knees going in during squat

[Musclehead21]

I am trying to get my wife into powerlifting. Her squat has gone up a lot since she started but her problem is everytime she gets all the way down and goes to come up her knees buckle in real bad. The same thing happens when she goes to deadlift. When she makes the first initial pull off of the floor her knees go in toward each other. What exercises should I have her do to correct this. It's never been a problem with me so I have no idea about it. Any help would be appreciated and thank you.

[Doc.Sust]

is she equiped or raw?

[ITripMidgets]

my brother has the same problem please help Doc Sust. Btw he is raw...
hes 120lbs 5ft 6 or so and his numbers are like
Deadlift 245 and Squat 185 or so.

[Musclehead21]

she is doing raw.

[RJstrong]

describe her form... style, stance, bar placement, foot placement? one thing that i always remind any of my lifters is to concentrate on pushing the knees out while squatting... sounds like she really needs to step back a second, lighten the weight and perfect her form. as far as exercises go sounds like she may need some quad work... front squats, leg press, hacks, may help but most importantly I would just continue working on correct powerlifting form... be patient and keep coaching her.

[BNK]

I seem to have the same problem lately(i think) .Since the begining of the year i've swiched to a narrow stance(i lift raw) and now i seems like when i get to parallel my belly seems to be atached to my thighs and my knees start leaning forward..i also found that my back is arching a lot ...it seems like my body is trying to imitate the deadlift during my squat.

Now i've widen my stance a little and i try not to arch my back(a lot) ,and it seems to get better only that it's hard to concentrate on form and in the same time lift heavy weight.

[Musclehead21]

Thank you RJStrong. Yeah me and another power lifter are coaching her at the moment. Her stance a little past shoulder width(she doesn't feel comfortable going wider). She stays back on her heels and I tell her to force the knees out but as soon as she get "in the hole" and goes to come out they come in. She throws her hips forward and everything right it is just her knees. I'm going to try to build up her quads and have her squat light for a while.

[Doc.Sust]

i can understand this equiped but not raw, it has to be her form and set up, lighten up the weight and practice form like RJ said, i would also use box squats. teaches the lifter to hit proper depth as well as makes them stronger out of the hole.tell to sit BACK and hips OUT. 2 most important things to do when squating, i would widen out the stance. watch her knees form the fromt, do the kees go FWD over her toes? i see this happen to alot of people learnign the squat, they dont want to sit BACK. way to correct this , stand in front of a wall and squat down, if your knees touch the wall you are going to far fwd, have her practice this and she should have no problem sitting back. as far as keeping her legs out, practice , practice and more practice, she has to conciously think legs OUT. doing some adductor work and building some extra hip strength will help her maintain a wider stance ,in turn making it easier to keep the legs out, recomendtions, practice technique,lighten the working set weights , box squats, adductor, hip strengthening. doesnt sound like quads to me, but working them wont hurt, i think she probably has pretty strong quads. that is why she is letting her knees buckle, to compensate the hip/glute weakness in turn getting her a closer stance to let the quads do all the work(close stance = more quads) i really think the problem is, hips, glutes and adductors, if these are strong, you can definately keep a wide stance