do you not have a power rack at your gym BBB? I never squat without the safety bars. I would rather set the bar on the safety bars if I can’t get a rep than trust someone I don’t know to help me up with 3-400+ lbs on my back. But if you dont have a power rack than that’s probably your best bet I guess.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
do you not have a power rack at your gym BBB? I never squat without the safety bars. I would rather set the bar on the safety bars if I can’t get a rep than trust someone I don’t know to help me up with 3-400+ lbs on my back. But if you dont have a power rack than that’s probably your best bet I guess.[/quote]
Surprisingly, using the safety pins is not common knowledge among most gym members. Over the last month, I’ve seen two people get into tough positions due to their lack of safety pin usage!
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
[quote]kakno wrote:
If you’re ever going to do a meet you need to be able to hit depth without a marker. Filming your sets lets you know how deep you go without “telling you the answer” in advance.[/quote]
for this reason it may be a good idea to not use a set marker every time you lift. Athough not all of us want to be powerlifters.
in fact not everyone wants or needs a deep squat.
i’ve seen people and video footage of people that are very developed but claim they don’t need a deep squat because they feel that their range of motion benifits X muscle the most.
i know you could possibly try to find something that is higher if you dont want to go that deep just saying though.
great tool though and good videos.
very informational maybe you could find a way to make them more interesting though?
like music/editing skills or more personality?[/quote]
It more about being consistent and building muscle memory than achieving X amount of depth. [/quote]
That’s exactly how Louie Simmons explains it in his book; once you’ve done hundreds, if not thousands of squats on a box at say, one inch below parallel the movement will be engrained into your muscle memory, allowing you to squat to that depth without the box as a ‘depth marker’.
[quote]buddaboy wrote:
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
[quote]kakno wrote:
If you’re ever going to do a meet you need to be able to hit depth without a marker. Filming your sets lets you know how deep you go without “telling you the answer” in advance.[/quote]
for this reason it may be a good idea to not use a set marker every time you lift. Athough not all of us want to be powerlifters.
in fact not everyone wants or needs a deep squat.
i’ve seen people and video footage of people that are very developed but claim they don’t need a deep squat because they feel that their range of motion benifits X muscle the most.
i know you could possibly try to find something that is higher if you dont want to go that deep just saying though.
great tool though and good videos.
very informational maybe you could find a way to make them more interesting though?
like music/editing skills or more personality?[/quote]
It more about being consistent and building muscle memory than achieving X amount of depth. [/quote]
That’s exactly how Louie Simmons explains it in his book; once you’ve done hundreds, if not thousands of squats on a box at say, one inch below parallel the movement will be ‘engrained’ in your muscle memory, allowing you to squat to that depth without the box as a ‘marker’.
[/quote]
I guess my point is this: If the marker doesn’t negatively effect strength and size progression, then why not use it and eliminate any chance of altering your ROM from squat to squat? To me, the pros outweigh the cons.
[quote]2020Wellness wrote:
[quote]buddaboy wrote:
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
[quote]kakno wrote:
If you’re ever going to do a meet you need to be able to hit depth without a marker. Filming your sets lets you know how deep you go without “telling you the answer” in advance.[/quote]
for this reason it may be a good idea to not use a set marker every time you lift. Athough not all of us want to be powerlifters.
in fact not everyone wants or needs a deep squat.
i’ve seen people and video footage of people that are very developed but claim they don’t need a deep squat because they feel that their range of motion benifits X muscle the most.
i know you could possibly try to find something that is higher if you dont want to go that deep just saying though.
great tool though and good videos.
very informational maybe you could find a way to make them more interesting though?
like music/editing skills or more personality?[/quote]
It more about being consistent and building muscle memory than achieving X amount of depth. [/quote]
That’s exactly how Louie Simmons explains it in his book; once you’ve done hundreds, if not thousands of squats on a box at say, one inch below parallel the movement will be ‘engrained’ in your muscle memory, allowing you to squat to that depth without the box as a ‘marker’.
[/quote]
I guess my point is this: If the marker doesn’t negatively effect strength and size progression, then why not use it and eliminate any chance of altering your ROM from squat to squat? To me, the pros outweigh the cons.[/quote]
I think it is a matter of personal preference, and I personally see no detriment in doing it. If it benefits YOUR training and is of no detriment to YOU, then I see no reason not to use a depth marker when squatting.
Westside use boxes to squat all the time, and I believe one of the reasons is so that they know that every squat in that set is to the desired depth (they use boxes of varying height) and also so they can keep records of weights use in that particular exercise on that height of box. They not what they’re doing so it can’t be a bad idea 
Also, varying the height of the depth marker helps avoid/prevent accommodation and helps ‘surprise’ the muscle memory. I nearly always squat beneath parallel and when I occasionally use my bench as a depth marker for squats about 4-6 inches above parallel I find the difference very noticeable.
DISCLAIMER: I am not pretending to be a Westside expert. This comes from Louie Simmons ‘West side book of methods’
4-6 inches above your typical squat depth should allow you to really bump up the weight. Thats a big difference, so I’m sure you enjoy the extra weight. Do you low bar squat or high bar squat?
