I have never felt fully stable in my squat after like 5 years of lifting. I have now come to realize that no one seems to squat this low besides maybe Olympic weightlifters.
The problem is my goal is to try powerlifting but I know squatting this low is going to really hold me back from putting weight on the bar.
I know it might sound simple to just squat higher but I have been doing this years and it is actually very hard for me. I depend on the reflex at the bottom.
I have not put much effort into switching squat styles yet but everytime I try to it feels so weird I just go back to bouncing out of the pocket really low like I always have
I think my only option at this point is to rebuild my squat and start back with like 135 lbs on the bar until I can get this right and keep a video of like every session
Any advice on this is appreciated. And I’m sorry I don’t have a video but here is a pic you will see what I am talking about… idk how to upload videos on here
This is me at like the bottom of the reflex this happens very fast
If you wanted to make your squat better you would.
What you’re wanting is someone to tell you some magic trick to make it instantly better or to say just keep doing what you’re doing.
It’s going to take time to change it up so put in the work.
That said… so Im not a total dick.
Use a box. Whether you actually box squat or not is irrelevant at this point, but you’re looking for something to give you a physical cue that you’re at desired depth.
Eccentrics, make them nice and slow. You’ll eventually teach yourself to not drop so much.
Pause when you know you’re high.
Put in the work, reps upon reps upon reps upon reps. Nothing anyone here can say is going to suddenly make it all better. Engrave the technique into your soul.
You got great ankle flexibility and/or your pelvis winks loads to get you down there. For some people in time this can lead to issues (if that’s something you wanna consider).
I used to squat like you as well. I’d use weightlifting shoes to compensate for ankle flexibility, slam deep and then “catch” the rebound wherever it ended up. Worked well enough.
For powerlifting purposes I think that control and staying tight is emphasised a lot because at high % 1 RM inconsistencies, deviations of bar path or balance back or forwards or mistiming the drive after the bounce can lead to missing lifts that you are “strong enough” to get. Frustrating.
More recently I still squat similar but with slightly more emphasis on accuracy so that I hit the perfect bottom position each rep and constant tightness/control throughout because bounce and catch didn’t work as well closer to max weights.
Depth wise there’s lifters who succeed going deeper. Theoretically one could lift more weight going less deep but as you’ve seen familiarity wins out. If you are gonna give it a proper go then at least understand it won’t feel good right away (may not ever)
Of course it’s going to feel weird. Make the necessary adjustment and keep doing it until it feels normal
Rebuilding your squat doesn’t start at 135. It starts with an empty bar. What I’m try to say is if you can’t nail the correct motor pattern or technique you want with 135, you might need to drop the weight even lower.
Put the bar lower on your back, widen your stance, slow down your descent. Do that for a few months and it might start to look like something reasonable.
Open your taint, not groin if you are going by what Ed says.
I think @chris_ottawa made some really good points. I would add shoot video from the side. Use light weight, and open your stance a bit at a time. At the point where you get just below parallel without “butt wink” is your stopping point. Use that stance, and put a box under you for a while to get the feeling of where to stop.
Knee sleeves can help with body awareness, so use those. I seem to be much more consistent on depth when wearing them.
Chris did makes some great points definitely going to include those in rebuilding my squat but work them in kinda slow. There are a lot of things to work on I’m writing them down because there is like literally 10 things I need to remember. Now it’s about putting in the work and eliminating excuses
I’ll probably video tape every session from now on too even though I hate doing that because I’m lazy about videos.
Btw everybody keeps saying box squats but I don’t like those. I get the concept but I like keeping things natural. Not totally throwing them out the window though I’ll keep them in my notes
I never thought of using knee sleeves for awareness either I might try this
I never said to go with some sort of extreme wide stance, just a little bit wider than you are going now. You will have to experiment to see what works best. As you go wider it becomes harder to go as deep and you catch the stretch reflex higher, which is good for someone who is squatting excessively deep.
Slightly off-topic since this is not “powerlifting advice”, but if you want to practice squatting with no stretch reflex at all, try Anderson Squats aka pin squats aka bottom up squats.
Hey guys I have gotten some great feedback from everyone and I tried to apply some of this tonight and this is how it went
Btw I did a lot of lighter sets before this one so don’t think I jumped right into something big. I just had to see how it felt at a reasonable weight for me. I kept all reps at rpe 6 or lower
I know this is going to take time, I am not going to keep posting these videos, but I just wanted to do one more because I was planning on starting an 8 week program monday and I need to decide if I should keep doing them this way.
To be honest this new way made the weight feel like maybe 15 percent heavier mid reps but I plan on sticking it out and continue to improve apon it.
Here is what I was attempting to do and I believe I achieved most of this tonight
-slower controlled decent
-wider stance
-lower the bar slightly (note I tried one separate rep really low bar and it felt terrible, I like this spot though)
-open hips up
-stop closer to parallel
Sorry if I am over doing this post but like I said I am just deciding what I should work on in this next training cycle
I really appreciate all the feedback! Here is today’s squat after I made some adjustments (last vid I’m posting here) for anyone who cares
