Zercher Squat vs Front/Back Squat Depth

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
1

Hey Coach,

I’ve been following your program ‘The Best Damn Workout Plan For Natural Lifters’ for 18 weeks now. lately I started mixing it with the article ‘Break 3 Rules, Build More Muscle’ and It’s the best program I’ve ever followed. To elaborate I’ve managed to increase strength in dead-lift from 140Kg to 180Kg for 5 reps, Military press from 40Kg to 70Kg for 6 reps and I also packed about 5Kg of muscles in that time.
Thank you!

Now you’ll notice that I skipped squats from my proud list :slight_smile: as to be honest I never squatted before, and its taking me a lot of time to master the motion. I’ve been trying to front/back squat to parallel but I can only manage to reach near parallel if I force myself down I start to feel several things:

  • My lower back hurts (if I kept it straight and tight) or arch (butt wink)

  • A strong stretch in my Inner thighs, but tolerable

  • A weird feeling (no pain though) in my hip bones

Yesterday, there was an article about Zercher squat on T Nation, so I thought about giving it a test trial today and I was surprised that I could reach parallel with only feeling the stretch in my inner thighs.

My question is, Is there a bio-mechanical reason for that? or I just have to work on my squat mobility?

Thanks,

2

Out of all the squats, the Zercher is the one in which you can stay upright the most easily. So that might be a reason. However your issues with squatting might indicate one or several issues that should be addressed

3

If I stick with Zercher for some time might that fix depth level for front/back squat?

4

Sure its as good as any to build the lower body

1 Like
5

Thanks… Appreciate your time :slight_smile: