Klokov and Clarence atg pause squats are such an aesthetic movement. I do them exclusively for fun and to remind myself that the weight I'm pause squatting used to be something I had to bounce out of. Just sit there for a few seconds and contemplate life
No doubt Clarence have a strong ATG squat but he got a slight butt wink when coming back up. The real aesthetic ones are from Tian Tao or Toshiki Yamamoto's squats. They're ATG but with no butt wink and super upright torso. But I think you need to born with that kind of body to have that kind of mobility.
Pause squats are my number 1 variations. It helps fix technique issues(not necessarily positioning, more so the actual technique of coming out the hole), helps with 99% of raw lifters weak point, good for load management/fatigue management, helps with proprioception in terms of depth, helps with confidence in the hole, is specific, and highly accessible. You just have to make sure you don’t get in the habit of pausing during competition squats I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to only do a variation or variations without the competition movement for even moderate periods of time tho, so keeping in comp squats is probably why I have so much success with them.
@@ev1bl evidence of the athletes i coach/have coached, myself, 90% of powerlifters that are actually competitive, common sense based off kinesiology, biomechanics, and programming theory, etc.
@@ev1bl explain how pause squats don't help for all those things? - load management: you get more out of less weight with pause squats - fatigue management: squatting a lower weight isn't as fatiguing - proprioception in terms of depth: you spend much more time at depth in pause squats than regular squats which indeed is helpful for proprioception - confidence in the hole: you spend much more time in the hole in pause squats than regular squats which indeed helps with confidence in the hole - specific: it's literally the closest variation you can get to regular squats so it's specific for squats - accessible: it is Let me know when you find actual arguments instead of just being annoying for no reason
Primary reason for Pause Squats: Being able to train around an injury or chronic pain in the hips (esp. adductor or hamstring related) Secondary reason: For people who don't care about max squat but care about the deadlift (i.e. Strongmen, Deadlift specialists) it is a great way to train your lower body with lower weight, mitigating some fatigue, while getting a ton of carryover to the deadlift because you're starting from a deadstop. Also the Strongman Squat Lift has a very diminished stretch reflex so squatting with a pause in the offseason will probably keep you more primed. Tertiary reason: You have positioning problems at the bottom and practicing the normal squat again and again doesn't seem to work (usually happens with people who aren't built for squats). Pause Squats or even tempo work can really help.
Great video on a topic that isn't often touched on. I remember back right in the beginning of my training, I asked Bryce Lewis what he would suggest for a novice lifter experiencing "butt wiggle" in the early concentric phase of the squat. He recommended a cycle of pause squats, and it worked like a charm. I still consider it some of the simplest yet most effective advice I've ever received. Nowadays, as someone with lax proximal tibiofubular ligaments, pause squats are a necessity to keep my cycle afloat. I cannot recover from normal back squatting over 90% more than once a week. With pause, I can reach 90% or even 95% doubles and give my ligaments an off day. This is a very specific condition not many lifters have to deal with, but there's a whole community around it who treat the pause squat as a boon.
I just ran a pause squat program and something it has done has made me positionally stronger. I couldn't get the hang of controlling my descent and would tip forward on the bounce. I'm implementing some of my findings from my pause squats in the normal squat in terms of the controlled descent and it's working wonders.
The biggest benefit I found with pause squats (when my form wasn’t as good) was that it felt like I was doing 10 individual reps as opposed to 10 reps and because of this my rep quality improved. Previously I’d find my form deteriorating a bit as the set went on, likely due to imperfections in my form compounding as the set progressed. I’m moving back to regular squats (retaining paused squats for my front squat days) and am interested to see how they’ve improved!
I use pause squats once a week. Great for me. I smashed through my plateaus, and they add great variation to my routine. I use 80-85% of my one rep max during pause squats. Three max reps. Trick is to try and keep it heavy.
I've changed my 3x5(3 times a week) regular squats with pause squats because of knee pain and pause squats didn't only fix my knee pain but my squat weights went higher faster than ever
@@iwtd9852 I've started pause squatting with %80 of my 5 rep pr in regular squats.I do fullbody training,3 days a week so i do squats at the beginning of workout,only 3x5 at 7.5-9 rpe range.I was able to pause squat more than my regular squat in 2 months.My knee pain is also completly gone.I don't think i will ever do regular squats again.Btw knee sleeves are also pretty helpful.
@@iwtd9852 If u meant 1rm by saying pr,no i didn't try it.I was able to squat 110kg for 5 reps at rpe 10 before replacing it with pause squats.In 2 months,i could pause squat 110kg for 5 reps at 8-9 rpe range with better form.People usually can pause %90 of their squats so considering my pause and rpe difference,i would say i must have added smth like 20kg but i've never tried regular squats afterwards bcs i don't want to risk my knees again.I never regularly did front squats,my collerbone is genetically too far out so i always felt pain while holding bar,also in terms of powerlifting,i don't find front squats effective
I was actually going to make a video about pause squats because it got me out of a plateau at 365lbs and got me to 405 after using them for just a couple months even though I had been stuck at 365lbs for over 6 months. It eliminates the stretch reflex and strengthened my squat at the bottom of my squat.
