How to Squat The Hunch Back of Notre Dame

The Hunch Back of Notre Dame squatter

We have all seen that squatter. Hell, I used to be that squatter! He descends with beauty into the hole, then loses his arch and shoots his hips up first. This leads to a bowing of the lower back and bar shooting out of the groove. Not only is this ugly and a biomechanics nightmare, it is very dangerous as well. In my last article about deadlifting I spoke about bowed back versus arched back lifting and the load distribution. It is the same on the squat. Bowed backs = injured backs.

Hips shooting up first, back bowed over, head down, and bar out of the groove.

This is something that I advise you fix immediately. I didn’t, and I eventually hurt my back to the point of it being painful down both legs. Cleaning up my form, strengthening my back, and going to the chiropractor saved my lifting.

To fix this, you need to focus on keeping a tight arch all the way through the movement. If you get loose at the bottom and lose it, then you need to drive back on the bar and get it back. I have seen lifters at the gym hunched over with 700. It is awful and it looks like they are going to split in 2 pieces. Squatting like this will ALWAYS lead to injury. Maybe not soon, but certainly later.

Strengthen the back through arched back good mornings and reverse hypers. Lower the squat weight until you can maintain an arch all the way through the movement.

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