I used to squat at the gym with slipper shoes and a 1.25 kg plate behind my heel. Basically gave me a 2 inch heel. It allowed me to do deep squats. I got up to 80kg x 5 x 5, but it was ghetto as fuck.
So I decided to buy pic related, the Adidas Power Perfect 3.
Turns out the drop on these shoes gives a 1 inch heel instead of the former 2 I had, and for the life of me i can't fucking squat anymore.
What the fuck is wrong with me ? I can't squat past parallel without my lower back rounding hard and the load impacting my lumbars.
Then start, or do the only right thing and load up 140 and break in those tight hips.
Nolan James
So the hips are the issue ?
Christian Miller
Your mobility is SHIT
Andrew Moore
Whats your routine before you start loading on plates?
Levi Carter
10 x empty squat bar 10 x 50kg 10 x 60kg 5x 5 80kg
Luis Diaz
>before you start loading on plates
Angel Cox
Try this: 5 x paused at bottom with only bar. 5 x paused at bottom with 40kg
Try to keep your chest up like doing front squats when going up from the pause. This should warm your hips up.
Samuel Taylor
Also try to add some kind of mobility work, like 3x5 box jumps(increase height each set) or 3x30 rope jumps, high.
Grayson Moore
Fuck am retarded.
I basically slowly squat with hands on my knees, then squat with my knees as spread as possible for a few seconds
Bentley Hernandez
Thanks a lot dude.
Jose Peterson
Probably. How old are you? You should stretch. Everyone should stretch. I like get in squat position ass to grass, palming my hands and pressing my knees out with my elbows. Really opens those hips if you know what I mean.
Also single leg RDL will get your shit back in shape.
Cooper Bailey
Check out Agile 8, it's a 10min warm up to help you out with mobility. It's freaking great, helped me out a lot.
Box jumps also helped me a lot.
Cooper Stewart
I'm 23. I actually just tried again squatting in these shoes, my dorsiflexion and my hip mobility are fucking trash, holy fuck.
Will do.
Blake Wright
Do some youtube searches for squat warm up routines and mobility routines and establish:
1) A squat warm-up routine that you will preform before every single squatting session. It might seem redundant at first but you will notice the difference very quickly.
2) A short mobility routine that you preform randomly a few times a week when you have 5-10 minutes of time or when you're preforming a task that be preformed while you do this routine.
Josiah Cook
It's a learning curve. When I got my Adipowers 5 years ago I always felt like I was squatting with my toes.
Samuel Ross
>my mobility is trash Yep. Glute bridges and hamstring stretches for you friend. Grab a bit of cord/rope and do some hamstring stretching by laying flat on your back and lifting either leg straight into the air, sleight bend of the knee is okay. Throw the cord around the arch of your foot and use leverage to get that stretch all the way into your glutes. Alternate legs.
Your stabilizing muscles need work as does you mobility/ROM.
Jaxon Wright
Do you think I should keep using the shoes, even if I squat like an ass with them ?
Michael Thompson
Yes. Or else you'll feel the same when you start using them again.
Eli Parker
Alirgh then. Thanks a bunch everyone. Gonna look up some stretch exercises.
Ryan Butler
Stop fucking listening do these cunts telling you to stretch hammies and shit.
You can squat properly with a 2"+ lift right? So you can squat properly when you are on your tip toes with ease yes? If so, your hip mobility is not the problem and neither is it your hammies. Think about it, the only thing the 2" lift is giving you is height in the heel. That height reduces the amount of ankle flexibility you need to squat properly. You therefore have two options: buy 2" lifting shoes (e.g. adidas oly shoes) or stretch your ankles? b-but a-a-non how do i stretch my a-anklllessssss? look it up on youtube. Aside from specific ankle stretches which most require a band for, keep your feet flat on the floor and lower yourself SLOWLY into a squat as low as you can go and hold yourself there for as long as you can and work your way down with more time.
pic related is a guy with very bad ankle flexibility and i assume this is what you look like. Notice how his knees are nowhere near his toes (oly lifters knees go way infront of their toes to allow them to perform full squats atg with no back rounding). You want your knees to be roughly inline with your toes (assuming you're just going to parallel).
