Technique Tips 001 | How To Squat | How To Deadlift | How To Hip Thrust

YouTube, what's going on? Welcome to the first ever technique tips video. And I don't know exactly how this video is going to go. I have a general idea, but I don't know exactly how it's gonna go because this is literally the first video, as you can see if you are clicking on the title. What the goal of this video is going to be is I put on my Instagram story yesterday, which if you don't follow me on Instagram, you can follow me on Instagram @ericrobertsfitness. But I put on my Instagram, hey, would you like it if you were able to send me in some of your technique videos, some of your form videos, And I can look over them, give you some feedback, give you some tips, tell you what's right, tell you what's wrong, tell you what to correct, and, you know, just kind of help you out as much as I can. And overwhelmingly, a number of people said yes, they would enjoy that. And I, I think I would also enjoy that as well. So this is how Technique Tips was able to be birthed. It is our first episode of it. If you would like to send in a technique video that I will be able to look over and get back over to you, and obviously you'll have it up on the YouTube channel here, You can do that at the link below. I'll put a picture of it right here, but you can do it at the link below in the description of this video. It's just a very simple form. You'll fill out what exercise, you'll fill out, you know, some, some comments and stuff of that nature as well, which by the way, I love everybody who submitted their videos and I apologize if I can't get to every single video, but you know, leave some comments about the lifts so that way I can kind of like see what's going on and give you maybe a bit more direct feedback. Um, and that is going to be, what technique tips is going to be. I'm not 100% sure yet if it's going to be 3 videos or 5 videos or once a week or once every 2 weeks. I'm going to continue to figure that out for you guys. So without further ado, let's dive into the first ever technique tip video. And it's going to be from our guy George. And, uh, George's last name is Dick. So George, you are the man and I hope you live up to your name, my friend. Um, we've got George here doing a deadlift and honestly, again, he, so he's got 170 kilograms on, The barbell, which is roughly about 300, 375 pounds. So number one, man, just massive congrats. That's a lot of weight to be moving around. I think George also said he was working up to a 1RM, which is just, you know, I think he did this for 2 reps if I'm not mistaken. Um, so yeah, 2 reps right here. But again, that's just a massive amount of weight to be moving, dude. So you should be very proud of yourself for that. Um, now diving into some of the technique tips and so on and so forth, I think number one, you're doing a good job of not Uh, super cranking your neck up too much, which a lot of people like when they get down to the deadlift, they think like, all right, I'm going to look up and like they really arch their cervical spine. So good job on not doing that. More, more or less keeping the chin tucked a tad bit, not looking down, but not looking up more so just keeping that chin tucked as you're going through the movement. Now, when we talk about potential things to fix, I want you to look at kind of like where your hips are starting. And then where your hips are going before the barbell even moves off the ground, right? So notice how before— so just now the bar is just starting to move right now off the ground, right? Notice where you started your hips from down here versus to where your hips went to when the bar finally came off the ground about right here, right? We, in a deadlift, we would like to see that if this is your hips and this is your chest, We would like to see your hips and your chest rise at the same time during this deadlift. And notice how your hips kind of shoot up and your knees kind of lock out before your chest is able to give yourself— I'm sorry, before your chest is able to follow. So there's a few things we can do about this. And the reason this is suboptimal is because number one, it does put a little bit more pressure on your low back. And number two, It just takes away some of your strength gains that you'll be able to use and some of the power you'll be able to use for this movement. So how can we correct this? A few things. Number one, I would strongly suggest before you start the movement, I would strongly suggest setting your shoulder blades in place and bracing your lats. I really want you to think about before you go and pull this barbell up, because you notice how like you kind of like start to pull and kind of lift all in one motion. I would really like for you to kind of like pull your shoulders down and back into your back pockets. And then kind of think about like if there was a tennis ball between your armpit, you're going to put that tennis ball between your armpit and squeeze it shut. Try to squeeze the air out of the tennis ball as much as you possibly can. If you pull those shoulders down, I don't know what that was. Pull your shoulders down, squeeze your armpits, and then Get into this deadlift, I think you will have much more strength. And I honestly think your, your hips, your chest, and your back all will kind of be in a bit more of a neutral alignment. So that's the first thing I would suggest. The second thing I would suggest is one of the reasons this is happening is because your knees are shooting back too much. I would really— a lot of people tell you don't squat the deadlift. You're going to have to squat the deadlift in the first 1 to 3 inches of the range of motion. Otherwise, you're going to try to turn it into an RDL, a Romanian