Just a quick question–if anybody does squat both narrow and equipped here, what are the primary differences in the equipped vs raw olympic squat style? Reason is i am getting ready to experiment with a single ply narrow squat and i’d like some of the experienced gear heads on here to lend their technical advice.
Last time i squatted equipped it was a hybrid stance (not quite wide enough to be wide, but definitely not narrow), typical PL guidelines–sit back, low bar etc. Since then i have pretty much exclusively squatted olympic style, very narrow and very deep. I came into a titan centurion narrow suit now that i would like to work in…but my question is really a) how narrow is “narrow” actually in context of this suit and b) how does a “narrow” suited squat change from the raw olympic variation.
I have spotters but nobody that squats in a centurion let alone anybody who squats narrow stance. I like narrow and i like deep. Hence my question.
Well I like narrow and I like deep too. I never have a squat form change at all. The only diffference is the depth you get sitting in the hole. The squat suit material is going to be restricitve and coupled with knees wraps you are going to feel changes in your groove but if you are training in your gear prior to meet all will be good for posting much higher numbers than RAW alone.
I cannot answer how narrow is narrow for that suit.
[quote]neckcranker wrote:
Well I like narrow and I like deep too. I never have a squat form change at all. The only diffference is the depth you get sitting in the hole. The squat suit material is going to be restricitve and coupled with knees wraps you are going to feel changes in your groove but if you are training in your gear prior to meet all will be good for posting much higher numbers than RAW alone.
I cannot answer how narrow is narrow for that suit. [/quote]
What suit do you use? And if you don’t mind me asking what is your squat? As far as training in it goes, i plan to do most of my training raw still, and do one suit session every other week focusing on good reps to groove it and practice depth over max weight attempts until i pick my next contest–then i’ll switch to suit every week. (I currently squat at least 3x a week, depending on form and volume, thats why)
Currently RAW at 5 foot ten and 180 is 385. this is ass to floor with a three second pause at the bottom. No currnet max with suit etc… Training right now to hit 405 RAW ass to floor and paused. Looks like it is going to be a while before I see 405.
[quote]neckcranker wrote:
Aragorn, What is your RAW squat at?[/quote]
Havent maxed in a while, but the next landmark is 600. Been focusing strictly on front squat until the last couple weeks. Based on my indicators if I hit a 450 front squat I should be ready to push 600 on back after I re-acclimate to the movement. Floating above 400 for the front, so conservative estimates between 525-550, to olympic depth. Again, I havent back squatted in about 6 months until 2 weeks ago when I threw DE woek back in, so I have a lot of re-grooving to do before I actually get back to efficient back squatting. Since “narrow” stance varies, my stance is only about 16" wide and I go ass to calves about 5" below parallel.
Thats why I ask :). “narrow” in most powerlifting parlance is still much wider than I am used to lol. And I havent squatted in gear in 2 years.
Angus–hell yeah hahaha. My question for you is how does the squat change from raw to suited narrow in terms of coaching cues…or basically how to use a suit with a narrow squat stance since my only equipment usage is on wider stances and a “regular” squat suit built for that wider stance.
I’m wanting to break in and learn the new suit, but nobody I know squats narrow if they are geared
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Angus–hell yeah hahaha. My question for you is how does the squat change from raw to suited narrow in terms of coaching cues…or basically how to use a suit with a narrow squat stance since my only equipment usage is on wider stances and a “regular” squat suit built for that wider stance.
I’m wanting to break in and learn the new suit, but nobody I know squats narrow if they are geared[/quote]
The narrow stance geared lifters I have trained with tended to ‘dive bomb’ their squats rather than sit back. Breaking at the knees first, rather than the hips, with a rapid but controlled decent. Scares the shit out of me though.
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Angus–hell yeah hahaha. My question for you is how does the squat change from raw to suited narrow in terms of coaching cues…or basically how to use a suit with a narrow squat stance since my only equipment usage is on wider stances and a “regular” squat suit built for that wider stance.
I’m wanting to break in and learn the new suit, but nobody I know squats narrow if they are geared[/quote]
The narrow stance geared lifters I have trained with tended to ‘dive bomb’ their squats rather than sit back. Breaking at the knees first, rather than the hips, with a rapid but controlled decent. Scares the shit out of me though.
[/quote]
See, that’s why I ask lol. It scares the crap out of me too. I do it all the time raw, and I’m very comfortable with it. I always liked the Olympic style best. But I’ll be damned if it doesn’t care the crap out of me to try it in a suit with the propensity of the suit to throw you forwards.
It “makes sense” to me with a wide stance, sit back style of squat and I’ve used that before, but the narrow stance worries me with that kind of “dive bomb” descent. That’s why I’m asking if there are any coaching pointers from suited squatters!
I can’t help you directly, but have you checked the squat videos of the previous IPF worlds? They display all forms of single-ply geared squat techniques, incl. wide, moderate, and narrow stances.
However, if I recall correctly there are not too many very narrow squatters. Maybe there is a good reason for that…
I compete geared. My raw squat is more narrow than my geared squat is. From my experience a suit will make your stance wider than it would be when raw. A lot of raw lifters squat more narrow than geared lifters do because the wide stance is hard on the hips
