@FearlessRobb
Hey there, the others have covered some aspects nicely already.
Let me chime in here too.
Costas and Joe already have mentioned the 'form'. There is a few more things to it, than just the feet and knee position. Let me try to show a few things and give some suggestions what else you could try.
Quote (you): "3. i always seem to drive more with my ball than my heal and no matter what i try i cant do it"
This particular issue clearly shows, you are still not 'backwards' enough.
Which can have one of the following reasons:
- Back / Spine flexibility.
- Head position.
- Upper Body not upright enough.
^ these 3 kinda come together:
The head position, can lead to a too forwards upper body position, and this in return can also cause the arched spine to collapse into a round back. Which moves your 'pivot' point quite forwards to your toes instead of your heels, and also has more force on the knees. (Leave alone how unhealthy it is for the spine)
Spine flexability is needed to keep the back arched when descending. Which again is needed to maintain a neutral spine and an upright form. If that lacks, we will have again a bend spine, and the weight forcing through an unfortunate positioned pivot point.
Check your form in regards to this, and try varying your head position. Look upwards, tuck your chin in, arch your back and avoid a rounded back.
Try: looking up, tuck in your chin, arch your back. Avoid any rounding or forwards positioning as much as your current flexibility allows you.
- Hamstrings, glutes and calves lacking some needed strength /and / or flexibility to perform right form:
^ the further we push our behind backwards, and keep arching the back, trying to let the knees not come over your feet, the more the focus shifts on to hamstrings and calves and glutes (green), away from the quads (blue) alone doing all the work.
You can clearly feel that when you lower yourself into a quad position trying to maintain propper form (keep your hands on the hamstrings), the further out you push your buttox and the more downwards you come the more your hamstrings start to tighten and contract, same goes for the calves.
If they lack of strength, or if the hamstrings are too tight and shortened, the body will now of course shift more towards the hamstrings again, which it only can do by keeping you too much forward once more.
Try: Arching your back properly, go really wide out with your buttox (keep head in the right position too). Possibly try this with bodyweight alone at first. Lean really back into your heels. Until you feel your calves and hamstrings pulling, and the weight being on the heel pads rather than on your toes.
This can be a very humbling experience and might even drop you down on the ground when the hamstrings are not used to this and denie to hold this position :)
A box in height of the lowest squadpoint can help here. So you have something to "aim" at with your buttox and to catch you should the far back out position make you drop down. (PS: it's also a good method to train strength for a new higher weight )
- Wrong Stance for your body type.
Depending on the length of your legs in comparison to your all over size, sometimes one stance will do better than the other one (hence why shoulder width , ad well as sumo stance are allowed in competetive olympic lifting)
Try: a more narrow stance, or a full sumo stance and see which one works better for you and allows you the right form.
- Why you can press more on a leg press than in a smith machine, than in a free barbell squad:
Red shows where the force goes through, blue shows what musclegroups are mainly used. Including stabilizers.
The Leg press really only lets you use your legs, mainly quads, glutes and a bit hamstrings. The force only goes through your legs, your upper body plays no role in this. And even the knees are less bothered due to the seating position, and how the force is passing through. It clearly is an isolation exercise.
The Smith machine basically takes 'away' a lot of the weight load, plus you don't need many stabilizer muscles to work. You can basically 'lean' into the machine and just concentrate on the descending and ascending part. The force mainly goes straight through the bodymiddle. The smith machine is good for training, but i do agree with the others here free weights is what you want to go for :) But for now you will need to work with what you have.
With a free barbell, loaded with weight, your whole body has to work, to get this all moving up and down and to keep you from collapsing in the middle under the weight as well. Here you really need all your muscles, including your core's stabilizers and evevn shoudlers,m upper back, lower back, down to your feet having to do way more work to balance and stabilize as well. This why it's called a 'compound' exercise.
I think, comparing these 3, should make it clear why you can do way more weight in a legpress machine :)
Hope this all helps a bit to find and fight your personal struggles with squads.
Cheers! - crood : out -
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