If you think the hack squat is easy, it's because you train like a pussy. I do both back squats and hack squats in my program and nothing hurts more than an actual near failure set on the hack squat.
The only core exercise I might agree is not needed is the flat bench. I do not think you need a flat bench to build a good chest. You need a squatting motion to build good legs and the deadlift, although probably the riskiest, is excellent at building overall strength. Now he said “barbell squat” and to be fair there is a ton of plate loaded or weight stack squatting motions such as pendulum or hack.
The squat is one of the 7 foundational human movement patterns. You don't need to be breaking world records, but you should be doing some variation if you want to be truly strong and capable.
One of the biggest wake up calls you can give someone - do you want to helped on and off the toilet in your later life? No? Then you have to maintain a body weight squat minimum. A loaded barbell will also give you even better core strength to go with it.
The lady watching here. I love squatting even though I was rubbish at it when I learnt the "old way", even though I've done yoga for 20 years and can sit comfortably in a super low body squat for ages. Your techniques make so much more sense and have helped me a lot. No stupid leg presses for me. Barbell all the way!
Heres me spending 20 min of my evening listening to zack explaining every little detail to me like i was a gym newbie, prentending like im actually deeply interested and still really freaking enjoying it! Damn your videos are awesome man. You really have such a talent for wxplaining those things, even to someone who already knows this. KEEP UP YOUR WORK. It seriously enriches my life and lifting experience. Much love from germany
Second this, I really enjoy the sound logic behind your arguments. In general your videos are great refreshers and filled with awesome new knowledge or perspectives. I’m trying to become a weightlifting coach and your content is my blowing to me, the trip to japan was amazing, the visits to the gyms and conversations with the coaches. Top tier weightlifting content, also I’ve noticed how more random people at the gym are bringing up your videos and instagram account 🤙🏻
I'm 6'7" and I went through this journey back in 2008. I lifted with my university's powerlifting club (basically the only people that had access to proper weights) and was told the whole "you should keep your shins as vertical as possible, or at least not let the knees track beyond the toes" thing. No matter how much I tried, I could not go below parallel whilst trying to do that, and I'd end up with a ridiculously horizontal back trying (so basically I was good morninging my squats). Then I started to think about it, I watched some weightlifters squatting (and I'll admit that, a bit like Clarence Kennedy said in your recent video, I just plain thought it looked more cool). I stumbled on an article on ExRx giving a bunch of stretches to improve squatting mobility and after a few months I was squatting hamstrings to calves with a relatively upright torso. Not only did it feel better, not only was it more fun, but after a few months of doing it that way it overtook anything my old, above parallel powerlifting style squat had ever managed. It transformed squatting from an exercise that I hated and feared to one I always look forward to. I'm sure that my build means I'll never squat as much as someone else of a similar weight to me who's built for squatting, but that's fine. I was never going to win any competitions anyway, and am happy to simply compete with myself.
I completed my first 3 sets of 225 for 5 reps yesterday. I know it’s not that much, but it’s a lot more than what I started out squatting. The barbell back squat has become one of my favourite movements now. 🏋🏽♂️
Coaches who say this kind of crap about Squats are overrated ...etc. Those coaches are speaking to those athletes who want to have bigger legs in the main muscle groups AKA Bodybuilders. These people don't want to have a better posture, better weight distribution, or core strength while doing certain movements like the clean and snatch. They simply just want bigger legs.
But most of them don't specify that, rather intentionally I would assume, so they reach a bigger audience. I consider this rather misleading for beginners or recreational lifters (like myself), who can get much more out of their time in the gym than bigger legs, when doing squats.
Back squats are a great way to get bigger legs from a bodybuilding perspective, you just need to modify technique some in most cases. Platz squats are a great place to start. If you're really strong and don't want as much systemic fatigue, you can pre-fatigue the quads with leg extensions. The raw stimulus magnitude of a deep back squat with a controlled eccentric can't really be overstated. In my observation, it's a minority of people who perform them correctly for hypertrophy. People are too ego driven (want to horse weights at all times) and don't like doing squats in the hypertrophy range.
@@jballs1879he forgot to tell you, theres a difference between aesthetics body building bs vs high performance athletes including amateurs. Thats the big difference. Body building pussy can have big legs from doing leg press but can they do athletic stuff that a high performance athletes do? Mostly those aesthetics vanity bs cannot even run, swim to save their lives.
I FUCKING LOVE THIS VIDEO More info like this is needed for the “long femur community” For years I believed ankle mobility was the problem. Felt bad my squat didn’t look like others. FINALLY, I realized I was anatomically different than most people squatting around me. Learning about the femur length was a game changer.
Hey dude, as someone with a degree in sports science and one in osteopathy I completely agree with you. From both an athletic and a health perspective, achieving a deep squat is very desirable. I'm 6'3" and do weightlifting. I love your channel, great content! Writing this comment from a deep squat.
I'm 5'7 with long femurs and a bad dorsiflexion, and during years I thought I was just not built to do backsquats. Now, using the zercher as a first approach (as it is less limitating mobility-wise) and the 5 minute squat routine from Zack, I can backsquat with a nice technique, front squat and do olympic weightlifting. And it is a good circle: now I feel strong and never had such mobility. It feels so great. I PR'ed just today and hope I'll be able to squat more in the future!
I feel you Zach! I'm 6'3" with a 6'8" wingspan. Very long femurs, my wife is 5'2" and when we sit at a table we are eye level lol! I just started taking legs very seriously and fell in love with the squat. Past four months went from 255 1RM to 365 1RM! It took a lot of ankle and hip mobility and finding my proper foot placement. I take so much pride in my form that people come up to me and ask advice all the time at my Crunch gym. Thanks for your content, it has helped tremendously.
The phrase which comes to my mind is ‘physical literacy’. Knowing your squat inside out through various stances, tempos, type of squat etc contributions greatly to your understanding of your own body and mechanics. I think approaching the squat with a white belt mentality for 10 years plus is some of the best training you can do.
I started by just doing pause squats, with just 135 and going and sitting in the bottom for about as long as I could stand it, and then exploding upwards as fast as possible. To me, this is WAY more engaging than just doing the typical slow eccentric/concentric squatting movement. Plus, you can only do long pause squats with much less than your 1RM, so it's near impossible to get "stuck" anywhere...unless you stay in the bottom position for like 5 minutes lol
I've been considering dropping the barbell back squat all together because its by far my worst lift and I am not built for it but this video has inspired me to approach it in a different way. thank you for the inspiration.
I am 6ft 4 as well and mostly leg. I started out in HS doing back squats with foot ball where were taught nothing and had a bad time doing them. I had that same reasoning that it wasn’t for me and just tried to use leg machines to get strong. It didn’t work and I went back to squats. The purpose of strength training isn’t too “build muscle” that’s just a form of reasoning to excuse your self from learning new movements and giving hard effort. The purpose of strength training is to load normal human movement patterns in progressive way. As side effect muscles are built bigger and performance in life and sports improve. Another big thing is you have to learn something you’ve never done. In squatting my two biggest places I learned form was from Starting Strength and Zack both have changed my training immeasurably. Learning that science and every picky little detail from SS and then learning to just sit in a deep squat from Zack has improved my mobility, strength, and performance by leaps and bounds.
Loved the leg press machine. Couldnt squat because of lower back pain. My trainer told me i had lower back pain because I didnt squat... Started to squat - back pain gone. He was right!
I was the gym bro doing 405 lbs + partial squats like you did in the beginning. I finally decided to actually do them correctly in full range of motion and had to back all the way down to 135 lbs. Couple years later, I just hit 430 lbs last week for a single. One of the best things i've done was deciding to find a way to get into that bottom position and then just stand up. Great video and educational information that will hopefully help many people!!
