I can't tell you how valuable it is to see someone take this kind of considered explorative approach to lifting, you have created such positive momentum in the community already and your content consistently has given me inspiration and food for thought. My respect and thanks to you Ivan.
@@setlaxsoccer77 I know right? I was like damn. It's a great take though. There's something about the lifting community that seems to be a bit dogmatic and seeing someone like Ivan methodically approach lifting in a different way is for sure inspiring. He's made me start squatting with much more frequency than I used to, now its 3x a week.
I expected to see a montage of you doing squats for 546 days. I was surprised to see your channel has a video every single day of you doing squats. Wow. Just wow.
I've actually tried this before my squatting sessions along with some posterior work like good mornings and it really makes me feel more warm and stronger.
Well moving your spine, warming up the muscles around it and getting blood and fluid into your spine is super healthy. We already don’t have enough spinal movement, especially torsion is something humans are missing.
Hey guys I agree core should be worked and bracing prior to lifting. However the spine should be stabilized not mobilized. I am saying this as I recently hurt my back ( herniated disc) after years of weight lifting. Look into Dr. Stu mcgill super knowledgeable and has been researching the spine for over 30 years with over 1000 medical research papers on the topic. He also helped Brian carroll work back from a devastating back injury to equipped squat over 1300 lbs. Cheers boys happy lifting!
@@jordan-zo7ou it depends on the human😂. But there shouldn’t be any problem with mobilizing your spine with a small range of motion and light bodyweight exercises only. But yes, under heavy load, always stabilize!
Bro, your arm flexibility is incredible. A lot of guys can't get their hands on the bar that close due to lack of upper body, shoulder and chest range of motion. This lack of flexibility leads to unnatural leaning. Can you make a video of what stretches you use to open up your chest to rotate your shoulders like that?
Hey I might be pretty late to respond on this but hopefully I can still help out. So humans are really anteriorly driven so having this slouched posture is very common. Usually our scapular protractors (pec minor and serratus anterior) are way too overused and tight and our scapular retractors (rear deltoid, and teres minor) are really underused and the muscle is actually lengthened. So to help fix this I’d recommend some soft tissue work around your pec minor and serratus. Just take a tennis ball or something like that and roll it in the side of your rib cage and underneath your armpit kind of. And for strengthening the scrapyard retractors I suggest doing things such as face pulls with a cable and doing rear set fly or any pulling moving in general is good for these as well. I hope this helps and if you want any more information on this then go to “squat university’s” channel he has a lot of good information on there
Watched this video last night. I did the barbell side bends at the start of my warm-up today for squats.. Big difference for my lower back, especially as the evening wore on watching football. Excellent exercise!
Hey! I'm really glad you took our conversation about side bends into consideration and found value in the exercise. The transparency with you is one of the many reasons to follow the journey. On that note, I have another suggestion. If you have noticed a pattern in a sticking point of the squat, why not incorporate some pin/box squats? Both are really good and research shows a direct relationship between partial squatting (in the form of box and pin) and full squat strength. What do you think about this? Breaking down the movement is always a good way to master it. And the top weightlofters are all doing it too! I'm a weightlifting coach so your experiments are very exciting to me
Yeh thank u for that. One of the best things about this channel is that i learn alot man. So many people on here that i can learn from. Its awesome. The side bends are amazing man. Love them. Cheers Box squat ive tried in the past. I liked them. But soon after starting them last year i developed that hip pain so i had to abandon it. It was really good to focus on that sticking point. It was sobering to watch the weight come off the bar coz u basically stop right where u dont want to hahahah
@@IvanDjuric300 respect! And I get what you mean about the box squats. Additionally abductor work is always recommended when working partials! Hahaha for sure must be sobering
Wow man, Ive been intrigued by the difference you've said that doing some core work as a warm-up, specifically your obliques, made in regards to how your squat felt. I wasn't even going to lift today but decided to go in and and just try it out- started with sit ups and side-planks and holy hell did I feel POPPY. I know why you use that word now, its really the only way to describe how it felt. LOL. I'm three weeks back in the gym after not going for a year and a half due to COVID and its been rough. Today was one of the first good feeling days I've had. Cheers brother, I love your videos and look forward to tomorrows.
I've done a lot of front rack holds in the past and i think it can be a good exercise, but just like you i figured it is too taxing for the potential strength gains it may provide and after the second time i hurt my thoracic spine doing them i stopped doing them for good. What i've been doing ever since is high reps of front rack shrugs with like 50% of my Front Squat 1RM for higher reps and imo it's a fantastic substitute and you can do them every day with no problems at all.
