Comments in here saying this warm up takes forever - hip circle walk 4 minutes - heel sit 2 minutes - calf raise 2 minutes - shin raise 2 minutes - Copenhagen plank 2 minutes - hip flexors 2 minutes You also don’t have to do all of these movements. Just pick a few and hammer them.
@Yirlani it's up to everyone to decide how much of a warmup they need. If they find that it helps them, great. If not, great, they can skip it. And once you can already comfortably hit depth and get in the right positions you probably don't need it anymore. The reality is that almost everyone wastes far more than 14 minutes per day on useless stuff, sort of like this convo, eh?
Here's a tip. Throw away all your chairs. You want to sit down? Sit in a squat like a gopnik all day. No way in hell you don't get perfect mobility withing 6 months.
@@tatebarnum731 it is a culture shock thing for me. Where i am from 90 year olds can and do sit around in squat position for hours. It is a natural and normal thing to do. Anyone who cannot squat would be looked upon as a weird creature here. It is that uncommon. Unless you have some serious birth defects or got into a major accident you should be able to squat. So FOR ME it is absolutely impossible to understand when you people treat squatting as this super dangerous life threatening thing. It is hilarious honestly.
I like Greg Doucette, but sometimes he says some rather ignorant things. He demonstrates a deep squat with a smith machine? His movement pattern wasn't even natural. If you are going to denigrate something, at least demonstrate the actual lift.
I just saw his squat in the smith machine. Very different on a free squat. The real strength in your legs and mobility is not in that machine. It is in the barbell and the rack.
The renaissance periodisation crew advocates for those kinda of squats, and they are mostly bodybuilding-focused. I assume it has good bodybuilding benefits
His audience and fans are not weightlifters. Most of them in fact are probably not even active. He over-exaggerated that movement in the Smith machine to prove HIS point. He can’t squat below parallel or ATG so his solution is to make it look as silly and dangerous as possible. He did the same thing with the goodmorning. The common belief these days is that proven “old school” movements like btn press, goodmornings, atg squats are dangerous and pointless nowadays, which is just foolish and spreads misinformation..
@@joestar3335 then just say that instead of trying to turn people away who can or who want to work on it 🤷♂️. In that video, he pretty much said if you were doing that in 2021 it was on you and you were stupid.
I've been deep squatting for about two weeks now and it's literally made fall in love with leg workouts again. Full depth, long pause at the bottom. Holy shit it feels good.
Testament: So this is stuff I did when I worked with Zack last year and consistently worked on when I went from a stiff powerlifter to a weightlifter. My positions are SO MUCH better now after focusing on a lot of these movements and cues. One of my favorite things to do to this day is to sit in a deep squat in the middle of lines or even take calls in deep squats for work. Fuck, I coach in a deep squat when I'm watching athletes myself.
My warm up is hip circle for 1-2 mins all different movements, leg swings, hyperextensions, ATG split squat and calf raises - about 8 mins. Feel great after.
Awesome video. A few months ago I started to focus on my squat form over numbers and I'm glad I did. This video helps me know better how to warm up for it to help improve. Thanks.
Good video, man. I reviewed Greg’s video as well a few months back and all he had was to call me pedantic and spew verbal nonsense on my video haha. I’ve been atg squatting for over 30 years with no problems, in fact it has saved me imo. Squatting full depth is the best. Squat shoes definitely help for people with ankle mobility issues. Training your calves for size before you squat and often helps as well. Improving your ankle mobility and creating a cushion your posterior chain to push off. Sitting down on your toes with your knees pushing out and forward then sitting back on your heals is great for working on squat depth. All the best.
Thank you so much for this. Got a lot of gems in there. The cue to keep your knees over the same point is exceptional. Will definitely use that with some of my clients (I’m a personal trainer atm)
If you want to be able to deep squat, Why not just sit in Slav squat between warm up sets, and after squatting? That’s all I do and that’s all that seems necessary
@@newguy13111 what do you mean “engage”? Being able to deep squat is just a matter of flexibility, not muscle engagement, You’re just letting gravity pull you into position, all it takes is balance, or holding onto something until you can acquire it
@@kaga13 how do you people lose that mobility? I lowbar squat 375 and I haven’t “stretched” in years, and they’re easy, Do people seriously go years without doing a Slav squat?
@@jamesembrey3100 I got to doing ATG Backquats cos I was into Slav squat memes lel you right hahaha BUT the only way I can think of ENGAGING the muscles when doing something at rest (Slav squat is about relaxing in a squat position after all) is that my feet would just totally collapse inward into flat-foot city in a relaxed Slav squat. Have to engage a bunch of muscles to maintain good foot posture so you have a strong base for ATG squatting. In my experience ofc, I imagine people who aren't flat footed wouldn't have a problem here
Awesome video! To all those saying it takes forever: if you can't properly deep squat heavy, you need this "forever", so "no excuses, just improve"! I always feel better when I have a lot of time to train and spend a lot in the warming up. We want to be Lu but we don't even want to spend 30 minutes to properly move...
