1 1/2 sSquats

Training Powerlifting
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In 7 Squat Tips by Nick Tumminello â?? 7/04/2012 #4

My question is wouldn’t it make more sense to do the half rep in the concentric? Go all the way up then half way down and explode up, instead of going all the way down then half way up, and back down?

Tumminello says, "As covered in my article Midrange Partials for the Best Pump of Your Life, basic physiology tells us that, "Muscles have the lowest potential to generate force when they’re either fully elongated (stretched) or fully shortened (contracted).

They generate the highest possible force in the middle â?? halfway through the range of motion. The more force you generate in this midrange, the more motor units you recruit."

The 1-1/2 rep system takes advantage of this by using mid-range partial reps in conjunction with full range reps.

Here’s how we use 1-1/2 rep squats:
â?¢Squat all the way down, but only come back up half way. Then go back down again and come up all the way to the start position. That’s one rep.
â?¢We usually do sets of 5-8 reps, which is a lot of work when you factor in all the half-reps that don’t allow you to rest at the top, which provides more overload by increasing time-under-tension.

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I think you generally don’t want to stop your squats halfway going down. You do that, you’re using your knees as breaks, and with any appreciable weight you’re going to wear out your knees doing that. Going all the way down, halfway up, back to the bottom and all the way up doesn’t seem nearly as hard on your knees as forcing yourself to stop before parallel.

But that’s just my guess.