I have really long femurs (I'm 6'2") and absolutely love back squatting. I started doing them 13 years ago when I started weightlifting and they have never given me issues. No excuses
Zack. My main COMPLAINT about this video and i'm pretty sure coach Greg has pointed it out before is that the squat is sport specific. Bodybuilding coaches like Greg Doucette primarily focus on bodybuilding techniques, which may not always align with powerlifting or weightlifting practices. As someone who has been working on addressing buttwink for quite some time, I have found machines to be superior for my needs and that of teenagers (Greg's main audience). They are beginner-friendly, safer, and require fewer stabilizers, enabling me to focus on the mind-muscle connection. Additionally, I've noticed that squats have contributed to an undesirable increase in my waist size. I agree with you that kinesthetic awareness and proprioception are vital for proper squat technique. However, I think these aspects can be challenging for an online coach to teach effectively, especially to a large audience of teenagers who might not have sufficient experience or guidance. Safety is paramount, and improper squatting technique could lead to injuries if not properly addressed(if you're lifting self-taught, which almost all bodybuilding teenagers do) My argument is that while the squat may be enjoyable and beneficial for you, it might not be equally beneficial for everyone, particularly in sports or activities where it is not a primary requirement. For instance, for bodybuilders or those focusing on aesthetics, other exercises and techniques may be more suitable and yield better results. This video to me seems like you just want everyone to squat because YOU think it's cool. This video seems incredibly bias and I still don't understand why EVERYONE needs to learn the squat. I love the squat but you really don't need it.
Your squat routine got me from falling with a 15 lb snatch to a 120 lb snatch in 6 months. I'm a first yr crossfit, never used weights. 5'3" and all your advice still helped all my lifts
@@daniel1RM it wasn't that the weight wasn't coming up. I couldn't balance at the bottom. After the 5 minute squat I was able to balance the weight at the bottom and keep better form. It was never a strength issue. I had a mobility issue. Now I can lift a more appropriate weight for me because I don't have a mobility limitation
I love this video. Being able to back squat and perform the weightlifting movements gives so much bang for the buck for giraffes like us. Very much appreciate your open-minded and respectful discussion, and your points are not only correct but they are right.
I just love the passion you show for your work and that is exactly what makes you different from every other coach or something. You are not selling a product, you are showing what you love and you have had showed it long enough to live from it. You totally deserved it!!!
One of your best flowing videos ever dude! I have no problems squatting and I watched the whole thing because time flew by. I know you've said before that you kind of write a script for your videos and this was so well "written." Awesome stuff man, this stuff will help a lot of people!
I'm 6'7" and since taking time off from lifting in the pandemic have had a really hard time squatting without beating my joints up. Tried this methodology yesterday (found a solid bottom position holding a post then worked up to a paused single) and today is the best my joints have felt in years. This video is solid gold
Great video Zack! As a 20 year old I started doing back squats in september. I fell in love with it instantly as I followed your instructions how to do it properly. I'm 6'2 with long legs so I needed time to build up the mobility for it, but truly it's my favorite excersice since then. It helped me a lot not only with my legs, but with my lower back as it was weak. It strengthened my lower back to the point that I could stand and dance through a concert, walk a lot with a backpack without any back pain. Obviously other excercises helped too, but the BS was one of the main exercises that helped my overall strength. Since then I can hit a 90 kg set, and if I would have the time or consistency I would be around 110 kg probably. Thanks to you Zack! I love your videos!
I have bad leverages for the squat, im a very leggy individual. But I believed and still believe that it was extremely valuable. Lifters like you and GVS having similar proportions to me I've spent the last 8 months addressing limitations, learning how to squat, and just doing anything I can to really understand and benefit from the movement. It finally clicked recently and its insane how great the movement feels when finally getting it. Honestly, it was extremely gratifying getting it. I have to drop my weight tremendously to rebuild properly, but working at the squat until you get it is possible for anyone. Lots of my issues with my mobility were injury based and I was physically unable to squat for a long time. But it IS possible and this movement IS insane. I've never felt quad stimulation like this in my life. I dont know why coaches wouldn't want someone to take the time to learn how to squat right, but whatever. Glad you're pushing against the grain.
The same reason body builders don’t do deadlifts from the floor . The stimulus to fatigue is so bad . You can spend an hour trying to squat in a rack and feel it correctly , and get one movement in, Or you can bang jack squats , Lunges , extensions and hamstring curls all in the same time. Who is going to be more jacked , If your goal is to powerlift sure go head, but if the goal is growth there’s no reason to fight with this specific exercise
So i injured myself badly in Muay Thai and I have not been able to back squat since. It just creates odd pains loading my spine, but I still front squat, goblet squat, knees over toes split squat, and hack squat. All of these feel amazing and I am working toward backsquatting again. Couldn’t kick without my whole leg going numb for years, but the above listed exercises with some weightlifting shoes have allowed me to not have to worry about any of the numbness or pain. Built up to a 285 front squat and 180x8 top set for goblet and feel healthier than I have in years, squatting is the key and it heals. As always, appreciate your insight Zack.
Thank you for making this video dude. Your early videos are what helped me to understand that even as a Gumby man, squatting deep and heavy are possible. It makes me sad to think there are people convincing viewers they shouldn’t or don’t need to squat.
Said it before, I'll say it again. You are my absolute favorite fitness content creator. A man of my own heart. The music, the perspective on fitness, everything. Cheers Zack
Zack is 100% correct on this topic based on my own experience. I’m just over 6’6” and didn’t start squatting atg until i was 40 years old. I had to start from scratch and greatly improve my mobility but it’s totally possible with the right knowledge and progressions
As someone who has a stupidly bad femur to torso ratio, ATG squats are one of my favourite exercises I use lifting shoes to help keep an upright torso, but there’s nothing better for overall leg development than ATG squats, regardless of your leverages. 1:301:30
people just don't get that, over time any kind of anatomy adapts to any kind of movement over time. And there are insane benefits to that. Also the longer the femur - the more time to ascend - which means more time under tension translating to higher muscle mass!
@@arulkumaran4674 Correct. Whilst my 1RM low bar is only 315 (ATG and beltless), my legs are waaaay bigger than when I used to do powerlifting depth using a belt and was hitting 385-395lbs consistently.
I found your channel 2+ years ago due to this very topic (being 6'5). Great that you revisited it in a clear no nonsense walkthrough. Great work thanks
That explanation was spot on !!!!! Thanks Zack, I was reassessing my leg workout day and considering 'upping' my leg press and 'downing' my back squats....this explanation will help me stay focused on longevity as I age.
While I completely agree with Zack there are some things I would add to his statements: 1. Having long femur is not the problem exactly, but the proportion of a long femur with sorther tibia. (IT CAN ALSO BE FIXED WITH PRACTICE AND MOBILITY EXERCICES SHOWED IN THIS VIDEO) 2. Zack has the longest femurs you can find in a gym, but the relation femur/tibia looks like a 1:1 because he also has long ass tibias. No intent to hate with this coment, It's just my physiotherapist/personal trainer picky personality. And before people jump on me, all my clients learn to do high bar back squats and most of them get really good at it! Keep up with the work Zack, I love your videos!
good take on this. as a long femur lifter myself it's advice I just recently (in the last 2 years of a ten + years of lifting) put into practice myself through a long learning process of my own movement patterns (rather than just asking someone for help like I could have) it really makes a big difference. Also as someone who fought wearing anything like lifters or belt, etc for a long time and now uses both, those are not cheating they are simply tools that can help lifters of different body types achieve more advantageous leverages when nature maybe dealt us a tougher hand than the 5'5" lifter that walks on and lifts 200 kilos with like 3 months of training. Using tools like lifters and bealt help me to use exercises like back squats etc, to get the best leg workouts I've ever had without the collateral damage I used to feel like knee pain and back pain, etc.