@@IvanDjuric300 IMO the info is not too conflicting it's just that different people are training for different goals. Chinese Weightlifters probably have to squat in a particularly upright form because they're training to come up out of the bottom of a snatch/clean and jerk and they can't lean forward with a barbell over their head. Strongmen can train knowing they'll get to use a squat suit which allows totally different form. Guys just trying to get as strong as possible might go ass to grass whereas power lifters know they only need a certain depth for the lift to be green so they train for exactly that depth. Then on the diet side there are so many factors like your weight loss goals, weight gain goals, nutrition goals, food sensitivities, etc... It can feel like all this info is conflicting but I think it's just tailor made to each different purpose. I think part of filtering the info is just finding the info that's relevant to your goals and discarding the info that isn't.
@@IvanDjuric300 yeah that makes sense there are a lot of options out there. I personally think whatever type of training brings you joy at the moment is the type you should pursue. If you're having fun incorporating some Chinese weight lifting stuff into your routine then do it. At the end of the day it's just gonna make you stronger and if the variety makes it more enjoyable it's a win-win.
And thats the key man. It has to be fun. If its not then its not gonna last. Ur laughing if u can have fun with the stuff that gets u stronger. Perfect scenario.
I’ve done a Bulgarian squat routine for almost two years. However, I wasn’t able to keep up my bench/OHP/DL Progression. It was strictly squatting Progression for two years. One thing I learned was using a different variety of squats, alternating every week or so, to keep myself for getting burned out. Great video! Love your take on the squat everyday! Good luck!
What I’ve learned from experience in roofing with heavy weight and having to be flexible like a yoga instructor is that the body is way stronger than we think it is and we need to emphasize core and trunk strength and mobility. We can put so much weight on our body and move it in many ways but we just think of our core as stabilizer muscles and don’t need to move it but stronger core better squats and lifts.
The information factor is so true. One of the dudes I regularly lift with is a lot older then me and my buddy, and we talk about how hard it was back in his day (generation before ours) to get information compared to us today
There is a lot of caution out there about demanding movements. When I say demanding its not always strength wise but health/flexibility as the demanding factor. These risky training exercises are what for many people exposed their weakness. "I started running and my knees went out", no your knees were already out and you started training. We neglect so many parts of our body tight hips weak core, tight chest(hunched) and that is why these compound movements are so great because they require the whole body to be working. Give parts of the body a rest for too long and they will retire permanently.
Absolutely agree with that. People often label movements as bad when people get hurt. But were people just in bad alignments, posture, weakness etc. Some movements are not for beginners, i get that, but still its hard to filter all that information out.
You changed my view on strength man. This morning i did 60kg for 5 sets of 20. Thought i was dying. Last heavy squat for me was 140kg for 3x2, but i incorporated volume in my routine (heavy squat/light bench, then light squat/heavy bench 3times a week, and pull sessions other days) and it's the key for progress ! You taught me that ! Volume is key for a heavy, strong and controlled squat. Thanks man.
Sub incoming, long time lifter here and I really appreciated your explanation of oblique stretching before squats. Thats a gem of a tip honestly and everyone should include it in their routine.
Once you get comfortable with how you need to hold your core, you can really add some momentum to the movement, and the feeling of the stretch down the obliques is huge. DOMS is also huge!
the internet made things accessible so there no excuses! you just got to have the right mindset, learn, adjust, and keep pushing. Ivan got me to change my program and im feeling poppy with squatting now
2 ideas. 1. Front rack holds might be put after the descending rep sets of FS 2. Try banded walkouts if you’re experimenting with core stability work. Did them Friday and they lit me up. I’ll put a link under this comment.
Dude said these were for back pain rehab, but honestly after trying them I might start adding them before I squat all the time now. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-34U81-LHk7k.html
Good work brother Tip for your Front Rack position Drive your elbows out It will lift the chest up and open up the back up. That 440 hold will jump to 500 your next session I Guarantee it. Your Front Squat numbers will jump also. With your elbows like they are now promotes thoracic rounding and that does not allow you to engage not just the upper body but the lower too. You say your learning from watching the Chinese Watch how they receive their cleans,front squat,jerk dip squats and rack holds and every movement they do It’s always back open, chest up. Also grip the bar whenever you front rack it. There’s no debating this If you can’t do it now force the issue till you can. It won’t take long. Keep posting 👍😎
Hey man, I have been around for a while now just haven't commented yet. I just want to say keep up the great work your videos are really interesting and inspiring and it's actually become part of my daily routine to watch them. Keep it up
What I like about Ivan is that research, info and analysis comes second to practice. He will try, embody and experiment with the parameters for days or for weeks, as most people try to read about it to help them decide. Ivan have a very hands-on, on the ground movement practice. This is so refreshing
Yeh thanks man. Reading stuff is good but unless u put it into practice u never truely know if its good. Thats why i just try it for a block or so and see what effects it has to my performance. Its the best approach i think.
