Shut up and skwat!!!!

It looks like there's a couple of noobs in the forum so hopefully they might chime in with their progress re: squatting.
 
I've had a go at back squats and would like to ask when coming out of the hole is it okay to "bounce", or is the "bounce" kinda like cheating with momentum?
 
you arent supposed to bounce.
i watch olympic lifters squat and they do it smooth down, smooth up. no bouncing on the calves...it can hurt the knees :eek:
i used to do that sometimes and it is hard on the knees. try not to bounce :D
 
I'd do that. It will mean more load for the front of your tigh and thus also for the patella tendon. There's no reason that should be bad for you though, unless you got some kind of injury or something. If it starts to hurt, just stop.
JW, is there a too far for the knees? I've heard a few times you don't want to go much further than the tips of your toes. Is that true?
 
JW, is there a too far for the knees? I've heard a few times you don't want to go much further than the tips of your toes. Is that true?

Depends on the individual. IMO, this is just one of those rules someone pulled out of their backside. Why isn't it 2 cm in front of the knee? 1 cm, 1mm? or 2 cm behind, 1cm? and so on. If it hurts your knees to go far beyond the toes, then don't, but you probably won't be able to squat really deep without doing it.

When you bounce your calfs against your hams you actually partly shift the point of rotation from the knee joint to the place where the calfs and hams touch. This will become a force acting to tear your shin bone and your femur apart from each other at the knee joint, this force will have to be dealt with by ligaments (primarily the anterior Cruciate ligament I would think). Now, that being said, a lot of people do it without getting injured, I'm pretty sure a lot of O lifters bounce out of the hole to get the weight up (mostly during competition). I can only say that it will put more stress on the structures, I don't know how dangeoraus that stress actually is.
 
Here's my problem with squatting depth. While I totally agree that the aim should be to squat to at least parallel, what happens when flexibility doesn't allow that person to maintain form? Should they still be squatting to parallel even though their form is shot once they reach a certain depth that their flexibility allows? This is my problem. When I squat, I go until my form dissolves which isn't to parallel. I'm stretching a lot and my depth is going down slowly but surely and at some point I'll be able to hit parallel with good form.
 
Here's my problem with squatting depth. While I totally agree that the aim should be to squat to at least parallel, what happens when flexibility doesn't allow that person to maintain form? Should they still be squatting to parallel even though their form is shot once they reach a certain depth that their flexibility allows? This is my problem. When I squat, I go until my form dissolves which isn't to parallel. I'm stretching a lot and my depth is going down slowly but surely and at some point I'll be able to hit parallel with good form.

yeah of course, you shouldn't squat deeper than your mobility lets you. But it should be a goal for most people to get the mobility to be able to do deep squats.
 
yeah of course, you shouldn't squat deeper than your mobility lets you. But it should be a goal for most people to get the mobility to be able to do deep squats.
Yeah this is what I thought is the right thing to do. I've been working on mobility and my squats are getting deeper little by little. Although sometimes I get frustrated when I can't go as deep as I'd like.
 
Perhaps instead of using a ton of weight and then trying to go deep, why not start with just the bar and go up from there. Even a body weight squat will practice the technique for you, remember its about the hips, glutes, hamstrings and quads.
 
Something weird is happening to me during squatting. I start off with a warm-up and then go 5x5. The first two sets of the 5x5 are a bit wobbly but my form and energy "clicks" for the remainder. I feel stronger on the latter sets for squats but everything else the last couple of sets I usually struggle. What can this be? Do i need more warmup sets for the squat? Or perhaps this is when the complex carbs are kicking into drive, but then why only squats?
 
Sometimes as men (actually most of the times...haha) we all let this little (or big in some cases) thing called ego rule our workouts.

I'll just echo what other posters have said - focus in on form and control. For one you risk injury and two you delay your progress.
 
When I first started learning how to squat, I suffered a bad case of plantar fascitis. I had to stop working out (I kid you not) for almost four months before my feet recovered. It wasn't my form, I just have flat feet that are very pronated (according to my podiatrist).

Now that I'm doing squats again, I'm starting to feel a little of that pain in my foot again. :(
 
Just to answer my own question on why I seemed to be getting better at squats on the latter sets was because I did not warm up properly.

The 5x5 faq sayeth thus :-
I've noticed my strongest lifts are on the 2nd thru 4th sets. The first set is usually the hardest on any of the exercises. Is this due to not enough warm up reps or just a fact of getting in a rhythm? For instance on Squats last night I did 5 empty bar, 4x65, 3x85, 2x105, 1x125 and then work weight of 145.
Your central nervous system also needs to warm-up properly. Tips:

* Focus more doing your warm-up. Pay attention to what you do: technique & speed.
* Do your warm-up sets as fast as you can. This is assuming you already have good technique to allow maximal speed. If so: lift as fast as you can on the way up.
* You could use a better warm-up. Check again the explanation above. In your case your warm-up would look better like this:
o 2x5 bar
o 3 x 80lbs
o 2 x 110lbs
o 5x5 145lbs
 
im going to try to strat a conversation about squats:

what do you think is better, concerning strength?
-1 set of maximum effort squats(ie: 20 rep squats, top set of 5, work up to a double)
or
-using the same weight for all sets
 
im going to try to strat a conversation about squats:

what do you think is better, concerning strength?
-1 set of maximum effort squats(ie: 20 rep squats, top set of 5, work up to a double)
or
-using the same weight for all sets

It would depend on your goals I would think. The 5x5 method uses a moderately heavy weight then you up this by 5 lbs once you have completed all 5 sets. This might be different to your "using the same weight for all sets", because what do you do once the weight is too easy? 20 rep squats would probably be good for a legs day or a push/pull/legs split whereas the 5x5 is a FBW (and you get the gains from squatting 3x per week).
 
How much do you squat?
 
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