I have different dorsiflexion in each of my ankles due to screws in one ankle. I've been using horse stall mats under my heels to break even parallel. And getting the bar on my back most days is impossible due to shoulder mobility. So those days I front squat or Zercher squat. No excuses.
I think the biggest advice that I got that helped me squat deep was "Consider the deep squat a completely different exercise to your regular back squat." No longer concerned with hitting a % of my usual squat, I was able to build from 0.
I have had knees and a bad back and avoided squats for the longest time. I finally started with very light weight and tried lots of different foot positions and tried deep and higher set squats. I found that my knees and back feel significantly better when doing deep squats. I feel stronger and more mobile in general as well.
This was so so helpful! I'm sure a lot of people like me who make their workout programs by researching on their own to get fitter and stronger will appreciate this. I always felt like I wasn't working my quads during my squats and I would also have some knee pain after doing a few sets of leg extensions and after trying some of these warm-up movements my leg day felt so much better! No knee pain :). (I only did the heel sit, the hip flexor and the calf raise for warmup). Thank you so much for this vid ❤️
Ive had patellar tendonitis as well as a right kneecap/meniscus issue that prevented me from squatting normally below depth for around 10 years. I had to quit volleyball and dodgeball because Id always get to a point where I needed extended breaks after a few seasons. I didn't think the banded walks did much because I've always been doing those from PT over the years. What really helped me before I could push off from a deep squat and not be concerned about the knee noise was to stretch at my desk chair. Basically I'm putting my torso down through my legs when my legs are spread out to where they'd be during a squat. I then keep my chest up and lower down (think pushing your belly down) to stretch. What's great about this is that you aren't worrying about balance, so you can hook your arms under your legs to pull you down more. Once that allowed to me deep squat it was a matter of throwing away numbers and just using a bar with enough weight to do slow and controlled reps. I sit in the deep squat position and use my arms to push my knees out as a warmup. Can't tell you how many PTs over the years have focused on stretching my hamstrings or working IT bands, it never worked for me and my hamstrings haven't become more flexible- the other muscles prohibiting movement either lengthened or became stronger. I still have terrible improvement in terms of weight on the bar but overall I feel soooo much better after playing tennis and pitching in kickball to where I'm not worrying about anything physical in the next few days. I've been stuck at the bar + a 35-45 lbs plate on each side for a year, I see my quads getting bigger but when I try to add 10 lbs my form breaks down. Meanwhile I'm doing Bulgarian split squats with 80lbs. Somethings off or I'm doing something weird that makes more weight feel terrible, after a decade of paying money to professionals that didn't bring results it's tough to care about why.
Not a power lifter here, never the less this was very helpfull for me since I like to pay attention to correct from and full rage of motion thanks a lot!
This great advice. As someone who has always struggled with the squat with leaning forward, tightness out of the hole and poor hip stabilization this a great way to help me buckle down and work on my form.
@@mattcooper8403 drive the weight with your hips.Arch your back.Imagine lowering yourself on a chair and drive with your hips up. Widen your stance. This will take the pressure of the knees.
Raised calf raises alone - for me anyway - was a night and day difference from falling backwards in the deep squat to being able to balance in the deep squat for 5 minutes.
Outstanding coach,, just flawless,,, thank you so much for the content. This is just all that is necessary for a squat guide. PS: Johnie Candito has an old video on the importance of pulling yourself down to position and feeling the hip flexors,,, he was so right
I barely started weightlifting last year during the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to buy a bar, plates and a rack before the prices got crazy. I worked myself up to a 225lb 1RM, and have been stuck there for a while. I never programmed, all I ever did was 135 > 185 > 205 and attempt 225 every single squat session lol. I don't have a history of weightlifting so I didn't know what the hell I was doing half the time. Recently I got on a program that generates training a block based on your 1RM. I was surprised by how light some of the training days were, bringing it down to 45%, 55%, 65%, which I would always almost train at 80%. Sets from 100lbs to 140lbs, that would gradually increase in weight every week along with heavy days. I have to say that lifting lighter weight like 100lbs or 125lbs to just focus on technique has helped tremendously. My adductors and hamstrings are actually getting worked, which they weren't before and I'm building that mind muscle connection as well as muscle memory. Videos like this also help a lot, appreciate the knowledge and training advice man
I’m a fan of the deep squat…. Greg was an outstanding powerlifter when he competed, but I am thinking he is speaking more from a bodybuilding perspective now. Also, his primary audience is not necessarily high-level weightlifters or powerlifters, so for the average Joe, I get why he says what he says, even though it’s not my perspective - or obviously anything relevant for a competitive lifter. Great video, as a former powerlifter now trying to learn oly (very humbling experience so far), this channel is one of my favorites. Appreciate the content.
