I have just gotten into powerlifting. I feel i have a pretty good base with two of my lifts, bench and deadlift, but my squat is terrible. No matter what i do, i cannot seem to get my squat up to a respectable weight. Ive been weightlifting since i was 16 (im 20 now) and still, my squat has never been great. What makes it even more weird is that my deadlifts are right around 500lbs for a single whereas my squat is like 370-390 (on a good day). I weigh roughly 170-175 lbs. any advice for a hardgainer?
Eat more and find a good training program designed to bring up your squat (or any desired lift) through percentage based lifting. I personally recommend 5/3/1 but I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about The Juggernaut Method as of late.
Post a video of your squat. Let us see if it is a technique issue; given your DL numbers, this is quite possibly part of it.
Could be that your levers suck for squat but are good for DL. A vid would be helpful for that too. It’s certainly not the biggest difference on the board and my #s are very similar to yours for squat and dead.
I don’t know if I’d necessarily call you a hardgainer, you may just be near your peak at this bodyweight. Those are good raw lifts for a guy at your weight and age. The easiest way to squat more is to gain 10 lbs. Or 50. How tall are you?
Light guys, <220, often have a pretty big discrepancy between their squat and deadlift. My DL has always been about 75 lbs above my squat. A guy we train with lifts raw at 165 and squats around 385 and pulls 525.
My deadlift is around 500 with a squat around 350 and I’m 198. Granted I just got into powerlifting, I’ve still only been deadlifting for 6 months so I think my levers are just more favorable to a deadlift. About to run 5/3/1 though and force myself to squat. I think once I officially hit 500 (hopefully at a meet this weekend) then I’ll focus a good bit more on squat. I think everyone has the tendency to focus on what they’re good at which is what I’ve done. Ditto with to percentage based training. Run a program adn see what happens. That’s what I’m gonna do
you must have a weak posterior chain.
as said by the great louie simmons who knows his shit hammer the posterior chain!! Hamstrings, glutes and lowerback, along with abs are what squat big weights.
like for example:
GHR 5x15
SIT-UPS 3x15
a couple of times a week as a warmup.
dedicate a day to dynamic effort. you need to get fast in order to get strong you cant squat big weights if you are slow. sub-maximal weight with low reps as fast as possible rotating in from a 3 week pendulum waves.
also you might want to look into getting some briefs for these days but be sure to get this dialed in.
westside has proved from time to time that it works great just loook as its diciples who squat gigantic weights.
advanced methods are if you wish to be advanced.
you dont get stronger by squating you get stronger by doing special exercises to raise the squat.
if you wanted to get smarter about physics you woudn’t read one book about the basics of the subject, you
would raise your information from time to time by reading more and more and more.
thats the name of the game.
That and train with intensity. Sorry about the writing, did it with my fucked up keyboard.
INTENSITY. YOU MUST LIVE BY IT.
You must train with outmost intensity, that what brooks kubik, the great told in the dinasour training.
Train like its the last day of your life and follow the methods above.
Be a machine and forget about everything.
Part Animal/ Part Machine.
-Michael
You will have to increase your squat frequency. Work on back, front and one legged squats. Cut out deadlifts for 2 weeks while you hammer your “squats”. You won’t loose strength in your deadlift, don’t worry.
" if its important, do it everyday "
[quote]Pigeon wrote:
I don’t know if I’d necessarily call you a hardgainer, you may just be near your peak at this bodyweight. Those are good raw lifts for a guy at your weight and age. The easiest way to squat more is to gain 10 lbs. Or 50. How tall are you?
Light guys, <220, often have a pretty big discrepancy between their squat and deadlift. My DL has always been about 75 lbs above my squat. A guy we train with lifts raw at 165 and squats around 385 and pulls 525. [/quote]
Im 5 foot 7, so a little heavy for my size already i feel. between 10 and 12% body fat, idk the exact numbers
Thanks alot guys. Lots of good advice here. One more thing. When i do squat, my lower back often is more sore than my legs, and my hamstrings are more sore than my quads. I will be posting a video soon, maybe that will clear stuff up
[quote]Pigeon wrote:
Light guys, <220, often have a pretty big discrepancy between their squat and deadlift. My DL has always been about 75 lbs above my squat. A guy we train with lifts raw at 165 and squats around 385 and pulls 525. [/quote]
I’m in the same situation (Raw @ 165-170) all though my numbers are 100 lbs less on each, but the ratio holds up.
Try a more narrow stance. Also, you can do one leg squats, “bulgarian squats” and even weighted lunges will cross over to your squat. Front squats will cut out some of that hamstring soreness, but I’m not sore how it will help your lower back. That could be a technique issue, or it could be due to you deadlift to frequent.
Read my earlier post also.
[quote]MuscleHamster wrote:
Im 5 foot 7, so a little heavy for my size already i feel. between 10 and 12% body fat, idk the exact numbers[/quote]
That’s not heavy at 5’7". I’m about 225 at that height, but definitely not as lean, but my squat and DL have gone up probably 30lb each since plumping up from 210. You’re pretty lean and light, so I’m guessing you have a small waist. More size around the middle helps a ton in the squat. Train those abs and obliques heavy and give yourself a built-in belt.
It’s all about what your goals are. If you want to make big gains in your lifts, you should add muscle. If staying light is important to you but you still want to be as strong as possible at that weight, you’ll have to make sure your technique is flawless to gain every bit of leverage and technique gains that you can, but at some point you will hit a hard wall. It also may be as simple as moving your stance around, or bar placement, or some other fixable issue and you’ll jump up over 400. Post a video.
Damn I deadlift 515 but my max squat is 365… does this make me a bitch?
[quote]MuscleHamster wrote:
Im 5 foot 7, so a little heavy for my size already i feel. between 10 and 12% body fat, idk the exact numbers[/quote]
lulz…the bodybuilding forum is DAT WAY points while flexing arms in overhead manner
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
[quote]MuscleHamster wrote:
Im 5 foot 7, so a little heavy for my size already i feel. between 10 and 12% body fat, idk the exact numbers[/quote]
lulz…the bodybuilding forum is DAT WAY points while flexing arms in overhead manner[/quote]
Lol come on man! im new to powerlifting! lol