Also I noticed when doing the pigeon stretch, I get pain in my knee. What could I be doing wrong?
I know this isn’t depth, but does this look like my upper back is tighter than the last 2 pics? Does this look like what I should be doing?
It looks the same to me. That’s more like something you would feel yourself, if it’s visible that your back isn’t tight then you have serious problems and that isn’t the case with you.
I asked this in your other thread and I don’t believe you responded - are you pulling the bar down into your back? You should be pulling it into your back like a lat pulldown behind the neck, a cue I hear sometimes is “bend the bar over your back”.
Another possibility is that your upper back is just weak compared to the rest of your body. SSB squats would help, if you don’t have a SSB then front squat and/or high bar squats could work.
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Honestly I think your back looks fine. You just need the mobility and confidence to get 2 inches lower. You can get this issue fixed within 2-4 weeks easy!
Why don’t you put 225 on the bar and go as low as you can and take a picture of that?
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Ok, thanks man. I never think about pulling the bar or bending the bar. I heard about that cue on bench too. I tried to focus on just keeping my upper back tight, squeezing my shoulderblades. I’m starting with stretching now so I’ll see how that helps.
I managed a rep with 2 plates yesterday that looked like this:
It might look fine now but I used to feel my upper back get loose, even relaxed when squatting. Once I started to squeeze it and focus on that, the bar stopped shifting on my back and I got less butt wink. Felt much better.
So you are capable of hitting depth after all. Part of it could just be that you tighten up more with more weight on the bar, so if you are barely able to hit depth with a light weight it becomes impossible with more on the bar.
Aside from mobility work and pause squats, the only other thing that I could suggest (which may or may not work) is slowing down your descent a little bit and rather than trying to drop into the hole and bounce out you stay in full control to the very bottom. This is what I ended up having to do leading up to my last meet, but I was also using knee wraps which is a bit different and in my case it didn’t affect strength because going deeper equals more tension in the wraps. In your case, I could see that reducing how much you an lift at first, maybe not and maybe you will adjust to it quickly, but at the same time it’s better to squat a little bit less and have your lifts pass at the meet than go heavier and get red lights.
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Just to add to what I was saying there, I find that for myself a slower, more controlled descent is better with or without wraps because I’m able to consistently reach depth. It also doesn’t seem to affect how much I can lift, because even though I might get a bit less of a pop out of the hole I feel more stable as well.
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You’re right it’s easier to hit depth with light weight, maybe even my belt is causing it to be harder to reach depth.
I can try going slower and once I adjust to the depth I can try to go back to utilizing the bounce again, because for me I feel that it does help a lot.
Thanks for the help man!
Join the no belt crew! Make your core your belt!!!
Lol kidding aside, I think you just need to get to that depth with like 275, 315, 335, 355, 385 and then try it with 400+. I think you can brace just fine. You just need to get use to hitting that depth with heavier weights. The mobility stuff will help, but I don’t think thats your main issue.
Just keep at it man and lots of PAUSED squats for like 3-6 weeks will get you nice and comfy down there at depth.
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@isdatnutty Ok, well my program is based on hitting a top set every day, for example a top set of 5 on monday, top single on friday, next monday a top set of 8 and so on. After my top set I do the same amount of reps but with less weight (~30kg). Could I just do my main set normally and do my back offs paused with even less weight, working on my depth?
Either that or pause with your lower weight while you work up. Whatever you are comfortable with in my opinion.
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I like to pause a few sets on my warmup sets in general
My warmup looks like this:
Barx3
135x3 - First 2 paused
185x3 - First 2 paused
225x2 - First 1 paused
275x2 - First 1 paused
315x1 - no pause
Working set
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I don’t really like pausing or doing anything different than how my main set will be so I can get in the groove, but I’ll be pausing my back off sets now and hopefully start reaching depth easier.
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If you are working up to 500 for 5 you could do this
135x10
225x5 (pause all)
275x3 (pause all)
315x3 (pause all)
365x3 (pause all)
385x2 (no pauses)
405x1 (no pauses)
455x1 (no pauses)
485x1 (no pauses)
500x5
Or do the back offs like you say
work up to 500x5
Back off sets (2-3 second pause):
405x3
365x3
315 @ 3x6
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What about trying flats? I always have squat shoes because of my poor ankle mobility, but if I would work on that, could flats help?
It would be worth a try if you’re not too deep in meet prep?
That’s what I would recommend. You don’t have to go all out with pause squats, too much is not better. I don’t know how many back off sets you do but for example lets say you do 3, you could do one not paused and then pause the next two, something like that. You might have to lower the weight some more, start off looking at pause squats as technique work rather than trying to go as heavy as possible.
Another option if you squat twice a week is to do normal squats one day and pause squats on the other.
I don’t like the idea of that either, you aren’t far off from depth so you can still work on getting stronger at the same time as fixing your depth.
It won’t make it easier to hit depth, that is for sure. If you have tight ankles then it will require even more hip mobility, and you obviously don’t have that at the moment. It would change your technique too, most people lean forward more in flat shoes, if you squat more like that then it’s good but if you can’t hit depth in heeled shoes it’s not going to work right now.
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Personally, I wouldn’t do the pause squats unless your program asks for a variation. I’d get someone who knows what they are doing to watch you squatting and to call you out when you go shallow. If you can’t get that then videoing each set and reviewing it is the way to go.
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Idk if anyone has suggested this or not, I read through several posts but not all. Have you tried setting up a box at parallel or a little lower? You don’t sit on the box or deload any weight on it just as soon as you touch it you fire up. It can be a useful tool to train depth. As far as loading goes I think Chris pointed out that you’re hitting depth with lower loads so you’d need to train it with something moderately heavy but maybe work up to that. Also idk if you’re a dive bomb squatter but you have to control decent a bit if you train with the box obviously. Everyone is suggesting mobility as well and I agree there.
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