Where to Look During Squats
May 7th, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: Squat, Weight Lifting
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Looking down, up or aside during Squats can tweak your neck. Proper head positioning during Squats is not only safer on your neck, it also prevents many technique problems. Here’s where to look during Squats.
Where You Shouldn’t Look During Squats. These are the 3 biggest mistakes you’ll see on the Squat with regard to the head position.
- Not at Your Feet. Your body follows your head. If you bend your neck to look down, your upper & lower back will also want to bend. Rounding your lower back during Squats increases risks of spinal discs injuries.
- Not at The Ceiling. Hyper-extending your cervical spine increases risks of spinal discs injuries. It also shifts the weight to your heels which can make you lose balance. More bad technique can follow to compensate.
- Not Aside. Never look aside during Squats or any other exercise to see what’s going on there. It’s a guaranteed way to tweak your neck.
Starting Strength’s Way. Starting Strength recommends to fix a point 5-6′ in front of you on the floor. Several readers have posted videos in StrongLifts.com Forum showing bad technique while they own Starting Strength. Examples:
- Looking too much down because you’re squatting close to a wall/mirror
- Finishing the Squat with your neck bent, torso bent and hips unlocked
Read the text (p. 27), don’t only watch the pictures (p. 26). Most of you face a wall/mirror when squatting, so you can’t fix a point 5-6′ in front of you on the floor. The point is to keep your neck inline with the rest of your spine.
Where You Should Look. Not at the ceiling as this is bad for your neck. Not at the floor as this causes your back to bend. Your cervical spine should be inline with the rest of your spine during Squats for maximal safety.
Look forward. Fix a point on the wall/mirror in front of you. Your neck won’t be perfectly inline with the rest of your spine in the bottom Squat position. But as long as you don’t look at the ceiling, your neck will be ok.
Forward Head Posture. If you have a forward head posture, your neck is more at risk. If you have a forward head posture, you’ll usually also have kyphosis (a bent upper-back). Improve your thoracic mobility, then work on head posture.
- Do Nods. Make a double chin, hold for 5 sec, repeat for 10 reps. Don’t retract your neck, and don’t force the range of motion.
- Stretch. Your Levator Scapulae, like this. Stretch also your upper-traps & sternocleidomastoid (same stretch, but tilting head to the side).
- Keep Your Head Back. When sitting, working on computer, driving, etc Do a few nods when in doubt.
Remember this also for other exercises like Deadlifts or Pull-ups. Just like your lower back must remain neutral, so should your cervical spine remain neutral from start to finish to prevent spinal disc injuries.
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I’m confused.
In this article you state that one should “look forward”.
So should we look down, or look forward?
@Barry
That’s what I wrote in this article and the other Squat articles too. Look forward.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think Mehdi’s point with ‘look forward’ is to not look down at the floor and not up at the ceiling. If you squat infront of a mirror (I do) you end up looking at some point on your body. I try to look ‘through’ the mirror rather than looking at myself. It’s hard, since I squat in a power rack I’m thinking of just facing the other way, people might look at me funny but it might turn out to be easier.
Do you think you can elaborate on the Nods? Do you mean just push your neck down as far as possible?
@Duke309
No not pushing your neck down. Just making a double chin by tucking your chin in. Think of pushing your chin down without retracting your neck and without putting your chin against your chest. Aim for the double chin.
I find the easiest way to squat is just look at your own face in the mirror. I’m not really conscious of doing it any more.
Once I’ve got some weight on I just zone out in the movement.
Excellent article Mehdi. I have a tendency to keep my head way too far forward (all the computer work and driving I do). The nods have been really helping for keeping my head position in check.
I have read many articles on using the proper technique when perfoming squats - my main hangup - especially now, is on knowing if I am performing them correctly. I do NOT look down at my feet, I look forward, maintaining direct contact in mirror with my face. I have also read that I should push back using my hips and not lower my knees first. When I try to do this it seems as though my spine automatically curves inward as I try to jut my hips back and downward. How the heck do I push back using my hips but keep my spine straight? I’ve viewed video clips as well with people supposedly showing examples of proper and improper form but truthfully, they look the same!
I actually find that my eyes look up when I am coming up, it helps me to lift more for some reason. I dont mean look up with your whole head, I just mean my eyes roll upwards.
@Bleu
Your back rounds at the bottom of the Squat. Sounds like tight hamstrings, could also be posterior pelvic tilt. Doing the Squat Stretch is a start.
Yeah…I tend to keep my head forward but look upwards as well. It helps pull me up!
I noticed when I started doing squats, I would be looking forward but as soon as I started to squat down, my head would tilt upwards a little bit. To stop me doing this, I would focus at looking at my eyes in the mirror from top to bottom. This kept my head neutral throughout the squat.
@ Mehdi
I do stretch well, before performing squats. I tend to read alot and most of the info I received said to push back first with hips - my belly, or lower pelvic region pushes out as I try to push my hips back - this happens BEFORE I reach the bottom of squat which I perform below the parallel point. I will try to imagine sitting down on a chair and concentrate on keeping my spine as straight as possible this afternoon… Thanks
Hey Mehdi,
Quick question, I have this “injury” in my back. If I turn my neck to either side, as far as my shoulder, i feel a tight sore muscular pain on the side of my spine, it increases the further i turn my head, see the photo i linked below for a description.
I dont feel anything until i turn it to that position. I’ve felt this for maybe 6 months max and it’s something I’d like to sort out. I think i feel it more after squating, i dont squat too heavy, my from feels fine, consistent and smooth.
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/4845/backnt0.jpg
any ideas what it could be mehdi?
thanks man
youssef
@Blue
Post videos of your squat technique in the forum. That way we can see what’s going on.
@Youssef
Try to keep things on topic. That’s your rhomboid next to the spine. You probably have slouching shoulders/forward head look, etc. Check the post on thoracic mobility. Do also soft tissue work with a tennis ball for your rhomboid. But you need to improve your posture, and you probably have tight/dormant muscles in there.
Good stuff, Mehdi. The only time I’ve really given myself backache or neckache is when I’ve been screwing around with my head position during workouts. I’ll get on with my nods
this is the first time I send feedback to you Mehdi. Your articles are great men!
I’ve been following your program for about 1 month now and I’m feeling very great. The only problem with squat is that I have pain on the top of the knees after every workout. I don’t knw what is wrong. Maybe I increased the weight to early. I believe my form and technique is good. at the moment my squat is 45 kg. when I want to increase to 50 kg, I will feel the pain.
can you advise me on this.
@Hafeez
Could be a lot of things, would need more info. Check out this thread on the forum, will give you some pointers in the right direction.
@Mehdi
Thanks, I think you’re right. I use the pc a lot for work and stuff so i think i might slouch a bit, over the last year I have noticed an improvement in my posture due to going to the gym and being more aware. The physio told me before that my traps were a bit tight.
ok sorry for going of topic.
thanks man!