Paused HB squats

[John Bono]

I've been doing paused squats on days in between when I squat heavy(also HB) as a change of pace, and occasionally during warmups for a bit more of a stretch. Last week I did them with a 1 second pause, and yesterday, did them with a 3 second pause(had someone count when I was in the hole, since time seems to move slower with 225 on your back. The increased time really made the lift a lot tougher. Not sure I have a question about them, more would like some feedback about efficacy, programming as an assistance lift, etc.

Thoughts?

[Les Hahn]

I think they are good, especially for raw lifters.

I've used them in the past, and I plan on programming them back in after my vacation. I might do something like HB (or maybe stick with LB) paused squats for volume day, and regular LB squats for intensity day.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

I like them, I do 3-5 second pause at the bottom and try to stand up as quick as possible.

[Tom Narvaez]

I think the primary benefit of paused squats for a raw lifter is the technique improvements they force you to make. I'm sure you could get something out of paused high bar, but unless you always squat high bar, I'd probably stick to my regular form for paused squats. I'm sure there are also people that claim that these help you get out of the hole faster.

[Dastardly]

A real pause, like with concentric squats are brutally hard to do from full depth. It is loads easier to do a regular squat from the top and pause at the bottom, almost incomparable.

[Bazza20]

I've been doing a lot of squats starting from the bottom on the power rack pins and they are hard but have hit some full squat PBs since doing them.

[Carlos Daniel]

I've been doing them fairly regularly lately and I like them. I do them low bar, though.

[250orBust]

I do them on the last rep of my warmup sets just to solidify my bottom position. I use it for technique and stretching purposes more then anything.

[Thomas Jones]

I think the primary benefit of paused squats for a raw lifter is the technique improvements they force you to make.

I was messing around with paused LB squats the other day, and felt that they really force one to emphasize the hip drive correctly. Reading your comment, above, I found myself nodding in agreement.

[Harry Flashman]

We used to do 'sequencing' in rowing - ie, in the boat we'd cut down each movement of the stroke into segments, from 'backstops' to hands away, then pausing before rolling forward, taking the catch, then stopping at backstops. It was a good technique exercise as it encouraged us to deconstruct the movement, and when we resumed ordinary rowing our movements were much more clean. I should think it would be the same for squatting. I would advise using a somewhat lighter weight, mind.