My deep squat lessons (long read ahead): I fucked up my back (SI joints) with absolutely horrible consequence after I maxed out a low bar squat and failed while the safety bars were set too low (dumb mistake). Even with solid mobility, strength and weightlifting shoes, buttwink is unavoidable going that deep into a low bar squar with max load on your back... I couldn't do any sports for years, so I lost tons of muscle, developed severe imbalances, and obviously my connective tissues lost all their strength/load tolerance. About 4-5 years later (3 years ago now) I tried to get back into super light plyos and tore my menisci. Yeah, doing light plyos. And in both knees. This could only have happened because of severe postural imbalances and really poor connective tissue health... Simultaneously I had plantar fasciopathy, ITBS (runners knee/ITB tendinopathy) and the good old patellar tendinopathy, really bad nerve pains in my back and hip, and just a bunch of unilateral joint stiffness. That's when I decided to commit 200% to getting all my shit fixed for the sake of my day-to-day health - not even for sports. It took me over 2 years to resolve these issues to the point where I could run, jump and lift freely again. While initially I was sad that I totally missed out on a man's top athletic years, I am now just grateful to be back healthier than ever, possessing knowledge that I couldn't have obtained otherwise. Now I'm committed to the challenge of getting the absolute most out of my body despite nearing my 30s. Idc about the outcome, I just don't want to look back once again and regret that I didn't give it my all earlier. Anyways, deep squat lesson: I highly suggest progressing towards deep squat ability (meaning mostly ankle mobility, hip mobility and overall knee health to be comfortable with full knee bend) as much as possible, but don't even worry about going heavy (unless you're a weightlifter). Just keep it light, more like an accessory exercise. Better yet, treat that deep squat as a long term goal for overall physical health and don't worry about doing it for performance. And whenever you go heavy on any moderately deep squat variation, double check those damn safety bars lol.
bro don't worry about missing out on your prime years look at amo dadzie the British sprinter he ran 9.9x at 31 and will most likely represent gb at the olympics. It's ever to late to get better :D
Crazy to have this knowledge freely available. Appreciate you guys. Would be insane if you guys coached volleyball players and go into specifics compared to your basketball specifics, like do you train different since the approach is kinda different, 2 foot jumping, approach according to swing arm, and different plyos/ excercises
That's why I don't do ATG squats, the deepest I go is barefoot parallel (since I don't have a pair of heel-elevated squat shoes). Those are for lighter weights, and they serve as a great warm up to get my body ready for the actual work which are half squats with heavier weights, aka 90 degree knees angle without shoes. Not only I'm able to squat heavier weights this way, I will also be strengthening my jump angle specific ROM and having higher safety bars close to my half squat bottom position give me a safer depth to bail in case the weight gets too heavy. The trick is to do slow eccentric lowering while exploding up as fast as possible on the concentric part.
Deep squatting is superior for hypertrophy. Milo Wolf did his PhD on ROM and hypertrophy. There's a big body of evidence to support this. Hypertrophy is important for improving strength for advanced trainees. You don't have to deep back squat though. You just need a deep knee bend.
I would love to hear a tendon talk about how the Achilles and the patellar function similarly and/or different during jumping and sprinting! I feel like a lot of the research I see is mostly measuring stuff at the Achilles and there’s not a lot of stuff on the patella lol. I would also love it if you could talk about why high jumpers and especially sprinters can have stiff tendons and seemingly good muscle stiffness too when you watch them do plyos, yet some go to dunk off 1 foot and can barely get off the ground lolz. Obviously specificity and coordination play a role, but I guess I would’ve thought they would at least have the prerequisite musculotendinous properties to be pretty bouncy in more ways than just their sport.
I used to always do ass to grass squats and eventually hit 365lb squat atg. My vertical was straight garbage at this time, I didn’t notice significant vertical gains until I started squatting 90 or parallel. Honestly atg is overrated, should be trained yes, but not primarily trained. Don’t listen to the gymbros who preach about this otherwise because they don’t train for the same things that we do
Could you define quarter, half and full squats? My quarter is a slight bend at the knee and hips, half is femur parallel to ground and full is hamstrings on calves...