I really needed to see this. Not because I'm avoiding the back squat but because I'm currently learning it. I want to get good at it and while I've heard people with long femurs (I'm 6'2) can have problems with it I don't think I'm one. I can get into that position and free stand. My problem is my hips shooting up and I'm turning it into a squat morning. I know I'm doing this so I'm backing the weight off and practicing. I put weight on just to see what it feels like to have that on my back (it's not much but some). This video helped a LOT. Thank you!
Dude I love this so much. As a fellow tall guy (6’3”) with long femurs who loves squatting I hate when coaches have this take. Your “motion capabilities” (made up phrase btw) can be expanded!! Thanks for the great content Zack!
Genuinely one of the best videos I’ve seen on the squat in a long time ❤Really reassuring to know that for a lot of people out there where even just sitting in a squat can be difficult and it’s not just intuitive movement! being able to squat is a skill like any other, that you need to learn !
So simple no long explanation. Every other video seems to focus on geting the weight up and you sir made it easy to see that its about gettin the weight to the bottom. I actually bought a leg press because I just sucked at squat. Now watching our ideo I'll be getting some squats on. Awsome.
Zack, hi! I've been doing weightlifting for about two years now and during that time I've grown very fond of atg squats, despite my tall height (6 ft) and leg length. What you say in the video (especially atg squats with a pause) are super correct approaches that I have also developed with my own experience. Thank you so much for the video!
Folks are looking for an easy way; strength doesn't come easy tho, demands learning and understanding you body; thank you brother for doing what you do. I hope you read this.
For the average person, aka 90% of people, nothing beats the squat for leg development. And MOST, if not all, of these coaches throwing shade on squats, built the bulk of their leg mass with it.
Great video Zack! I can’t stand hearing these “coaches” say people Shouldn’t squat. I started over a year ago doing your five minute squat routine. It was HARD I had been a low back back squatter for years. My squat looked awful and leaned forward. Barely hitting parallel. But now I have a great ATG squat even with long femurs!
Thank you Zach for your videos. I went on a 7 year hiatus from proper weightlifting. I started filming myself to see my technical flaws. I realized I am long femured athlete. I still got a lot more work to do and I may not be lifting over 315 lb for reps yet. I have however beat my life time 10RM of 265 for 275 and I did both for sets and reps. I also hit 330 for the first time since 2015. Also a lifetime 5rm of 305. Prior to this I had never done anything over 285 for multiple reps. All of this with no discomfort nor pain!
Cool video! The barbell back squat is one of my favourite exercises and I always found it odd that people online give it so much hate. Just do it with good form and less weight, or if you have an injury do something easier. I just love how it fucking crushes your legs, I love doing it before deadlifting.
Long femur/ short torso guy. I've been squatting low bar for 7 years with back pain until i had enough of it and decided not to squat anymore. Then I saw Clarence Kennedys deep squat and decided to try it out. It took me 4-5 training sessions to find position that feels comfortable, and now it's my favorite movement in the gym. Zero pain.
I think you did such a good job with making the barbell back squat more accessible with this video. Thank you! Trainers need to help lower the barrier to entry to lifting, not increase it.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the effort bit at the end. Simply put, it's hard haring a coach say "try this for 10 years and see where that takes you" after asking how do I progress in the Barbell Squat. Willpower and discipline always outweigh a quick fix. That's why the people talk about that effort being too much, will never stay consistent. The essence of your message is 100% right. Also, don't use an outlier to prove a rule.
I’m no where near as tall as you, Zach, but I’m also no Eoin! I’m not really “built for squatting” but seeing you squat heavy, meant I never doubted my ability to squat - I was aware that I just needed to find the right technique for my morphology. I do love weightlifting, so I do love me an ATG back squat. The only thing I love more than that, is an ATG front squat! I’m aware that’s weird to most people, but who cares what most people think? You do, Zach - and you try to change what they think, and that’s what keeps me coming back here!
I’ve been doing your 5 minute squat for 3-4 weeks now. I do them in 1 minute sets and then I will extend the time in less sets. I’m 42 so I start pretty stiff but loosen up and all is good. My mobility was terrible but has become a lot better doing this exercise. My back squat technique is 10 times better than before. Your videos are great! Thank you
Lady here! This was insanely motivating as someone teaching themselves barbell movements from ground 0. Thank you Zach! (Love the zelda music at the end too)
Thank you for inspiring me to keep improving my technique and mobility! About a year ago I was ready to give up on squatting since I do have longer femurs and not so great mobility. Everyone made it sound so disheartening, that Id have to use powerlifting shoes only, or alternative variations instead of a regular squat. But I worked on being in a squat more often and was able to make a ton of progress ❤ Id still say its my weakest move for my size (and that Im a woman so I acknowledge my upper body is always gonna lag). But Im happy with where Im getting to
And people look at me funny when I recommend they do "Pin (Overhead sometimes) Squats" to help with their overall mobility and bottom position at the commercial gym I go to... xD Great vid! Nothing I didn't know before but you reaaaally demonstrated the gymbro mentality so well.
When did Jeff Cavaliere have this take?? He has repeatedly said, as far as I can recall, that the squat is one of the best exercises you can do to develop the entirety of the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex. Since when did he say it was overrated or overhyped?
With all due respect, the people with qualifications in biometrics that say squats aren’t a good exercise for people with long femurs are correct, you are not. You don’t have long femurs in RELATION TO YOUR TORSO. When you are in the bottom squat position, I can see your shoulders protrude past your knees - your knees look like they could comfortably tuck into your armpits. When I am in that position, my knees protrude past my shoulders because my femurs are long in relation to my torso. It’s even more obvious when I am in a class and we all do child’s post - everyone else’s knees sit at or behind their armpits, my knees are slightly past the top of my shoulders. When back squatting, your femurs essentially put your butt so far back and your torso has to be long enough to lean forward to bring the bar back over the middle of your foot. My torso is to short to achieve that thus the weight of the bar sits behind my heel. To make it worse I’m female so have more weight in the hips/butt than a man so there is even more weight distributed behind my heels. All the weight sitting behind your heels literally pulls me backwards off balance. I have worked with an osteopath (ie expert in biomechanics) who specialises in correcting movement patterns and even with him increasing my ranges of motion, etc, we concluded squats aren’t a good exercise for me. Goblet squats are doable but am limited by how much weight I can hold in my hands, I can scrape by with back squats with a wider stance and toes out but still struggle with those (ie cannot achieve “good form”.
You're absolutely right, it not about femur length but it's the relation to the torso. As a 5'10" male with crazy long femurs and short torso who lifts for almost 7 years but still struggles to squat 225 for a few clean reps despite having great ankle mobility, done basically everything but my squat hasn't improved, it's a shame because my deadlift 1rm is 515bs and I can bench 300 pounds any day.
Squat is a great exercise. Honestly, I have more beef with the deadlift exercise because that's what caused me some small issues with my back. But squats are fantastic. And I play volleyball and hike lots. Definitely can see that power transfer.
6’4” guy. While I think you’re right that anyone could gain tremendously from back squatting and learn if approached properly, I don’t hate the “it’s not necessary for beginners”. A lot of newbie advice is “go to failure” but with the squat in the usual, 5-12 range most beginners use, you risk injury more easily than other movements if you don’t have the mobility for it. I hurt my back squatting three or four times and lost over half a year of training total. And while I eventually learned and worked on my mobility to finally get above 315, I think some level of caution around squats for beginners is warranted
I've always said that if there's only one movement I could do, it would be some variation of a squat. There's so many benefits to it, especially when it comes to other sports/cross training or life in general.
