Paused Squats for Form Work Only

[Bluntschli]

In the paused squat thread on Rip's forum, someone linked an article with the following quote:

This is something that I really employ due to the fact when you “pause” a squat in the hole you can never be out of position. Your body will find its strongest balance point, and if practiced enough you will learn to find that “spot” every time you squat.

I have had a lot of trouble lately with my squats, and I believe a lot of it has to do with form at the bottom (knee travel, back angle and a lot of the other stuff mentioned here recently). I am wondering if you guys think doing some paused squats would be a useful to to help correct some of these form issues as described in the quote? If so, would you just add pauses to some of your warmups (which ones), or add them in some other way?

Thanks.

Boring background: I started SS almost a year ago, and squat went up on a regular basis. However, I was grossly overweight (have lost 50 pounds since September) and I was GMing some of the reps. I went into maintenance mode (my work sets were 265 w/o a belt, I dropped down to 235 with no increases) in order to concentrate on losing the weight. Somewhere in there I also had an injury to my sacral region. Now, almost a year later, lifting 185 results in a ton of GMing, especially if I don't use a belt (I started using it after the injury). I think I basically went from having beginner's, not over-thinking it, not having learned the wrong way good form, to over-thinking it and complicating everything (and probably subconsciously trying to protect my lower back). I used TUBsOW last workout. They did help, but did not completely solve the GM issue. Thanks for reading.

[Tom Campitelli]

I don't know that paused squats are going to save you. Your problem seems to be with the ascent that turns into a good morning. If you are doing more of a good morning at 185 at a normal male bodyweight, you need to learn to squat correctly before worrying about a paused version. Video would help. What do you weigh now?

Here's the awful truth - squatting is difficult. It requires a lot of effort to hold shit together at weight and no amount of assistance work will make up for good, solid, controlled reps done with good form. Find a weight that you can squat correctly and build on it from there.

[Bluntschli]

Sorry, since I wasn't really looking for a form check, I didn't have a video ready. Here's one, it's really horrible but it was taken for my own use, not with the intent to post here:

http://youtu.be/o-nmAkWISt4#t=0m18s

I'm 5' 10" and currently 242, 43 years old.

[Leah Lutz]

Here's the awful truth - squatting is difficult. It requires a lot of effort to hold shit together at weight and no amount of assistance work will make up for good, solid, controlled reps done with good form. Find a weight that you can squat correctly and build on it from there.

I just love this! I'm saving this for my next bad squat day.

[Steve Hill]

I wish to comment on this quote:

This is something that I really employ due to the fact when you “pause” a squat in the hole you can never be out of position. Your body will find its strongest balance point, and if practiced enough you will learn to find that “spot” every time you squat.

From this article.

Now, I'm not anywhere near as strong as the author, but that does not make him right. I can pause in any number of positions down in the hole. Which one is the "right" one? And I I demonstrate several, doesn't that mean that his supposition (that one can ONLY pause in the correct position) is wrong?

I think that the author may be mistaking his ability to repetitively assume the same bottom position in a paused squat as he does in a raw and/or geared squat (which lifts he has performed tens of thousands of times) as an inability to assume any other.

[hamburgerfan]

Now, I'm not anywhere near as strong as the author, but that does not make him right. I can pause in any number of positions down in the hole. Which one is the "right" one? And I I demonstrate several, doesn't that mean that his supposition (that one can ONLY pause in the correct position) is wrong?

With how much weight? It would be a lot easier to pause in a bad position with a light weight than with a challenging one.

I don't do a lot of pause squats, but I think it's worth considering.

[Steve Hill]

With how much weight? It would be a lot easier to pause in a bad position with a light weight than with a challenging one.

I don't do a lot of pause squats, but I think it's worth considering.

I think you need to think about this more. Define a "bad position" and a "good position."

[Les Hahn]

TS, I am not sure what program you are running now (assuming not SS, since you ran it for year), but you could do paused squats on your lighter day if you wanted to try them out. I would still keep doing normal squats on your heavy day. Either way, you are going to have to retrain your mechanics a little bit for your normal squats.

So keep going heavy, even if it is less reps than 5. Better to do a few really good squats than to let your form go and get sloppy at the end. I retrained my squat pattern doing singles and doubles on my heavy day. When I started they were nowhere near my real max, but I ramped them up every week. Focus on keeping near perfect form.

For paused squats, I wouldn't go over 3 reps, so if you want it to be a volume day type lift, you might have to do 6x3 or something like that. Here too, focus on keeping solid form. I GM badly at times, so my cues are head up, chest up. This seems to keep my back angle steady, instead of having my ass rise faster than my chest. My head is actually in a neutral position looking forward. Looking down didn't help me a lot. So don't be afraid to modify technique to make this happen.

Stay tight in the bottom! I think the biggest culprit for me is getting loose a little in the bottom to catch a bigger bounce. Even if you train paused squats, if you don't fix this, you are still going to be GMing a lot. I haven't seen you squat, but if you are doing that, work on that as well.

Really there is no downside to doing the paused squats. A lot of lifters have said they help (pro's, good lifters here, etc.) so why not do them. Even if they don't do a lot for you, then you will know more about what works/doesn't work for you in the future.

[Tom Campitelli]

The OP did not do Starting Strength for a year and squat 185 at a bodyweight of 242, nor is there a reason for paused squats or programming complexity. Instead, Mr. Blunt just needs to learn to squat.

You are already looking up, so I would suggest looking down instead and keeping your chin down for the duration of the lift. Your big problem and the reason your squat turns into a good morning is because you relax on your ascent and let the bar move further and further forward of the midfoot as the set progresses. Your first rep, where you descend a little more slowly looks okay, albeit lacking some hip drive. From there, things fall apart. Find a weight where you can squat correctly for a set of five. Control your descent and focus on keeping the bar over the midfoot the whole time. You must stay tight for the duration of the set and fight the tendency to shoot your knees back, flex your spine, and rock on to your toes. Think "heels."

[Gunnhild Bruno]

Disclaimer : I am not on seminar staff. Perhaps it would be helpful if seminar staff were identified as such under their names to avoid confusion in this section if the forum?
Or I could just avoid posting here, which I'm happy to do if it makes things messy.


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I just wanted to remind the OP that reversing the movement, proper use of the stretch reflex/bounce, and keeping everything tight and in the right place through this point in the movement are actually key form aspects of the squat. Why try to fix one's squat using a method (pause or "dead" squats) that does not train and reinforce this crucial part of the movement?


Not to mention that Steve is absolutely correct: it us entirely possible to settle in an incorrect position when pausing at the bottom . It's super easy to end up in a position that let's slacks onto the hamstrings and slides a lot of stuff forward of its correct position. I actually think too much time playing around with paused squats back before I'd been introduced to Rip's training philosophy helped ingrain some bad habits that I still struggle with today.