Blog Section > ADARQ & LanceSTS - Q&A
Sucking at half squats?
Raptor:
My 110 kg high bar half squats of yesterday basically look like twice as slow as what you're doing in that video. Will film them the next time.
I'll film a 3x110 full squat video and a 3x110 half squat video.
LanceSTS:
--- Quote from: vag on March 16, 2013, 11:37:42 am ---Reviving this thread after recent discussion in raptor's journal:
--- Quote from: Raptor on March 15, 2013, 07:15:53 pm ---It's still terrible. How can a half squat be MUCH harder than a full squat? What is my weakness that is causing this?
--- End quote ---
entropy's point of view:
--- Quote from: entropy on March 16, 2013, 04:55:17 am ---leverage...
--- End quote ---
avishek:
--- Quote from: Avishek on March 16, 2013, 05:55:55 am ---I don't think it's odd at all, for myself it's the same thing, but ill have to double check today.
Yes leverage: typical gym goers will shift forward during the descent and shift backwards during the ascent. This is not possible during a full squat. Most gym goers only do quarter squats anyway and this hip activation is absent.
If you practice good form however and don't allow motion in the sagittal plane, and consciously work on amortizing right above parallel in a vert specific way, it should be very hard with similar load in full squat. Need videos though to rly see what I'm saying.
--- End quote ---
raptor:
--- Quote from: Raptor on March 16, 2013, 07:18:24 am ---Well when I do full squats I can go past that half squat point without being too active at that angle since I'm going to go much deeper, and I can deal with stopping the weight at the bottom MUCH better. Also, since I initiate the movement from the hole, which is easier for me apparently, I already have momentum when I reach the half squat position so...
--- End quote ---
me:
--- Quote from: vag on March 16, 2013, 11:02:55 am ---I hear all of you, fair points. Still it doesn't feel like making sense. For the same person, especially an experienced trainee like raptor, half squats should be easier than full ones.
Not sure though, can't back it up. Also leverages are indeed are very important, each one is different.
I did experiment today after this chat, after warming up i did singles of full vs half squats, ramping weight. Wanted to see how it looks , in terms of form , transition , power output etc.
Will post vid later.
--- End quote ---
And here's the vid from today. I can't get any conclusions out of it. Reversal felt the same. Concentric felt much more powerful on halfs of course, as you can see from bar speed too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGCcLsUVJuU
You guys film your fulls/halfs too if you like , might be interesting to see how each one's form differentiates in the two movements.
--- End quote ---
Those look like a normal half squat to full squat form. If you want to use the halfs to peak out your vert, focus everything on that reversal, the very split second you go from down to up. You can make that point in the range of motion very strong and very tolerable to high eccentric overload if you work at it. Use the full squats for hypertrophy, primary strength gains, the halfs for specificity and special strength specific to the movement you want to improve.
Raptor:
Well yeah but the question remains is if sucking at the half squat is just a matter of strength (weak quads) or also a matter of bad "movement efficiency" (bad reversal which... what the heck would that be caused by other than lack of strength, even with a bad movement efficiency...)
So you still get back at strength no matter how you put it... and strength is better trained with full squats... which is weird because you start thinking that improving your half squat means improving your full squat first but I'm going to give the half squat a chance since I've been full squatting for so long.
Raptor:
IN OTHER WORDS
Would you work on increasing the half squat even if it comes from improved movement efficiency, since in this case the movement efficiency is also specific to the jump or would that time be better spent working on increasing your strength with full squats?
LanceSTS:
--- Quote from: Raptor on March 18, 2013, 07:32:10 am ---IN OTHER WORDS
Would you work on increasing the half squat even if it comes from improved movement efficiency, since in this case the movement efficiency is also specific to the jump or would that time be better spent working on increasing your strength with full squats?
--- End quote ---
"movement efficiency" is really not a good word for what happens, youre training the nervous system to override inhibitions, and training strength (which is at the very least somewhat speed specific) in a particular range of motion, and teaching the muscle/tendon complex how to actually use a more powerful eccentric stress rather than simply control it.
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