Full RoM or heavier squat

[bort]

@idut Yes I meant parallel to the ground like 90° to a line perpendicular to the ground.

Somehow I never thought we were talking about the angle of the knees .

I will indeed try to go deeper now.

Thanks for the explanation !

 

[idut]

@bort Anytime someone says 90 degrees I assume they mean parallel, but Joel Seedman exists so I had to be sure.

 

[jayb05]

@idut Anytime someone says 90 degrees I assume they mean knee angle BECAUSE Joel Seedman exists.

 

[tonemonkey]

@bort For what it's worth, I squat 225 as deep and controlled as I can (ass pretty much touches ankles) for reps and regularly find myself having bigger quads than people "squatting 400". If the point is growing your muscles, moving the weight 3 inches for low reps isn't doing much of anything other than getting to "brag" to people. Why waste your time and load up your spine and joints like that if you don't have to?

 

[jedidiahanointing]

@bort dont shoot your hips too far behind you. you probably use your hips a lot and it probably is because they are stronger, which means youll have to lower the weight even more.

with any free weight squat i use a mental cue of like, "humping" my way up, which puts my hips above my feet and all the tension in my quads. i havent used this cue on backsquats tho since i havent done them in ages. hopefully it can help.

 

[regrone]

@bort Treat them as two exercises. Continue to progress weight on your shorter ROM squats but also train ass to grass full range squats and progress those separately.

Same as you would front squats or leg press. Still compound leg exercises but with a different focus.

If you need to work on mobility or flexibility in the ankles, hammies or glutes to make full depth less of an issue you can do that alongside without worrying about leaving leg gains on the table.

 

[h_hiltonhudson]

@bort if going into full ROM makes you feel like the load is shifting to your hips and glutes (basically turning the lift into a bastardized hip hinge), I would recommend getting your heels elevated. it’s a biomechanical issue - you probably have long femurs and a short torso.

you can put plates under your heels, get squat shoes, or (my favorite solution) a slant board. this will get your knees back over your toes and put the load back on your quads.

this is a good article on the biomechanics of long femur/short torso syndrome. people who don’t have to deal with this won’t get why your squat feels like a shitty hip hinge, or why traditional full ROM feels weird. you need to fix this form issue before you snap up your back (trust me from experience).