Same results for me. I was trying to hit a 315lbs squat back in 2019, ended up hitting 325 first day back in the gym post-lockdowns. All I did was high rep squats (x10-20) and 5x5 paused squats with the 255lbs I had available in my (makeshift) home gym. That following year I got up to 365 following the same pattern.
I went from 345 to 405 in only 3 weeks, just by squatting everyday. Went back to hypertrophy after. But squating everyday gets you strong really fast. Strength is a skill and improves better with practice
Makes sense. For me the pause squats provide a greater stimulus than regular squats. They make it possible for me to add weight to the bar more frequently using the same working volume.
I treat the pause squat as a nice 'side attraction' for the squat as a whole. While pauses in the backsquat have never done anything for my overall backsquat 1rm, I have found pause frontsquats to be extremely effective for building thoracic spine strength in the 'touch and go' frontsquat. This is perhaps because you'll never fail a frontsquat due to leg strength, but for thoracic collapse. Staying in the hole and holding tight does wonders for making you stronger in that sense, and I saw good progress even after having trained for 2+ years. Your mileage may vary, though a block of pauses over 4 weeks made me go from 172.5kg to 182kg in the frontsquat. Best pause backsquat is 202kg, with a regular max of 227kg - so not nearly as close or effective.
Very good for teaching the athlete to find midfoot, the atg "pause" squat is not a pause squat. If you actually pause and hold the squat at an inch below parallel it is much harder and much less stretch reflex.
I suppose it depends upon what you want from training. Most people don’t think in terms of the grand scheme, just from previous PR to next PR. Pause work is always good to thrown in for me because it reinforces technique, but I don’t know if I could commit to pause training for a movement forever. It might be better for overall longevity since its not a maximal load, but if you deload properly and aren’t maxing every other week, you should be fine.
I use pause squats for rehab (knee and low back injuries). Increasing the time to decelerate the weight effectively reduces that amplitude of the force that has to be absorbed. I have to do fewer reps per set, of course, but I can handle the same loads with less risk.
I do pause squats to strengthen my regular squat. I hold the bottom for 5 count for 4 sets. This works for me. These 2 may have a problem with the pause squat but I find that I control the weight better especially when rising back to the standing position. The key to the pause squat is the desent. Using a moderate heavy weight you are forced to use control into the bottom. For me it results in squatting more weight in the regular squat. At 62 years old, I need every advantage I can use.
Really great information. Thanks a mil. One piece of feedback which I hope is taken in the spirit intended - the speech bubble videos diverted my attention and made it difficult to concentrate on what Eoin was saying. I might be wrong but I suspect this was also the case for others too. Thanks again for sharing.
I liked it for powerlifting squats, was very unsure about my paralel position and strength/comfort in that spot, so with conjugate i did box squats and after i would do a lower weight pauze squat. Overtime i would take out the box squat and go build up my regular squat now that my movement on it has improved again and my body just knows where my comfortable position at paralel is, and i set a few new PR's without the pauze squat. I'm also very unexplosive, you have clarance on 1 end, you have my slow ass on the other end. For real squats it helped strengthen my comfort in the hole and just strengthen my knees.
On the topic of rehab, I've seen some evidence that the isometric exercises can reduce soreness of tendon pain. This would typically be done with pretty low load.
Pause squat will probably grow more muscle with less absolute load (whole system fatigue) since you definitely go your full rom and go through the stretched position with no hurry. I suppose you can use that muscle for improving strength results afterwards. At least hypertrophy oriented evidence based coaches seem to dig that.
Absolute load isnt 100% correlated with central fatigue. Five reps of pause squats will take you a longer time to complete versus five non-paused squats. This increase in set length can potentially lead to greater central fatigue and pro-long recovery time, which could be bad for hypertrophy. Obviously there are many factors involved, and its usually best not to over-simplify mechanisms like we are doing here. I think increasing fatigue through slower eccentrics and end range pauses is something that bodybuilding coaches potentially over-recommend, given how it will scew the emphasis away from concentric repetition.
Dunno. I Find it hard to dismiss them as useful for strength progression even in advance lifting. My max ATG HB BS is 200kg and I'll pause squat around 160 for reps. I feel like the neuro muscular connection & overall utilization of motoric units required is much greater, due to the absence of the bounce and sling motion. I find it as an alternative way to achieve such a high level of strain to the body while keeping a distance from the maximal loads. Then again it's just a feeling based on my training, I haven't tested or done research on the subject, neither are they a staple in my programs, I do them every now and again when I see fit.
I think me spending too much time pausing under the barbell might explain me "gassing" on my sets of 10 and having to break up the sets into 6s and 4s to finish the 10. Thanks lads!
My reason for using them is because I’m too reliant on the stretch reflex out of the hole and find that I’m too passive. The pause squat teaches me to drive with as much force as possible, otherwise I’m screwed. I’m only doing 3x3 after my normal working sets at 70% and increasing the load by 5KG each week. I’ll run them for a 3 week cycle, assess my weaknesses, then swap them out for another variation. The stretch reflex is incredibly important though and i 100% agree that strictly doing pause squats would be counterproductive. .
