Powerlifting Squat

[DaRkAnGel]

Anyone here that does a powerlifting squat(ie wide stance practically a good morning at times), have your quads still grown? I am thinking of switching over for strenght purposes but wouldn't want my quads to get underdeveloped.

[Iain]

I've been thinking about this myself recently. I naturally squat wide, close stances feel really unnatural to me (when I say wide I mean a little wider than shoulder width).

I'm about to start training on a two week system with one week training for strength and the following for hypertrophy. I had been thinking that in the hypertrophy week I'd hit some front squats or maybe even the (horrors) leg extension machine.

I'm sure you know that from a big squat point of view the wider stance is king.

Out of interest - are you doing GM's? Training GM's supposed to help prevent the massive forward tip during the squat that I see many lifters suffer from. I'm about to start using them myself. Westside love them.

[DaRkAnGel]

Yes i do use good mornings for ME days since im doing westside right now.

[Iain]

How are you getting on with them? Do you feel them to be a good exercise in replacement of deadlifts?

[DaRkAnGel]

Originally Posted by Iain

How are you getting on with them? Do you feel them to be a good exercise in replacement of deadlifts?

MMM not quite but it does work the lower back and hams fairly well. I will train deadlifts with partial deadlift exercises like rack pulls or other stuff that works different areas.

[Kyle C]

Squats shouldnt look like a goodmorning

My quads grow as i sit here

Kc

[DaRkAnGel]

Originally Posted by Kyle C

Squats shouldnt look like a goodmorning

My quads grow as i sit here

Kc

I thought a lot of powerlifters basically good morning the weight up. I know that it is a wider stance, so i guess that's my main concern since different muscle groups are recruited. Do the quads still grow?

[Kyle C]

Yes.. if you GM the movement its not a squat.

IMO thats the gayest squat style ever.

Kc

[Iain]

Can't remember what the article was called but on t-mag I read an article about big squatting that suggested moving the shoulders first and driving the head back into the shoulders (not looking up though) in order to prevent the GM/Squat hybrid that Kyle refers to as 'the gayest squat style ever'.

I guess Westside do a lot of GM's (70% or so of ME DL/Sq days?) to prevent that. Again on t-mag it suggested training your GM to at least 60% of your squat (Dave Tate wrote the article I think) in order to train the lower back strength to stop the forward tip.

[Kyle C]

If your squatting like a powerlifter your suppose to stay up-right as possible, and yes drive your head into the bar as with all squats.

Kc

[DaRkAnGel]

Originally Posted by Kyle C

If your squatting like a powerlifter your suppose to stay up-right as possible, and yes drive your head into the bar as with all squats.

Kc

I know you're against westside for the most part(not deadlifting). So what is your opinion on training the max effort movements? I plan on doing rotations after my good morning of a front squat for quad strength and then something like partial deads ideas?

[Kyle C]

Im not agaisnt WS by all means, i just think changes could happen in the overal system to make it a more 'complete' style.

Im a bit lost by your question aswell please elaborate.

Kc

[DaRkAnGel]

Ok so do you find training the GM as 40% of the ME days a fundamental part of the training that does in fact improve your squat(even without using the gay style you mentioned).

I too find the Westside training a little incomplete, but i'm nowhere near experienced enough to say that i can do better, what are your ideas into improving the program?

Also, i was planning on adding in some front squats into the program for a change of pace to really hit the quads after working my lowerback and hams for so long, wjhich is why i want to do Front Squats as a ME movement for a few weeks. How do you feel about this?

[Firehawk]

Yah at times I have a problem with leaning too forward. I think it's more of "I hate squats and want to cheat" more than a weak back for me LOL.

[Winder]

I found years ago that my squat form was best 2-3 days after deadlifting, as my back was still somewhat stiff nad thus stayed more upright while squatting.

Watch that leaning forward stuff. I leaned so far forward one time that it got out of control with my shoulders ending up lower than my waist. Silly me tried to save it instead of just dumping the bar. The result was that I slightly tore a calf muscle. Calf muscle tears are slow to heal because calf muscles are hard to isolate. Squatting on it the next two times that squats were on call made it worse and I ended up with a black and blue ankle from the internal bleeding running down inside my lower leg. The doc I went to said lay off or I could tear my achilles tendon. That cinched it, I laid off.