Jerk Dip: Knees Out
In the jerk dip, keep your knees out instead of letting them bend forward.
Forward knees in the dip creates a weak position and makes it very likely for your hips to slide forward at the bottom of the dip, or for your whole body to shift forward.
Like a squat, we want the toes turned out, and the knees to travel approximately in line with the feet.
This helps the hips move down with the trunk vertical while keeping you balanced.
Find the approach that works best for you:
Pushing the knees out;
Pushing the feet out against the floor;
Or rotating the feet outward against the floor.
One could argue the trunk is not actually vertical in a jerk dip in spite of it being close enough to be the simplest way to think of it. Another way to understand it is maintaining the same trunk angle through the dip and drive, i.e. not letting it lean either forward or backward.
In either case, we want the hips and bar to move down and up, not forward or backward. We’re trying to move the body like a vertical piston to accelerate the bar up while keeping the body under it. Any forward or backward motion of the body in the dip means similar motion of the bar, and that motion gets magnified in the drive and push under.
If you jerk from a toes-forward stance… probably don’t. I’m not saying it’s impossible to jerk successfully like that, but it’s extremely rare for that to be the best choice. And if you do, the knees moving forward remains a problem.
If you ARE trying to keep your knees out, but they dive in as you change directions in the bottom of the dip, that’s a more complex issue. Start with trying these different ways of keeping them out, and I’m working on an updated video on fixing valgus—the original one I made years ago is in desperate need of an update.
Short version: work on all aspects of hip stability (adduction, abduction, internal and external rotation), ankle stability (foot strength and wear supportive insoles as needed), and trunk/pelvic stability (stronger trunk, better bracing). Do all of this with slower, controlled movements, as well as ballistic/explosive ones.
Forward knees in the dip creates a weak position and makes it very likely for your hips to slide forward at the bottom of the dip, or for your whole body to shift forward.
Like a squat, we want the toes turned out, and the knees to travel approximately in line with the feet.
This helps the hips move down with the trunk vertical while keeping you balanced.
Find the approach that works best for you:
Pushing the knees out;
Pushing the feet out against the floor;
Or rotating the feet outward against the floor.
One could argue the trunk is not actually vertical in a jerk dip in spite of it being close enough to be the simplest way to think of it. Another way to understand it is maintaining the same trunk angle through the dip and drive, i.e. not letting it lean either forward or backward.
In either case, we want the hips and bar to move down and up, not forward or backward. We’re trying to move the body like a vertical piston to accelerate the bar up while keeping the body under it. Any forward or backward motion of the body in the dip means similar motion of the bar, and that motion gets magnified in the drive and push under.
If you jerk from a toes-forward stance… probably don’t. I’m not saying it’s impossible to jerk successfully like that, but it’s extremely rare for that to be the best choice. And if you do, the knees moving forward remains a problem.
If you ARE trying to keep your knees out, but they dive in as you change directions in the bottom of the dip, that’s a more complex issue. Start with trying these different ways of keeping them out, and I’m working on an updated video on fixing valgus—the original one I made years ago is in desperate need of an update.
Short version: work on all aspects of hip stability (adduction, abduction, internal and external rotation), ankle stability (foot strength and wear supportive insoles as needed), and trunk/pelvic stability (stronger trunk, better bracing). Do all of this with slower, controlled movements, as well as ballistic/explosive ones.