I do pause breathing squat at the end of my squat workout with very light weight ~1/3 max. I just hold position as long as possible for a couple sets. That way I can continue to train nonpaused on the usual working set
I love different variations of barbell squats. I’m trying triphasic training. And the isometric phase I use pause squats with a explosive drive so the weight is never above 80 percent. I love sitting at the bottom and just building that connection with my posture and breathe. And time under tension trains the fuck out my endurance lmao I be huffing and puffing after 4 reps with a 5 second pause. Another variation I use is a slow eccentric with a explosive drive up or fast eccentric with a pause and a explosive drive up. Front Squats is one of my favorite variations because of the pump I get in my quads and upper back and traps. The squat is my favorite movement lmao
I asked about this in your Q&A and y'all got annoyed with me hehehehe. Well, coming out of some knee pain I stripped down to baby weight and progressed 10s with pause squats and now my knees are pain free and I'm back to bounce repping higher weights than ever. For me I think it helped force me to keep the anterior/posterior balance much better than before and thus my regular squat got more efficient
Why when lifting heavy around 95% my bones will start to hurt. Specific to the snatch and clean and jerk. Small context 31yr male 110kg, training weightlifting for 1/12. 104 snatch 120 c&j. 140 Bsquat 130 FSquat..
So, by aches and pains you don't mean when you feel your lower patella tendon is going to pop? That is what I am currently working with and pause squats helps bc there is reduced stretch reflex going and i can put load onto my legs... my knee is not liking coming out of the hole... especially in the bottom of a snatch...
Love your content lads. I can only squat upright with my legs wide appart and toes turned way out like sumo. Is there a problem with this? It seems unorthodox but feels right
My pause squats are harder for me. Maybe cause I go all the way down full range of motion. Regular squats I go below parallel but not ATG. When I slap on some knee wraps and a belt, forget it. I can bang out tons of reps with those on.
I use them between my regular squat session as the speed is more specific to a higher RM squat as opposed to just using a reduced load and moving with maximal intent where my velocities would be a lot higher. That being said I don't rely on the SSC as much as I used to although my amortization phase is still pretty fast. Thoughts?
Reason 4 of when you *should* pause squat resonates with me - I need the mental break sometimes. I use paused back squats as back-offs after working sets usually. Main reason is - I enjoy them and don't feel borderline intimidated like I occasionally do for working sets. Edit: fyi lads, on your website you have a typo of tour/your on the 3rd FAQ. Hope that helps.
So you guys straw manned your way out of the advantages of pause squatting: "They don't improve postural strength because people relax too much at the bottom" -how is that an argument? Any exercise has to be done properly to be beneficial in the way it's supposed to be- and didn't address one of the main reasons to do this variation: *Improving rate of force development*. Is this not one of the most important qualities a weightlifter should improve? I usually like your stuff but this video wasn't your best.
Dont know if it has something to do with my height at 6'5 but when i was squatting 600 i did paused squats for about 10 weeks and worked up from 275x3x7 to 405x3x5 and then a few days later i squatted 640. Also i did stiff leg deadlifts for 10 - 12 weeks and worked up to 500x3x5, 2 weeks later i pulled 750. Ive made progress since but i usually get injured or burn myself out when i try to do triples, doubles and singles on the squat and deadlift for multiple weeks. Maybe just dont know how to train though
@@roofuscunnilingus8049 don't undersell yourself. Nobody gets to 750 pull without programming it right unless you are 400 lbs Nigerian or icelandic horse rapist.
@@hha6076 it was a variation. The 750 was conventional, the 500x3x5 was a stiff leg deadlift off a 1-2 inch defecit. That was the heaviest i pulled that training cycle.
1 week after saying "ok,thanks" to the romanian coach and doing what he told me i strained my quad. (squat/front squat every day) On the other hand, this was the most enjoyable training week i ever had, and the most welcomed i ever felt in a gym.
Stretch reflex is something that a lot of people dismiss as cheating but in reality it takes a lot of work to develop the stability and strength to be able to absorb force in the bottom position without losing tightness. Regular squats are even more challenging in a way since you have to think about technique more
Maybe I'm an outlier for pause squats... when we had extended lockdowns here, I had managed to get a barbell, some plates, and squat stands. my 1RM at the time was somewhere around 134kg. I had set a goal just before covid to squat 3 plates, and figured I could still achieve that by the time we got gyms open again. I was basically bouncing between higher rep sets (10-20) and 5x5 pause squats because I only had 115kg of weight available. My first day back in the gym, I absolutely blew past 143kg (misloaded by 5kg... lol) and felt I had more in the tank.
Its not like pause squats have zero carry over to regular squats. But you would likely be able to progress quicker by mostly practicing the regular squats if regular squats are what you want to improve.
