In an upcoming competition, one of the events is a car squat. Has anybody done these? I ask because it is different than a normal back squat because you can bounce it on the ground and it is also, from the videos I have seen, only about a half squat at best. If you have done these before, have you trained differently than just the back squat?
Hey man I have never done this event but have trained with many people that were preparing for it and there training did involve regular back squats but, also they focused alot smith machine squats. I know that sounds stupid but you have to realize that the apparatus that the car is fixed to moves in one path, your not really able to adjust the path of the bar mid lift as you could a standard squat. So working with a fixed posistion squat such as the smith machine is beneficial. Just my 2 cents.
Hey man I have never done this event but have trained with many people that were preparing for it and there training did involve regular back squats but, also they focused alot smith machine squats. I know that sounds stupid but you have to realize that the apparatus that the car is fixed to moves in one path, your not really able to adjust the path of the bar mid lift as you could a standard squat. So working with a fixed posistion squat such as the smith machine is beneficial. Just my 2 cents.
[quote]Reed wrote:
Hey man I have never done this event but have trained with many people that were preparing for it and there training did involve regular back squats but, also they focused alot smith machine squats. I know that sounds stupid but you have to realize that the apparatus that the car is fixed to moves in one path, your not really able to adjust the path of the bar mid lift as you could a standard squat. So working with a fixed posistion squat such as the smith machine is beneficial. Just my 2 cents.[/quote]
I agree with this. Also, in my experience it got heavier at the top, so i’d use chains or bands. The “bounce” that you speak of is not as much as it seems, so i wouldnt really train to use it, but that’s just me. Finally, the depth of teh squat varies from competition to competition, but most that i’ve seen do make an effort to make you go to parallel, or close, so dont train too high.
So smith machine (or hack) squats with bands will most closely represent a car squat.
And not that you directly asked, but personally, i’d keep squatting, and throw in the band hack squats as an accessory. I feel that I lose brute strength when I move away from core lifts in favor of event-specific training
From the videos I’ve seen of Car squatting, it seems smith machine squats would closely represent it.