[quote]2020Wellness wrote:
4-6 inches above your typical squat depth should allow you to really bump up the weight. Thats a big difference, so I’m sure you enjoy the extra weight. Do you low bar squat or high bar squat?[/quote]
I will never compete, I don’t have the inclination or genetics, so I abandoned the back squat as it did very little for me at 6.2"; it wasn’t entirely useless but the belt and front squat are much safer and more productive alternatives for me.
I do now own a safety squat bar so use this on the infrequent occasions when I squat down to a bench, I just bought some chains and started using them, too. If I remember correctly squatting down to the bench allowed me to add an extra 100LB or so. I have never done this with any regularity because I don’t want to aggravate old lower back injuries. Every now and then I squat from the bottom position in a power rack with the bar set at sternum height (for singles). To overload the legs (personally), I find belt squatting above parallel standing on blocks so the weight hanging between my legs hits the floor when I hit the desired depth is the best way for me, because it doesn’t put any load on my back.
I like chains the best I think because the range of motion of the exercise remains the same whilst the loading parameters change completely. I only use bands for bench presses and deadlifts. Like I said I don’t train ‘west side’ I use these to avoid/combat accommodation.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
I’ve gone to box squats to relearn depth AND to learn to not flop my knees out to the side. Where some make the error of having their knees cave in, I was doing just the opposite. I had to start humbly low in load, but I am in no hurry to get to top weight, but rather to enjoy the ride.[/quote]
What do you mean specifically by “not flopping your knees out to the side”? Do you mean they were tracking out to the sides beyond the angle of your feet/leg, or that you are trying to keep them from tracking to the sides at all?
Just for reference, here are some examples of people squatting who’s knees track correctly out to the sides (they track in the same direction as their out turned feet). Is this what you are trying to avoid (trying to keep the feet straight forward and make the knees track straight ahead)? Or were your knees actually caving outwards?
[/quote]
My knee tracking was not following my foot angle rotation. No, I am not trying to keep my feet parallel.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
I’ve gone to box squats to relearn depth AND to learn to not flop my knees out to the side. Where some make the error of having their knees cave in, I was doing just the opposite. I had to start humbly low in load, but I am in no hurry to get to top weight, but rather to enjoy the ride.[/quote]
What do you mean specifically by “not flopping your knees out to the side”? Do you mean they were tracking out to the sides beyond the angle of your feet/leg, or that you are trying to keep them from tracking to the sides at all?
Just for reference, here are some examples of people squatting who’s knees track correctly out to the sides (they track in the same direction as their out turned feet). Is this what you are trying to avoid (trying to keep the feet straight forward and make the knees track straight ahead)? Or were your knees actually caving outwards?
[/quote]
My knee tracking was not following my foot angle rotation. No, I am not trying to keep my feet parallel. [/quote]
Ok, thanks for the clarification.
Not bouncing, no pausing, got you.
I’ve just started using a box as a depth marker for my squats because I want to uncontroversially hit powerlifting depth…
Because I’ve heard that one needs the hip crease to drop below the patella in order for the glutes / hammies to be activated…
Which helps to stabilize the knee. Rather than, say, stopping at parallel where the knee is disadvantaged, or stopping higher where the movement is mostly quad dominant (as is much of everything else) which puts one in the position of being more likely to upset the knee…
(I realize that the above is a bit controversial but anyway).
Here is a thought… If the main reason why one wants the hip crease to drop below the patella is because that is what needs to happen in order for the hammies / glutes to activate properly - then why can’t one learn to feel when the hammies / glutes are activating properly (aka: when one has hit depth).
?
There was an article and a livespill a while back… Maybe ‘Back position for power’. Ripptoe said in the livespill that hitting depth WAS PRETTY MUCH ONE AND THE SAME as hitting ATG (here is the important bit) for a sitting your ass back style of squat.
You are squatting too low in the sense that you are losing your lumbar arch at the bottom. You are about one inch below powerlifting depth anyway, I think (what do others think?). You might be retaining your lumbar arch a little below powerlifting depth… But not as low as your box. And the reason why you are retaining lumbar arch a little below powerlifting depth (IMHO) is because you aren’t sitting your butt back back back back back throughout the whole ROM. Rather, you START OUT doing this but then at a certain point in your descent you allow your knees to drift forwards and you sit your ass down.
If i understand you rightly the reason you are doing this is because you have it in your head that your torso needs to be kept upright. That is fairly incompatible with your sitting your butt back, however (since the bar needs to be over your midfoot in order to be balanced so you don’t fall on your ass), and thus you are sitting down rather than back (knees drifting forwards) keeping torso upright - thus turning it into more of an olympic style squat, really (which will let you get a little bit deeper without loss of lumbar arch).
edit – which is why you are having troubles figuring out how low you should go
but take with a lot of salt.
After posting in this thread I decided to try using a depth marker again. I used a 16" box last week for front squats and a 12" box today for front squats. It worked great and was a fantastic change of stimulus. I did about 8 sets of front squats with a front squat harness (no harness last week though) and had the box not been there I’m sure they wouldn’t all have been as deep.
I am definitely going to keep using a depth marker for the sake of variety, consistency and accurate record keeping. I’m 6.2" so 12" is pretty low for me.
i don’t get why people use a depth marker for front squats, but whatever.
[quote]alexus wrote:
i don’t get why people use a depth marker for front squats, but whatever.[/quote]
So they can choose their depth and hit it exactly every time. Bottoming out isn’t always desired.