Simply put: can someone please tell me wtf is up with my squat. 170kg for singles today. Didn’t work up to my usual daily max. Wanted to focus on technique today.
I would love to hit 190kg as a third attempt in this meet. I have hit 180kg several times (one fail) and 185kg twice (one fail). I can grind well.
I have asked a few of the coaches at our gym and they say what is holding me back is my descent. It’s just too slow. They say I have 190kg in me, but being too slow in the hole is going to make it incredibly grindy coming out of it.
Honestly, I made a technique change to my deadlift (advise from a coach at my gym) and in the last 2 weeks, its skyrocketed by 40kg. Some people say you should not change close to a meet, but honestly after the deadlift change, I am wondering if using low bar in the comp might help me.
I hear a few people training exclusively high bar then switching to low bar in the meet.
High bar has been great building my legs, but I don’t feel like its allowing me to express maximum strength as well as I could.
I was basically squatting the weight up and setting my hips too low. Put my hips higher (glutes firing on all cylinders now) and in two weeks my deadlift (conventional) went from 180kg (stuck their for a while) to 212.5kg.
I thought lower hips would allow for better quad drive, but having my hips low actually just meant I couldent use my hips efficiently to get the weight flying
I also think that on my high bar squat I am simply just going up and down, without really feeling that tension in my hips. Perhaps low bar would again allow me to utilise my hips better.
As far as high-bar squatting, looks to me like you’ve nailed it. I’m not an expert but it looks pretty much like textbook form. My only critique would be that maybe you’re going even deeper than you need to for PL purposes.
Re your question about switching, going from a high-bar to low-bar squat might be a bit more complicated than just learning to pull DLs with higher hips. It’s probably more like going from pulling DLs conventional to pulling Sumo; you’re shifting the bulk of the load to different muscle groups. That is to say, 4 weeks out from the meet probably isn’t the time to try switching.
FWIW, a lot of PLers, especially raw, do great with high-bar, so it might be your thing.
As a humble suggestion, think about changing things after the meeting. Squat seems to me more complex than deadlift. So, any changes would require some time to adapt yourself.
As a final suggestion, the first attempt would be great as 170 kg to gain confidence. The other two, it would depend of you and the soundtrack!