Great vid. One thing about the tendon stuff, check out Kieth Baar. There is good reason for slow eccentrics and isometrics in healing / preventing tendonitis (it’s quite an interesting mechanism too)
Here's a TL;DR from memory (check interviews or papers by kieth baar as I may be misremembering some of this): Tendons are a viscoelastic material. So, when rapidly loaded it is stiff, but when slowly loaded it can stretch out. The cells can synthesize type 1 or type 2 collagen. The normal tensile loading of a tendon leads to the production of T1 collagen fibers, whereas crushing or impact loading would lead to T2 synthesis (usually found in cartilage). If you have a tear in the tendon, the healthy tendon on either side shields the damaged part from stress/loading. Additionally, if you rapidly load the tendon, the stiff and healthy parts can slap together (similar to how a rubber band gets narrower when stretched) which crushes the damaged tendon, leading to type 2 collagen synthesis (not good for tendons). That's why if you have damaged tendons you should avoid plyometrics/ SSC as it can lead to degenerative/ chronic re-structuring of the tendon. If you load the tendon slowly (>= 30sec), due to the viscoelastic property, the healthy portions of the tendon slowly stretch out and expose the damaged tendon to this tensile loading, which then triggers the synthesis of T1 collagen, which begins to restore the healthy tendon structure.
Every other squat session for me is now a pause squat session. It's nice to just have an easier session in between the harshness of regular squats. If pause squats aren't easier than your regular squat, I feel you're probably doing it wrong. It's a different movement. Mine isn't than far in loading below my regular squat. It's increasing quickly because it's novel too. It's definitely improving my positioning too as I get squats back to this squat madness.
John Haack uses pause squats and I'm about 99% sure Josh Bryant teaches pause squats, their combined accomplishments in power lifting lend some credence to the pause squat in normal programming. I think you guys are pigeonholing here, they may not be for everyone but everyone isn't the same.
When an athlete clean jerk 180 and pause squat 200 kg 1x at end if training with a 5/5/0 tempo with ease ( no 1RM ) .I'm weightlifting you do not need excessive legs strength compare to clean jerk results 🎉 Americans thinks they' know it all: lasha shows you over and over to juste easly squat 10 to 20% more then CJ capacity with more speed for a 2 to 3 reps is fine and enough. Injury occurs lack mobility and a bad motion to body structure 🎉
Very strange, no mention of isometrics strengthening and causing hypertrophy for the muscle underbelly. Something that doesn’t happen with the eccentric or concentric movement. Why did they leave this out?
For me pause squats, provide a benefit I don’t think from the pause itself - but because I am planning on a paused movement I naturally slow the entire movement down anyway. They end up being more like tempo squats with a pause at the bottom.
Each rep? Gonna have to focus more on which variation you’re doing then other cues and actually moving the weight. Maybe between squat days but each rep seems a bit much imo
I find for me if I still regular squat and incorporate pause squats my squat has gone up. I’ll do 2 days of regular squat and 1 day with either pause squat at the bottom or pausing at parallel
I pause squat in competition to mock my opponents.
Absolute menace 🤝
Sigma
Based
@@weyhanng7028 25 hours daily grind
You should say, "I Squat more than my Opponents in Mock Competition. I Pause Squat in Competition to Mock my Opponents."
Klokov and Clarence atg pause squats are such an aesthetic movement. I do them exclusively for fun and to remind myself that the weight I'm pause squatting used to be something I had to bounce out of. Just sit there for a few seconds and contemplate life
The Stoic Lifter
@IncorrectOpinion2 Honestly more like 5x3 haha pause squats drains me like crazy
@@denester1 if you means 5x3 feels like a 5x5 then yes agreed
Do you think I can use the pause squat to fix a strength and size imbalance between the 2 legs ?
No doubt Clarence have a strong ATG squat but he got a slight butt wink when coming back up. The real aesthetic ones are from Tian Tao or Toshiki Yamamoto's squats. They're ATG but with no butt wink and super upright torso. But I think you need to born with that kind of body to have that kind of mobility.
Pause squats are my number 1 variations. It helps fix technique issues(not necessarily positioning, more so the actual technique of coming out the hole), helps with 99% of raw lifters weak point, good for load management/fatigue management, helps with proprioception in terms of depth, helps with confidence in the hole, is specific, and highly accessible. You just have to make sure you don’t get in the habit of pausing during competition squats
I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to only do a variation or variations without the competition movement for even moderate periods of time tho, so keeping in comp squats is probably why I have so much success with them.
I think you should be open to the idea that pause squats arent as good for these things as you might think.
@@ev1bl I would be if that was the case. But data speaks louder than feelings.
@@Jmack7861 And what data would that be? In your post you made a lot of absolute statements, and no caveats of it being just your opinion.
@@ev1bl evidence of the athletes i coach/have coached, myself, 90% of powerlifters that are actually competitive, common sense based off kinesiology, biomechanics, and programming theory, etc.
@@ev1bl explain how pause squats don't help for all those things?
- load management: you get more out of less weight with pause squats
- fatigue management: squatting a lower weight isn't as fatiguing
- proprioception in terms of depth: you spend much more time at depth in pause squats than regular squats which indeed is helpful for proprioception
- confidence in the hole: you spend much more time in the hole in pause squats than regular squats which indeed helps with confidence in the hole
- specific: it's literally the closest variation you can get to regular squats so it's specific for squats
- accessible: it is
Let me know when you find actual arguments instead of just being annoying for no reason
Primary reason for Pause Squats: Being able to train around an injury or chronic pain in the hips (esp. adductor or hamstring related)
Secondary reason: For people who don't care about max squat but care about the deadlift (i.e. Strongmen, Deadlift specialists) it is a great way to train your lower body with lower weight, mitigating some fatigue, while getting a ton of carryover to the deadlift because you're starting from a deadstop.
