Pause Squats with Knee Wraps

Haven’t seen many lifters do this or much info on this so thought I’d ask here.

So for pause squats if I’m gonna compete in wraps does pause squatting with wraps on make sense or should I be pause squatting without wraps to get best benefit?

It sounds kind of weird but maybe it could work. I have only ever seen one video of one guy doing that, they aren’t very popular. Try it and see what you think. My guess is that it will be uncomfortable as hell.

Same. I only seen one guy do em goes by namnamnam on insta insane squats. But other than that for all the wrapped squats around pretty much nada

I’ve done them, it is uncomfortable. I was doing them in the 400lb range was reason I used wraps. I’d say don’t wrap as tight as a max effort lift. I haven’t done them in over a year with wraps.

Don’t pause with wraps on.

The point of a wrap is either

1)get more rebound so you can get up with more weight
2) cast and control the weight so you can stop and drive back up.

Pausing in wraps will either 1) break you 2) just teach back wrap technique.

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I think dead squats are a good exercise to build your wrapped squat, or at least it works for me. The wraps can throw your hips back if you aren’t careful and dead squats will teach you to avoid that, you have no momentum and no stretch reflex so right away your body learn not to get into that position.

If pause squats in wraps were good then you would see more people doing them. And you don’t.

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So pin squats starting from the top and descending until the bar deloads onto the pins and back up?

No, I would do them bottom-up from just above parallel for multiple singles, start with 1-8 singles and add weight each week, reduce the number of singles and increase rest periods as it goes on.

Doing them top-down can work too but I don’t like it at all, first of all the bar usually bounces around on the pins and throws you out of place. The next thing is that it makes you slow down the last part of your descent which is the opposite of what you want, especially if you are trying to get some rebound out of your wraps. I had a major issue with that in the past. The other thing is that the descent makes you store elastic energy, you would have to pause for several seconds to lose that, starting at the bottom with no sort of rebound will teach you to push harder where otherwise you would just coast through from the bounce out of the hole. You could try both ways and see what you like better but if you ask me, bottom-up for singles is much better.

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I personally do pin squats from top down with safety straps in a power rack. I havent done them bottom up, but I like the approach of the way above. My coach programs it top down tho.

I also do these pin squats at parallel/above depth as an overload accessory
Wrapped squats for me this week were 345, but top set for Pin Squats was 380.

Fun fact, you can’t do a bottom up only squat, unless you rack it, strip it, and set the bar back on the pins and reload.

I think they are great for building some brute strength, but as far as re-enforcing squat technique I don’t think it’s a direct correlation, more strength = bigger squat but it doesn’t mean a better squat.

Down into pins/straps is great for good mornings, never done squats that way.

Yeah I just started doing pin squats to parallel last meet prep and worked my way up from like 315-325 3x3 to 385 2x2

Just threw them back in and did 2x3 365 last week and up to 380 this week.

I think they really taught me to stay tight because I got stuck under 325 not too long ago (like October I think)

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I would just like to know where you got this idea lol

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This guy is the only dude I seen do pause squats with wraps on

https://www.instagram.com/p/BowPm1yBE7F/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=61sjsafyh8kf

If you do them starting at the bottom they aren’t an overload at all, my top set in wraps this week was 555 and I did dead squats for a few singles with 395

I never said bottom-up only, you start at the bottom and after you lift it you go back down to the pins, step aside, and rest for a moment.

All I know is that when I start doing them it keeps me from letting my hips rise too fast when I squat in wraps. It could be because I’m getting stronger in the right places.

Which is why I was replying to Soul and not you :wink: when comparing top down to bottom up down there’s a huge difference and Im sorry I should of expanded further.

Lots of people say bottom up is better because it’s eccentric less, except that only counts for the first rep.

As for the hips rising, you’re not wrong and I don’t think I am either. It’s one of those things where yes you get better and some things get better but it’s because you have no choice but to not get better ( if that makes sense )

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That’s why it’s better to do singles. If you are doing multiple reps then there isn’t really much point in starting the set from the bottom, unless you just want the first rep to be extra hard.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what it is. You quickly figure out that it isn’t a good idea. Also it seems to me like it makes your glutes work extra hard.

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I gotta try them at the bottom. My coach told me if I failed a pin squat, I’d have to squat it off the pins. Was harder than I thought, and couldn’t do it back when I loaded 315/325

Disagree

I do them especially the first few weeks of a meet prep if nothing else it really helps me dive back into good wrapped squatting mechanics.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu1knp-A2Wc/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=lm7t5e4vosyb

I’m new to wraps and my first meet is gonna be in wraps in a couple of months. Right now I’m trying to get that wrapped squat technique going. There’s a bit on my log but so far things I’m working on are:

Getting deep and loading up and “staying” in the wraps if you know what I mean. Also I’m working synchronising my drive out of the bottom with my muscles with the rebound from the wraps from the stored up elastic energy. Right now it feels like there’s a disconnect

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