Nice! I´m also 6´3 with 6´8 wingspan and started working on ankle/hip mobility to decrease knee pain while squatting. I started with exercises from kneesovertoes guy and made slow, but constant effort!
Learning ATG squat changed my life. Really. It sounds ridiculous when I say it, but it was the perfect exercise that opened a gateway into doing so much more in the gym. And when you go to the gym alot because its finally rewarding your life revolves around it. It takes that little tweak, to change everything in your workout. I stand by the ATG squat.
I tried the ass to grass method you suggested and it seems to have gotten rid of my knee pain. Can't squat nearly as much weight so it feels like starting over, but with the knee pain gone, it's worth it.
When I first tried Zerchers to change things up I had to use about half the weight but was surprised at how low I could get and much better my knees have gotten. My back squat is getting deeper as well since.
To preface, I love squatting and think it's a great exercise, but I just wanna point out that when people talk about femur length, it's specifically *relative* femur length. 7:00 "You guys see how tall I am?" Yeah you're tall and that means your femurs will likely be long in *absolute* length, but that's misinterpreting the issue some people seem to have. If you're 8ft tall with the femur length equal to the average of a 6ft person, you have a mechanical advantage over a 5ft person with the average femur length of a 5ft8 person.
As a 6'2" long femur guy, I wish I would have seen this video about 4 years ago before wasting so much time on powerlifting low-bar squat form. I just recently switched to high bar with more focus on range of motion as you show, and now I'm inspired to go even further with this.
I have started doing horse stance several times a week. I can now stand for 2 mins. I hope they'll help my flexibilty in the squats and general hip health etc. Been doing them like 3 weeks. I'll definitely will incorporate more of this deep squat positioning too. I can sit every now and then infront of the tv. 👍
Im 37. Squatted from 14 to 34. Ever since I stopped and focused on pendulum squats, hacks and leg presses my legs exploded. If you're a bodyduilder don't let anyone tell you you have to do a specific exercise. Do what makes you grow.
When I started squatting for the first time ever at the age of 24, I was probably the worst squatter in the world. Not even close to getting parallel. That's when I realised just how bad my mobility actually is and I was determined to improve. Now I've done 170kg deep squats, and I can tell you that no other exercise has brought as much improvement into my life as much as the squat has. Everything started to just feel better and easier once I started squatting deep.
Man this is like the best video on barbell back squats I’ve ever watched. I did 4 sets of 12 reps of ass to grass (not literally) squats after watching this video. 95lbs, I weight 149 lbs.
As another 6’4 man with long femurs it’s just a process of trial and error plus working on mobility. I started off not being able to squat much I remember getting super excited whenever I was able to squat 315 for the first time whenever I was 21 or 22. I considered giving up squatting, because of how bad my patellar tendinitis was, but my persevering and pushing through and strengthening the muscles around my knee. It’s allowed me to squat, pain-free for the most part over the past two years. And now, at 25 years of age, I’m squatting 635 pounds.
i went from skipping leg day (90% of the time) for years to 100% olympic lifting. the ONLY leg specific movement i did was back and front squats (maybe 80% back and 20% front). my legs grew substantially in those 5 years. i did ZERO additional leg specific exersizes. now that i got back in to bodybuilding, i think my legs are my best attribute.
funnily enough I originally found your channel because i tried squatting ages ago and couldnt go to parallel and I asked a friend and he said that olympic weightlifters are the experts on heavy weight mobility. Now I can squat atg moderately heavy but tbh it was a fair amount of work to get there. For me it was worth it because I focus on athleticism and health. but for some of my friends that just want to look good or be confident i dont think i would recommend going through it if they are tall and cant squat well i feel like they might get more out of leg pressing etc. and using the extra time saved on cardio.
Between the high bar and low bar back squat, you should be able to find one that works for you. I cannot do a high bar squat or front squat without seriously fucking up my back, however the low bar squat doesn't give me back pain at all.
I am a middle aged man and am fat. I started lifting weights a few years ago and at first I hated the squat. It was a movement I stunk at and I really dreaded doing it. Then something clicked with me with my form and the weight started to steadily increase. I found my foot placement, I found my movement pattern and now I go from someone struggling to squat at all to ass to grass squats. No, I do not lift super heavy weight but for someone that has never lifted weights in my life, I got to a 315 squat recently and the confidence and drive to continue that this gave me is something I cannot explain. I also feel so accomplished after I do my squats and deadlifts. In would not have stuck with working out without seeing that progress.
Surely it's not about the absolute length of the leg (as in, "tall person cannot squat") but the relative length of femur to lower leg? Plus an element of relative torso length? Those three factors plus hip, knee and ankle mobility determine where the centre of gravity falls and thus the stability of the move. When I started out with trainers who used the old "you can't push your knees beyond your toes" but also "you can't lean so far forward" I was perpetually toppling over backwards and no amount of strength could overcome bad geometry. Of course those two instructions paired were not the signs of a trainer with solid understanding of the movement... Only 5 minutes into the video so presumably these pointd get addressed later, just this was where Zack seemed to imply "tall people equals long femurs", whereas they may not have _relatively_ long femurs compared to their lower leg. Anyway, thanks Zack for all your really informative videos - I usually don't comment but I do appreciate them.
I'm in my 50's... been squatting in one form or another- plus all other leg exercises... for a long time... My take... I prefer the front squat overall. From my own perspective, i find loading up the shoulders in the front (just standing) better than loading the spine... I feel my legs/quads get a much better "hit" in the front squat. I do agree with your "pause" squats... can't beat it...
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Why is it always the guys who can't squat who call it overrated hmm..
Or the guys too lazy cause they know it’s a tough lift to do and rather do leg press or the hack squat machine lol
If you think the hack squat is easy, it's because you train like a pussy. I do both back squats and hack squats in my program and nothing hurts more than an actual near failure set on the hack squat.
The only core exercise I might agree is not needed is the flat bench. I do not think you need a flat bench to build a good chest. You need a squatting motion to build good legs and the deadlift, although probably the riskiest, is excellent at building overall strength. Now he said “barbell squat” and to be fair there is a ton of plate loaded or weight stack squatting motions such as pendulum or hack.
Funny how that works.
exactly lmao
The squat is one of the 7 foundational human movement patterns. You don't need to be breaking world records, but you should be doing some variation if you want to be truly strong and capable.
"The squat is one of the 7 foundational human movement patterns" -exactly. Humans have been squatting since centuries.
Push,Pull,Hinge,Squat,Lunge, Run, Flex,Twist,Jump
@@patricklang7162 Squat, deadlift and overhead press are natural movements which humans perform in their daily lives.
@@tanOcotOeat raw liver and sun your balls
One of the biggest wake up calls you can give someone - do you want to helped on and off the toilet in your later life? No? Then you have to maintain a body weight squat minimum. A loaded barbell will also give you even better core strength to go with it.
The lady watching here. I love squatting even though I was rubbish at it when I learnt the "old way", even though I've done yoga for 20 years and can sit comfortably in a super low body squat for ages. Your techniques make so much more sense and have helped me a lot. No stupid leg presses for me. Barbell all the way!
Depending on your goals front squats and hip hinges are better.
