Out of the Hole Power on Squat

Training Powerlifting
1

So if you’ve been following me at all you will know I’ve really been focusing on hitting depth and stepping back from adding weight to my squats. I have incorporated a couple things:

  1. I re-joined a gym for mirrors to see how deep I am going
  2. When I lift from home, I place a box on the ground and touch it for depth.

Both are helping me get muscle memory of the necessary depth.

However, what it has brought about is a gap in my strength, naturally, or so I think.

For example, today, I worked up to 405x3 with no real issues. Then, I was going to do 425x3, first rep, hit the hole went up about maybe 8 inches, then went down like 4 inches, I was like “wtf”, then went back up with no issues. So, I stopped because I didnt’ know what to think of that.

It wasn’t heavy, or hard, but something went wrong. I don’t know if I’m weak out of the hole now, or if my intensity just wasn’t there and I got “lazy” on the drive.

I also noticed the lower I go I get a little butt wink.

So, I am planning on doing more speed squats, and getting some paused squats.

Anything else I should do to fix this or any ideas? It was a little creepy, I thought I was going to dump 425 for a second.

one other thing to note is back in March I attempted 455, got 1/2 way up, then just dropped like a rock, no real warning. It felt like this, but in March, 455 was heavy, it is 50-100 lbs under my max now.

2

Pause squats, pause squats, and more pause squats.

Also, do box squats at the spot where you start to struggle.

3

[quote]Alrightmiami19c wrote:
Pause squats, pause squats, and more pause squats.

Also, do box squats at the spot where you start to struggle. [/quote]

x2 on the pause squats, just make sure you maintain tightness in the hole. I found that my power increased when I took a slightly narrower stance. (heels inline with shoulders, toes slightly pointed out).

4

[quote]J-Train wrote:

[quote]Alrightmiami19c wrote:
Pause squats, pause squats, and more pause squats.

Also, do box squats at the spot where you start to struggle. [/quote]
I found that my power increased when I took a slightly narrower stance. (heels inline with shoulders, toes slightly pointed out). [/quote]

You might be able to achieve a similar effect (more tightness out of the hole) by bringing the knees in slightly to initiate the drive out of the bottom. I started doing this subconsciously when I added weights to my pause squats. Dan Green has a few videos that talk about this as well.