The one thing that always helps me squat very deep is Frog pose / Box Splits , for a couple of minutes while moving my hips in small circles. Then I immediately do rolling leg internal rotations while still in a box split, when I do 30 + each leg and my glutes start to get sore, I can drop into a surprisingly smooth squat .
Good video Zack. Try seated good mornings with a bar on your back. Lay your tummy on the bench. Keep thoracic spine extended. Good partner with seiza work. I do those for reps vs time.
I've been prison\slavic\asian squat sitting every day for 2 mins in the morning and 2 mins in the evening while I brush me teeth. It really helps with my lower spine prolapse. It's a miracle, really, and a lost art.
I dunno if it's recommended or not but once I narrowed my stance quite abit and went toes out some more, full atg no pain. All this time I didn't understand my hip structure longed for it.
1:22 I've been trying to work on my knee flexibility for several years and I simply can't sit on my heels. It's literally 15-20 degrees beyond my range of motion. I will keep working on it, but I doubt I will ever be able to put my knees into a position like the one in the thumbnail of the video.
Foam roll your quads to loosen them off, do the basic quad stretch pulling your foot to your butt, then sit in seiza with as many pillows under your butt as needed and relax, try different positions like completely slouching over, sitting with perfect posture etc. Remove pillows over time. You'll probably also need a pillow under your knees to stop your knee cap or tibial tubercle digging painfully into the floor. You may also want a pillow or rolled up towel under the ankles as stretching the ankles flat to the floor can be painful. Do it with bare feet or at least I prefer to.
@Dan A. Ouch! I hope you have been able to make a full recovery! And yeah I'm definitely not trying to rush things. Though I am a bit frustrated with the minimal progress I've made, so I looked up the literature on how to best improve joint flexibility. Turns out the best way is to use low load, long duration stretching. I found a paper that detailed the load and minimum duration of stretching specifically for the knees in order to successfully induce increased flexibility. It's a fairly significant amount actually, but I will incorporate it into my daily routine and see if I notice any progress over a couple months.
@@AfferbeckBeats Well It has been almost 2 years so here's a bit of an update. I managed to improve my knee flexibility a ton, from about 150 degrees, to 170 degrees. Ironically I stopped doing most heavy squats. I need to get back to it because I lost muscle, but I kept focusing on my flexibility. What I did was putting my knees in a very flexed position at the end of the range of motion with moderate tension like a quad stretch, for at least 30 minutes on each leg every day. IE the "low load, long duration stretching" method. Initially it was difficult to do because it was uncomfortable, and it required discipline cuz I had to actually remember to do it every day, but eventually I was able to crush my heels into my butt and at that point it got way easier cuz I could start sitting like L from death note when at my computer. Prolonged period of doing this was still uncomfortable but progress was steady from that point, and now I can do it for extended periods without problem.
The sit on knees - Seiza: it work wonders. I am not trying to be condescending here, I strongly recommend it but in the true classic way: heels go outward so the ass can sit between them. Shit ankle and tibial mobility = barely getting the ass to touch the heel or not even close, means a lot of room to work for. It is also uncomfortable as hell until the body learns it.
I do think you need the hip joint deep sockets and good flexibility for deep squat s that be productive and safe as Squat uni and knee over toe guy say
thank you for the video it is helpfull, I worked my way up to squat atg but I mainly did it with reducing weight, squatting with paused at the bottom but I will add those exercices to maintain and improve mobility and flexibility.
Honestly, that hip movement is just your spine going from (slight) overextension to neutral. I'd expect issues to only arise from flexion. In my totally unqualified opinion.
Yes, most people freaking out about buttwink just have massively overextended lumbars all the time and they flex to neutral when squatting. And they get lumbar pain from basically doing hyperextensions with every squat rep, not because they're going into dangerous lumbar flexion. And they try to fix it by arching their back even harder, making things worse, when instead they should be learning how to start with and maintain a neutral lumbar.
If you've been in a physiotherapy clinic, you've probably seen an ankle dorsiflexion wedge, a piece of wood that has an incline so you can stretch a stiff and recovering ankle. If you have a basic circular saw, and some screws, you can make your own for less than 10$. Your ankles will thank you !
The ultimate test is 4 time Olympic World Champ Jerzy Gregorek’s Olympic Flexibility test. Eventually there should be no butt wink at all. Look him up on TH-cam where he performs his squat flexibility test. Good stuff.
Great video. Is it just me or does it appear that the bar is ahead of your COM in that last frame of the bottom of the back squat... maybe it’s just the camera angle.
