3 x 297 lb. back squats, including commentary about how I am not rounding my back, for those who were apparently concerned—my spine is pretty short, so the round area you are seeing below my belt is not my lumbar spine, but my pelvis, which is not supposed to be flat, last time I checked. I’ve decided to try squatting with a somewhat wider stance (roughly shoulder-width), because the close-stance Olympic-style squats were feeling stale. When I started these last week, they felt a little awkward, but this week they felt pretty good, and the movement is a lot smoother than Olympic squats were with a similarly heavy weight, in that my knees aren’t moving back and forth on the ascent. With the Olympic squats, my knees wanted to come farther forward about halfway up to allow me to use my quads more, probably because a close stance reduces the ability of the glutes and hamstrings to contribute. I’ve seen a lot of Olympic lifters squat like this, because they want to use the same stance as they use for snatches and cleans, but moving around in a way that doesn’t contribute to the vertical movement of the bar leaks power, so the new stance should prove more efficient in the long run. I also appreciate that the involvement of more musculature will allow me to squat heavier without gaining too much more leg muscle—I want legs like Steve Reeves, not Tom Platz! Not that I’ve turned into a powerlifter, but squatting heavier weight will stimulate more hypertrophy in the stabilizing musculature (the back), and of course is good for your ego and proving that you’re more manly than the average gym-goer.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 21:18:54 +0000
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