Fix Your 'Butt Wink'!

Butt Wink is a common mistake that lifters make when performing the barbell
squat.

While it may not cause problems for some individuals, this rounding of the lower
back can put a lot of harmful forces on your spinal disks. Here are two things you
can do to prevent it from becoming a potential problem down the road.

First, you can simply limit your range of motion. For example, if you try to go
below parallel and notice significant rounding, then it might be a good idea to limit
your squats to parallel.

Second, it’s important to understand that butt wink is often an ankle mobility
issue. If you have stiff ankles and you go into a deep squat, your lower back will
have to start rounding in order to compensate for the lack of ankle mobility. To
improve this, try squatting with your heels on plates or use lifting shoes and see if
that helps. If it does, continue doing that while working on improving your ankle
mobility.

Doing these two things can help you develop a “cleaner” squatting technique. Try
it out and follow for more tips like this!

[lt]

I also noticed that when I squat while placing weights underneath my heels I don't feel any lower back problems as compared to when I squat flat foot, I had no idea it was a but wink problem. I thought that happened to everyone when your squat is that low. Thank God I didn't slip a disc.

[beejaymac]

Thanks Jeremy, just what I wanted to hear 😃

[cinamike]

i wanna squat as deep as possible so badly, the squat to paralel feels like cheating to me, gotta fix my ankles and hips asap cus the butt wink is destroying my lowerback

[FortuneSeekSPORTS]

You can also point your toes out more and widen your stance

[zunbulmurat]

It's a great video and helped a lot. Thank you!!

[kingbeamify]

Hip mobility is key to fixing buttwink. Most have enough ankle mobility. And limiting range of motion is just a bad advise because it shouldn't be the goal here

[Faulter]

My knee hurts when i place my heels on plates. What can i do ?

[Dancediva]

okay i get butt wink but not as bad as is shown in this video. Mine only happens at the bottom and my spine stays straight. But for the life of me i dunno how to correct it.

[mariachaves]

!!La rodilla tiene que quedar a la altura del tobillo!! Ojo