Deep squat might be the single most beneficial exercise for overall health. Weight will obviously be much less than half squat. I might even say weight is not all that important, especially if you squat ass-to-grass and try to explode up.
The hip abductor thing is pretty important imo cause while I was running an 800 for track I pulled them or messed them up somehow and the PT guy said it was because my legs were fine going front to back but they were weak side to side which caused me to hurt them on the last corner
Look into “super training total “ I think that is the combo of training all of them . I wanna say max aita (juggernaut training ) has a program to train this .
Jesus, the video I need. The problem is that, my ankle can not perform well dorsi flexión because of past injuries (left). It is a pain when I try it, literally. What do you recommend?
how long does it usually take for that hip mobility to develop? been training my sister to sit in a squat (general health reasons) and idk if should be pushing her more or need more patience with it
I highly doubt that if you are struggling with generating new content, trying to force a video a day will end well, to be completely honest. You have a diverse channel you’ve built here and if you want to add in some videos working off subscriber input that sounds good too. But I would say you are overthinking. Great video thanks.
Greg Doucette also looks like he doesn't have the greatest form in his video. Looks like he's losing tension in his abdomen and almost curling forward at the bottom of his deep squat.
@Christopher Huber Yeah but who squats on a smith machine? I mean it's no wonder he has poor form. Not everything Greg says is right and people need to understand that.
This video is insanely useful, I literally have my foot stuck in plantar flexion and my dorsiflexion is literally my standing position, I cannot go farther than this and all the things you mention in this video help immensely for deep squats for a person like myself. Thank you.
You sound like me!! I've worked on my ankle mobility for life and they just don't move. But if i spend a good 30mins before squatting they at least feel like they won't break lol 😆
Comments in here saying this warm up takes forever
- hip circle walk 4 minutes
- heel sit 2 minutes
- calf raise 2 minutes
- shin raise 2 minutes
- Copenhagen plank 2 minutes
- hip flexors 2 minutes
You also don’t have to do all of these movements. Just pick a few and hammer them.
14 min doesnt seem too crazy, i usually take like 25 minutes to warm up
Just depends on how bad people want it. If it keeps you injury free and healthy it's hard to think of a better 14 minute time commitment.
@Yirlani it's up to everyone to decide how much of a warmup they need. If they find that it helps them, great. If not, great, they can skip it. And once you can already comfortably hit depth and get in the right positions you probably don't need it anymore. The reality is that almost everyone wastes far more than 14 minutes per day on useless stuff, sort of like this convo, eh?
@Yirlani lol OK
Warmups take less time than 6 weeks out for an injury
Here's a tip. Throw away all your chairs. You want to sit down? Sit in a squat like a gopnik all day. No way in hell you don't get perfect mobility withing 6 months.
So true lol
Problem with brute force approaches to mobility is you'll get injured by your limitations sooner than you'll adapt to improve them
@@AfferbeckBeats if you are getting injured by just sitting you need serious medical help my friend 🤣
@@tomriddle5102 hes right u will pull a muscle, it would be the same as stretching too much which ive done and it set me back XD
@@tatebarnum731 it is a culture shock thing for me. Where i am from 90 year olds can and do sit around in squat position for hours. It is a natural and normal thing to do.
Anyone who cannot squat would be looked upon as a weird creature here. It is that uncommon. Unless you have some serious birth defects or got into a major accident you should be able to squat.
So FOR ME it is absolutely impossible to understand when you people treat squatting as this super dangerous life threatening thing. It is hilarious honestly.
within 1 hour of applying what zack teaches, i can now squat so deep i can eat my own ass. thank mr. zack
Video tutorial pls
proof?
Waiting on that Zack and Dr. Joel Seedman collab.
Giraffe God vs Chaos Doctor
The fact that guy calls himself a doctor is cringy to me
Joel is gonna make you do a squat so deep you literally have to touch the floor with your ass.
It happened !
I like Greg Doucette, but sometimes he says some rather ignorant things. He demonstrates a deep squat with a smith machine? His movement pattern wasn't even natural. If you are going to denigrate something, at least demonstrate the actual lift.
I just saw his squat in the smith machine. Very different on a free squat. The real strength in your legs and mobility is not in that machine. It is in the barbell and the rack.
The renaissance periodisation crew advocates for those kinda of squats, and they are mostly bodybuilding-focused. I assume it has good bodybuilding benefits
His audience and fans are not weightlifters. Most of them in fact are probably not even active. He over-exaggerated that movement in the Smith machine to prove HIS point. He can’t squat below parallel or ATG so his solution is to make it look as silly and dangerous as possible. He did the same thing with the goodmorning. The common belief these days is that proven “old school” movements like btn press, goodmornings, atg squats are dangerous and pointless nowadays, which is just foolish and spreads misinformation..
@@safathletics I don't think Greg can Squat deep anymore due to his hips
@@joestar3335 then just say that instead of trying to turn people away who can or who want to work on it 🤷♂️. In that video, he pretty much said if you were doing that in 2021 it was on you and you were stupid.
You have the ankle mobility of Forrest Gump before he lost the leg braces.
I've been deep squatting for about two weeks now and it's literally made fall in love with leg workouts again. Full depth, long pause at the bottom. Holy shit it feels good.
2 hours later, your warmup is ready and you can now begin your 4 hour training session
Once you get older you will see the benefits of a 20 min warmup before a 2 hour workout, it's time well spent to avoid injury.
@@Chris-ew9mh when you get older work 80 hours a week and have 3 children the warmup isyour workout
@@scottessery100 80 hours a week dam
Other guy says deeps squats are not good;
*uses smith machine to squat* lmao
Ye but he got de big muscles so he's obviously right
greg has a bunch of world records i believe hes not just some dude lol
I like doing smith machine hack squats for ass to floor depth - my limbs and leverages just make that the best variation for me.
Immediately liked.
Quick question, I know this is primarily weightlifting content, any plans to introduce a bit of BJJ content?
He has already but not a huge amount
I was just thinking, he'd totally hit it off with Nick Albin, aka Chewjitsu
Testament: So this is stuff I did when I worked with Zack last year and consistently worked on when I went from a stiff powerlifter to a weightlifter. My positions are SO MUCH better now after focusing on a lot of these movements and cues. One of my favorite things to do to this day is to sit in a deep squat in the middle of lines or even take calls in deep squats for work. Fuck, I coach in a deep squat when I'm watching athletes myself.
I talk to people during rest sets in a deep squat in days I don't squat
My warm up is hip circle for 1-2 mins all different movements, leg swings, hyperextensions, ATG split squat and calf raises - about 8 mins. Feel great after.
Really appreciate the new technique vids you’re releasing G.Raffe.
Awesome video. A few months ago I started to focus on my squat form over numbers and I'm glad I did. This video helps me know better how to warm up for it to help improve. Thanks.
Good video, man. I reviewed Greg’s video as well a few months back and all he had was to call me pedantic and spew verbal nonsense on my video haha. I’ve been atg squatting for over 30 years with no problems, in fact it has saved me imo. Squatting full depth is the best. Squat shoes definitely help for people with ankle mobility issues. Training your calves for size before you squat and often helps as well. Improving your ankle mobility and creating a cushion your posterior chain to push off. Sitting down on your toes with your knees pushing out and forward then sitting back on your heals is great for working on squat depth. All the best.
Thank you so much for this. Got a lot of gems in there. The cue to keep your knees over the same point is exceptional. Will definitely use that with some of my clients (I’m a personal trainer atm)
I'm happy over every new Video Zack! Thank you for what your doin' and always remember - do what you love to do! Greatings from Austria :)
My favourite fit Jim hopper, David harbour's weightlifting brother
If you want to be able to deep squat, Why not just sit in Slav squat between warm up sets, and after squatting? That’s all I do and that’s all that seems necessary
Cause most people don't properly engage all those muscles mentioned in a slav squat.
Most people don't have that kind of mobility where only doing the movement is enough to do it without pain
@@newguy13111 what do you mean “engage”?
Being able to deep squat is just a matter of flexibility, not muscle engagement, You’re just letting gravity pull you into position, all it takes is balance, or holding onto something until you can acquire it
@@kaga13 how do you people lose that mobility? I lowbar squat 375 and I haven’t “stretched” in years, and they’re easy, Do people seriously go years without doing a Slav squat?
@@jamesembrey3100 I got to doing ATG Backquats cos I was into Slav squat memes lel you right hahaha
BUT the only way I can think of ENGAGING the muscles when doing something at rest (Slav squat is about relaxing in a squat position after all) is that my feet would just totally collapse inward into flat-foot city in a relaxed Slav squat.
Have to engage a bunch of muscles to maintain good foot posture so you have a strong base for ATG squatting. In my experience ofc, I imagine people who aren't flat footed wouldn't have a problem here
The calf raises in the squat is a genius addition. Great video man!
Awesome video! To all those saying it takes forever: if you can't properly deep squat heavy, you need this "forever", so "no excuses, just improve"! I always feel better when I have a lot of time to train and spend a lot in the warming up. We want to be Lu but we don't even want to spend 30 minutes to properly move...
I have different dorsiflexion in each of my ankles due to screws in one ankle. I've been using horse stall mats under my heels to break even parallel. And getting the bar on my back most days is impossible due to shoulder mobility. So those days I front squat or Zercher squat. No excuses.
I think the biggest advice that I got that helped me squat deep was "Consider the deep squat a completely different exercise to your regular back squat."
No longer concerned with hitting a % of my usual squat, I was able to build from 0.
I have had knees and a bad back and avoided squats for the longest time. I finally started with very light weight and tried lots of different foot positions and tried deep and higher set squats. I found that my knees and back feel significantly better when doing deep squats. I feel stronger and more mobile in general as well.
This was so so helpful! I'm sure a lot of people like me who make their workout programs by researching on their own to get fitter and stronger will appreciate this. I always felt like I wasn't working my quads during my squats and I would also have some knee pain after doing a few sets of leg extensions and after trying some of these warm-up movements my leg day felt so much better! No knee pain :). (I only did the heel sit, the hip flexor and the calf raise for warmup). Thank you so much for this vid ❤️
Ive had patellar tendonitis as well as a right kneecap/meniscus issue that prevented me from squatting normally below depth for around 10 years. I had to quit volleyball and dodgeball because Id always get to a point where I needed extended breaks after a few seasons.
I didn't think the banded walks did much because I've always been doing those from PT over the years. What really helped me before I could push off from a deep squat and not be concerned about the knee noise was to stretch at my desk chair. Basically I'm putting my torso down through my legs when my legs are spread out to where they'd be during a squat. I then keep my chest up and lower down (think pushing your belly down) to stretch. What's great about this is that you aren't worrying about balance, so you can hook your arms under your legs to pull you down more.
Once that allowed to me deep squat it was a matter of throwing away numbers and just using a bar with enough weight to do slow and controlled reps. I sit in the deep squat position and use my arms to push my knees out as a warmup. Can't tell you how many PTs over the years have focused on stretching my hamstrings or working IT bands, it never worked for me and my hamstrings haven't become more flexible- the other muscles prohibiting movement either lengthened or became stronger.
I still have terrible improvement in terms of weight on the bar but overall I feel soooo much better after playing tennis and pitching in kickball to where I'm not worrying about anything physical in the next few days.
I've been stuck at the bar + a 35-45 lbs plate on each side for a year, I see my quads getting bigger but when I try to add 10 lbs my form breaks down. Meanwhile I'm doing Bulgarian split squats with 80lbs. Somethings off or I'm doing something weird that makes more weight feel terrible, after a decade of paying money to professionals that didn't bring results it's tough to care about why.
I appreciate this video. The “calf raise” in the squat position helped me
Not a power lifter here, never the less this was very helpfull for me since I like to pay attention to correct from and full rage of motion thanks a lot!
Awesome video I’m happy to see you not just make a video give your opinion but also put out a video to help people much love from me to you.
Mr Zacha Telanhazde, that shoulder plate thing is golden tid bit.
havent had access to barbells for 4 months now with all the lock downs, but this will be good when hopefully this opens up in 2 months. Cheers
This great advice. As someone who has always struggled with the squat with leaning forward, tightness out of the hole and poor hip stabilization this a great way to help me buckle down and work on my form.
Try box squats and the squat machine by Matt Wenning.
@@thebuddhaofknowledgemichae2486 I've given the belt squat a try but it always hurts the knees
@@mattcooper8403 drive the weight with your hips.Arch your back.Imagine lowering yourself on a chair and drive with your hips up. Widen your stance. This will take the pressure of the knees.
@@thebuddhaofknowledgemichae2486 I'll give that a shot. Thanks!
Great video and amazing tutorial tips. Thank you.
Raised calf raises alone - for me anyway - was a night and day difference from falling backwards in the deep squat to being able to balance in the deep squat for 5 minutes.
06:17 - this is a golden one, definitely have to practise that!!!
This is a fascinating video. Thank you for putting it together.
Outstanding coach,, just flawless,,, thank you so much for the content. This is just all that is necessary for a squat guide.
PS: Johnie Candito has an old video on the importance of pulling yourself down to position and feeling the hip flexors,,, he was so right
tremendous VALUE
I barely started weightlifting last year during the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to buy a bar, plates and a rack before the prices got crazy. I worked myself up to a 225lb 1RM, and have been stuck there for a while. I never programmed, all I ever did was 135 > 185 > 205 and attempt 225 every single squat session lol. I don't have a history of weightlifting so I didn't know what the hell I was doing half the time. Recently I got on a program that generates training a block based on your 1RM. I was surprised by how light some of the training days were, bringing it down to 45%, 55%, 65%, which I would always almost train at 80%. Sets from 100lbs to 140lbs, that would gradually increase in weight every week along with heavy days. I have to say that lifting lighter weight like 100lbs or 125lbs to just focus on technique has helped tremendously. My adductors and hamstrings are actually getting worked, which they weren't before and I'm building that mind muscle connection as well as muscle memory. Videos like this also help a lot, appreciate the knowledge and training advice man
This is what I was looking for!! Thank you
I’m a fan of the deep squat…. Greg was an outstanding powerlifter when he competed, but I am thinking he is speaking more from a bodybuilding perspective now. Also, his primary audience is not necessarily high-level weightlifters or powerlifters, so for the average Joe, I get why he says what he says, even though it’s not my perspective - or obviously anything relevant for a competitive lifter. Great video, as a former powerlifter now trying to learn oly (very humbling experience so far), this channel is one of my favorites. Appreciate the content.
What's oly?
@@getstrongby4038 olympic lifting
This video helped me immensely. Thank you
Thank you! Always great content
Waiting on that coach zt Olympics review/highlights vid
Excellent actionable advice - thank you
Guys we should all send this to greg to make a video about it because this just deserves that kind of attention.
The one thing that always helps me squat very deep is Frog pose / Box Splits , for a couple of minutes while moving my hips in small circles. Then I immediately do rolling leg internal rotations while still in a box split, when I do 30 + each leg and my glutes start to get sore, I can drop into a surprisingly smooth squat .
Good video Zack. Try seated good mornings with a bar on your back. Lay your tummy on the bench. Keep thoracic spine extended. Good partner with seiza work. I do those for reps vs time.
You're mixing dorsi and plantar flexion
Ahin raises primarily work dorsiflesors and stretch plantarflexors (calves)
That was great.
Thank you!
I've been prison\slavic\asian squat sitting every day for 2 mins in the morning and 2 mins in the evening while I brush me teeth. It really helps with my lower spine prolapse. It's a miracle, really, and a lost art.
Good one here
Thanks Zack!
2:21 shin raises are dorsiflexion not plantar flexion
This is so great. I have ridiculously long femurs so trying to figure out how to remain up at the bottom has always been my biggest struggle
Great instructional video!
Excellent video!
>Everyone should squat deep
>Video is 9:11 long
Conflicting messages here Zack
I don't get it
@@joshee6385 Confirmed foreigner
@@alextheguy1858 is it about 9/11???
PREACH!
Clicked immediately
I dunno if it's recommended or not but once I narrowed my stance quite abit and went toes out some more, full atg no pain. All this time I didn't understand my hip structure longed for it.
Squat University prescribed many of these.
This video is amazing!!!!
Great cues and warmups. Is that a mid-bar position? Looks like it’s on top of your rear delts
After switching from ATG squats to low bar i can say that they both have their pros and cons. You should switch it up every once in a while.
Can you teach the stretch reflex?
1:22 I've been trying to work on my knee flexibility for several years and I simply can't sit on my heels. It's literally 15-20 degrees beyond my range of motion. I will keep working on it, but I doubt I will ever be able to put my knees into a position like the one in the thumbnail of the video.
Don’t force it, it takes time. I tried squatting ATG and i tore my meniscus. My knee couldn’t bend beyond 90 degrees for about a year.
Foam roll your quads to loosen them off, do the basic quad stretch pulling your foot to your butt, then sit in seiza with as many pillows under your butt as needed and relax, try different positions like completely slouching over, sitting with perfect posture etc. Remove pillows over time. You'll probably also need a pillow under your knees to stop your knee cap or tibial tubercle digging painfully into the floor. You may also want a pillow or rolled up towel under the ankles as stretching the ankles flat to the floor can be painful. Do it with bare feet or at least I prefer to.
@Dan A. Ouch! I hope you have been able to make a full recovery! And yeah I'm definitely not trying to rush things.
Though I am a bit frustrated with the minimal progress I've made, so I looked up the literature on how to best improve joint flexibility. Turns out the best way is to use low load, long duration stretching. I found a paper that detailed the load and minimum duration of stretching specifically for the knees in order to successfully induce increased flexibility.
It's a fairly significant amount actually, but I will incorporate it into my daily routine and see if I notice any progress over a couple months.
@@AfferbeckBeats Well It has been almost 2 years so here's a bit of an update. I managed to improve my knee flexibility a ton, from about 150 degrees, to 170 degrees.
Ironically I stopped doing most heavy squats. I need to get back to it because I lost muscle, but I kept focusing on my flexibility. What I did was putting my knees in a very flexed position at the end of the range of motion with moderate tension like a quad stretch, for at least 30 minutes on each leg every day. IE the "low load, long duration stretching" method.
Initially it was difficult to do because it was uncomfortable, and it required discipline cuz I had to actually remember to do it every day, but eventually I was able to crush my heels into my butt and at that point it got way easier cuz I could start sitting like L from death note when at my computer. Prolonged period of doing this was still uncomfortable but progress was steady from that point, and now I can do it for extended periods without problem.
Great content!
The sit on knees - Seiza: it work wonders. I am not trying to be condescending here, I strongly recommend it but in the true classic way: heels go outward so the ass can sit between them.
Shit ankle and tibial mobility = barely getting the ass to touch the heel or not even close, means a lot of room to work for. It is also uncomfortable as hell until the body learns it.
I do think you need the hip joint deep sockets and good flexibility for deep squat s that be productive and safe as
Squat uni and knee over toe guy say
@ 60 I've never stopped deep squatting 👍🦵💪
thank you for the video it is helpfull, I worked my way up to squat atg but I mainly did it with reducing weight, squatting with paused at the bottom but I will add those exercices to maintain and improve mobility and flexibility.
It would be cool to see you do a vid with Clarence and Hadyn Wiseman.
Have you watched the old stuff?
@@Morpheah Yeah, but I haven't seen one with all three of them together.
Honestly, that hip movement is just your spine going from (slight) overextension to neutral.
I'd expect issues to only arise from flexion. In my totally unqualified opinion.
Yes, most people freaking out about buttwink just have massively overextended lumbars all the time and they flex to neutral when squatting. And they get lumbar pain from basically doing hyperextensions with every squat rep, not because they're going into dangerous lumbar flexion. And they try to fix it by arching their back even harder, making things worse, when instead they should be learning how to start with and maintain a neutral lumbar.
If you've been in a physiotherapy clinic, you've probably seen an ankle dorsiflexion wedge, a piece of wood that has an incline so you can stretch a stiff and recovering ankle. If you have a basic circular saw, and some screws, you can make your own for less than 10$. Your ankles will thank you !
if greg Doucette said you need oxygen to live i'd hold my breath.
The sarcasm is strong in this one
The ultimate test is 4 time Olympic World Champ Jerzy Gregorek’s Olympic Flexibility test. Eventually there should be no butt wink at all. Look him up on TH-cam where he performs his squat flexibility test. Good stuff.
Some people have never had to shit in a hole in the forest, and it shows.
na people just sit all day at their jobs then go home and watch tv for the rest of the night.
Great video. Is it just me or does it appear that the bar is ahead of your COM in that last frame of the bottom of the back squat... maybe it’s just the camera angle.
Deep squat might be the single most beneficial exercise for overall health. Weight will obviously be much less than half squat. I might even say weight is not all that important, especially if you squat ass-to-grass and try to explode up.
The hip abductor thing is pretty important imo cause while I was running an 800 for track I pulled them or messed them up somehow and the PT guy said it was because my legs were fine going front to back but they were weak side to side which caused me to hurt them on the last corner
Hey mr. Zack, i wanted to ask if a person can train powerlifting and weightlifting at the same time.
You can do anything, but you probably won’t be able to maximize performance in either of them if that is your goal.
Look into “super training total “ I think that is the combo of training all of them . I wanna say max aita (juggernaut training ) has a program to train this .
Chen Wei-ling did!
I had a crushed tibial plateau and I’d love to be able to atg squat. 😞
When your warmup takes a full hour.
And the session is 2 and a half hours
Powerlifters
Not if you put the iPhone down.
Kevin R. 😂
@@rutatutut Facts man lool.
What if I tall squat very high? My elevation just keeps rising with no stoppage.
I wonder if warming up with flats is relevant
Jesus, the video I need. The problem is that, my ankle can not perform well dorsi flexión because of past injuries (left). It is a pain when I try it, literally. What do you recommend?
how long does it usually take for that hip mobility to develop? been training my sister to sit in a squat (general health reasons) and idk if should be pushing her more or need more patience with it
I highly doubt that if you are struggling with generating new content, trying to force a video a day will end well, to be completely honest. You have a diverse channel you’ve built here and if you want to add in some videos working off subscriber input that sounds good too. But I would say you are overthinking.
Great video thanks.
yes. and the community pretty much always will say they prefer more quantity, so polls are kind of useless as marketing tools haha
Only 4 views? I'm early
What is wrong with flaring out your toes?
@zacktelander This is a great video and excellent advice, thank you. I am going to reduce weight and work on form to get all this right. 💪 🏋♂️
Think I'm gonna rework my leg day
The only thing that works for me is actually squatting with weight and waiting for my body to adapt.
Greg Doucette also looks like he doesn't have the greatest form in his video. Looks like he's losing tension in his abdomen and almost curling forward at the bottom of his deep squat.
@Christopher Huber Yeah but who squats on a smith machine? I mean it's no wonder he has poor form. Not everything Greg says is right and people need to understand that.
joel seedman fuming right now
This video is insanely useful, I literally have my foot stuck in plantar flexion and my dorsiflexion is literally my standing position, I cannot go farther than this and all the things you mention in this video help immensely for deep squats for a person like myself. Thank you.
You sound like me!! I've worked on my ankle mobility for life and they just don't move. But if i spend a good 30mins before squatting they at least feel like they won't break lol 😆
tfw greg just said ''dont do it'