Also the Strongman Squat Lift has a very diminished stretch reflex so squatting with a pause in the offseason will probably keep you more primed.
Tertiary reason: You have positioning problems at the bottom and practicing the normal squat again and again doesn't seem to work (usually happens with people who aren't built for squats). Pause Squats or even tempo work can really help.
Pause squatting helped me immensely with mitigating knee drift (excess hip drive) and more effectively using my quads to get out of the hole.
Great video on a topic that isn't often touched on. I remember back right in the beginning of my training, I asked Bryce Lewis what he would suggest for a novice lifter experiencing "butt wiggle" in the early concentric phase of the squat. He recommended a cycle of pause squats, and it worked like a charm. I still consider it some of the simplest yet most effective advice I've ever received.
Nowadays, as someone with lax proximal tibiofubular ligaments, pause squats are a necessity to keep my cycle afloat. I cannot recover from normal back squatting over 90% more than once a week. With pause, I can reach 90% or even 95% doubles and give my ligaments an off day. This is a very specific condition not many lifters have to deal with, but there's a whole community around it who treat the pause squat as a boon.
I only pause squat cos I enjoy it. I train for myself and have no intention of ever competing in anything again.
I love pause squats. This is definitely some information to take into consideration when looking into training for 1RM.
I just ran a pause squat program and something it has done has made me positionally stronger.
I couldn't get the hang of controlling my descent and would tip forward on the bounce.
I'm implementing some of my findings from my pause squats in the normal squat in terms of the controlled descent and it's working wonders.
The biggest benefit I found with pause squats (when my form wasn’t as good) was that it felt like I was doing 10 individual reps as opposed to 10 reps and because of this my rep quality improved. Previously I’d find my form deteriorating a bit as the set went on, likely due to imperfections in my form compounding as the set progressed. I’m moving back to regular squats (retaining paused squats for my front squat days) and am interested to see how they’ve improved!
You've convinced me I've been pause squatting for too long, thanks
I mainly pause squat because it just feels natural, and it helps in real life when I need to lift stuff up from the floor.
I use pause squats once a week. Great for me. I smashed through my plateaus, and they add great variation to my routine. I use 80-85% of my one rep max during pause squats. Three max reps. Trick is to try and keep it heavy.
I've changed my 3x5(3 times a week) regular squats with pause squats because of knee pain and pause squats didn't only fix my knee pain but my squat weights went higher faster than ever
For 3x a week, you did pause squats? How many percent of your 1rm, set and reps?
@@iwtd9852 I've started pause squatting with %80 of my 5 rep pr in regular squats.I do fullbody training,3 days a week so i do squats at the beginning of workout,only 3x5 at 7.5-9 rpe range.I was able to pause squat more than my regular squat in 2 months.My knee pain is also completly gone.I don't think i will ever do regular squats again.Btw knee sleeves are also pretty helpful.
@@AtakanBerkBrant so in 2 months, did you try to do a pr? How many lbs did you add to your squat. Currently, Im focused on front squats
@@iwtd9852 If u meant 1rm by saying pr,no i didn't try it.I was able to squat 110kg for 5 reps at rpe 10 before replacing it with pause squats.In 2 months,i could pause squat 110kg for 5 reps at 8-9 rpe range with better form.People usually can pause %90 of their squats so considering my pause and rpe difference,i would say i must have added smth like 20kg but i've never tried regular squats afterwards bcs i don't want to risk my knees again.I never regularly did front squats,my collerbone is genetically too far out so i always felt pain while holding bar,also in terms of powerlifting,i don't find front squats effective
I was actually going to make a video about pause squats because it got me out of a plateau at 365lbs and got me to 405 after using them for just a couple months even though I had been stuck at 365lbs for over 6 months. It eliminates the stretch reflex and strengthened my squat at the bottom of my squat.
Yes: it conditioned me to not fear being in the hole.
Same results for me. I was trying to hit a 315lbs squat back in 2019, ended up hitting 325 first day back in the gym post-lockdowns. All I did was high rep squats (x10-20) and 5x5 paused squats with the 255lbs I had available in my (makeshift) home gym. That following year I got up to 365 following the same pattern.
Got me out of a basically one year plateau in a couple of month as well
I went from 345 to 405 in only 3 weeks, just by squatting everyday. Went back to hypertrophy after. But squating everyday gets you strong really fast. Strength is a skill and improves better with practice
Makes sense. For me the pause squats provide a greater stimulus than regular squats. They make it possible for me to add weight to the bar more frequently using the same working volume.
I treat the pause squat as a nice 'side attraction' for the squat as a whole. While pauses in the backsquat have never done anything for my overall backsquat 1rm, I have found pause frontsquats to be extremely effective for building thoracic spine strength in the 'touch and go' frontsquat. This is perhaps because you'll never fail a frontsquat due to leg strength, but for thoracic collapse. Staying in the hole and holding tight does wonders for making you stronger in that sense, and I saw good progress even after having trained for 2+ years. Your mileage may vary, though a block of pauses over 4 weeks made me go from 172.5kg to 182kg in the frontsquat. Best pause backsquat is 202kg, with a regular max of 227kg - so not nearly as close or effective.