Just want to add, don't go 5x5 at 80kg with the shoes. Do progression up to 80 instead, so. 5x60kg 5x65kg 5x70kg 5x75kg 5x80kg
See how your form develops the higher you go in weight. No need to ego lift now.
Angel Murphy
dont fall for the stretching meme
Henry Carter
also pic related is the ankle mobility required for the full squat high bar vs the parallel low bar squat. If you want to squat past parallel then you require exceptional ankle mobility which will take you a long time to acquire if you're inflexible already.
Is it inherently bad to need that much heel height ?
Zachary Anderson
No but you're painting over the cracks bro. I would say switch to low bar (if you're not already), use your 1" lifts (or if you still cant squat to parallel use a small plate as well as the shoes) then remove the plate once you have acquired the flexibility. It wont take too long (few weeks max) if you're stretching and practising squatting every day without shoes.
Jacob Cox
>a long time A few months at most if you keep at it.
Aiden Sullivan
Also, to add, having that bad ankle flexibility will severely impact you if you need to walk up any hills (look at the pic - his ankles are literally only able to walk on flat ground and as soon as there is an incline he will feel a huge ass stretch with every step). So if you do any treadmill work, put that shit on a high incline and keep your heels on the ground so as to walk normally and you will loosen them up very quickly.
Xavier Harris
Shit, that would completely fuck up my program, as I'm on stronglifts.
What's the difference between high bar and low bar back squats ?
Levi Sullivan
>can't hit depth in lifting shoes Utter state of your mobility
Michael Anderson
Yeah, it's fucking pitiful.
Robert Cox
I'm not the guy youre replying to but keep doing the program but start with the mobility work first. When you do the program just lower the weight on your lifts and do what you can do to make it work.
You should never stop doing the program, just find the time to fix your weakness before and after your lifts.
Charles Perez
Oh, I guess that'd be a good exercise. Thanks.
Caleb Ward
You need to work on your hip and ankle mobility and strengthen your upper back to be able to hold yourself in the proper position without collapsing
Try front squats I find them easier in terms of hitting depth and they're great for keeping you upright
Joseph Moore
low bar you can squat more and it's going to involve more posterior chain which fucking SL is shit for. Fucking 1 set of 5 deadlifts vs 15 sets of 5 squats per week? who the fuck thought that was a balanced way to train. Who the fuck needs to squat 3 times per week. Why are you doing this.
Andrew Turner
Don't disillusion the guy, user. Stretching is most definitely not a meme. I say this as someone who seriously needs to do it more often.
Nolan James
dude wtf??? Front squats require a very upright torso and excellent ankle flexibility to enable that upright posture. There's no way in fucking hell this guy is going to be able to even get half way down a front squat without the bar falling infront of him. There's nothing wrong with his fucking upper back and he can squat fine with the lift so his hips are not the problem.
Adrian Rodriguez
Squats everyday, my niggy
Christopher Jackson
This I went 10 years with extremely minimum stretching and mobility work. Now i'm doing it before every workout and even on my off days when I feel tight. It's made life fucking awesome.
Nicholas Williams
>cant hit depth with a 2 inch heel >his hips are fine >his back is fine
doubt.jpg
An untrained novice who's never lifted before should hit at least parallel even in flat shoes and squat normally within a week. He's either never moved away from his chair or he's deformed. High chance that his form is dog shit too.
And yeah, front squats are easier in terms of depth for many people, just look around online. Just do them with your arms crossed like a gym bro if you can't hold the bar properly.
Daniel Brooks
He could do Single Dumbbell squats to build that upper back at the same time too. Seem to be working great for Jim Wendlers football team who he never let squat with a bar.
You need to start from scratch, my man... SS, literally. Work on your mobility and do the stretches prescribed in the book.
Gabriel Foster
Ankle mobility is a meme and mostly genetics.
Pre squats foam roll your entire body and include your shins and calfs. Do some leg swings laterally and posteriorally.
Tyler Davis
>2" lifting shoes (e.g. adidas oly shoes) most oly shoes are 0.75" and I believe there are some at 1.25 but I haven't been able to get them.
You'll need squat blocks to get more elevation than that. I'm looking at this one which is 1.25" and then the added heel of shoes on top of that to get to 2".
I literally just did 130kg x 5 today on converse Just fix your mobility You don't need fancy shoes unless you are an olympic lifter or something trying to go atg
