Why Your Squat Feels Off (But You Can't Explain Why)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Something about your squat just doesn’t feel right — but you can’t quite put your finger on it. In this short video, Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains what’s really going on and gives you a few simple cues to fix it fast.

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

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Testify Commentator - October 27, 2025

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

THIS WEEK'S SUBMISSION

From our video When Deadlifting Heavy, Don't Stand Up & Try This Instead (click the title to watch):

Raimundo
I tried this last sunday and really fixed my technique, before I was DL 160kg with some actual pain because of the posture that made the lift quite inneficient, after some reps with this tips I did 180kg so really happy with it. Thanks for this, will look to achieve 200kg!!

Phil
You’re very welcome, and congratulations!

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ARTICLES & VIDEOS

This 1 Minute Routine Makes Your Deadlift Instantly Stronger
One minute. One habit. A huge difference in how your deadlift feels and performs. Try this before your next pull—you’ll feel it immediately. Click here to watch.

 

Do These FOUR Things When Starting Strength Gets Hard... (plus 3 bonus tips)
What should you do when Starting Strength gets hard? Phil gives you 4 steps to follow (plus 3 bonus tips). Click here to read.

 

Blast from the Past: What is a Hang Clean? | Olympic Weightlifting Technique
What is a hang clean? How is it different from a power clean, hang power clean, or clean? We cover it all here in about a minute. Click here to watch.

 

Blast from the Past: 3 Ways You're Ruining Your Squat
Quit making these mistakes when squatting. We cover 3 common squat errors as well as how to fix them. Click here to read.

“GET STRONGER - LIVE BETTER” SHIRTS ARE AVAILABLE!

Why do you train? Because getting stronger makes everything else easier. Get stronger. Live better. “Testify” to this message and represent your favorite gym with this shirt in several color options.

Click here to head to the Testify Store.

WHAT'S COMING UP

Below are a few of our upcoming events, and you can find out what else is on the calendar by heading to our events page at www.testifysc.com/events.

Free Intro to Squat Session

  • November 1, 2025

  • Are you interested in getting stronger? Book your free "Intro to Squat" session and learn to squat, meet some of our coaches, and see the gym! All ages and abilities are welcome.

  • As a bonus, you can train for FREE the entire following week as our guest!

  • Click here to book your session.

Benching Bonanza! The Annual Testify Bench Press Jubilee

  • November 21, 2025

  • Benching Bonanza is a strength meet wherein the only contested lift is - not surprisingly - the bench press. There will be one bar, and the meet will be conducted in a "rising bar" format, so the weight on the bar only goes up! It’s a great time for all involved, and we hope to see you there!

  • Click here to register or for more information.

Testify Christmas Classic

  • December 13, 2025

  • The Christmas Classic is a team strength meet wherein the contested lifts will be the squat, press, bench press, and deadlift. Competitors will form teams of 2-4 lifters/team and perform all 4 lifts; each lifter will receive 3 attempts for each lift.

  • Click here to register or for more information.

THIS WEEK’S CONDITIONING

Option 1
“Prowler Base”
1. Load up a manageable weight.
2. Sprint 40m at 85% intensity.
3. Rest until breathing and heart rate slow down. (45 sec – 2 min)
4. Repeat 5-15 times.

Courtesy of “Death by Prowler” (on Starting Strength).

Compare to 2025.09.22.

Option 2
Bike/row:
4 x 800m

Rest 3 minutes between each round. Score = slowest time.

Compare to 2025.08.04.

Option 3
Outdoors:
10 rounds:
25 yd yoke carry
Rest 1 minute

Indoors:
10 rounds:
30 yd yoke carry (15 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Compare to 2025.07.07.

Option 4
10 x 50 ft farmer carry
Each carry is 25 ft down and 25 ft back and is for time. Rest 1 minute between carries.

Women: 97# per handle (80# of plates)
Men: 137# per handle (120# of plates)
(Note: Each handle weighs 17#.)

Compare to 2025.07.07.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better!

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

Do These FOUR Things When Starting Strength Gets Hard... (plus 3 bonus tips)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

What do you do when Starting Strength gets hard?

Specifically, we’re discussing the Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression, but this advice applies generally to people at all stages of their lifting careers.

The Situation
You’re a couple of months into the linear progression, and lifting has gotten challenging indeed. You finish your first work set of squats, and you’re flabbergasted, “Son of a gun, that set was significantly harder than I expected it to be!”

In this situation, what do you do?

3 Bonus Tips First
First, make sure you’ve taken care of “The First Three Questions.” You can go more in depth and read Mark Rippetoe’s article on this topic by clicking here, but in brief, you need to make sure you’re doing the following:

  1. Resting an intelligent amount of time

    • Are you resting 2-3 minutes between work sets? Don’t do that. You need to rest a sufficient amount of time between work sets, and for a hard-working lifter like yourself, 2-3 minutes is ridiculously too short of a rest period.

  2. Making intelligently-sized jumps regarding the load on the bar

    • If you’re a few months into your linear progression and you’re still trying to add 10 lb to your squat and deadlift each session, and you’re still trying to add 5 lb to your press and bench each session, you’re going to have problems. Make smaller jumps, e.g., 5 lb on the squat and deadlift and 2.5 lb on the press and bench.