deadlift, and you're going to use too much of your lower back in the deadlift. So you want to make sure, think about staying forward with your knees a little bit more. Think about pushing into the ground. Think about pushing the ground away from you. Don't think about pulling up because that's how this ends up happening. People think about, I got to pull this weight up. They shoot their knees back, their hips rise, and they round their lower back, right? I want you to stay forward a little bit more in this deadlift. I want you to think about almost squatting the deadlift a tad bit more, especially until you get to about your, your upper shin to about knee height until about right here. Then you think about pulling because then you want to finish the movement out with your glutes and hamstrings. But to get that bar off the ground, you really want to think about squatting and using your quads and pushing The bar into— I'm sorry, pushing your feet into the ground, pushing the ground away from you. Then last but not least, what I would probably do here is I would throw in some paused deadlifts. And I will put a link for my in-depth video for paused deadlifts here below in the show notes of this. Uh, I'm sorry, in the description of this video as well. These are kind of like the, the exercises I use for all of our Clubhouse members, all of our one-on-one clients, those kinds of things. But it's a very in-depth, video on how to do pause deadlifts. Pause deadlifts will help you in this scenario because when you're doing this, if you have to pause a couple of inches up, it forces you to keep your— it forces you to keep your bracing and keep your alignment that much more. If you just go from straight away, you're much more likely to lose that alignment. So I would throw in some pause deadlifts maybe 1 or 2 times a week. And, um, George, that's— I mean, if you're already doing 375 and like, You know, there's a couple of things we could work on here. Your deadlift is going to fucking skyrocket, bro. So great job. Next up we have, and I'm not sure if I say your name correctly, but Alexandra, I hope I said your name correctly. We have Alexandra doing a low bar squat. And the reason, one of the reasons I picked this video is because so many people are going to tell you and like, oh, you shouldn't be leaning forward during a squat. I want you to notice, and because I am 6'4, so I have this issue as well. Look at Alexandra's legs. Look at how long her legs are. She's a taller individual. She has longer, uh, she has longer femurs and she has longer tibias, right? So her tibia is right here and her femur is right here. Look at the lower half of her body compared to the upper half of her body. She clearly has a longer and larger lower body, right? For this reason, for people who have longer femurs and/or longer tibias, you are typically going to need more of a lean forward in your torso like Alexandra has right here, because if you try to stay so upright, you're going to end up running out of room and running out of range of motion in your squat. And you're either going to end up arching or rounding your lower back, or your heels are going to come off the ground. So especially if you're somebody who has longer legs, you're going to see throughout this movement, she has a lean forward in her torso. The reason why is because she has to do that because look at her legs right now. She's getting— this is honestly a very good squat. She's getting 90 degrees, which is exactly what she should be doing. She's getting 90 degrees with her squat. Her hip joint is in line with her knee joint, which is perfect. Her spine is remaining neutral because she has a lean forward. If she did not have that lean forward, her spine is going to be arching in one direction or the other, either rounding or arching in one way or the other. So her lean forward is awesome. The bar, and she kind of mentioned here in, uh, in some of her notes that she was unsure of number one, how to get her hips to drive out of the movement. And number two, how to keep the bar over her midfoot. So Alexandra, I want to say a few things to you. Your hips are going to do the work in this movement because it's a very hip dominant squat that you are doing. Here's a rule of thumb for you. The farther forward your knees travel, The more quad dominant this movement is going to be, the more your knees stay, not more or less parallel, because there is some forward knee travel here, which you need. But when your knees are a bit more parallel to the ground, you're going to be using a lot more of your glute and hip musculature. So your question of how do I get my hips to work? Your hips are going to work. The, the only way you are going to get out of this squat is by your hips doing the work. So I would not overthink about how my hips can do the work. I would just let your hips do the work and don't overthink it. Your hips have to do the work in this movement. Your glutes have to do the work in this movement because of the way your body is currently set up. Now, if you were to like lean forward with your— and your knees would travel farther forward, then it would be a little bit more of your quads doing the work, right? And listen, I think this depends a little bit on your ankle mobility. Could you have a little bit farther forward knee travel? You could, though I will say with you having such long legs, you are going to have primarily a glute dominant, hip dominant squat to begin with. So I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with this squat right here. I think it actually looks really good. And again, like how, how is the bar going to stay over your midfoot? Why do you want the bar to stay over your midfoot? You want the bar to stay over your midfoot because