Shit i dont have a short torso. haha. So guess i'm not a deadlifter build either? Wtf am i then 
But that makes sense Mutumbo000. I guess there is a difference between being athletic and SUITED to lifting (eg oly lifters). And being athletic and being unsuited to lifting (eg basketballer builds). It's like that video of the bulgarian dude doing a 4x bw FS. And raptor said he must have a 50" vertical. But. His femurs are a lot smaller. So he might still have a huge vertical, but what makes his lifting so good is what makes him bad at jumping. It goes the other way too, if you have bad proportions for lifting, you actually get the most out of lifting since it converts better to athletic endavour. So jordan wouldn't need a 500lb squat, he might only need a 400 one (to get athletic improvements)
I got huge gains from front squatting by the time I was using 100kg for reps even though someone who is build perfectly for squatting would need to get to say 150kg to get the same benefit. So it's a big struggle for me to get to 150kg, but when I get there, i'll have a similar benefit to a build-to-squat person who is now squatting 250kg..
Exactly. In the end it kind of evens itself out. Like I've never been able to squat 3 plates. However, the first time I ever deadlifted I did 3 plates. I'm not sure why I can't squat. Maybe I have low test or slow twitch muscles because despite how weak my squat is I actually do put a lot of effort into it. That said I think if I could ever squat 4 or 5 plates at my current bodyweight than I would probably be running 100m in mid 10s but that's a lot easier said than done.
We talked about this recently in my log where Todday disagree with me but I think you are very strong, that's what your DL says. Walking into a gym first time and pulling 3 plates says exactly that. His theory is sprinters naturally have a lot of back strength from isometric training. But I think it's a true test of strength. The squat is much more about technique and skill. That's not talking about build which I admit goes for deadlift too (good deadlifters might be bad (olympic) squatters and vice versa). As far as what it would take for you to squat 4 or 5. I'd love to know that too, for you. Maybe when you focus on strength you should post videos from a variety of angles, to see if there is some glaring fixable fault that you're unaware of, like i said, highly technique dependent. Build to squat guys will accuse you for overthinking etc, but they don't understand how hard it is for someone not build to squat to get good at it and make progress!!
Or maybe we just need to leg presses. Like really really heavy leg presses. I sometimes think I could build my leg strength a lot better with a machine because it would challenge only my legs and not my stupid mickeymouse build which wants to fold over like a house of cards at the slightest provocation while trying to challenge my legs with a heavy weight on the squat..
Yeah it's frustrating. Especially when you go on sites like bodybuilding.com where every man and his dog seems to be able to squat 4 plates and people say that everybody should be squatting 315 within a year of training.
I dont place much stock on what people say about their squats online. Most of the time when you see it, either their depth is shit, or they're using shit form, or they're leaning over. There are guys who are using layers and layers of knee wraps and thick belts and doing heavy good mornings which they'll cite as their squat numbers. It's meaningless. Might as well tell me what you deadlift instead. A squat should be squat-like not pull-like. Unless your squat could go in my Beautiful squats thread, i have zero interest in lol. If you're a clarence kenedy doing nice upright heavy squats or a chinese olympian squatting the world with textbook olympic form then i'm impressed, and only because it satisfied my sense of aesthetics while at the same time being very heavy but the latter is just a prerequisite, the beauty is what I enjoy the most.
For instance I dislike my own form, ashamed of it even, i wont post any more vids again. even if i achieve some respectable numbers i'll always be ashamed because it's not pretty to look at. And that's the point, for me squatting is more art than material for the ego. I can't stand people who tout their squat numbers as if it means anything because 9 times out of 10 their squats are ugly.
You go on forums to look for advice and it's always along the lines of 'squat 3x a week and eat more'. Eating more is ok if you don't care about putting on weight.
So true. You can do the eat a lot and squat a lot thing. I could listen to them and I could have done it all the way to 115kg bw like they'd say for someone my height and probably squatted 160-200kg for reps. But fuck that. What will that achieve? It would then take me 2 years or more to cut back to 10% bodyfat and i wont be able to keep my strength for a cut that takes that long. Unless I take steroids, i'd never do that, would kill my athletic dreams and give me a host of health problems which I don't need.
Than there's people that are around my weight that do have very good squats but usually they are only around 5'5-5'8 and built for squatting anyway. My track season has almost started so I don't think there's a lot that I can do to dramatically increase my strength. Next year I'm not going to play rugby when my track season finishes I'm just going to use the 6 months to stay injury free and go squatting 3 or maybe even 4x a week with 3x5 or smolov or whatever routine I need to do to get great leg strength.
Yea. Build for squat types are blessed in one way, but they have to add so much weight to their squats, it's not the blessing it would seem. Like if they have to train up a 250kg olympic squat with athletic bodyfat to get a 40" vertical it will take a lot of hard work and single minded dedication. And then someone like me would gain as much athleticism by just getting a 150+kg FS. It's not fair, but i'm saying that too because it's hard for me to get to 150 lol.
I dunno about smolov for building leg strength. I think it's a powerlifting program to peak for a meet. And that's about it. If you eat a lot maybe it will build keepable muscle and strength too. But i'd rather do a proper mass gain routine to put 5-6" on your legs, however it may look (depending on your body). And then just train for strength with compound lifts to use the mass, squat 2-3x a week like you would normally just adding weight regularly up 180+kg while staying lean.
