I wasn’t criticising just responding to morts comments about depth. If he’s not competing then they looked good to me to. But what do I know, I’m not exactly the depth police.
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Haha, I know mate. I reckon if in a cage or with a rack with safeties he’d be more confident to go deeper. Although it doesn’t mean a squirt of goats piss anyway, parallel is fine
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@I_Luc @simo74 thanks guys actually means a lot, means that I’ve learned a lot over the past year.
When I do my amrap sets the form gets sloppy when I get fatigued. It tends to be high, not very bad. I think that’s okay. When I do my low reps I try to hold my form.
I feel like I’m sitting ATG or at least lower than parallel, but apparently not.
I’ll just keep grinding away. This year 140 kg squat and 180 kg DL is going to fall.
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There isn’t really any reason to go deeper on squats. If you really want to do it just for the sake of doing it then I suggest you widen your stance.
I saw a woman power lifter who basically had a sumo squat stance to set her record.
A wider stance will open your hips up more and allow you to get more depth. It’s also going to change how each muscle works during the lift.
It’s up to you. If you want depth that no one really cares about (except you) then make some adjustments and keep working at it. If not, then keep doing what you’re doing. None of us think you’re cheating your reps.
Now that I’m learning more about hip structure, I don’t think it’s smart to push depth for no reason.
It always comes back to priorities. Why are you squatting? Is it to train the involved muscles? Is it to move the most weight possible?
If it’s the latter then you’d benefit from getting with a coach and adjusting your form. Power lifters use form that allows them to move the most weight from point A to B. They shorten the range of motion by using wider stances and moving the bar lower on their back to take advantage of leverages.
It’s all about assessing your goals and training in a smart manner to reach them.
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This will vary depending on strength and mobility. I find it EXTREMELY difficult to hit depth with a wide stance squat. The minute I reach near parallel I seem to lose all strength (presumably due to hip weakness). I’m a quad dominant squatter, so with a narrow stance hitting an ass-to-grass squat is easy for me. I prefer hitting ATG than to try and stop at parallel, and honestly think I can hit more by using my bracing and rebound out of the bottom of the hole than if I were to try and stop at parallel.
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I like Mark’s training style. “Regular” squats to Practice like you Play. After that, wider or narrower or deeper or different bar position “Assistance” squats to develop the stuff that “Regular” squats don’t hit. Training the squat and building the body!
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I found my best stance to be a bit wider that shoulder width. I also let the stretch reflex help me out of the hole. I’m a high bar squatter but with the right stance and no injuries my movement always made my glutes and hams sore.
I think anyone moving to a wider stance would have a serious adjustment period. I think it hits less quads and more of the other stuff (like adductors). It’s hard to know if the end result would be better though.
I just know a wider stance helped me reach more depth, but that’s not a sumo stance either.
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That was a ton of reflection right there. Thanks guys.
I’ve tried to widen and go a bit narrower. the narrow stance feels strong… but I’m even higher.
Wider doesn’t feel right.
So I’ll just keep working on my technique make my videos watch them in between and simply keep it as is, making sure I know when I’m to high, and then work on it.
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Have you tried turning toes out a smidge and letting the knees open up more? If I do this I go too deep lol
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Squats are looking much better mort. Like guinea suggested I would try turning the toes out just a little more. That has always helped me with depth
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Nice squatting Mort
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Narrower it feels like all quads and knee flex as you drop into the hole, but wider you need to make sure you break at the hips and knees at the right times, you will get to a certain point and feel where you can sort of drop you ass into the hole.
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Woke at 84,8 kg - 187 lbs
@guineapig @idontbrag123 I’ll have at go at pointing the toes out a bit more. Just to see.
Maybe it’s just me reaching that point and not thinking I can go any deeper.
Next time squats comes around I’ll play a little around.
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Am transitioning MtF currently. I’m trying to get to the Olympics to compete against born females
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Lmao you might even make top 10!!!
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haha that comment saved my day Simo.
@guineapig Hamster that is a nice high bar squat I might try that out to see how it goes.
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Todays training
Viking Power Builder protocol
C2W2D3 Bench press 90%
Warmup: Ropeskipping, BPA, kneeling bottom up KB press, McGill big three + fluff
Bench warm up giant set
BB row 10 x 20, 40 kg, 8x55, 5x65, 3x75, 1x85 kg
Bench 10 x 20, 40 kg, 8x53, 5,63, 3x73, 1x83 kg
Bicycle crunch 6 x 10 each side
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bench press SS BB row main
BB row 3 x 1 @ 95 kg (90%) not very pretty
Bench press 93,5 kg x 1, 1, Fail (90%) Lots of excuses.
Back off
- Bench press 1 minute rest
7 x 83,5 kg rpe 9,5 (tied rep PR)
8 x 73,5 kg rpe 9
10 x 63,5 kg rpe 8
- BB row 1 minute rest
7 x 85 kg rpe 10
8 x 75 kg rpe 9,5
10 x 65 rpe 9
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Assistance giant set
Pull up BW: 7, 7, 6, 6
Z Press: 8 x 20, 30, 35, 7 x 40 kg
Standing band side crunch 4 x 10 each side
Finisher
Push up 5 x 11
Straight arm band pushdown 5 x 12
One leg rope skip 5 x 20 each leg
Little to no rest. Good one.
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1 hour 15 minutes + 10 min warm up
Oh oh that was a weird day, felt good on all the warm up sets.
Misloaded the first top set (or rather forgot to load) so did a single with 83 kg pause and a strong press I thought holy shit I’m strong… then I saw the weights and said DOH. Put on 93 waited 30 seconds (yes stupid) and grinded it up.
Next single was fine, last single well I paused a bit too long and it just flew up 2 inches and stopped. Roll of shame it was.
Back off was fine.
Next time around note to self “do not do the BB row singles until after the bench press”.
Z press is a nice rotation and pull ups are great for the time being.
Finisher leaves me… well finished… the one leg rope skipping is the most athletic thing I’m doing at the moment.
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It’s probably a good idea to skip the superset/giant set when doing 90%. If you must do the superset then rest like a minute between each exercise so you’ll have 2+ minutes of rest between your sets of bench.
Live and learn, friend.
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