I don't think it really matters, tbh. Workouts don't need to be perfectly optimal. They can be *fun.*
Heres me spending 20 min of my evening listening to zack explaining every little detail to me like i was a gym newbie, prentending like im actually deeply interested and still really freaking enjoying it! Damn your videos are awesome man. You really have such a talent for wxplaining those things, even to someone who already knows this. KEEP UP YOUR WORK. It seriously enriches my life and lifting experience. Much love from germany
thank you so much. this comment made my day
Second this, I really enjoy the sound logic behind your arguments. In general your videos are great refreshers and filled with awesome new knowledge or perspectives. I’m trying to become a weightlifting coach and your content is my blowing to me, the trip to japan was amazing, the visits to the gyms and conversations with the coaches. Top tier weightlifting content, also I’ve noticed how more random people at the gym are bringing up your videos and instagram account 🤙🏻
I'm 6'7" and I went through this journey back in 2008. I lifted with my university's powerlifting club (basically the only people that had access to proper weights) and was told the whole "you should keep your shins as vertical as possible, or at least not let the knees track beyond the toes" thing. No matter how much I tried, I could not go below parallel whilst trying to do that, and I'd end up with a ridiculously horizontal back trying (so basically I was good morninging my squats).
Then I started to think about it, I watched some weightlifters squatting (and I'll admit that, a bit like Clarence Kennedy said in your recent video, I just plain thought it looked more cool). I stumbled on an article on ExRx giving a bunch of stretches to improve squatting mobility and after a few months I was squatting hamstrings to calves with a relatively upright torso.
Not only did it feel better, not only was it more fun, but after a few months of doing it that way it overtook anything my old, above parallel powerlifting style squat had ever managed. It transformed squatting from an exercise that I hated and feared to one I always look forward to.
I'm sure that my build means I'll never squat as much as someone else of a similar weight to me who's built for squatting, but that's fine. I was never going to win any competitions anyway, and am happy to simply compete with myself.
What were the stretches? I still struggle to get that low without something that raises my heels
I completed my first 3 sets of 225 for 5 reps yesterday. I know it’s not that much, but it’s a lot more than what I started out squatting. The barbell back squat has become one of my favourite movements now. 🏋🏽♂️
If you are doing it like this guy is doing it. That's a DAMN good weight. Don't let anyone yell you otherwise.
@@ChefofWar33same here i just started squatting in june and i cant do 225 yet at 6”5.. soon ill be able to tho …leggo 🚀
I did my first 3 reps of 225 today lol. Feels good, man.
Coaches who say this kind of crap about Squats are overrated ...etc. Those coaches are speaking to those athletes who want to have bigger legs in the main muscle groups AKA Bodybuilders. These people don't want to have a better posture, better weight distribution, or core strength while doing certain movements like the clean and snatch. They simply just want bigger legs.
But most of them don't specify that, rather intentionally I would assume, so they reach a bigger audience. I consider this rather misleading for beginners or recreational lifters (like myself), who can get much more out of their time in the gym than bigger legs, when doing squats.
@@jballs1879 I totally agree. In fact, if you check, most of those videos talk about “ what kill your gains, “ which is a very shallow concept.
Back squats are a great way to get bigger legs from a bodybuilding perspective, you just need to modify technique some in most cases. Platz squats are a great place to start.
If you're really strong and don't want as much systemic fatigue, you can pre-fatigue the quads with leg extensions.
The raw stimulus magnitude of a deep back squat with a controlled eccentric can't really be overstated. In my observation, it's a minority of people who perform them correctly for hypertrophy. People are too ego driven (want to horse weights at all times) and don't like doing squats in the hypertrophy range.
@@HashimAlmadani84 It's almost as if 99% of the online fitness space caters only to superficial bodybuilding crowd.
@@jballs1879he forgot to tell you, theres a difference between aesthetics body building bs vs high performance athletes including amateurs. Thats the big difference. Body building pussy can have big legs from doing leg press but can they do athletic stuff that a high performance athletes do? Mostly those aesthetics vanity bs cannot even run, swim to save their lives.
I FUCKING LOVE THIS VIDEO
More info like this is needed for the “long femur community”
For years I believed ankle mobility was the problem. Felt bad my squat didn’t look like others. FINALLY, I realized I was anatomically different than most people squatting around me. Learning about the femur length was a game changer.
lol, i've seen ppl with scoliosis lift double their weight
Any tips?
Imagine classifying tourself as long femur community cd
Hey dude, as someone with a degree in sports science and one in osteopathy I completely agree with you. From both an athletic and a health perspective, achieving a deep squat is very desirable.
I'm 6'3" and do weightlifting. I love your channel, great content!
Writing this comment from a deep squat.
There’s no incenteic reason it has to be a barbell back squat . You can lunge , hack squat , split squat , etc
@@ci6516 cope
I'm 5'7 with long femurs and a bad dorsiflexion, and during years I thought I was just not built to do backsquats. Now, using the zercher as a first approach (as it is less limitating mobility-wise) and the 5 minute squat routine from Zack, I can backsquat with a nice technique, front squat and do olympic weightlifting. And it is a good circle: now I feel strong and never had such mobility. It feels so great.
I PR'ed just today and hope I'll be able to squat more in the future!
Congrats on the PR!
@@adamtschmidt4303 Thanks mate!
You’re the prime example of who supposedly “can’t squat” and yet you’re strong!
I feel you Zach! I'm 6'3" with a 6'8" wingspan. Very long femurs, my wife is 5'2" and when we sit at a table we are eye level lol! I just started taking legs very seriously and fell in love with the squat. Past four months went from 255 1RM to 365 1RM! It took a lot of ankle and hip mobility and finding my proper foot placement. I take so much pride in my form that people come up to me and ask advice all the time at my Crunch gym. Thanks for your content, it has helped tremendously.
The phrase which comes to my mind is ‘physical literacy’. Knowing your squat inside out through various stances, tempos, type of squat etc contributions greatly to your understanding of your own body and mechanics. I think approaching the squat with a white belt mentality for 10 years plus is some of the best training you can do.
I started by just doing pause squats, with just 135 and going and sitting in the bottom for about as long as I could stand it, and then exploding upwards as fast as possible. To me, this is WAY more engaging than just doing the typical slow eccentric/concentric squatting movement. Plus, you can only do long pause squats with much less than your 1RM, so it's near impossible to get "stuck" anywhere...unless you stay in the bottom position for like 5 minutes lol
Same although I just started again with less weight than that even. Old Clarence was my inspiration
I've been considering dropping the barbell back squat all together because its by far my worst lift and I am not built for it but this video has inspired me to approach it in a different way. thank you for the inspiration.
I am 6ft 4 as well and mostly leg. I started out in HS doing back squats with foot ball where were taught nothing and had a bad time doing them. I had that same reasoning that it wasn’t for me and just tried to use leg machines to get strong. It didn’t work and I went back to squats.
The purpose of strength training isn’t too “build muscle” that’s just a form of reasoning to excuse your self from learning new movements and giving hard effort. The purpose of strength training is to load normal human movement patterns in progressive way.
As side effect muscles are built bigger and performance in life and sports improve.
Another big thing is you have to learn something you’ve never done. In squatting my two biggest places I learned form was from Starting Strength and Zack both have changed my training immeasurably. Learning that science and every picky little detail from SS and then learning to just sit in a deep squat from Zack has improved my mobility, strength, and performance by leaps and bounds.
Loved the leg press machine.
Couldnt squat because of lower back pain.
My trainer told me i had lower back pain because I didnt squat...
Started to squat - back pain gone. He was right!
I was the gym bro doing 405 lbs + partial squats like you did in the beginning. I finally decided to actually do them correctly in full range of motion and had to back all the way down to 135 lbs. Couple years later, I just hit 430 lbs last week for a single. One of the best things i've done was deciding to find a way to get into that bottom position and then just stand up. Great video and educational information that will hopefully help many people!!
I have really long femurs (I'm 6'2") and absolutely love back squatting. I started doing them 13 years ago when I started weightlifting and they have never given me issues. No excuses
Zack.