Guys first of all you are great coaches and I don't have to talk about greatness of Isaiah. But you are wrong on deep squatting, yes they can destroy your back, but not if you have good program and understand stress and recovery. Best strength coach of today (and yesterday), Boris Sheiko programs big majority of his sets with 3-4 reps in reserve. Usually it is around 80% of 1rm for about 2-3 reps. That way you get alot stronger, you just need to do it often and in long period of time. And you will not have any back issues because your lower back will not be limiting factor in when you only do couple of controled reps, that are not anywhere near 90-95% of your max. I've been following you guys for a long time, and every time you post deep squat video i think to myself - this is too close to 1rp to be sustainable in a long run. Real strength coach know that you only should do >=90% very rarely, definitely not every 2 or 3 months. If you have program like that, squat 2-3 times per week for a couple of medium hard sets, you are in for big time strength gains and overall resilience. Greatings from Serbia, i would recommend you guys to read Sheiko book about powerlifting, one of the best sources for any strength athlete. And try to find Russian version, that one goes to details alot more... Best of luck 🍀
I wouldn't say they're wrong I'm a massive fan of deep squatting but I understand that there is no one size fits all approach when considering individual variability. When training for athletic development the main goal is health and if you have something that prevents that in training its a wise move to remove said thing/s were possible.
Thoughts on knee flexion in the air after a two foot jump take off? Most seen in volleyball spike but also during some people's dunks, though sometimes their legs are straight even in the air. I find it hard to do so(to achieve that glorious C shape in vb) and when i try to force it i jump lower, any tips?
I've recently started to include deep squats in my training and have found that I have been getting a stiff, almost sharp pain in my adductors during deep squats under load. I can squat perfectly into an unweighted deep squat with no pain at all, it's just when I add load that it almost seems to stretch my adductors to the point of sharp pain after the set is finished. Not sure if it is just the muscle being worked really hard to the point of strain during the set or not. Any advice on this issue is greatly appreciated! My current goals are to increase overall athleticism and have squats programmed twice per week
How do you think, is it good to squat deep or its better to do quarter squats when you have pfp or its better to build a range of motion every workout or just doing half squats is the best choice?
do you think bulgarian split squats translate just as well to my two foot jump as normal squats? I just like them way more and push my self really hard to get stronger
I went back to dunk training after some time off because of injuries (probably like 5 months, still playing but not training). 1 Month in, motorcycle accident, a week pause and so on... But yesterday, tried some dunks after 2 weeks consistent training. First try at 60% effort I dunked, easily. And after that, even if 100% attempts I couldn't. Probably time for a deload week?
In the bottom part of a squat, your lower back starts to round slightly. If you don't have the mobility to deep squat, this is probably the compromise that your body will make (although there are others). Like they said in the video, it can lead to serious back problems if your loading massive weights on your back when it's in that compromised position. You can definitely find videos or articles explaining it more if you look it up
Let’s go baby. Loving them vids but I I have a question I’m confused about U guys have talked about training on the micro levels but I haven’t seen or understood ur training in the macro level in terms of periodisation. How u structure all ur mesos together as a programme using conjugate. I can’t wrap my head around trying to fit in hypertrophy, strength, power, speed strength, strength speed, iso, eccentric, plyo etc. all at the same time and fluctuating the volume of each for good performance.
My deep squat lessons (long read ahead):
I fucked up my back (SI joints) with absolutely horrible consequence after I maxed out a low bar squat and failed while the safety bars were set too low (dumb mistake). Even with solid mobility, strength and weightlifting shoes, buttwink is unavoidable going that deep into a low bar squar with max load on your back...
I couldn't do any sports for years, so I lost tons of muscle, developed severe imbalances, and obviously my connective tissues lost all their strength/load tolerance.