Yeh i have. I find i struggle to maintain proper pelvic positioning. My abs are not strong enough so my hip flexors take over. Arches my back. I ve had back pain in the past from this.
Is it honestly ok to squat everyday? Wouldn’t that release more cortisol into the body because it’s so physically demanding? What pros and cons have you noticed in your journey?
There are many benefits man. Read the book for the full breakdown. Squat everyday by matt perryman. Stronger joints, no doms, skill mastery, and mental strength. Just to name a few. Heres a vid about it. I made this 6 months ago ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d1HUsNj6cKk.html
@Ben Zaragoza it depends on how much metabolic stress your putting on your leg muscles during the workout. If he was squatting multiply sets of let’s say 20 reps than yea it would not be effective to squat everyday. But this is for strength training not hypertrophy.
@Ben Zaragoza I bench 170kg and made great gains benching every day. Trick is to spread the volume out and don't do so much that you'll be trash the next day. In 2 weeks your body will have adapted to the frequency
Lol read the title and thought u were gonna talk about Ancient Chinese Warfare Tactics. Like on some Sun Tzu shit. That would have been pretty epic lol.
I can relate to this with stretching. I did dynamic stretching as a newbie (so I can high kick) and the next day my muscles were pulled. A few months of static stretching later and I can dynamic stretch np and touch my toes and limber up much faster because I’m used to it. Baby steps is the key to a lot of things
An other great QL exercise is doing deep db side bends, but stagger your stance, the opposite leg of the side you are working about a foot in front of the back leg. It helps trunk stability tremendously without needing much weight at all.
You deserve much more. In the sea of "instagram influencers", roid freaks etc., you are what everyone needs to see. Hard working individual who puts effort day in and day out, with good and bad days. You kept pushing through even when you had worst period of your life, and that everyone needs to see and implement. THANK YOU
The trick with so much information out there is that you need to be able to filter out what is good advice (overall) and what advice applies to you at this particular time in training. That being said, I have generally found that sticking with the main powerlifting lifts is all your really need. As you have seen, you have also tried volume deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, GHD, 45 degree raises, calf raises, running and now situps/leg raises/side planks. I also went through a period where I tried all kinds of assistance exercises, but I believe their effect was acute/temporary only. When I cut them out, my main lifts still went up. I believe the important (or at least what worked for me the most) was to do variations for your weaker muscles in the movement. For example, I got on my toes in the squat and Pause Squats and Front Squats have helped me get a better motor pattern + worked on my quads. I also have a tough time locking out the bench, so I did Close Grip bench to emphasize triceps. I still think that the movements that you do have value, especially for warming up, but I think that other than the mental aspect, they do quite little overall
Oh yeh for sure. The main lifts do 80% of the progress. At least. I however believe that we need some assistance exercises that address the muscles that dont get properly worked in the big 3. This recent block of core training has made me feel special man. My back feels strong and im very confident under the bar now. And it has been only a short time with it. No matter how we go about planning our big 3, weaknesses will arise. Its just a matter of finding the right exercise. I just look at the Chinese for instance. They do alot of core work. So there must be something to it.
Maybe when you're more recovered, try some of the Tom Platz methods of squatting, he also did ATG squats and said that he was trained by weightlifters not powerlifters. Try his sissy squat, maybe in a hack squat machine or smith machine, would be cool to see how your knees, ligaments and tendons match up to his. He really went past his knees. You should also check out his sissy squat, he put like 400-500 pounds on hack squat machine and went knees to platform, balls to ankles.
Hey Ivan, Love your channel! Looking at your squat form and range of motion, I can see that your feets are collapsing inwards a bit and you struggle to keep your heels planted. Not sure why but I suspect you're a bit tight in the glute and perhaps in the adductors. I would love to see your try strething the glutes very very lightly before you squat and do warm up with a few sets of seated good mornings just to work up that extra bit of missing mobility. Also if you placed your feet just a touch wider and angeled your toes outwards a degree or two more I think you would really get that extra edge in your squat. Please let me know if you try it and how it felt? Cheers from another power lifter!
Excellent suggestions man. Thanks for that. Yeh im actually stretching my glutes as i write this hahahah. Yeh all this squatting can make ur glutes tight. Doing high rep warm ups sets really does wonders for my mobility. But ultimately need more hip mobility. Thanks man.
