freeweight squat question page 2

[adamm]

You can't do barbell back squats safely or correctly with any real weight if you don't have a rack. I don't even know what you're doing now without one.

Sorry, I thought I mentioned above that I'm doing Slow Burn. So my squats are 10 seconds down, 10 seconds up (with 3 second pause at bottom). Due to the nature of the exercise, the weights are a lot lighter then conventional squatting, thus so far I've been able to dead lift the weight up, press it, and drop it on my shoulders, because it really is that much lighter. Now, though, I've reached a point that this is no longer practical. I guess I need to get a rack. Bummer. I'm already short on space.

--Me

[tfarny]

That sounds like an 80s aerobics fad or something. Do any successful athletes do that? How can you progressively increase weight - once it gets heavier, you'll no longer be able to control it so well for the 10 seconds each way. And a 3 second pause = no bounce.

[AndreaReina]

Homemade Strength: More than just squat stands

Holy crap that thing is beautiful!

EDIT: still need safeties though.

[adamm]

That sounds like an 80s aerobics fad or something. Do any successful athletes do that? How can you progressively increase weight - once it gets heavier, you'll no longer be able to control it so well for the 10 seconds each way. And a 3 second pause = no bounce.

It is heavy weights, just not has heavy as if I was doing it the traditional way. 80s aerobics fad, really? The results are fantastic, I have to admit. I'm putting on muscle mass faster than I was doing traditional sets. As for strength increase, well. I previously had capped out on pushups. Once doing "slow" pushups for 4 weeks, the amount of pushups I could do went up by 8 in that for week period, so it certainly isn't weakening me.

no bounce == entirely the point. The 3 second hold is, among other things, to keep you from cheating.

--Me

[tfarny]

OK - how much are you squatting with this method, how much could you squat regular before trying it, and how much can you squat regular now after four weeks of super slow?
I mean - the most I could clean and press, then control enough to put on my back, I dunno - my best press is 115. So if my weights are maxed out at 115, even though I can squat 225 "regular" how am I going to further increase the weight?
The whole thing smells completely like the "novice effect" in that anything a beginner does will work for a while, and therefore any strange method seems brilliant. I'm open to being wrong though - please post your numbers, I'd be very interested. Anything to avoid getting under that damn heavy bar again.

[not on the rug]

In my opinion, slow and heavy doesn't sound like a good idea. it seems like a good way to put unnecessary strain on your joints and seems counterintuitive/counterproductive in terms of using proper form and utilizing explosive power to move heavy loads. i suppose "heavy" is a relative term though.

[adamm]

OK - how much are you squatting with this method, how much could you squat regular before trying it, and how much can you squat regular now after four weeks of super slow?
I mean - the most I could clean and press, then control enough to put on my back, I dunno - my best press is 115. So if my weights are maxed out at 115, even though I can squat 225 "regular" how am I going to further increase the weight?
The whole thing smells completely like the "novice effect" in that anything a beginner does will work for a while, and therefore any strange method seems brilliant. I'm open to being wrong though - please post your numbers, I'd be very interested. Anything to avoid getting under that damn heavy bar again.

Oh, you aren't wrong. I think even for slow exercise a squat rack is required. It is just that because of incremental increases only now am I getting to the point where I need the machine. Does that make sense? It isn't that this avoids the need for a machine, it's that you don't start needing one due to starting with lower weights. They continue to increment up, though, and now, apparently, it is time. Bah, wife is gonna shoot me.

P.S. Don't have numbers for squats, as I wasn't doing them as of 4 weeks ago (that is why I gave pushups as an example).

--Me

[Nekron]

Just do Deadlifts with the heavy weights and do some of the 10000 sandbag/dumbbell/bodyweight squats posted here before.

€: And i have never seen anyone do classic compound lifts superslow. Everyone who ever used this slow stuff effectively was using machines for it (and was pumped with all the joys of modern pharmacy anyway).

[Coach Palfrey]

I'm with dado. If you want to do back squats (and who wouldn't?) you need a rack. Go on Craigslist and find a used one, cheap or free.

Coach, I think the real issue isn't the dropping, but how do you even get the bar into position? If there's any weight at all, you can't clean and press it and lower it into position behind your back.

I can clean and press a 90KG sandbag and lower it across my shoulders to go into a set of back squats - and yes, 90KG isn't a great squat weight - but for this "super-slow" stuff it's probably fine

[tfarny]

All of these "odd" methods are interesting to me - I was reading some articles about the U of Oregon's strength and conditioning regime - if you don't follow college football, UofO is basically playing and winning football all out of proportion to the talent level they are able to recruit, in (large) part due to the novel conditioning work they do - which is based around full, compound movements performed as fast as possible and with minimal rest. Basically just the opposite of this slow approach or the BBS approach. By the end of games, the other team is dragging and UofO are scoring at will.
Since you weren't doing any squats at the start,and can't provide numbers, I have to assume that all the gains you've achieved via this method could have also been achieved via a standard method - my first month of real squatting, my squat went up by 50 lb. That's the novice effect at work.

Coach, if you can clean and press a 90kg sandbag, you are pretty far ahead of the rest of us! Well done.