About 4-5 years later (3 years ago now) I tried to get back into super light plyos and tore my menisci. Yeah, doing light plyos. And in both knees. This could only have happened because of severe postural imbalances and really poor connective tissue health...
Simultaneously I had plantar fasciopathy, ITBS (runners knee/ITB tendinopathy) and the good old patellar tendinopathy, really bad nerve pains in my back and hip, and just a bunch of unilateral joint stiffness. That's when I decided to commit 200% to getting all my shit fixed for the sake of my day-to-day health - not even for sports.
It took me over 2 years to resolve these issues to the point where I could run, jump and lift freely again. While initially I was sad that I totally missed out on a man's top athletic years, I am now just grateful to be back healthier than ever, possessing knowledge that I couldn't have obtained otherwise. Now I'm committed to the challenge of getting the absolute most out of my body despite nearing my 30s. Idc about the outcome, I just don't want to look back once again and regret that I didn't give it my all earlier.
Anyways, deep squat lesson: I highly suggest progressing towards deep squat ability (meaning mostly ankle mobility, hip mobility and overall knee health to be comfortable with full knee bend) as much as possible, but don't even worry about going heavy (unless you're a weightlifter). Just keep it light, more like an accessory exercise. Better yet, treat that deep squat as a long term goal for overall physical health and don't worry about doing it for performance. And whenever you go heavy on any moderately deep squat variation, double check those damn safety bars lol.
bro don't worry about missing out on your prime years look at amo dadzie the British sprinter he ran 9.9x at 31 and will most likely represent gb at the olympics. It's ever to late to get better :D
Crazy to have this knowledge freely available. Appreciate you guys. Would be insane if you guys coached volleyball players and go into specifics compared to your basketball specifics, like do you train different since the approach is kinda different, 2 foot jumping, approach according to swing arm, and different plyos/ excercises
I’d love this. To see how they would program for different sports would be amazing.
That's why I don't do ATG squats, the deepest I go is barefoot parallel (since I don't have a pair of heel-elevated squat shoes). Those are for lighter weights, and they serve as a great warm up to get my body ready for the actual work which are half squats with heavier weights, aka 90 degree knees angle without shoes. Not only I'm able to squat heavier weights this way, I will also be strengthening my jump angle specific ROM and having higher safety bars close to my half squat bottom position give me a safer depth to bail in case the weight gets too heavy. The trick is to do slow eccentric lowering while exploding up as fast as possible on the concentric part.
Deep squatting is superior for hypertrophy. Milo Wolf did his PhD on ROM and hypertrophy. There's a big body of evidence to support this. Hypertrophy is important for improving strength for advanced trainees. You don't have to deep back squat though. You just need a deep knee bend.
finally a podcast i can enjoy, been looking for something like this forever
How deep? Balls deep!
Deeper
I would love to hear a tendon talk about how the Achilles and the patellar function similarly and/or different during jumping and sprinting! I feel like a lot of the research I see is mostly measuring stuff at the Achilles and there’s not a lot of stuff on the patella lol.
I would also love it if you could talk about why high jumpers and especially sprinters can have stiff tendons and seemingly good muscle stiffness too when you watch them do plyos, yet some go to dunk off 1 foot and can barely get off the ground lolz. Obviously specificity and coordination play a role, but I guess I would’ve thought they would at least have the prerequisite musculotendinous properties to be pretty bouncy in more ways than just their sport.
What about using olympic weightlifting shoes? Also, I noticed that you don't use them, is there a reason?
Actually he does u just didnt see. I am in the tho group he does use them 😅😅
Great episode guys!
For healthy knees atg squat I don't have any issues with my knees since I've been atg squatting. I jump a lot and play basketball and I'm overweight.
It just means u have the mobility to do it 😅😅
I used to always do ass to grass squats and eventually hit 365lb squat atg. My vertical was straight garbage at this time, I didn’t notice significant vertical gains until I started squatting 90 or parallel. Honestly atg is overrated, should be trained yes, but not primarily trained. Don’t listen to the gymbros who preach about this otherwise because they don’t train for the same things that we do
Could you define quarter, half and full squats?
