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90 percent of people squatting in the gym will benefit most from squatting high bar shoulder width stance using their entire leg fully rather than what you put in S tier
I tell everyone who asks that they should do paused squats. Not only does it build confidence coming out of the hole, but it's built core strength in a way that hadn't expected.
Im not a strength athlete or anything, just a dude aiming to be somewhat strong and useful, and after lots of trying im down to front squats for sets of 4 once a week and paused front squats for sets of 3 once a week. They feel good, i feel like the paused ones have helped my posture tremendously.
@@benchgoblinWhat I've been implementing is using my warm up weight, which is usually 95lbs, to do a 10 second descent into the hole, and a 10 second pause at the bottom. Building absolute strength from such a dead long stop, and instantly going back to doing the reps of the first set. Prolonging the first rep of the warm up weights to ensure that heavier weights move smoothly without break down.
“Most of you guys aren’t limited by your anatomy, you’re limited by the fact that (front squats) are uncomfortable and you don’t want to do them” I feel seen 😂
Yeah, I've been one of those "low bar competition squat or die" guys for the past six months. It's by far my best lift, so it's easy to get lazy. Time to start looking at the big picture again. Thanks for the inspiration.
I got an axle bar this past November and I been enjoying the heck out of zercher pin squats. I do them with my arms uncrossed. Not only does it blast my lower body but also my upper back. I am 45, don’t compete, train in my garage and zercher’s have offered some great variety. O plus I love the axle Zercher carry 😊
I've done axel pin zercher squats before when prepping for a comp, they were fun but I personally didn't feel much developmental benefit, I got more out of front squats personally
@@Shahrukhsa I used it when I was in a period of loving press exercises. My best was 72.5 kg for 4 reps weighing 74 kg. I've recently started to OHP again weighing 77 kg and 45 kg feels so heavy lol
@@emmanuelmacias6381 Not really. E.g. speaking of the front squat, Bromley talked about how it's a great developer but doesn't always carry over to competition squats. By "developmental exercises," I mean the exercises that are good at taking someone from untrained to reasonably strong. Probably the most important things to include in beginner and early intermediate programs, especially stuff where early intermediates may be underdeveloped.
@@magicjohnsins Yeah. And I think it would make a good tier list. Squat, Row, Bench, OHP, and DL all seem obvious, but there are another 20 or so common exercises or variations that I think would be cool to compare.
@@Aaronsolnelson not really. I can't think of another 5 let alone 20 exercises I'd classify as "developmental" in the sense of your definition. For example, lateral raises are great but don't "carry over" to anything like OHP. cable flys are great but they don't carry over either The only thing that's really gonna impact your main lifts are grip variants of your main lifts. Long story short? Wanna develope your bench? Bench Wanna develope your squat? Squat Wanna develope your ohp? Ohp This is mostly due to one being "reasonably strong" being dependent on their numbers in these main lifts. So do the main lifts
Ssb bar is underrated here. After two years of using one with zero back squats, when I finally went back to back squats it was stronger than ever. And I'm talking mid to high 600s.
SSB is an interesting one for sure. Feel like it distributes the weight really well. Somewhere between front and back squat. Depending on how you hold it of course
Box squats and Bulgarians have really transformed my legs. My groin was in pain every time I would normally squat, so these are the variations I turned to. I've only been consistently lifting for a year and my legs were the first thing I noticed a difference in over the last year.
I hear you man. I've been having a lot of tightness and pain in my left knee and Box Squats have helped me get back into squatting and really transformed my quads and glutes.
@@Kilithaza This channel has been my coach programming wise. Nutrition is not hard, calories in calories out, tracking protein focused. Genetics very good for bench press. What do you mean by [work ethic] and [cycle]?
As high bar ATG squatter, and a not very good one, I find squatting to parallel to be detrimental to my 1rm. Not having the rebound at the bottom of the hole reduces my power production. So the wider stance, parallel squat is a great accessory for me to train control and core.
One of the most gruelling drills is combining paused and pin squats. Two pauses in each rep: one at the bottom and another one halfway up (when butt is above parallel). Great to do these on a deload week, to work on those sticking points with less weight.
