deep squat question

[wolfman87]

when you do deep squats (ass as far down as possible) do you keep your heels on the ground or let them come up a little? i've always tried to keep them down but i saw a guy doing them with plates underneath his heels.

idk if he had to do this due to an injury or if it's a legitimate way of doing it. can yall set me straight on this please, it's been buggin me.

 

[cmarcell]

My heels sometimes lift off of the ground. It seems that if you keep them on the ground your quads are used more to push the weight back up, and if they are off, your calves get more in the mix. But I could be completely wrong.

 

[SaiBoT]

It's a matter of flexibility if you can't squat all the way down your heels will raise by themselves otherwise you will lose balance or injure yourself. Placing the plates under the heels will help with the flexibility issues and place more emphasis on your quads and not so much on hips and glutes.

If you ask me I prefer doing squats without plates, all the way down and being so demanding I ain't looking for emphasis on any specific area so for squats I use everything I got, full throtle and flexibility it's something you can work on.

 

[DaveTSI]

when you do deep squats (ass as far down as possible) do you keep your heels on the ground or let them come up a little? i've always tried to keep them down but i saw a guy doing them with plates underneath his heels.

idk if he had to do this due to an injury or if it's a legitimate way of doing it. can yall set me straight on this please, it's been buggin me.

keep your heels on the ground, if your heels are coming off the ground its a problem with your form. You need to sit back more on your decent, this will keep you shins more perpendicular to the ground. This will keep you center of gravity over your heels rather than the balls of your feet. Dont let your knees go out over your toes when you are in the squat position, if they are you are not doing them correctly. Just think sit back, keep shins as close to 90* to the ground as possible. Hope this helps. Ill post a video that may help you understand more.

 

[DaveTSI]

heres a vid of me squatting, note how my first move is my hips breaking back (sitting back), and my shins are completely vertical, all the weight is centered over my heels

 

[wills_got_rythm]

DaveTsi, thats a pretty wide stance you have, I thought that your feet should be just a little past shoulder width, no?

 

[Big_BK]

Alot of power lifters use wide stances like that. I tried it for a while and should probably be going back to it to nail my week hips.

 

[wills_got_rythm]

Alot of power lifters use wide stances like that. I tried it for a while and should probably be going back to it to nail my week hips.

So that stance hits your hips a little more? Other than that why so wide?

 

[OneBreath]

So that stance hits your hips a little more? Other than that why so wide?

Its funny i just posted about this in the DC Widowmaker thread. Dave's hip action is fantastic. He's incorporating a shit ton of ham and glute strength to get that weight up.

You can use this style to work on glutes and hams while moving your feet closer to shoulder width and trying to go deeper will hit quads.

 

[OneBreath]

also wolfman rocking forward on the toes is a big red flag that your knees are going over your toes. Dave called this the 90 degree angle. When you break that angle a lot of pressure goes on your knees. I used to have bad squat form and my knees would ache for days.

Whenever squatting i'm always extremely conscious of form. Always work to make it better. I want to squat for many years to come.