My quarter is a slight bend at the knee and hips, half is femur parallel to ground and full is hamstrings on calves...
Yall should do a vid reading hate comments
Guys first of all you are great coaches and I don't have to talk about greatness of Isaiah.
But you are wrong on deep squatting, yes they can destroy your back, but not if you have good program and understand stress and recovery.
Best strength coach of today (and yesterday), Boris Sheiko programs big majority of his sets with 3-4 reps in reserve. Usually it is around 80% of 1rm for about 2-3 reps. That way you get alot stronger, you just need to do it often and in long period of time.
And you will not have any back issues because your lower back will not be limiting factor in when you only do couple of controled reps, that are not anywhere near 90-95% of your max.
I've been following you guys for a long time, and every time you post deep squat video i think to myself - this is too close to 1rp to be sustainable in a long run.
Real strength coach know that you only should do >=90% very rarely, definitely not every 2 or 3 months.
If you have program like that, squat 2-3 times per week for a couple of medium hard sets, you are in for big time strength gains and overall resilience.
Greatings from Serbia, i would recommend you guys to read Sheiko book about powerlifting, one of the best sources for any strength athlete.
And try to find Russian version, that one goes to details alot more...
Best of luck 🍀
I wouldn't say they're wrong I'm a massive fan of deep squatting but I understand that there is no one size fits all approach when considering individual variability. When training for athletic development the main goal is health and if you have something that prevents that in training its a wise move to remove said thing/s were possible.
Thoughts on knee flexion in the air after a two foot jump take off? Most seen in volleyball spike but also during some people's dunks, though sometimes their legs are straight even in the air. I find it hard to do so(to achieve that glorious C shape in vb) and when i try to force it i jump lower, any tips?
I've recently started to include deep squats in my training and have found that I have been getting a stiff, almost sharp pain in my adductors during deep squats under load. I can squat perfectly into an unweighted deep squat with no pain at all, it's just when I add load that it almost seems to stretch my adductors to the point of sharp pain after the set is finished. Not sure if it is just the muscle being worked really hard to the point of strain during the set or not. Any advice on this issue is greatly appreciated!
My current goals are to increase overall athleticism and have squats programmed twice per week
deep front squat requires more mobility than a deep back squat though? requires a more upright torso and dorsiflexion
How do you think, is it good to squat deep or its better to do quarter squats when you have pfp or its better to build a range of motion every workout or just doing half squats is the best choice?
do you think bulgarian split squats translate just as well to my two foot jump as normal squats? I just like them way more and push my self really hard to get stronger
Do both.
Travis just hurt his back again… 5:15
I went back to dunk training after some time off because of injuries (probably like 5 months, still playing but not training).
1 Month in, motorcycle accident, a week pause and so on...
But yesterday, tried some dunks after 2 weeks consistent training.
First try at 60% effort I dunked, easily. And after that, even if 100% attempts I couldn't.
Probably time for a deload week?
Full day of eating pls
Hey John,
How do we get in contact with you? Do you have an email?
Can someone explain butt wink?
In the bottom part of a squat, your lower back starts to round slightly. If you don't have the mobility to deep squat, this is probably the compromise that your body will make (although there are others). Like they said in the video, it can lead to serious back problems if your loading massive weights on your back when it's in that compromised position. You can definitely find videos or articles explaining it more if you look it up
Dead pig spine…?
Mcgill is not a good source of info on back pain. Consistently goes against actual new research and his whole dead pig spine stuff is laughably dumb
Let’s go baby. Loving them vids but I I have a question I’m confused about U guys have talked about training on the micro levels but I haven’t seen or understood ur training in the macro level in terms of periodisation. How u structure all ur mesos together as a programme using conjugate. I can’t wrap my head around trying to fit in hypertrophy, strength, power, speed strength, strength speed, iso, eccentric, plyo etc. all at the same time and fluctuating the volume of each for good performance.