My main COMPLAINT about this video and i'm pretty sure coach Greg has pointed it out before is that the squat is sport specific. Bodybuilding coaches like Greg Doucette primarily focus on bodybuilding techniques, which may not always align with powerlifting or weightlifting practices. As someone who has been working on addressing buttwink for quite some time, I have found machines to be superior for my needs and that of teenagers (Greg's main audience). They are beginner-friendly, safer, and require fewer stabilizers, enabling me to focus on the mind-muscle connection. Additionally, I've noticed that squats have contributed to an undesirable increase in my waist size.
I agree with you that kinesthetic awareness and proprioception are vital for proper squat technique. However, I think these aspects can be challenging for an online coach to teach effectively, especially to a large audience of teenagers who might not have sufficient experience or guidance. Safety is paramount, and improper squatting technique could lead to injuries if not properly addressed(if you're lifting self-taught, which almost all bodybuilding teenagers do)
My argument is that while the squat may be enjoyable and beneficial for you, it might not be equally beneficial for everyone, particularly in sports or activities where it is not a primary requirement. For instance, for bodybuilders or those focusing on aesthetics, other exercises and techniques may be more suitable and yield better results.
This video to me seems like you just want everyone to squat because YOU think it's cool. This video seems incredibly bias and I still don't understand why EVERYONE needs to learn the squat. I love the squat but you really don't need it.
Your squat routine got me from falling with a 15 lb snatch to a 120 lb snatch in 6 months. I'm a first yr crossfit, never used weights. 5'3" and all your advice still helped all my lifts
Bro thats called beginner gains xd what are you talking about
@@daniel1RM it wasn't that the weight wasn't coming up. I couldn't balance at the bottom. After the 5 minute squat I was able to balance the weight at the bottom and keep better form. It was never a strength issue. I had a mobility issue. Now I can lift a more appropriate weight for me because I don't have a mobility limitation
I love this video. Being able to back squat and perform the weightlifting movements gives so much bang for the buck for giraffes like us. Very much appreciate your open-minded and respectful discussion, and your points are not only correct but they are right.
I just love the passion you show for your work and that is exactly what makes you different from every other coach or something. You are not selling a product, you are showing what you love and you have had showed it long enough to live from it. You totally deserved it!!!
One of your best flowing videos ever dude! I have no problems squatting and I watched the whole thing because time flew by. I know you've said before that you kind of write a script for your videos and this was so well "written." Awesome stuff man, this stuff will help a lot of people!
I'm 6'7" and since taking time off from lifting in the pandemic have had a really hard time squatting without beating my joints up. Tried this methodology yesterday (found a solid bottom position holding a post then worked up to a paused single) and today is the best my joints have felt in years. This video is solid gold
Great video Zack! As a 20 year old I started doing back squats in september. I fell in love with it instantly as I followed your instructions how to do it properly. I'm 6'2 with long legs so I needed time to build up the mobility for it, but truly it's my favorite excersice since then. It helped me a lot not only with my legs, but with my lower back as it was weak. It strengthened my lower back to the point that I could stand and dance through a concert, walk a lot with a backpack without any back pain. Obviously other excercises helped too, but the BS was one of the main exercises that helped my overall strength. Since then I can hit a 90 kg set, and if I would have the time or consistency I would be around 110 kg probably. Thanks to you Zack! I love your videos!
I have bad leverages for the squat, im a very leggy individual. But I believed and still believe that it was extremely valuable. Lifters like you and GVS having similar proportions to me I've spent the last 8 months addressing limitations, learning how to squat, and just doing anything I can to really understand and benefit from the movement. It finally clicked recently and its insane how great the movement feels when finally getting it. Honestly, it was extremely gratifying getting it. I have to drop my weight tremendously to rebuild properly, but working at the squat until you get it is possible for anyone. Lots of my issues with my mobility were injury based and I was physically unable to squat for a long time. But it IS possible and this movement IS insane. I've never felt quad stimulation like this in my life. I dont know why coaches wouldn't want someone to take the time to learn how to squat right, but whatever. Glad you're pushing against the grain.
The same reason body builders don’t do deadlifts from the floor . The stimulus to fatigue is so bad .
You can spend an hour trying to squat in a rack and feel it correctly , and get one movement in,
Or you can bang jack squats , Lunges , extensions and hamstring curls all in the same time.
Who is going to be more jacked ,
If your goal is to powerlift sure go head, but if the goal is growth there’s no reason to fight with this specific exercise
So i injured myself badly in Muay Thai and I have not been able to back squat since. It just creates odd pains loading my spine, but I still front squat, goblet squat, knees over toes split squat, and hack squat. All of these feel amazing and I am working toward backsquatting again. Couldn’t kick without my whole leg going numb for years, but the above listed exercises with some weightlifting shoes have allowed me to not have to worry about any of the numbness or pain. Built up to a 285 front squat and 180x8 top set for goblet and feel healthier than I have in years, squatting is the key and it heals. As always, appreciate your insight Zack.
Thank you for making this video dude. Your early videos are what helped me to understand that even as a Gumby man, squatting deep and heavy are possible. It makes me sad to think there are people convincing viewers they shouldn’t or don’t need to squat.
Said it before, I'll say it again. You are my absolute favorite fitness content creator. A man of my own heart. The music, the perspective on fitness, everything. Cheers Zack
Zack is 100% correct on this topic based on my own experience. I’m just over 6’6” and didn’t start squatting atg until i was 40 years old. I had to start from scratch and greatly improve my mobility but it’s totally possible with the right knowledge and progressions
As someone who has a stupidly bad femur to torso ratio, ATG squats are one of my favourite exercises I use lifting shoes to help keep an upright torso, but there’s nothing better for overall leg development than ATG squats, regardless of your leverages. 1:30 1:30
people just don't get that, over time any kind of anatomy adapts to any kind of movement over time. And there are insane benefits to that. Also the longer the femur - the more time to ascend - which means more time under tension translating to higher muscle mass!
@@arulkumaran4674 Correct. Whilst my 1RM low bar is only 315 (ATG and beltless), my legs are waaaay bigger than when I used to do powerlifting depth using a belt and was hitting 385-395lbs consistently.
I found your channel 2+ years ago due to this very topic (being 6'5). Great that you revisited it in a clear no nonsense walkthrough. Great work thanks
That explanation was spot on !!!!! Thanks Zack, I was reassessing my leg workout day and considering 'upping' my leg press and 'downing' my back squats....this explanation will help me stay focused on longevity as I age.
While I completely agree with Zack there are some things I would add to his statements:
1. Having long femur is not the problem exactly, but the proportion of a long femur with sorther tibia. (IT CAN ALSO BE FIXED WITH PRACTICE AND MOBILITY EXERCICES SHOWED IN THIS VIDEO)
2. Zack has the longest femurs you can find in a gym, but the relation femur/tibia looks like a 1:1 because he also has long ass tibias.
No intent to hate with this coment, It's just my physiotherapist/personal trainer picky personality.
And before people jump on me, all my clients learn to do high bar back squats and most of them get really good at it!
Keep up with the work Zack, I love your videos!
I'm just doing squats because Mark Riptoe told me the make me harder to kill
😂
good take on this. as a long femur lifter myself it's advice I just recently (in the last 2 years of a ten + years of lifting) put into practice myself through a long learning process of my own movement patterns (rather than just asking someone for help like I could have) it really makes a big difference. Also as someone who fought wearing anything like lifters or belt, etc for a long time and now uses both, those are not cheating they are simply tools that can help lifters of different body types achieve more advantageous leverages when nature maybe dealt us a tougher hand than the 5'5" lifter that walks on and lifts 200 kilos with like 3 months of training. Using tools like lifters and bealt help me to use exercises like back squats etc, to get the best leg workouts I've ever had without the collateral damage I used to feel like knee pain and back pain, etc.