@@IvanDjuric300 I got this tips from Chinese lifter at my gym actually and then I heard it from the kneesocvertoesguy, tried it out my self and just after a few weeks I saw great improvements in my own mobility. I obviously so more stretching on top of that but judging from what I saw in the video I thought you could especially benefit from that. Look forward to see you progress in your form and mobility over the summer now 😉
I tried the side bends yesterday before a light high volume squat session. I can feel the muscles on my sides today so mine are probably weak. Will add it in to my warm ups.
Now that my knees are better, I think I'm going to start squatting every day. Or at least every day I go to the gym. Thanks for the motivation. It helps seeing someone else do it.
Maybe doing the front rack holds once a week for a couple weeks and then working it up to 3 times a week over a couple weeks, I do at least 1 set of farmer carries a session and that helps with upper back stability so that might also be something to thing about implementing.
Yeh farmers are good too. I use to do them last year. Yeh the rack holds are just brutal. Especially working with weight above my squatting ability. Ill see how i go I guess.
I still remember when you came to my squat video and I looked at your channel and found a 2 3k subs. Now your channel has grown exponentially man...keep going
The side bend is basically a crunch, not meant to lean all the way over. But if done incorrectly(bad form, or weight overload) then it can Do some damage.
Another idea to strengthen the Quadratus Lumborum is by laying supine and dragging your feet side to side laterally along with the legs. If that is too easy than add weight to the feet and drag the feet along with the weight.
@@IvanDjuric300 Thanks. It is an exercise I give my patients to strengthen their QL. I feel far more tension on the QL while laying supine and dragging both legs together laterally right than left than I do standing with a bar on my shoulders laterally flexing my torso right and left. Just another idea to add to the tool box of strength training.
@@IvanDjuric300 Blocky core sounds like the ideal outcome. if they work, put muscle in the area, what is the issue. Seriously, if you are not carrying a ton of blubber, you are winning.
I tried the side plank holds and then hip flexor raises with a kettlebell before squatting today and could definitely feel it helped my depth! Thank u Ivan!
I did deadlifts few days ago. The hypers im not atm. I will get back to them soon as well as pullups. Im still trying to get back to full training after the illness.
I'm by far no expert in squats but I was watching s video the other day which might shed some information on your form. In essence many people tend to squat in two movement when coming back up: power through the legs to straight and then lift the back from a bent angle to straight. It may be difficult to spot but watch the square at 06:55. It's slightly less than two movements but you can see it when you slow it down. Problem: reduced shoulder flexibility tends to pull the bar over your head on the way down as your shoulders try to return to its natural position. As such, your torso follows suit and you bend slightly. This places an undue stress on your lower back and it has to catty the full load of the weight for a split second. Fix: attempt to stretch the shoulders further back before squats which will provide more flexibility and prevent bending. Hope this helps@
Yeh i agree i wanna stay more upright. But i think it all starts with hips. Lack of hip mobility has upstream effects in order to balance out the weight. The leaning forward is just a counterbalance to my limited rom.
3 weeks in olly weightlifting, buggered my knees up :(. IT band rock hard and super tight pulling my knee in places it shouldn't be causing kneed pain. no squats for a month :(, very frustrating but on the stretches and rollers to get my knees bullet proof.
For the QL/obliques you can use the back extension machine to do side bends. Works very well! I have also seen videos of the Chinese weightlifters doing this!!
the psoas is made up of the hip flexors and qls, totally recommend training them individually, hip flexors with split squat or bend knee leg raises and ql raises
Basically what's happening when you experience knee caving is one of two things. You can either have poor technical ques to pushing your knees out or you can have a weak glute medius muscle. Background to the glute medius: The gluteus medius (AKA glute medius) is a muscle on the lateral (outside) hip region. It originates at the ilium and inserts on the to of the femur. The function we care about for squatting in abduction of the femur, which the glute medius controls. How to diagnose the cause of knee cave: To diagnose what's causing the the knee cave we can do a simple test that will tell you if you have a weakness or a technical problem based on whether or not you can do it. When you next have access to a squat rack and a barbell you are going to focus on pushing your knees out to the side. Some good cues for this are imagining something applying pressure on your knees to push them to together and you are trying to stop that. Or you can imagine squeezing the outside of you glutes and keeping your knees as far apart from each other as possible. Now when you squat work on loading the bar up to 80 or 90% of your 1RM with one of those cues and one of two things will happen. 1) it was a technique issue and you just fixed the problem, OR 2) it was a strength/activation problem and you know know how to fix it. Strengthening the glute medius: This is fairly easy and there are a bunch of ways you can add this into your program so I'll give you the names and you can search for how to do them online so nothing gets lost if I explained it. Exercises you can use are: clamshells, banded squats, hip abducting machine (if you have access to one) and tempo back squats that focus on keeping your knees out. Hope that helps:)
The main reason many people say not to do sit-ups is because most people do not perform them well, so they do actually risk injury especially over prolonged periods of time. Most people start a sit-up from the ground and this places a lot of bad stress on the spine. A correctly performed sit-up, begins in the up position, with you feet well secured. You then lower yourself down but never touch the ground. This keeps the abs fully engaged, time under tension equals max results, and eliminates the bad stress on the spine. Do sit-ups ONLY IF you perform them correctly, else NEVER PERFORM SIT-UPS. All the schools I attended growing up always showed how to perform sit-ups incorrectly and they all swear they know what they are doing.