  3. Taking care of your recovery

    • In short, make sure you’re sleeping and eating enough.

Assuming you’ve taken care of these issues, there are four things to do when the novice linear progression gets hard.

#1: Check your book.
Take a second look at your training log - you may have read it incorrectly. Perhaps you were supposed to squat 205 lb today and you mistakenly thought you were supposed to squat 215 lb (and thus you loaded the barbell 10 lb too heavy). Perhaps you were supposed to press 75 lb, but you accidentally loaded up your bench press weight and tried to press that (it happens frequently).

Check your book and make sure that what you intended to lift today is actually what’s on the bar.

#2: Check your bar math.
Maybe you meant to load 145 lb, but you accidentally put a 10 lb plate on each side instead of a 5 lb plate, thus ending up with 155 lb. If 145 lb was already going to be tough, then 155 lb will be a problem indeed.

If you tend to make loading errors and are doubting your math, ask your training partner (or someone else in the gym) to tell you what’s on the bar once it’s loaded. If their answer matches your plan, then you’re probably good to go.

#3: Check your bar symmetry.
In other words, make sure the left side of the bar is loaded the same as the right side of the bar. If you meant to load 155 lb, and you put a 45 lb plate and a 10 lb plate on one side, but you accidentally only put a 45 lb plate on the other side (i.e., you forgot the 10 lb plate), this makes the load asymmetrical, which makes for a tougher set.

Ideally, you’d check these three items before starting your work sets, but at the very least, be sure to check them when things are harder than expected. You might be surprised how often one of these three errors is the culprit.

#4: What if #1, 2, and 3 aren’t the problem?
In this case, check the calendar. If the day of the week ends in the letter “y,” then you simply move on and do the next set.

It’s challenging and it’s hard, but then again, it’s supposed to be hard. This is how you make progress.

In Mark Rippetoe’s words, “Easy doesn’t work.”

It will still be hard two months from now - your 205 lb squat in a month or two will be about as hard as your 135 lb squat was today, but because you can now squat 205 lb, your old 135 lb squat is now just an easy warm-up because You. Got. Stronger.

When I find myself in a situation like this, it also helps me to remember that this is a first world problem. I have food in my belly, I have a place to sleep at night, and training is a privilege. Keeping that in mind certainly helps provide perspective.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

What is a Hang Clean? | Olympic Weightlifting Technique

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

What is a hang clean? How is it different from a power clean, hang power clean, or clean? Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers it all here in about a minute.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 02/18/23)

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

3 Ways You're Ruining Your Squat

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 07/21/23)

Let’s cover a few mistakes that you might be making with your squat, and then let’s fix them fast.

Mistake #1: Trying to Stay Upright
When you squat, don’t confuse a vertical back with a straight back. We want a straight back - it’s more efficient - but we’re not all that interested in a vertical back. Of course, your back will be vertical at the beginning and the end of the squat (i.e., when you’re standing up), but throughout the squat, it will (and should) move through a range of angles.

To fix this problem, as you start your squat, reach back with your hips and simultaneously point your chest at the floor as you descend (watch the included video for a demonstration). In other words, get leaned over as you descend - it will put you in a stronger, more efficient position at the bottom of the squat so that you can effectively drive your hips up out of the hole. Trying to stay upright (and trying to get upright too soon on the ascent) simply makes your squat harder and less efficient than it should be.

Mistake #2: Not Shoving Your Knees Out
When you squat, your knees travel forward - after all, that’s what knees generally do when they bend, but you are also going to shove them sideways, i.e., you’re going to shove your femurs apart from one another. We don’t want your knees to travel only forward; instead, your knees are going to travel both forward and out (i.e., forward and sideways).

To accomplish this, take a stance with your heels roughly shoulder-width apart, and then point your toes out at about a 30 degree angle. As you start to descend, point your knees in the direction of your toes so that your femurs are parallel to your feet (again, watch the included video for a demonstration).

When you shove your knees out, you allow your adductors (i.e., your groin muscles) to contribute to the lift, and this makes for a stronger squat. Shoving your knees apart also means that you get your femurs out of the way of your hips and torso, and this, in turn, makes it easier to achieve proper depth in the squat.

Mistake #3: Arching Your Back
You don’t want an arched back; in other words, you don’t want your spine in a position of overextension. Granted, you don’t want a rounded or flexed back, but we certainly don’t want an arched back either. An arched back is neither a comfortable nor a strong position in which to support a heavy load. You simply want your back to be straight and rigid as this is very efficient for transferring force from your hips and legs to the barbell. Watch the included video for a demonstration of what to do (and what not to do).

If you find yourself arching your back before or during the squat, remind yourself to clamp down hard by contracting your abs as tightly as you can. If this doesn’t work, you may need to use an overcue and tell yourself to “round your back” just a bit. However, remember that this is an overcue and be conservative with its use - you don’t actually want a rounded back, but you may find that this helps you successfully achieve a straight back.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

This 1 Minute Routine Makes Your Deadlift Instantly Stronger

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

One minute. One habit. A huge difference in how your deadlift feels and performs. Try this before your next pull—you’ll feel it immediately. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains.

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro