Btm position squats...

[Hazerboy]

After my regular working sets of 5 of squats I'll usually do some bottom position singles. For instance yesterday I did two working sets of 285, then 5 progressively harder singles starting from the bottom position. These are HARD, though I really like them - you ahve to bee extremly tight to complete the lift.

My question, however, is why my top poundage for bottom position singles (260!) is so much lower than my max squat (somewhere around 340-350) and even less than my working sets of 5. I will admit that I am a bit tired after my regular working sets, and I set the pins a few inches below parrallel, but taking those considerations aside, does the stretch reflex really play that big of a role??

[BigCorey75]

its the loading affect.


your muscles are like a spring, when you lower the weight your muscles can store the kinetic energy to help you rebound back upwards, working from bottom position is just starting the muscle stretched with out the stored energy, and its all leg power against the inertia of the bar,


thats why they are harder


when i could squat 600 pounds (going to return hopefully when my back gets back healthy) my max bottom position squat was around 450

[Dinosaur]

Good call on doing those, you'll notice some big gains in your squatting.

[JHolmes145]

can someone explain how to these from a power rack, my gym doesnt have a cage

[Dinosaur]

Just set the bar up so whenever you get under it, you'll already be parallel or below parallel. Then get under the sucker, tense up, and stand up.