Athletes rely a lot on compensatory strength. This type of squat minimizes that ability because it exposes weaknesses; which you can now improve upon. Since Matt champions Conjugate training, I doubt he'd run this form of squat year round anyway. He still does olympic full squats, box squats etc etc. I think athletes will benefit from 1RM training though. High maximal strength is always a good thing for most sports.
this guy is too much into his ego
I mean the proof is in the pudding. While I don't agree with everything he says he is very knowledgeable and has proof to show it.
Sure am!!! Get a masters degree and some world records and maybe you can be somebody too 💪💪💪
Any modifications for SSB? Or just the same.
I am confused about pushing the heals out part. I push my knees way out and set back into the squat...i think i do good, but pushing the heal out is confusig
AllAluminum It can be confusing and hard to imagine, but if you consciously think about and mentally "feel" your glutes driving outward (spreading the floor) you start to get it. Getting the mind/muscle connection is the first step. After that you're on your way to improving.
Great material. But when you listen to Matt's advice to keep your head up and look slightly upward and sit back, and also you watch Mark Rippetoe video with an opposite piece of advice (head in line with the spine, look down, hips and knees break simoultaneously) and also watch Charles Poliquin videos on squats in which he advises to first break at the knees and let the knees travel well over toes to load mainly the quads - you may get really confused. And all of them are really accomplished, respected and experienced coaches. Are they all right but only prefer different versions of the squat for different purposes? Or is one of them right and the other two wrong?
Well Matt does have a masters in Bio Mechanics sooo
Sooo what? Two other coaches do not seem to be less knowledgeble and do not have less "in the trenches" experience. They just prefer quite different versions of the squat (Poliquin's squat is clearly focused on quads as opposed to hip-heavy versions preferred by Mark and Matt). I would like to hear Matt's opinion on why the other two squat versions are inferior. Nonetheless, each of them maintains that their respective version of the squat is the sole proper one.
rip is more on the everyday person method. both work, but I will be trying this way to correct I'm balances. might not work for everyone
+biglabrador exactly. both are correct
they're probably all right and their way works for them. you should experiment and see what works for you and pay attention to why they squat that way and the pros and cons of each
@ Matt, I have very weak posterior relative to my anterior and when I sumo deadlift or squat with a wider stance my Psoa or left hip hurts from a previous torn labrum. What do you suggest I do to bypass the pain in order to sumo DL/ wider stance squat?
Thank you so much!
My personal advice is if it hurts, Dont do it until it doesnt hurt anymore. Maybe u just gotta wait til ur injury fully recovered. Before that, you sud squat with whatever stance that wont put any strain on ur psoa
I guess you can try box squatting wide stance with whatever box height that's comfy for you
@@xsova113 waiting is the worst thing you can do for an injury.
Matt presents an opposite approach to what Tom Platz preaches. I.e. Tom argues that squat is an up and down movement (not down and back then up and forward), with knees going forward and quads being the prime mover. The difference between Matt and Tom might reflect the difference between a low bar powerlifting squat (mainly targeting the hips) and a high bar bodybuilding squat mainly targeting the quads.
I think if you have longer femurs, you will naturally use your quads more because the shin angle will be more acute as it is more difficult to maintain a vertical shank.
The main difference between Matt and Tom is about 6-700 lbs.
biglabrador with that being said, Tom platz was worried about building muscle, not lifting as efficiently as possible and Matt is concerned about real world applications
Consider their physical differences. Platz is a shorter guy who is genetically built to squat, he has fantastic leverages for it. Matt is 6'1 and doesn't have good squatting leverages so he had to find a form that would let him glean every pound he could of the lift.
22:15 is Wenning implying that letting the knees travel forward in a squat will cause them to explode? Very dogmatic to believe there’s only one way to squat to move the most weight and for longevity. I agree with a lot of what he says but the knees over the toes thing has been dispelled and proven wrong many times
I’ve heard him say before that letting the knees go over has a place in training, you just don’t want to let the quads be the main muscle when your hamstring and glutes can help. Also for lower weights it’s beneficial. I figure it’s like with anything, you do it too much, you’ll run into problems. He even says it about barbell squats, it’s so compressing that if you do it all the time; you’ll run into issues.
@@PoppyJr11 well that’s good, I’m glad he’s not dogmatic about movement
@@Kyle111 nah, I noticed when he’s heated he’ll say more dogmatic things, but on his Instagram or Patreon you see what he actually does.
right on point !!!
"Don't squat in heeled shoes." Everyone is in running shoes with heels. Olympic shoes are designed for lateral stability, that's the entire point of the shoe. It's physically impossible to have vertical shins with a high-bar position. Butt wink is from everything that isn't the hamstrings relaxing causing tilt. He charges 250/hr for this? Jesus Christ.
So wrong....sad for teaching some bad things:(
Odd never seen you at a national convention. I’m always ready to learn something !!! It’s rare to find such advanced guys like you to help us all be enlightened
Bulgaria only achieved 2 or 3 silver medals and 1 bronze in weightlifting from 1950 until 1969 in the World Championships. So I don't know if all those "straight shank" snatches and cleans really did much for their success during that time... things didn't really pick up until the infamous Ivan "The Butcher" Abajiev (one of the most decorated weightlifting coaches of all time), became Bulgaria's head coach in 1968, this also happened to be around 9 years after the popular anabolic agent Stanozolol became available.
Another coincidence relates to the fact that Abajiev had eliminated most of the Bulgarian team's accessory work and prescribed only the competition Snatch/CJ along with their respective power variations, usually finishing the workout with front or back squats. From the literature and other video footage available, accompanied with firsthand reports from athletes training under Abajiev, performing most any variation of the lifts (be it from the hang, from blocks, from a deficit) was likely discouraged as Abajiev wanted the training to mimic competition conditions as much as possible. So I HIGHLY DOUBT the top level athletes practiced Matt's "straight shank" snatches too often.
The Bulgarian team dethroned weightlifting powerhouses like Russia, the USA, Japan, Iran, and other countries beginning in the 1970's through extreme sports specific training, drug use, and plain hard work. Not some magical assistance exercise like "straight shank" snatches that put 20% on everyone's total in one training cycle. Quit selling the snake oil Matt.
Bro - keep lifting
Sorry but I have yet to see a high level powerlifter squat as well as a high level weightlifter. Its insulting that he says they can squat as well the other way, if this were true they would be winning medals in the Olympics.
Squatted 750 narrow ass to grass elevated heel. Any other comments?? 🤣🤣🤣