number one, it increases your power. And normally number two, it gives you the best leverage and it keeps your lower back the safest, right? The bar is pretty much over roughly your midfoot right now. Again, you could lean and let those knees travel a little bit farther forward. And maybe that bar would get a little bit more, um, if I kind of, uh, maybe move this just a tad bit so we can see her feet just a tad more. If, if she allowed her knees to travel a little bit farther forward, this bar might go a little bit more over the midfoot. So you could have just a slight bit more forward knee travel. Um, but other than that, man, I think it looks tremendous. And last but not least, low bar. Low bar is when you put the bar more or less on your rear delts, not like up here on your neck, but put it more on the bottom of your shoulders around right here. The low bar squat again is going to allow you to have this lean forward and it's typically going to be a little bit more of a glute dominant, hip dominant squat. So Alexandra, great job, dude. And I just want to say, don't overthink it. You're strong. Go and get it. All right. Next up here we have, uh, I believe Nico. I'm not pretty sure, or I'm not sure how to pronounce the name. So I apologize if it's incorrect. Um, we have some, uh, Romanian deadlifts with 75-pound dumbbells, which is just fucking awesome, bro. Let's go. Um, the first and foremost thing I would say in this right here is you're— so you're picking these weights up off the ground, right? Nothing inherently wrong with this, but I do see there's a box right here. Personally, what I would do if I'm doing RDLs, I'm going to put the weight on top of the box first, and then I am— or on top of like a bench, for example, and then I'm going to lift because you going from right here from the ground, All the way up. It's just going to take a little bit extra effort you don't have to spend. And then you might take away from potentially doing the lift as best as you possibly can. So if you wanted to, you could just like prop those weights up on the box right here and then kind of get into position from there. Um, now going over the actual movement in and of itself, a lot of good things here. Keeping your chin tucked, which is perfect. We do not want to look up in an RDL. We want to make sure we keep our chin tucked. So that's phenomenal. I can clearly tell you're pushing your hips back to the wall behind you, just like you should be. Doing, which again, that's phenomenal. Um, when we talk about things to potentially kind of like work on and look at, so I want you to notice something. Notice how once you get to about like this area right here, notice how like your hips don't necessarily go back any farther. You just, from right here to right here, your hips might move just a tad, but I think you end up kind of almost overextending a bit from the low back right here. Right? So notice how like from, Right here to right there. It almost looks like you're extending from your low back. So what I would do instead of going all the way down like you are, I'd probably stop about right here and then right here and then pop right back up. Because if you go past right here, you're just going to get lower because you're using the low back right here. So I'd probably stop an inch or 2 earlier. And then what I would do, kind of like what I talked about in George's deadlift, Just make sure to brace your lats. Make sure to pull those shoulders down into your back pocket. Think about taking a tennis ball, putting it between your armpit and trying to squeeze the air out of the tennis ball. I think if you do that one thing right there, this movement will be literally perfect, man. So that's what I'd say. And the only other last thing I would say is when you're doing this, again, nothing inherently wrong with your hands, right? So you start out, you know, kind of like to the side and then you switch it to kind of like out in front of you. I would probably rather you just keep a slight angle in your hands the entire time. So don't go completely like palms— I'm sorry, thumbs up, but also don't go completely palms facing you. Keep a slight angle the entire time. That will also help you keep your shoulders shoved down into your back pocket a bit more and activate your lats a bit more. All right, next up we have Liliana and her hip thrust, which by the way, she was doing 205 for 10 reps. I mean, just, just massive numbers. So great, great job when you're doing this. Um, and to be quite frank with you, I wanted to show you guys this because her form looks awesome. Um, great job on this video right here. You're keeping your chin tucked, which is awesome. You're keeping your feet flat the entire time, which is awesome. Slight outward rotation of the toes. Some people need this, some people don't. Um, if you slightly point your toes out in a hip thrust, it might allow for some extra external hip rotation, which is going to allow for a bit more glute recruitment. So great job on doing that as well right here. Um, when you get to the top, squeezing really hard, not just thinking about going up, thinking about tucking the hips up under you, which again, you're doing a great job of. Um, there's only a couple of things I would say for this video right here. 2 minor things. Number one, just make sure as you go down, you are letting yourself bring your upper body with you a bit. A lot of times when people go down in a hip thrust, they only think about like letting their— if your upper body's here and your hips are here, they only think about letting their upper— I'm sorry, their hips go down, right? When just your hips go down, you're going to end up probably arching your lower back. So what I would say in this movement is just make