Originally Posted by
Leon K
Great read, enjoyed it very much, especially the part where you explain the mechanics. Thank you.
I find that many people, when discussing squat variants, are too hung up on absolute numbers. (Everything from here on is oblivious to the fact, that different type of squats work different muscles.)
We are not trying to asses who is the strongest, our goal is to get stronger. So absolute numbers don’t matter (to an extent), the change of those numbers matter.
You write “If someone told you that you could increase your strength without any additional time in the gym or adjustments to your current programming, wouldn’t you be interested?”
I would argue that your strength did not change. Nothing changed biologically that would increase your ability to produce force. The only thing that did change was mechanics and levers, as you outlined very nicely. The ability to produce the force needed was there all along. Lets take your hypothetical male who High Bars 375 and Low Bar Squats 400. Lets presume he only High Bar Squats for 4months and gets up to a High Bar Squat of 400 and increases his Low Bar by 10lbs. He got stronger by 25lbs. If instead, he only Low Bar Squatted for 4 months and now Squats 425lbs and 385, he also got stronger by 25lbs.
The Low Bar Squat is only superior in terms of building strength, if you can increase the weight faster on a low bar squat than you can on a high bar squat. However I lack the experience and the knowledge to know the answer to that question.
Just something I thought of while reading the article, have a great weekend!