Afraid to squat
6 post(s),
6 voice(s)
Voices: ddrysdale, chaddukes, mikey-86, triplexpac, nikkiboi, and Ferdi
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Jul 1, 2009 6:39pm
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I’m really interested in doing some of the fundamental, compound exercises like squats and dead lifts, but I’m worried my form will be really horrible and either I will 1) look like an idiot or, more importantly, 2) cause myself injury. Is there any way I can make sure I am doing these correctly without having to hire a personal trainer or anything? As it is, I’m just going to stick to machines because they are easier but I think if I could do squats, deadlifts, and whatnot, it’d be better for me. As it is, even bench presses are bad for me—I feel like I can handle the weight, but I am so unbalanced that as I lift the bar wavers in my hands, tipping and leaning forward or backward. Lifting the weight is no trouble but I’m just shaky. |
| Jul 1, 2009 7:08pm |
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-652948… Watch this video. It’s long but it will help tremendously. Then be sure to do these exercises…..but start out with no weight; just the bar. Hell, even body weight squats are great. I get into the bottom position as low as I can go with my back as upright as possible and just hold it for 30-60 seconds. Do deadlifts and bench press with just the bar, and slowly add weight. When your form suffers, take the weight back down. These are all basic movements that you make all day….even though you may not know it. They are ingrained in you. You just need to undo some learn bad habits (most likely) and take a sincere look at how you’re doing them. Get a big mirror! |
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Jul 1, 2009 10:21pm
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nice video! i was kinda freaked out when he told people go breaking their fingers haha. If you’re having those stabilising issues with the bench then I would start doing dumbbell exercises to help you with that. Dumbbell bench presses are overlooked alot but add this to your chest routine to help manage those stability issues. |
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Jul 2, 2009 8:13am
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Just keep the weight light and focus on your form and you will be ok. Watch as many form videos as you can, see what the common tips are. I recommend videos by Dave Tate, his bench video helped me tons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh3t6T-nqP0 Good for you for attempting to work in free weight exercises, they really are awesome. |
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Jul 3, 2009 12:47am
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Dont be afraid, like the others said start out slowly and you will get fantastic gains. |
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Jul 4, 2009 7:20am
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Personally I wouldn’t do it without a trainer. I learnt it the hard way, when I injured my shoulder while doing bench press because of bad form and too heavy weights. Others might have a better body consciousness than I have, but it also happened to me (in a gym in Tokyo where the staff didn’t know anything about training with free weights and my Japanese was too bad to communicate with them anyway) that another gym member which I did not know at all started to teach me squats, because he couldn’t stand it anymore to watch very bad posture during my squats… |