Pause squats are fantastic while warming up to your main set
a well organized and well delivered video, thank you lads
Very good for teaching the athlete to find midfoot, the atg "pause" squat is not a pause squat. If you actually pause and hold the squat at an inch below parallel it is much harder and much less stretch reflex.
I suppose it depends upon what you want from training. Most people don’t think in terms of the grand scheme, just from previous PR to next PR. Pause work is always good to thrown in for me because it reinforces technique, but I don’t know if I could commit to pause training for a movement forever. It might be better for overall longevity since its not a maximal load, but if you deload properly and aren’t maxing every other week, you should be fine.
I only do a few pause when warming up
I always pause my "heavy" singles. Feels more clean and controlled, lower injury risk.
Clarence, Lu, Klokov do pause squat. I don't ask questions..
I use pause squats for rehab (knee and low back injuries). Increasing the time to decelerate the weight effectively reduces that amplitude of the force that has to be absorbed. I have to do fewer reps per set, of course, but I can handle the same loads with less risk.
I do pause squats to strengthen my regular squat. I hold the bottom for 5 count for 4 sets. This works for me. These 2 may have a problem with the pause squat but I find that I control the weight better especially when rising back to the standing position. The key to the pause squat is the desent. Using a moderate heavy weight you are forced to use control into the bottom. For me it results in squatting more weight in the regular squat. At 62 years old, I need every advantage I can use.
Partial squat : box squat : make you strong 🎉
Really great information. Thanks a mil. One piece of feedback which I hope is taken in the spirit intended - the speech bubble videos diverted my attention and made it difficult to concentrate on what Eoin was saying. I might be wrong but I suspect this was also the case for others too. Thanks again for sharing.
I liked it for powerlifting squats, was very unsure about my paralel position and strength/comfort in that spot, so with conjugate i did box squats and after i would do a lower weight pauze squat.
Overtime i would take out the box squat and go build up my regular squat now that my movement on it has improved again and my body just knows where my comfortable position at paralel is, and i set a few new PR's without the pauze squat.
I'm also very unexplosive, you have clarance on 1 end, you have my slow ass on the other end.
For real squats it helped strengthen my comfort in the hole and just strengthen my knees.
On the topic of rehab, I've seen some evidence that the isometric exercises can reduce soreness of tendon pain. This would typically be done with pretty low load.
How about pause squats for "real" athletes in their S&C?
In most sports you don't have the luxury of a stretch cycle to help boost your concentric
Pause squat will probably grow more muscle with less absolute load (whole system fatigue) since you definitely go your full rom and go through the stretched position with no hurry. I suppose you can use that muscle for improving strength results afterwards. At least hypertrophy oriented evidence based coaches seem to dig that.
Absolute load isnt 100% correlated with central fatigue. Five reps of pause squats will take you a longer time to complete versus five non-paused squats. This increase in set length can potentially lead to greater central fatigue and pro-long recovery time, which could be bad for hypertrophy. Obviously there are many factors involved, and its usually best not to over-simplify mechanisms like we are doing here. I think increasing fatigue through slower eccentrics and end range pauses is something that bodybuilding coaches potentially over-recommend, given how it will scew the emphasis away from concentric repetition.
Dunno. I Find it hard to dismiss them as useful for strength progression even in advance lifting. My max ATG HB BS is 200kg and I'll pause squat around 160 for reps. I feel like the neuro muscular connection & overall utilization of motoric units required is much greater, due to the absence of the bounce and sling motion. I find it as an alternative way to achieve such a high level of strain to the body while keeping a distance from the maximal loads. Then again it's just a feeling based on my training, I haven't tested or done research on the subject, neither are they a staple in my programs, I do them every now and again when I see fit.
How much work does the stretch-shortening cycle really need? Can't it be sufficiently trained by bounce-squatting one session every week or two?
I think me spending too much time pausing under the barbell might explain me "gassing" on my sets of 10 and having to break up the sets into 6s and 4s to finish the 10. Thanks lads!
I do them mainly because I enjoy them. I saw Clarence and Ivan Djuric doing them and though they looked really cool.
Where is the link for the masterclass?
Using the bounce out of the bottom increases risk of tearing your adductor, pause squats prevent this.
My reason for using them is because I’m too reliant on the stretch reflex out of the hole and find that I’m too passive.
The pause squat teaches me to drive with as much force as possible, otherwise I’m screwed.
I’m only doing 3x3 after my normal working sets at 70% and increasing the load by 5KG each week. I’ll run them for a 3 week cycle, assess my weaknesses, then swap them out for another variation.
The stretch reflex is incredibly important though and i 100% agree that strictly doing pause squats would be counterproductive. .
