WHEN A SQUAT IS NOT A SQUAT

There is quite an epidemic at One World. It reared up it's ugly head several times throughout the day on Tuesday. Each training session started with a 5 x 4 back squat. The epidemic is the squat that is not a squat. Let me explain......

There are many ways to do a squat. There is a high bar position or a low bar position. Some people prefer to keep their feet shoulder width apart and some prefer a wider stance. There are people that preach pointing the toes slightly outward, and there are those who prefer the toes pointed straight forward. Regardless of all these squat techniques, a squat can only be a squat if you squat below parallel.

This is the squat that is not a squat: Imagine if you took a 1" wide paint brush and painted a red line on the right side of my leg from the top the femur to the where the femur ends at the knee. In the picture above, that red line would not be parallel to the ground. This is known as squatting above parallel. I am missing full range of motion in this picture. So what should I do to fix it? Either squat lower, or, if I can't get lower, squat lighter so I can squat lower. It makes no sense at all to squat "heavy" above parallel if you can't squat light below parallel. 

Most of you are totally capable of squatting below parallel. Here are a few reasons you don't:

1. Some of you just have no awareness of what your ass does for a living. You are so disconnected with your body that you believe you are sqatting lower than you really are. You also try and compensate not squatting lower by bending over more, which also makes you think you are squatting lower. Since you probably don't want to install a back-up camera on your ass, the best thing to do is practice squatting to a box that sets you up at below parallel when your ass touches it. This is the easieast way to get used to squatting below parallel.
2. Some of you simply don't want to do the hard work. I've seen people squatting above parallel in mid-set who then hit a few reps below parallel when I point out that they are above. I almost always hear the same thing: "Wow, that's way harder!" DUH! The simple fix is stop being a pansy and work fucking harder. If squatting was easy it wouldn't be the king of all weightlifting movements.
3. Some of you are trying to squat above your physical capability. In police work we call this an "FBI Clue": If you are not strong enough to get a load back up once you are in a full squat, it is too damn heavy. Lighten the load and do the real work. I can't stand to see guys and girls squatting above parallel and then adding more weight. As the load gets heavier they get even farther away from a good squat. Maybe that shit is impressive at 24 Hour Fitness, but definitely not at One World. (GBO!)

The squat is a beast of an exercise. When I work squats in sets of five, I am sweating and tired. It's hard work. For those of you who are new to the squat (and I define new as squatting for less than 3 months at least), there is nothing wrong in tapering your squat loads back. You are new and just learning how to squat proper. The beautiful thing about squatting regularly when you are new is you see improvement relatively quickly. The really hard work comes when you truly start to squat at the limits of your strength. BAM!!! Everything you do at the gym will get better.

The moral of the story is don't cheat yourself now, and it will pay off in the end. We are adding the strength back to the daily workouts at One World. You are going to be squatting at least once a week. Walk before you run. Get the mechanics down and the strength will come. I promise!

BTW- Here is a picture of a squat below parallel.  On your next squat day, ask your trainer to check your squat depth, and please please please pay attention when we tell you, "LOWER!!!"

I'm excited to see everyone squatting better during their next sqaut session.....

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WORKOUT   5/24/2012

• 5 x 3 overhead sqaut

Then....

Complete the following for time:

• 5 power snatches (you pick the weight)
• 5 overhead squats (same weight as snatch)
• 5 muscle-ups
• 4 power snatches
• 4 overhead sqauts
• 4 muscle-ups
• 3 power snatches
• 3 overhead squats
• 3 muscle ups
• 2 power snatches
• 2 overhead squats
• 2 muscle-ups
• 1 power snatch
• 1 overhead squat
• 1 muscle-up

BTW- Below parallel applies to the overhead squat and the front squat too!!!

******************************************************

Don't know who this guy is, but 42 reps at 315# below parallel. (He weighs 265#)

Comments

[Louie Hung]

Freddie speaks the truth. Phony squatters deserve to get called out!

[SUPER SQUATTER]

Go ass to ankles or don't go at all!

[Freddy]

Thanks Gary =)

[Gary Valentine, M.A., CSCS*D, USAW II]

Better on the second one, but you could get lots more knee flexion therefore much more quad involvement and full depth- seems the wraps are getting in your way, and/or your'e deliberately keeping knees back behind toes ( i hope not - toe length should not determine amount of knee flexion!:-) . pause this overhead sqaut at link below at lowest point as example of full depth, and see 455 back squat by russ zito in same training lift section -g http://www.connecticutweightlifting.com/media//DIR_106932/c770c0a0449da52affff8466ffffe907.wmv

[Jerry Lamigo]

Freddy makes the best F*ckin articles. No BS, funny, and extremely informative. He helps keep us legit!!

Now write an article on how to be flexibility! bwhahaha, Love you bro =)

[Lyn C]

do* (smdh)

[Lyn C.]

Squat does a booty good!!!

[Robin]

I always see people say that squatting below parallel is harder. I am generally a butt to floor guy, so the other day I tried to cut off at "just-below" parallel and it was incredibly awkward. It felt like throwing a pitch with only half a windup. My body wanted to go 100% all the way down, and stopping it just below parallel was awkward. Anyone else experience this?

It was a heavily weighted (for me) squat if that makes a difference.

[Joe Nepo]

I definitely need to work on my squats. The hardest thing for me is going below parallel. So far, a wider stance and pointing my feet outward helps me squat lower.

[Pat McCarty]

I could talk about this for days. It's rather a pet peeve of mine. As a trainer, often we would have folks, in warm up, squat, push their elbows into their knees and drive the knees out. I would then say "look around - EVERYONE is well below parallel. There is NO excuse for not doing this in the wod.". Minutes later, the very same people were air squatting into a quarter-squat, above-parallel position and driving me fucking mad.

I agree that it's 90% laziness, 5% arrogance, and 5% situational awareness. It's almost NEVER ROM issues.

Sometimes its' a stance issue. Widen out your stance, and your hamstrings are at full capacity before you are below parallel, which results in that ugly "bending over to pick up a paperclip off the floor" squat.

Narrow your stance and get your knees out of the way, and bingo.

Most of the people lifting heavier fail to realize that they actually have more power, not less, getting lower and invoking the stretch reflex, and that squatting above parallel w/ heavy weight is just bringing their knees to the brink of snapping.

All that said, I was "no repped" a couple of times in Carson on my wall balls - I was shocked. I had no clue I was not going low enough. Hopefully, it was the 5% situational awareness that day, not the 90% laziness.

[DR SQUAT]

when you squat your ass should be about 3" above the ground at the bottom. If you are not going 3" above the ground it is not a squat. below parallel is just for powerlifting competitions. real squat is 3" above the ground

[ansel]

How far past parallel is appropriate? I can do the full Asian squat, should I go that far down with weight?

[Jahed]

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCKY ROAD!!!!!

[Bianca]

LOVE LOVE LOVE this post!!!

[Vivian]

That's awesome! I'm excited to squat more with the new change in programming.

[Anna]

Is this low enough? http://youtu.be/OX9IqMi4xII ;0)

[alex]

jay who are you and where are you from,

[jay]

what does GBO stand for/means?

[jay]

nice post!

[[email protected]]

thanks freddy! your posts are always funny, informative and yep, those that add weight as they lose full ROM drive me crazy as well!

[Jor]

Wow, that dude's squatting did was humbling.