Pause squat ?

[Nockian]

On light squat day I decided to do pause squats. Next day and the day after my quads were sore as hell. Are pause squats more a form of isolation exercise ?

[Brodie Butland]

Interesting...I did not have this same experience. DOMS is associated with eccentric movement--so my best guess is because you had to slow down the descent (to pause) in a way that you haven't had to before, DOMS resulted from the eccentric movement where you had to engage your quads. But that's the best I can pull from between my glutes.

[Nockian]

Interesting...I did not have this same experience. DOMS is associated with eccentric movement--so my best guess is because you had to slow down the descent (to pause) in a way that you haven't had to before, DOMS resulted from the eccentric movement where you had to engage your quads. But that's the best I can pull from between my glutes.

I use the reflex bounce to get out of the hole on a normal squat. I try to drop slower for the first part of the descent then more quickly towards the end. Where as, with the pause squat I was slowing all the way to the bottom before stopping. Quite pleased a could easily hold a below parallel squat with 85% of by 5RM - makes me very curious to why I can't squat far more than my current number.

[ChasingCurls69]

The pause squat being a novel stimulus may play a part in it too, and it may be correcting form errors from the main squat that had your quads do more work than usual (if you have knee slide in your squat the quads extend the knee without moving the bar, for example). My pause squat has also been weirdly close to my regular squats in weight.

[Sean Herbison]

All those may be true, but I'd check video if you have it, and compare your paused to non-paused squats. My guess would be that you settled in further than you normally do, and pushed the knees forward more, possibly quite a bit more.

[Nockian]

Ive come up with a theory for me:

I've been using my back too much as the weight has increased. The result is I'm not training my legs properly and hence my quads are relatively weak. The result has been a sore lower back through over use. I've wondered if this is a result of having a long leg, to body ratio ? My body being relatively light has meant, with normal everyday things, I could get away with less leg effort ?

If I'm right, then is there any benefit from increasing volume at lower weights to promote leg hyper trophy before stepping back to progression.

I know I've read that volume is a killer for us older dudes 57 almost 58, but could it help to push progress a bit further ?

Today I managed 3x5 on squats @ 165 but I was fighting every step of the way and strained something in my left calf.

[Adam Skillin]

I've been using my back too much as the weight has increased. The result is I'm not training my legs properly and hence my quads are relatively weak.

How is your back responsible for extending your knees (or hips)?

[Marenghi]

Its not, but I think what he wanted to hint at is: He has a long legs/short torso ratio. That means his trunk generally is leaned over more. Add to that a low bar squat, in which the trunk is ...generally leaned over more, that makes it pretty hard for the back to hold the position isometrically. Add to that a bit shorter ROM in the back squat and it can very well mean the quads are a bit less trained than possible (with other body proportions/squat variety), because the low back may limit training frequency and/or volume.

So Nockian, you can simply continue and your back will grow stronger over time enabling more load for your quads eventually. I recommend uploading a video as Sean said to confirm good technique.

You can also try to squat a bit more quad-dominant in the low bar squat (however, theres not much leeway).

And of course you can include a high bar back squat, single leg squat, front squat, depending on your goals and ressources.

[poser]

I did pause squats on Medium day of HLM for 6 weeks and never noticed any quad soreness. I found myself focused more so on hip drive and getting even tighter in the core than normal.

[Nockian]

How is your back responsible for extending your knees (or hips)?

Good point. Makes me wonder why I'm using my back at all if my legs are doing all the work ? Bang goes that theory. I will get the video up by the end of the week. My back, hips and glutes felt so knackered on Friday I had to take the day off from training, which helped me do better today - got the 165 3x5 squats; 245 1x5 dead; 132 bench 3x5 all new PRs