I’m coming in here pitchfork ready
Thank you
Pause squat is just an indicator of strength
More stable position in snatch and clean only rely on impact in floor on drip position 😂
I do pause breathing squat at the end of my squat workout with very light weight ~1/3 max. I just hold position as long as possible for a couple sets. That way I can continue to train nonpaused on the usual working set
I love different variations of barbell squats. I’m trying triphasic training. And the isometric phase I use pause squats with a explosive drive so the weight is never above 80 percent. I love sitting at the bottom and just building that connection with my posture and breathe. And time under tension trains the fuck out my endurance lmao I be huffing and puffing after 4 reps with a 5 second pause. Another variation I use is a slow eccentric with a explosive drive up or fast eccentric with a pause and a explosive drive up. Front Squats is one of my favorite variations because of the pump I get in my quads and upper back and traps. The squat is my favorite movement lmao
muscle spindles and anabolic properties in the knee joint
I asked about this in your Q&A and y'all got annoyed with me hehehehe. Well, coming out of some knee pain I stripped down to baby weight and progressed 10s with pause squats and now my knees are pain free and I'm back to bounce repping higher weights than ever. For me I think it helped force me to keep the anterior/posterior balance much better than before and thus my regular squat got more efficient
Why when lifting heavy around 95% my bones will start to hurt. Specific to the snatch and clean and jerk. Small context 31yr male 110kg, training weightlifting for 1/12. 104 snatch 120 c&j. 140 Bsquat 130 FSquat..
Zack told me it would make me strong.
Nice arms bro
What about emergence of low fatigue strategies to improve 1rm…?
One word.
.
.
.
Clarence.
Probably 70% of guys squatting 4 plates couldnt do 2 plates with a pause squat.
So, by aches and pains you don't mean when you feel your lower patella tendon is going to pop? That is what I am currently working with and pause squats helps bc there is reduced stretch reflex going and i can put load onto my legs... my knee is not liking coming out of the hole... especially in the bottom of a snatch...
Love your content lads. I can only squat upright with my legs wide appart and toes turned way out like sumo. Is there a problem with this? It seems unorthodox but feels right
My pause squats are harder for me. Maybe cause I go all the way down full range of motion. Regular squats I go below parallel but not ATG. When I slap on some knee wraps and a belt, forget it. I can bang out tons of reps with those on.
I pause squat to tell everyone else in the gym that I am simply better than them
pause version puts less pressure on my low back
I use them between my regular squat session as the speed is more specific to a higher RM squat as opposed to just using a reduced load and moving with maximal intent where my velocities would be a lot higher. That being said I don't rely on the SSC as much as I used to although my amortization phase is still pretty fast. Thoughts?
Reason 4 of when you *should* pause squat resonates with me - I need the mental break sometimes. I use paused back squats as back-offs after working sets usually. Main reason is - I enjoy them and don't feel borderline intimidated like I occasionally do for working sets.
Edit: fyi lads, on your website you have a typo of tour/your on the 3rd FAQ. Hope that helps.
I use pause squats until I hit 220 then I go unbroken
I pause my frontsquats + lots of heavy C&J so I don't lose the ability to bounce out of the hole
Best squat variation is the squat jerk barefoot with hands touching in middle knurling.
Oh hey I wonder what is time under tension lolol, oooo I wonder what is explosiveness vs bounce lolol
SEE CLARENCE CLICK CLARENCE.
*Fingerguns*
34 seconds ago am i first
4 word algo comment
So you guys straw manned your way out of the advantages of pause squatting: "They don't improve postural strength because people relax too much at the bottom" -how is that an argument? Any exercise has to be done properly to be beneficial in the way it's supposed to be- and didn't address one of the main reasons to do this variation:
*Improving rate of force development*. Is this not one of the most important qualities a weightlifter should improve? I usually like your stuff but this video wasn't your best.
Algorithm
Noooo
This is not the first comment
Clarence Kennedy BTFO
Dont know if it has something to do with my height at 6'5 but when i was squatting 600 i did paused squats for about 10 weeks and worked up from 275x3x7 to 405x3x5 and then a few days later i squatted 640. Also i did stiff leg deadlifts for 10 - 12 weeks and worked up to 500x3x5, 2 weeks later i pulled 750. Ive made progress since but i usually get injured or burn myself out when i try to do triples, doubles and singles on the squat and deadlift for multiple weeks. Maybe just dont know how to train though
? You squat 640 and pull 750. You know how to train dude.
@@connorbrady5689 maybe i shouldve said program
@@roofuscunnilingus8049 don't undersell yourself. Nobody gets to 750 pull without programming it right unless you are 400 lbs Nigerian or icelandic horse rapist.
are you saying your top set prior to pulling 750 was 67% for 5 reps? or are you excluding a bunch of stuff
@@hha6076 it was a variation. The 750 was conventional, the 500x3x5 was a stiff leg deadlift off a 1-2 inch defecit. That was the heaviest i pulled that training cycle.
I guess it comes down to your goals. Sure for weightlifting the bounce is important. For a regular person bouncing may not matter as much. Good video!
1 week after saying "ok,thanks" to the romanian coach and doing what he told me i strained my quad. (squat/front squat every day)
On the other hand, this was the most enjoyable training week i ever had, and the most welcomed i ever felt in a gym.
Ah chute.. recover quickly and well 🙏🩵
are you sure he wasn't Bulgarian? 😂
Stretch reflex is something that a lot of people dismiss as cheating but in reality it takes a lot of work to develop the stability and strength to be able to absorb force in the bottom position without losing tightness. Regular squats are even more challenging in a way since you have to think about technique more
Yes, this. The peak forces are higher, and you need to practice withstanding it.
cope
@@jameskelly7403 with what?