You are an inspiration....thank you. I have short femurs, I appreciate your take on most exercises and differences ....makes all of us better athletes
I really needed to see this. Not because I'm avoiding the back squat but because I'm currently learning it. I want to get good at it and while I've heard people with long femurs (I'm 6'2) can have problems with it I don't think I'm one. I can get into that position and free stand.
My problem is my hips shooting up and I'm turning it into a squat morning. I know I'm doing this so I'm backing the weight off and practicing. I put weight on just to see what it feels like to have that on my back (it's not much but some).
This video helped a LOT.
Thank you!
Dude I love this so much. As a fellow tall guy (6’3”) with long femurs who loves squatting I hate when coaches have this take. Your “motion capabilities” (made up phrase btw) can be expanded!! Thanks for the great content Zack!
Genuinely one of the best videos I’ve seen on the squat in a long time ❤Really reassuring to know that for a lot of people out there where even just sitting in a squat can be difficult and it’s not just intuitive movement! being able to squat is a skill like any other, that you need to learn !
Thank you brother for saying all the things that need to be said. Respect 👊
So simple no long explanation. Every other video seems to focus on geting the weight up and you sir made it easy to see that its about gettin the weight to the bottom. I actually bought a leg press because I just sucked at squat. Now watching our ideo I'll be getting some squats on. Awsome.
Zack, hi! I've been doing weightlifting for about two years now and during that time I've grown very fond of atg squats, despite my tall height (6 ft) and leg length. What you say in the video (especially atg squats with a pause) are super correct approaches that I have also developed with my own experience. Thank you so much for the video!
Folks are looking for an easy way; strength doesn't come easy tho, demands learning and understanding you body; thank you brother for doing what you do. I hope you read this.
For the average person, aka 90% of people, nothing beats the squat for leg development.
And MOST, if not all, of these coaches throwing shade on squats, built the bulk of their leg mass with it.
Love the Contant! You’re teaching me a lot. Appreciate it.
So many good points raised in here. I'll be sharing this to some of the people in my gym.
Great video Zack! I can’t stand hearing these “coaches” say people
Shouldn’t squat. I started over a year ago doing your five minute squat routine. It was HARD I had been a low back back squatter for years. My squat looked awful and leaned forward. Barely hitting parallel. But now I have a great ATG squat even with long femurs!
so refreshing to see someone teach the most basic primal movement correctly. Subscribed :)
This needs to be shared and shared again
Great videos , absolut truth.
I mostly do KB training but i love to watch olympic lifting , it is simply beautiful to see , Full of grace
Thank you Zach for your videos. I went on a 7 year hiatus from proper weightlifting. I started filming myself to see my technical flaws. I realized I am long femured athlete. I still got a lot more work to do and I may not be lifting over 315 lb for reps yet. I have however beat my life time 10RM of 265 for 275 and I did both for sets and reps. I also hit 330 for the first time since 2015. Also a lifetime 5rm of 305. Prior to this I had never done anything over 285 for multiple reps. All of this with no discomfort nor pain!
What a great educational video. A matured and objective approach. Nice work!
In short: this is a truly great video, Zack. I can hear the heart behind the words, and that's great.
I agree with you.
Thank you, Zach!
Great video, great info. Thanks Zack.
Thank you Zack for this video! It had to be said (made)! 💪
Cool video! The barbell back squat is one of my favourite exercises and I always found it odd that people online give it so much hate. Just do it with good form and less weight, or if you have an injury do something easier. I just love how it fucking crushes your legs, I love doing it before deadlifting.
Long femur/ short torso guy. I've been squatting low bar for 7 years with back pain until i had enough of it and decided not to squat anymore. Then I saw Clarence Kennedys deep squat and decided to try it out. It took me 4-5 training sessions to find position that feels comfortable, and now it's my favorite movement in the gym. Zero pain.
I think you did such a good job with making the barbell back squat more accessible with this video. Thank you! Trainers need to help lower the barrier to entry to lifting, not increase it.
15:00 This speaks deeper than just the squat, it speaks to how society has changed for the worse. Great content. No excuses, just improve.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the effort bit at the end. Simply put, it's hard haring a coach say "try this for 10 years and see where that takes you" after asking how do I progress in the Barbell Squat. Willpower and discipline always outweigh a quick fix. That's why the people talk about that effort being too much, will never stay consistent. The essence of your message is 100% right. Also, don't use an outlier to prove a rule.
I’m no where near as tall as you, Zach, but I’m also no Eoin! I’m not really “built for squatting” but seeing you squat heavy, meant I never doubted my ability to squat - I was aware that I just needed to find the right technique for my morphology. I do love weightlifting, so I do love me an ATG back squat. The only thing I love more than that, is an ATG front squat! I’m aware that’s weird to most people, but who cares what most people think? You do, Zach - and you try to change what they think, and that’s what keeps me coming back here!
I’ve been doing your 5 minute squat for 3-4 weeks now. I do them in 1 minute sets and then I will extend the time in less sets. I’m 42 so I start pretty stiff but loosen up and all is good. My mobility was terrible but has become a lot better doing this exercise. My back squat technique is 10 times better than before.
Your videos are great! Thank you
Lady here! This was insanely motivating as someone teaching themselves barbell movements from ground 0. Thank you Zach! (Love the zelda music at the end too)
Thank you for inspiring me to keep improving my technique and mobility! About a year ago I was ready to give up on squatting since I do have longer femurs and not so great mobility. Everyone made it sound so disheartening, that Id have to use powerlifting shoes only, or alternative variations instead of a regular squat. But I worked on being in a squat more often and was able to make a ton of progress ❤ Id still say its my weakest move for my size (and that Im a woman so I acknowledge my upper body is always gonna lag). But Im happy with where Im getting to
This is a really awesome video - thanks for that :)
And people look at me funny when I recommend they do "Pin (Overhead sometimes) Squats" to help with their overall mobility and bottom position at the commercial gym I go to... xD
Great vid! Nothing I didn't know before but you reaaaally demonstrated the gymbro mentality so well.
When did Jeff Cavaliere have this take?? He has repeatedly said, as far as I can recall, that the squat is one of the best exercises you can do to develop the entirety of the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex. Since when did he say it was overrated or overhyped?
Jeff probably mentioned not doing them after major injury or if youre starting out from zero fitness and this guy turned it into clickbait
@@plaidchuck pretty sure Zack wouldn't clickbait that. Jeff might've misspoke in one video or maybe he was just misheard.
With all due respect, the people with qualifications in biometrics that say squats aren’t a good exercise for people with long femurs are correct, you are not. You don’t have long femurs in RELATION TO YOUR TORSO. When you are in the bottom squat position, I can see your shoulders protrude past your knees - your knees look like they could comfortably tuck into your armpits. When I am in that position, my knees protrude past my shoulders because my femurs are long in relation to my torso. It’s even more obvious when I am in a class and we all do child’s post - everyone else’s knees sit at or behind their armpits, my knees are slightly past the top of my shoulders. When back squatting, your femurs essentially put your butt so far back and your torso has to be long enough to lean forward to bring the bar back over the middle of your foot. My torso is to short to achieve that thus the weight of the bar sits behind my heel. To make it worse I’m female so have more weight in the hips/butt than a man so there is even more weight distributed behind my heels. All the weight sitting behind your heels literally pulls me backwards off balance.