I just started doing squats (wider stance & low bar given my height and long femur) after 20yrs of not doing them as I never felt comfortable with it, but have recently decided to get out of my comfort zone and start attacking exercises I’ve neglected or shied away from. Squat was one, and I’m going hard with it. Just building a solid base through increased volume each time I squat & working on form and controlled decent/ascent. At the end of each session, I’ll finish with pause squats with a 5 second hold in the hole and go until nearly failure (RPE 9). In the 4 weeks that I have been doing this, not only has my working sets and reps weight increased substantially it has also had a positive affect on my leg press & double/single leg extensions.
I've always rotated in pin squats..quite like them. Never found much difference between pausing on the pins to my regular squat...did them from a dead stop at the bottom a few weeks back and was humbled 😂
I do belt squats with a barbell in the rack. It's kind of like a raised landmine setup. As someone with lower back issues, it's definitely great for quads seeing as I can't load my regular squats that heavy currently. This exercise decomprosses the spine rather than compresses it.
Single leg squats (Bulgarian split squat) isometric holds are renowned for their positive attributes in the athletic populations. There is certainly some direct carry-over to the purely strength crowd. Findings suggest there is improved CNS/neural drive, improved tendon/joint health, improves recovery, improvement in the agonist/antagonist muscle firing patterns. I would expect that most of the 'strength' crowd would benefit by cycling these into the program in hope of avoiding torn tendons/ligaments as they continue to approach their genetic capacity for moving weight. Thanks for the lists you've created. It's fun to plot these out across the speed-strength spectrum and see where there is strong overlap and where certain exercises diverge to one camp or another.
can confirm the added benefit of unilateral work. I used to do heavy split squats and lunges which powered my back squat PRs. I added Bulgarian split squat and single leg RDL back to my training 2 weeks ago, and noticed feeling better about my squat and deadlift. The suck is very real! I think that adding dumbbells and bands can help with the loading more than just bodyweight. I am going to be running a band over my shoulder to add resistance in 2 weeks once I improve my balance and acclimate to my own body weight.
Front squats have been my go-to squat. Short torso, long legs and I can get into the clean grip so it’s solid. Definitely get its ranking though because it’s not for everyone.
I do zerchers because I dont have a rack at my home gym. I usually do low bar squats. Zerchers have been something I started doing out of necessity but started to like them.
I would love to come across a gym with a belt squat, I would train the shit out of it after all these years of monotonously grinding normal lowbar squats. Tried giving front squats and high bar squats a chance many times to give the posterior chain some rest, but I always run into ankle or upper back mobility issues with those. Belt squats just seems like the best of all worlds for me, just need to find one of those bloody things.
The SSB bar in our gym is the most uncomfortable shit ever (we do not have pads and handles are extra thin = fucking your clavicule hella hard). Started my program with it but I might honestly change it. My lower back is fucked after DLs and squat developmental with high amount of reps (not really used to 12 reps but getting adapted slowly, each session feels better).
Great video. With less options @ my commercial gym (sucks) , Pause has been a great help for me. Along with some bands while stopping at the bottom. Wish I can belt squat, so I may have to throw in the Zerchers for high volume while taxing the upper back and abs; to feed my Low-Bar squats.
Lowbar over highbar...I must disagre Sir. This is outragoius. :D Also I think to some extent it is less about the sance width (nor the bar placement for that matter) and more about knee vs hip "action" aka how much do you shove your knees forward.
man i love belt squats,last year I had a tweak in my back and they carried me through it,you can also just hammer them to failure safely but they can also be a pain in the ass to set up
YO BROMLEY The Bulgarian split squat 5min isometric you mentioned at 13:20 is called an "extreme isometric" I've been looking into them recently. They were first made popular by JAY SCHROEDER who trained an NFL player named Adam Archuleta. The idea is in isometrics, your muscle continues to pull and your tendons relax/stretch, thus why isos are so prescribed for tendon health. EXTREME ISOS are using long duration isos in certain positions, like the bottom of a lunge, to allow your body/mind to "reset". They are a bit like RKC planks in that you're trying to generate max tension, like in the lunge you're trying to leg curl with your forward leg, squeeze your glutes, and pull your back leg forward, like a scissor, as if you were about to take a step. There's more to it, but that's just a snapshot. JustFlySports on IG and his website has written a lot about them and also Christian Thibaudeau has spoken about them in a few videos.