12:36 rare Alan Thrall sighting
Maybe I'm an outlier for pause squats... when we had extended lockdowns here, I had managed to get a barbell, some plates, and squat stands. my 1RM at the time was somewhere around 134kg. I had set a goal just before covid to squat 3 plates, and figured I could still achieve that by the time we got gyms open again. I was basically bouncing between higher rep sets (10-20) and 5x5 pause squats because I only had 115kg of weight available. My first day back in the gym, I absolutely blew past 143kg (misloaded by 5kg... lol) and felt I had more in the tank.
Its not like pause squats have zero carry over to regular squats. But you would likely be able to progress quicker by mostly practicing the regular squats if regular squats are what you want to improve.
Great vid. One thing about the tendon stuff, check out Kieth Baar. There is good reason for slow eccentrics and isometrics in healing / preventing tendonitis (it’s quite an interesting mechanism too)
absolutely, tendon fibres need to be under load in order to recover properly, usually advised through heavy iso/ecentric work by most physios
*heavy loads usually come later on in the rehab process, I should have said
Here's a TL;DR from memory (check interviews or papers by kieth baar as I may be misremembering some of this):
Tendons are a viscoelastic material. So, when rapidly loaded it is stiff, but when slowly loaded it can stretch out. The cells can synthesize type 1 or type 2 collagen. The normal tensile loading of a tendon leads to the production of T1 collagen fibers, whereas crushing or impact loading would lead to T2 synthesis (usually found in cartilage).
If you have a tear in the tendon, the healthy tendon on either side shields the damaged part from stress/loading. Additionally, if you rapidly load the tendon, the stiff and healthy parts can slap together (similar to how a rubber band gets narrower when stretched) which crushes the damaged tendon, leading to type 2 collagen synthesis (not good for tendons). That's why if you have damaged tendons you should avoid plyometrics/ SSC as it can lead to degenerative/ chronic re-structuring of the tendon.
If you load the tendon slowly (>= 30sec), due to the viscoelastic property, the healthy portions of the tendon slowly stretch out and expose the damaged tendon to this tensile loading, which then triggers the synthesis of T1 collagen, which begins to restore the healthy tendon structure.
@@bobbyatopk great read
I love the little edits. I usually just listen to these videos but I'm watching this one and laughing 😂
Pause front squats for mobility in the catch. Lovely video.
Algo shmalgo inside out mustard
Every other squat session for me is now a pause squat session. It's nice to just have an easier session in between the harshness of regular squats. If pause squats aren't easier than your regular squat, I feel you're probably doing it wrong. It's a different movement. Mine isn't than far in loading below my regular squat. It's increasing quickly because it's novel too. It's definitely improving my positioning too as I get squats back to this squat madness.
7:43 my quad tore just at this moment :(
John Haack uses pause squats and I'm about 99% sure Josh Bryant teaches pause squats, their combined accomplishments in power lifting lend some credence to the pause squat in normal programming. I think you guys are pigeonholing here, they may not be for everyone but everyone isn't the same.
When an athlete clean jerk 180 and pause squat 200 kg 1x at end if training with a 5/5/0 tempo with ease ( no 1RM ) .I'm weightlifting you do not need excessive legs strength compare to clean jerk results 🎉 Americans thinks they' know it all: lasha shows you over and over to juste easly squat 10 to 20% more then CJ capacity with more speed for a 2 to 3 reps is fine and enough. Injury occurs lack mobility and a bad motion to body structure 🎉
Pause squats are for warm-ups
"hamstering yourself" 😂
The pause squat is used by weightlifters to show their opponents and people who are normally training how badass you are.
Simply a misunderstood art.
Please don’t fight guys.
Not in front of the kids.
A 150 pause to 200 regular squat ratio is pretty terrible, do you really have athletes like that?
Great to see the footage of Alan Thrall included.
Could you make another video of *beltless* squats? Thanks!
talk funny..........
I’m planning on ditching pause squats on my (heavier) back squat day but retaining them for my front squat (lighter) day.
Pin squats>pause squats
Very strange, no mention of isometrics strengthening and causing hypertrophy for the muscle underbelly. Something that doesn’t happen with the eccentric or concentric movement. Why did they leave this out?
For me pause squats, provide a benefit I don’t think from the pause itself - but because I am planning on a paused movement I naturally slow the entire movement down anyway. They end up being more like tempo squats with a pause at the bottom.
I'd like your opinion on sets with alternating squats each rep, tempo, bounce, pause.
Each rep? Gonna have to focus more on which variation you’re doing then other cues and actually moving the weight. Maybe between squat days but each rep seems a bit much imo
Switch between high bar and lowbar during a set aswell for maximum muscle confusion
Morning Gents. Whats the craic with your version of the squat bible? Still in the works?
I find for me if I still regular squat and incorporate pause squats my squat has gone up. I’ll do 2 days of regular squat and 1 day with either pause squat at the bottom or pausing at parallel
Very intelligent. You really know what you're talking about and that's greatly appreciated.