I have worked with an osteopath (ie expert in biomechanics) who specialises in correcting movement patterns and even with him increasing my ranges of motion, etc, we concluded squats aren’t a good exercise for me. Goblet squats are doable but am limited by how much weight I can hold in my hands, I can scrape by with back squats with a wider stance and toes out but still struggle with those (ie cannot achieve “good form”.
You're absolutely right, it not about femur length but it's the relation to the torso. As a 5'10" male with crazy long femurs and short torso who lifts for almost 7 years but still struggles to squat 225 for a few clean reps despite having great ankle mobility, done basically everything but my squat hasn't improved, it's a shame because my deadlift 1rm is 515bs and I can bench 300 pounds any day.
Squat is a great exercise.
Honestly, I have more beef with the deadlift exercise because that's what caused me some small issues with my back. But squats are fantastic.
And I play volleyball and hike lots. Definitely can see that power transfer.
6’4” guy. While I think you’re right that anyone could gain tremendously from back squatting and learn if approached properly, I don’t hate the “it’s not necessary for beginners”. A lot of newbie advice is “go to failure” but with the squat in the usual, 5-12 range most beginners use, you risk injury more easily than other movements if you don’t have the mobility for it. I hurt my back squatting three or four times and lost over half a year of training total. And while I eventually learned and worked on my mobility to finally get above 315, I think some level of caution around squats for beginners is warranted
I've always said that if there's only one movement I could do, it would be some variation of a squat. There's so many benefits to it, especially when it comes to other sports/cross training or life in general.
Nice! I´m also 6´3 with 6´8 wingspan and started working on ankle/hip mobility to decrease knee pain while squatting. I started with exercises from kneesovertoes guy and made slow, but constant effort!
Learning ATG squat changed my life. Really. It sounds ridiculous when I say it, but it was the perfect exercise that opened a gateway into doing so much more in the gym. And when you go to the gym alot because its finally rewarding your life revolves around it. It takes that little tweak, to change everything in your workout. I stand by the ATG squat.
I tried the ass to grass method you suggested and it seems to have gotten rid of my knee pain. Can't squat nearly as much weight so it feels like starting over, but with the knee pain gone, it's worth it.
When I first tried Zerchers to change things up I had to use about half the weight but was surprised at how low I could get and much better my knees have gotten. My back squat is getting deeper as well since.
To preface, I love squatting and think it's a great exercise, but I just wanna point out that when people talk about femur length, it's specifically *relative* femur length.
7:00 "You guys see how tall I am?" Yeah you're tall and that means your femurs will likely be long in *absolute* length, but that's misinterpreting the issue some people seem to have. If you're 8ft tall with the femur length equal to the average of a 6ft person, you have a mechanical advantage over a 5ft person with the average femur length of a 5ft8 person.
The Barbell Back Squat is highly UNDERRATTED if anything. Thank you for doing this video!
As a 6'2" long femur guy, I wish I would have seen this video about 4 years ago before wasting so much time on powerlifting low-bar squat form. I just recently switched to high bar with more focus on range of motion as you show, and now I'm inspired to go even further with this.
This is a VERY well done video Zack, even for your high standards. Great job!
I have started doing horse stance several times a week. I can now stand for 2 mins. I hope they'll help my flexibilty in the squats and general hip health etc. Been doing them like 3 weeks. I'll definitely will incorporate more of this deep squat positioning too. I can sit every now and then infront of the tv. 👍
It should give you some internal hip rotation which is what a lot of people are lacking to achieve a deep squat
Im 37. Squatted from 14 to 34.
Ever since I stopped and focused on pendulum squats, hacks and leg presses my legs exploded.
If you're a bodyduilder don't let anyone tell you you have to do a specific exercise. Do what makes you grow.
When I started squatting for the first time ever at the age of 24, I was probably the worst squatter in the world. Not even close to getting parallel. That's when I realised just how bad my mobility actually is and I was determined to improve. Now I've done 170kg deep squats, and I can tell you that no other exercise has brought as much improvement into my life as much as the squat has. Everything started to just feel better and easier once I started squatting deep.
And to add: I too have a very short torso and extremely long legs for my height.
@@pronxon I have a short torso, short arms & long legs, squat & bench press feel amazing but my God deadlifts are a pain 😂
Man this is like the best video on barbell back squats I’ve ever watched. I did 4 sets of 12 reps of ass to grass (not literally) squats after watching this video. 95lbs, I weight 149 lbs.
As another 6’4 man with long femurs it’s just a process of trial and error plus working on mobility. I started off not being able to squat much I remember getting super excited whenever I was able to squat 315 for the first time whenever I was 21 or 22.
I considered giving up squatting, because of how bad my patellar tendinitis was, but my persevering and pushing through and strengthening the muscles around my knee. It’s allowed me to squat, pain-free for the most part over the past two years.
And now, at 25 years of age, I’m squatting 635 pounds.
One of your best videos!
i went from skipping leg day (90% of the time) for years to 100% olympic lifting. the ONLY leg specific movement i did was back and front squats (maybe 80% back and 20% front). my legs grew substantially in those 5 years. i did ZERO additional leg specific exersizes. now that i got back in to bodybuilding, i think my legs are my best attribute.
funnily enough I originally found your channel because i tried squatting ages ago and couldnt go to parallel and I asked a friend and he said that olympic weightlifters are the experts on heavy weight mobility. Now I can squat atg moderately heavy but tbh it was a fair amount of work to get there. For me it was worth it because I focus on athleticism and health. but for some of my friends that just want to look good or be confident i dont think i would recommend going through it if they are tall and cant squat well i feel like they might get more out of leg pressing etc. and using the extra time saved on cardio.
Great video!
Between the high bar and low bar back squat, you should be able to find one that works for you. I cannot do a high bar squat or front squat without seriously fucking up my back, however the low bar squat doesn't give me back pain at all.
I am a middle aged man and am fat. I started lifting weights a few years ago and at first I hated the squat. It was a movement I stunk at and I really dreaded doing it. Then something clicked with me with my form and the weight started to steadily increase. I found my foot placement, I found my movement pattern and now I go from someone struggling to squat at all to ass to grass squats. No, I do not lift super heavy weight but for someone that has never lifted weights in my life, I got to a 315 squat recently and the confidence and drive to continue that this gave me is something I cannot explain. I also feel so accomplished after I do my squats and deadlifts. In would not have stuck with working out without seeing that progress.
great video Zack
A VERY GOOD VIDEO AFTER COMING BACK FROM JAPAN ..WONDERFULL
This is a brilliant video for us tall guys.
The good news is that Dr Mike, the only YT coach worth a damn (imo) loves his high-bar, quad focused back squats. And so do I!
Surely it's not about the absolute length of the leg (as in, "tall person cannot squat") but the relative length of femur to lower leg? Plus an element of relative torso length?
Those three factors plus hip, knee and ankle mobility determine where the centre of gravity falls and thus the stability of the move.
When I started out with trainers who used the old "you can't push your knees beyond your toes" but also "you can't lean so far forward" I was perpetually toppling over backwards and no amount of strength could overcome bad geometry.
Of course those two instructions paired were not the signs of a trainer with solid understanding of the movement...
Only 5 minutes into the video so presumably these pointd get addressed later, just this was where Zack seemed to imply "tall people equals long femurs", whereas they may not have _relatively_ long femurs compared to their lower leg.
Anyway, thanks Zack for all your really informative videos - I usually don't comment but I do appreciate them.
I'm in my 50's... been squatting in one form or another- plus all other leg exercises... for a long time...
My take... I prefer the front squat overall.
From my own perspective, i find loading up the shoulders in the front (just standing) better than loading the spine...
I feel my legs/quads get a much better "hit" in the front squat.
I do agree with your "pause" squats... can't beat it...
Nice video Zack!
Amen brother! 🎉