0.57823m/s.
0.57823m/s.
Fast enough to get a stretch reflex, slow enough to control.
@CoachWolf: No, it's 0.57823546 m/s. It's important to be precise in order to ensure optimum gainzzz.
True. I stand corrected.
OP - what Herbison said: under control so at no point is the weight dictating the speed or direction of anything - you're in charge even on the eccentric portion, similar to driving down a steep downhill - you don't let the car go freefall, you ride the brake to stay at the speed you want. YOU'RE STILL THE DRIVER, on eccentric. I see a lot of people screw this up. Mostly by dive bombing the descent, thinking the bar is the driver on the way down and the lifter on the way up. No. Lifter is the driver on both parts, just that the lifter lets gravity do most of the work on the way down, but continues to exert enough control that he is still the driver.
Occasionally I see people going too slow on the eccentric, but this is rare.
Very well could be - it's a pretty common error. Exert control, without going slow.
I recently caught myself rushing a little bit at the start of my squats. Two cues that I've found helpful are "be deliberate," and "go down strong." (Yeah, yeah, "go down," hahaha.) I think that thinking "slow" can make you hesitant, which you don't want. You want to actively descend, with a purpose, and in complete control.
I forgot to mention the other helpful thing I figured out. I realized that I was failing to fully shove my knees out at the start of the rep. I had always had this still photo image in my head of the knees properly shoved out down at the very bottom of the squat, and I guess I didn't actively work at shoving them out until I was about halfway down. I find that really shoving them out hard from the very beginning of the rep makes everything that much tighter, which makes it a little harder to sort of passively drop down.
If you've had me as your staff on the squat platform, you've heard my "gym is a place where having a slight case of OCD pays off," lecture.
The gym is one of the few places in the world where there are few / no variables that are not in control of the person doing the exercise. The load is symmetrical, and a known weight. Everything else is consistent, too, as long as the lifter applies dedication to making it that way, before each set, and before each rep.