sure, especially as you continue to go heavier, just make sure to allow that upper body to keep coming with you. And the only other thing I would say is towards the end of the reps, and I want to show you guys this because Yeah. Leandro's pushing hard here. Um, towards the end of the reps, just make sure not to rush it. I think it was after this rep, like it's starting to get a bit hard, right? Like it's, it's getting challenging. When it gets challenging, just be sure not to rush the reps. Cause it's, it's very, you know, once it gets hard, once it gets heavy, once we get to those last couple of reps, it's very easy to let yourself kind of just like, all right, I got to get it done. I got to get it done. Just make sure you keep control. Don't go down too fast. Don't go up too fast. Keep control of the weight even when, and especially when it gets difficult, because those are the reps that are going to make the biggest change in your physique. So that's what I would say. And again, the only other last thing I would say, and I can't, I couldn't 100% tell from this angle, but just make sure your feet aren't too close together. You definitely want your feet about maybe a little bit outside shoulder width to maybe about hip width. I wouldn't go much wider than hip width, but I would go roughly about a little outside shoulder width to maybe hip width. width, somewhere in between there. Just don't have them too close. Um, but again, I don't know if it is or is not, but I just wanna make sure of that. So great job, Leanne. All right, last one, guys. So last but not least, we have, I believe, Ani with her squats. And I, if I say it incorrectly, I apologize. Um, so with these squats right here, again, if there's one thing that we can watch from this video, um, Ani is not afraid to push herself with, with, with, in, in these sets. She is like really, really, really pushing it. Um, she's not backing down from the weight she's pushing herself very hard. Like, I'm honestly very, very impressed. A lot of people tend to not allow themselves to push very hard. She has no issue with pushing herself very hard, which I think is awesome. Now, when it comes to some potential, like, you know, correctments— correctments, is that a word? Adjustments? I'm not sure. Adjustments. We'll go with adjustments. Corrections, adjustments. There you go. What we can think about doing is a few things. Number one, I want you to notice the bar on her back. And I kind of talked about this a bit earlier, but the bar on her back, I, for this particular movement, Annie, I would recommend you maybe moving to a low bar only because notice how when you are going down in your squat, the bar is in one place. And then it almost kind of seems like that bar is almost kind of going to like, you know, topple you over. I think it's because the bar is a little bit too high. on your neck right here. So me personally, I'd recommend moving that bar a little bit lower down. I would move it either right below that bony part of your neck and kind of like go on the meaty area, or I would go more on like your rear delt area. Because if you take that bar a bit lower, I don't think you'll have the issue of kind of like letting that bar kind of topple you forward. So that's the first thing. The second thing I would say with the feet right here, what I'd probably do is get a wider stance. So I'd probably like, Make sure to take yourself a little bit outside hip width and then slightly point your toes outward, not like a penguin or anything, but slightly point your toes outward as you're doing the movement. So I think that would be a second potential correction to kind of make right here. And honestly, number 3, you're doing a very good job of breaking at the hips first. I would just continue to encourage you to break at the hips first, right? Because if you break at your knees too much, It's going to be a bit too much kind of forward pressure on the knees. The heels might come off the ground. So break out your hips first and then sit down into that squat. You're again doing a very good job of it as it is, but just make sure it's— again, someone's going to like karate chop your hips back and you're going to sit down into this squat right here. I think that would be my third thing right here. Um, and the only other last thing I would say is I might, for right now, I might back the weight off. Only until you can find how to get to that 90-degree parallel. So I mentioned it in one of the squat videos earlier with Alexandra right here, right? Notice how her hip joint is in line with her knee joint, right? When we're doing a squat, that's what we want to see. So if your hip joint is probably about in the middle right here and your knee joint is right here, we are looking to get these 2 things in line. So for right now, just for right now, I might back off the weight just a tad bit. To allow yourself, you know, make those corrections and adjustments we kind of talked about, back off the weight, see if you can't get yourself down into that range of motion, which I think you will be able to with the slight adjustments we made. And then, um, kind of take things from there. And guys, that is the first ever technique tips video. Again, if you would like your video to be submitted to possibly be picked, the link is going to be in the description of this video below. So feel free to fill the form out. For those of you who I did not pick your video, I apologize. I try to get to as many as I can, and it's nothing personal against you. And last but not least, if you enjoyed the video, let me know below. Give the video a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel. And if you have any questions on anything I mentioned, drop it below. I'd be happy to help. Chat soon, okay?