I’ve been supplimenting Zercher Squats in for conventional Squats due to the fact that I don’t have a squat rack. I was just wondering what T-Nation followers thoughts were on Zercher vrs conventional Squats in the areas of strength and muscle building potential.
Thank you in advance.
I like them and feel it in my quads much more than conventional. They also force me to use better form or risk falling over. Sometimes they are a little rough on the back, and hard to position the bar when the weight gets up there.
For me it’s as much a back lift as a leg lift, but fun and useful nonetheless. I really felt them between the shoulder blades till I’d gotten used to them. Watch your forearms on these, I managed to screw something up in there making it impossible to hold a bar with any load in that position. I’m a bit of a mess in terms of minor injuries, so don’t look at me as the norm, just saying. I haven’t tried recently so it could have been (and probably was) an overuse thing (was doing them 3 times a week for a while).
As far as strength potential I think you could get pretty far with just zerchers, but I’d advise on making sure you’ve got some other non-back dependent leg work in there for complete development.
As far as technique goes, I don’t know if this is horrible advice, but I’d conciously round my upper back (keeping the lower flat) and push my upper arms slightly forward. This meant that the bar sits in the crook of my elbow with nearly no concious effort. To be honest I performed more of a zercher good morning, it definitely allowed me to use more weight, but I don’t know if this was a good thing. I remember getting some serious hamstring soreness at first, which is probably related.
In one of Jim Wendler’s books he says something like he doesn’t do zercher squats because he’s not in prison and he has a squat rack.
iv found fat gripzs really help comfort wise
I do them myself. Its just another variation of the front squat.
I find I lack hip mobility so for the mean time while I address that I do them with my heels elevated.
[quote]forbes wrote:
I do them myself. Its just another variation of the front squat.
I find I lack hip mobility so for the mean time while I address that I do them with my heels elevated.[/quote]
Yup, when I do them it feels like I’ve been front squatting. Sore glutes and quads, but not the hammies.