Cant Squat lower back rounding

Hello sorry for the posts i hope its not annoying

I try to squat but i notice my mobilty on my lower body is not good at all I can barely squat bodyweight without my back rounding I think its due to ankle mobilty and hamstring weakness and lower back.

I also try placing the bar on my traps or below it gives me a really sharp pain in my shoulder which i think is another mobilty thing

let's talk about the squat. 

things that can be happening which usually are happening for a lot of us: poor ankle flexibility and hip mobility(especially external rotation). if you can do a full squat against a wall with your legs either in stance(the way you would nornally put it for a squat away from the wall) and have good external rotation here(really push your butt here). if you can be in this position assisted by the wall, what you are missing mostly, just like me is the active/passive flexibility in the ankles. 

I can't talk to you much about the hips because i am currently working on this myself and my weakest link is my glute medius and my ankles. for ankles, im doing a combination of a calve raise on a step and once i come down from the raise, i give it a stretch at the bottom. I also foam roll(really, its a lacrosse ball.) my calves. and then do some toe points and foot flexions. (what? won't that give you cramps?) maybe, maybe not, but it feels great to have new ROM in the calves. so move around and enjoy your hard work as for hamstring flexibility and or weakness, you're best bet is to also throw in how well you're using your glutes. when i first heard that statement "what do you mean if im using my glutes? of course i am." well.....let's just say i could do single leg squats before and....there's a very huge difference between doing single leg squats with quad dominance and once you incorporate your glutes strongly in the movement. it's a whole other ball game.

as for the shoulders, i really don't know what to tell you there because im not doing anything barbell related at the moment. sounds like you have an imbalance in there that needs addressing and i feel more comfortable passing on the reigns to the people i've been learning from that are in the forum that have helped me fix me.  

Keilani Gutierrez said:

let's talk about the squat. 

 

things that can be happening which usually are happening for a lot of us: poor ankle flexibility and hip mobility(especially external rotation). if you can do a full squat against a wall with your legs either in stance(the way you would nornally put it for a squat away from the wall) and have good external rotation here(really push your butt here). if you can be in this position assisted by the wall, what you are missing mostly, just like me is the active/passive flexibility in the ankles. 

 

I can't talk to you much about the hips because i am currently working on this myself and my weakest link is my glute medius and my ankles. for ankles, im doing a combination of a calve raise on a step and once i come down from the raise, i give it a stretch at the bottom. I also foam roll(really, its a lacrosse ball.) my calves. and then do some toe points and foot flexions. (what? won't that give you cramps?) maybe, maybe not, but it feels great to have new ROM in the calves. so move around and enjoy your hard work as for hamstring flexibility and or weakness, you're best bet is to also throw in how well you're using your glutes. when i first heard that statement "what do you mean if im using my glutes? of course i am." well.....let's just say i could do single leg squats before and....there's a very huge difference between doing single leg squats with quad dominance and once you incorporate your glutes strongly in the movement. it's a whole other ball game.

 

as for the shoulders, i really don't know what to tell you there because im not doing anything barbell related at the moment. sounds like you have an imbalance in there that needs addressing and i feel more comfortable passing on the reigns to the people i've been learning from that are in the forum that have helped me fix me.

thank you for your answer really informed answer

When you say body weight squat do you mean you've got 100% of your body weight on a bar or do you mean just squatting down with no added resistance? Rounding your back is normal in a body weight(BW) squat as there is no resistance to push your knees further forward creating for ankle flexion and so you have to rely a good bit on active flexibility (Keilani said this).

However, if you're talking weighted squats then there's most likely two problems (one of which is a bad habit I recently developed - Point 2).

1. Flexibility - You're basically too tight in key muscle groups that allow for a deep squat while allowing you to maintain anterior pelvic tilt and hip flexor contraction when you're in the bottom position. The two main exercises to fix this is to hold a moderate weight kettlebell or dumbbell in your hands and perform a goblet squat but push your knees out with your elbows and really focus on spinal extension and not letting the butt tuck under (tucking under is posterior pelvic tilt and this causes spinal flexion in the lumbar region). This exercises will open up the adductors and teach you how to externally rotate the leg out. The other exercise is to simply squat down and place a moderate weight barbell on the ends of your knees so they get pushed forward and because of this weight shift you can extend your spine and maintain that anterior pelvic tilt while also stretching out your ankles (really good for warm-up).

2. Too dependent on glutes - I know this sounds contradictive but the squat really isn't that great of a glute developer contrary to popular belief. Now I want you to try glute contractions in an anterior pelvic tilt position and a posterior pelvic tilt position. You'll notice that the glutes contract a lot more strongly in the posterior pelvic tilt position (why? I don't know, it just does). And so, when you focus on glute contraction in the squat you unconsciously tuck your pelvis posteriorly which results in the rounding of the back (as explained in point 1). To get rid of this habit it is best to lower the weight enough so that you complete all sets without exhaustion but enough weight to push your knees forward and push you down into the bottom position. All you need to focus on is maintaining that anterior pelvic tilt and spinal extension - it is ideal to do a high volume e.g. 10 sets or so - and to make it go quicker lower the rest to about 30 seconds. 

If you want to improve glute power then it is best to perform glute bridges and hip thrusts 

As for the shoulders, again that is a difficult one to answer. For me it sounds like you're trying for a low bar squat. A low bar squat in my opinion requires more learning, I've tried with YouTube videos to learn the technique and how to create the 'shelf' on your back to keep the bar in place without pushing too hard with your arms but it seems like you need a lot of muscle mass and a coach to perform it correctly. Personally for squats I'll stay for high bar squats as there are other variations of squats which I can use instead.

Other than that I hope something out of this paragraph will help correct the problems you are having. 

Jake Lawrance said:

When you say body weight squat do you mean you've got 100% of your body weight on a bar or do you mean just squatting down with no added resistance? Rounding your back is normal in a body weight(BW) squat as there is no resistance to push your knees further forward creating for ankle flexion and so you have to rely a good bit on active flexibility (Keilani said this).

 

However, if you're talking weighted squats then there's most likely two problems (one of which is a bad habit I recently developed - Point 2).

 

1. Flexibility - You're basically too tight in key muscle groups that allow for a deep squat while allowing you to maintain anterior pelvic tilt and hip flexor contraction when you're in the bottom position. The two main exercises to fix this is to hold a moderate weight kettlebell or dumbbell in your hands and perform a goblet squat but push your knees out with your elbows and really focus on spinal extension and not letting the butt tuck under (tucking under is posterior pelvic tilt and this causes spinal flexion in the lumbar region). This exercises will open up the adductors and teach you how to externally rotate the leg out. The other exercise is to simply squat down and place a moderate weight barbell on the ends of your knees so they get pushed forward and because of this weight shift you can extend your spine and maintain that anterior pelvic tilt while also stretching out your ankles (really good for warm-up).

 

2. Too dependent on glutes - I know this sounds contradictive but the squat really isn't that great of a glute developer contrary to popular belief. Now I want you to try glute contractions in an anterior pelvic tilt position and a posterior pelvic tilt position. You'll notice that the glutes contract a lot more strongly in the posterior pelvic tilt position (why? I don't know, it just does). And so, when you focus on glute contraction in the squat you unconsciously tuck your pelvis posteriorly which results in the rounding of the back (as explained in point 1). To get rid of this habit it is best to lower the weight enough so that you complete all sets without exhaustion but enough weight to push your knees forward and push you down into the bottom position. All you need to focus on is maintaining that anterior pelvic tilt and spinal extension - it is ideal to do a high volume e.g. 10 sets or so - and to make it go quicker lower the rest to about 30 seconds. 

 

If you want to improve glute power then it is best to perform glute bridges and hip thrusts 

 

As for the shoulders, again that is a difficult one to answer. For me it sounds like you're trying for a low bar squat. A low bar squat in my opinion requires more learning, I've tried with YouTube videos to learn the technique and how to create the 'shelf' on your back to keep the bar in place without pushing too hard with your arms but it seems like you need a lot of muscle mass and a coach to perform it correctly. Personally for squats I'll stay for high bar squats as there are other variations of squats which I can use instead.

 

Other than that I hope something out of this paragraph will help correct the problems you are having. 

I mean with no bar I struggle with doing squats. I tried doing it with a barbell it hurts my shoulder I like the hacksquat im a bodybuilder so i want big Legs muscle im not a powerlifter but it feels nice if i could squat where i stay there is no powerlifting coach because powerlifters have such good form and they have a good base structure 

I will try goblet squats never tried them before I will try them and will report I have leg day on Wednesday thank you