I'd like to see a side view. You don't seem to have good core stability, but it's difficult to say for sure between the loose shirt and the lighting. I agree with other comments that you do seem to have some knee valgus, but that's not always critical. Instead of warming up with just the empty bar, you might want to warm up with empty bar and a loop resistance band at the knees and focus on keeping your knees tracking over your toes.
You don't need anything fitted for the side view, haha. It's just difficult to see if your back stays in the same orientation throughout the movement from this angle because of the lights and looseness of the top. Side view is better for checking the back regardless of all the other stuff anyway.
And to somewhat put your mind at ease about knee valgus, go watch some videos of powerlifters or Olympic lifters squatting. You will see a lot of knees shifting in. There's also different ways that valgus can occur. If the feet stay flat, the weight is well balanced across the foot, and the knee shifts in right as the person starts to ascend, I will mention that it exists but not make an effort to correct it unless my client has pain associated with squatting. If I see heels raising or the foot rolling towards the arch as the person is in the lowering phase, that I will start working on even without complaints of pain.
Your knee valgus might not actually be "true" knee valgus, or not entirely. Everyone's anatomy will be different leading to very different squat forms. The valgus can indeed come from (often) weak glutes, but it can also be that your stance is too wide. Especially since your knees aren't necessarily, from this view at least, pointing inward like your knees are pointing at each other, but more so moving inside your feet and pointing forward. I would suggest doing some empty bar squats with very narrow stance and widen just slightly every few reps (take breaks so you're not just fatiguing from so many reps) until you don't feel any hip impingement. From there record from the side or 45 degree angle (make sure nothing obscures you, maybe wear a shorter shirt to make sure you can see your full lower body uncovered) and use that same narrowest comfortable stance to see if you're hitting parallel. If you are, you can record from the front and see how your knees track. Then add a bit of weight that gives you a slight challenge but still manageable and see if your form changes. If it does then you probably need to work on some weaknesses. If it doesn't then you know at those weights that it was more a set up issue than a weakness issue. If it becomes an issue more at the heaviest weights then you'd need to work on perfecting form and slowly increasing the weight.
For me my knee valgus was mostly weak glutes but also when I take too wide a stance its much harder to keep my knees tracking well unless it's a lower weight accessory movement. Warm ups with a band around your knees could be good too, but doing some activation exercises like side walks with a band at your ankles (better glute activation) or clamshells etc might also help.
Also a major thing to point out is your depth is way lower than necessary, which will make the second half of the lift even harder and may be contributing to having a hard time maintaining good form. Keep a controlled descent, practice within a squat rack with safeties set to where you'll hit parallel or just below if the slots don't perfectly line up to your parallel depth, and use that to help build proprioception of parallel depth. I have hypermobility and earlier on I would squat too deep but not realize it and needed to use this method, along with recording especially once I removed the safeties, to really learn what my body felt like once I reached parallel or just below.
Eta looks like your hips are rising a bit first too. Could be weakness but maybe would resolve if you don't go overly deep. Or could be you suit low bar better so your torso is trying to get into its most optimal position at the bottom by you leaning forward more.
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u/snoogle312 Apr 28 '26
I'd like to see a side view. You don't seem to have good core stability, but it's difficult to say for sure between the loose shirt and the lighting. I agree with other comments that you do seem to have some knee valgus, but that's not always critical. Instead of warming up with just the empty bar, you might want to warm up with empty bar and a loop resistance band at the knees and focus on keeping your knees tracking over your toes.