I have horrible balance, so I tend to find myself toppling over forwards with too narrow of a stance. Still prefer to remain quite upright during my low bar / wide stance squats. I can do it due to my narrow grip on the bar. Lately I've got the urge to screw around with some narrow stance / high bar squats, though. Oh, and I love doing heavy Bulgarian split squats in the Smith machine. Yet again, my balance is poor, and I can overload more in the Smith machine... and my friends hate Bulgarian split squat so I find it hilarious to tease them about it.
It may sound crazy but if you incorporate some balance yoga it will make a huge difference. Yoga helps so much with balance and mobility whith heavy lifting.
Hi, Alex great video with loads of good information as always. Having crazy hip shift these days so a video about them or a small section about them would be great if you’re in need for a Video idea.
Zercher squats are the only exercise I stopped halfway through to look up how likely it was to give yourself a hernia while lifting lol. Felt like my intestines were about to shoot out my belly button
I was watching expecting goblet squats and Barbell jump squats. You didn't consider them unfortunately. Can you share your opinion about these? I use low-bar, paused squats, belt squats, GMs and Pin/ Anderson squats, in addition to the 2 aforementioned variations. My goal is general strength.
Goblet are kind of just front squats that limit you to one heavy dumbbell that is hell to position. You max those quickly as most gyms don't carry around above 110-130 dumbbells, and those are NOT fun to place into position. Jump squats are more of a plyometric movement meant for athletes, to gain power into the jump. Kind of like quarter squats, good for basketball players, pole jumpers, etc. I'm no expert but jump squats are not meant to build a significant amount of muscle, and you can't load them heavy (i wouldn't, since i value my spine and my disks). If you want power, do them, if you want strength, don't.
You didn’t add any tempo squats in there? A 3-0-5 tempo or a 6-0-0? Helps manage fatigue while increasing stress and helps work the motor pattern. I add them in any 8+ week program for a “mini” mid block Deload.
You forgot goblet squat. But theyre basically just front squats with dumbells. And the bulgarian pic is holding it goblet style. But you did add the special bars so why not. Id have to put front and bulgarian in the s tier too along with another that you forgot, split squats. Maybe can even add walking lunges to this list too.
Yeah if you’re gonna goblet squat just front squat unless you’re a beginner. Your front squat should easily outweigh any weight you could carry in the goblet squat position with your arms.
Alex, for hypertrophy, any thoughts on the reverse deadlift, sometimes called a barbell hack squat (although they're not technically a barbell hack squat as George Hackenschmit did them). I throw them in at the end of my quad work for a deep burn. I'd love your thoughts on them and other hypertrophy quad exercises.
SSB should be higher imo because its just straight up harder than even a high bar squat. As a low bar squatter its helped me a ton. Also great for core strength.
SSB for me has easily been the most obvious thing I've done to add weight to my squat. I think it's at least as beneficial as a front squat but has the advantage of being more comfortable and not having mobility restrictions. Also I think it would be more helpful to rank variations seperate from specialty bars. You can do high bar or low bar with specialty bars to a varying degree of effect..same with added implements like boxes and accommodating resistance. I personally like box squats with a SSB or cambered bar with a slightly wider than normal stance. I also think pin squats are absolutely trash as far as carryover and give you a higher chance of injury risk at a heavier weights because of the lack of eccentric. So idk these tier lists seem a little bit shit for that reason.
Yep, SSB all the way tbh. I love low bar squatting and it feels right for my morphology, but it fucks up my shoulder and elbows for days due to some inflamation issue (you'd think im 60 but i'm 20 lol). Been focusing on SSB and had to lower the weight a lot, you def feel weak with it at first though.
You know a "tier list" isn't serious when wide stande BS powerlifting squat ( that are awful for the hip socket btw ) are ranked higher than the front squat
@@Miiiiiiightyhe was showing some good points about a wide stance squat though lol. It works the adductors and glutes more and teaches you how to control the descent . Sure I'd rank front squats higher but a wide stance squat is not bs provided you actually go bollow or to parallel.
I dont know if anyone else is like this, but the only stance I can squat wide in is a front squat. I actually can't go narrow. With the bar on my back it's the opposite, I can't go wide.
I don't think sticking to something like a cambered or SSB bar and pushing it just as hard is anything less than S-tier; you have to bypass personal bias with the extreme ease of use and how effective the tool is for building general strength and muscle. Those bars are legit for anyone and they will not make you automaticly weaker; in fact you tend to use 5-10% less weight for the same results on them.