if your goal is squat-focused, do it 3x a week. Go heavy twice and light/formwork/stability work once. The squat is physically taxing out of all the other lifts, so make sure you have enough sleep and eat well. Work on strengthening your core as well since this will help boost the number you put up. 5x5 on heavy days is the usual go-to but you can do 5x3 as well. a brief plan of what I usually do (I squat twice) 1st session: 5x5 90% of 1rm and then 3x10, 50 or 60% of 1rm, this has to be mini paused reps and then all the other accessory work e.g extensions, leg press, lunges 2nd session: 5x10 70% of 1rm and then 3x8, 50% of 1rm with 10sec holds and then accessory work + core work e.g planks and situps with a weight plate preferably if you can
Greetings from Australia. I'm visiting your channel for the first time. Could we trouble you to explain what psoas curls are and a summary video of the warm up exercises you would do before you squat?
Recently hurt my back and am just starting to try to get back in to squatting and deadlifting. I have particularly bad hips, my hip flexors are tight and I have snapping hip syndrome, I also have tight hamstrings. I know you have touched on some of this before, but would you be able to outline a regimine for let's say a "beginner" in order to properly stretch and strengthen these muscles?
Go low weight good mornings for hamstrings, high reps and work on range of motion to try and lengthen them. Banded marches for tight hip flexors. But honestly just start squatting and deadlifting to see exactly what you need, nothing better than feedback from your own body.
For hip flexors i would do what i did in this video man. The seated psoas curls. For hamstring good mornings are great and also rdls. I actually dont mind ham curls on the machine either. But get back to squatting. Even if its light. Increase ur frequency.
I’m a huge fan of Renegade Rows, Copenhagen Planks and Seated Calf Raises as a “circuit” form of warming up. Where I do the planks, rows and seated calf raises into an empty bar of the barbell to squat. Do the same order then add a plate to the squat, keep doing that until my working sets. Renegade Rows are amazing for the multifidus muscle, contralateral contraction of the lumbar spine unilaterally. Lot of studies have shown multifidus hypertrophy can lead to a big decrease in lower back pain.
That makes sense man. Ive never done renegade rows before. Looks good. Ill give it a try. That muscle is long man. Getting it strong makes alot of sense. It can only help. U must get alot of work done quickly with these circuits.
@@IvanDjuric300 The circuit style specifically just makes warm ups quicker, provides direct feedback from muscle activation to the movement quality itself. Some people warmup then take a 3-5 minute break in between the warming up off muscles and warming up to your squats. You go a bit cold and you want to see how much off a direct carry over can the muscle activation of the multifidus, adductors and obliques present to the squat. Hopefully that makes sense
Yeh that reminds me of what louie use to say. During the warmup ur break should be as long as it takes for u to load the next weight up. So what 15 20 secs. Nothing more. The idea is to warm up hahahaha. People have forgotten that important point.
For the rack holds, take the hooks off and put the the safeties up high and lift off those. That way you can pass out and not die, and you don't need any accuracy putting the weight down. Also you can add bounces, getting somewhere in the region of jerk dips. I would also never do front squats AFTER this movement, it's a finisher for the upper back.
I have always been interested in learning exercises that 99% of the time you won't see people doing. Things that you might learn if you go through a physical rehabilitation or hire a sports trainer.
Tightness in the calves can cause you to tip forward but if do a good stretching session hitting every muscle in you lower body before you squat and you shouldn't have any problems
I love love side bends. I try to focus on bending to the back and side instead of just side though to hit the QL. There are some great videos on it on YT. I've seen a lot of people squatting 400lbs+ do it between sets to stay loose and keep their back from hurting.
Be careful with the "well if the top guys are doing it..." Top guys are exactly that, and train for world records, olympic gold medals etc, and survivorship bias is a thing as well. It's not always the best path to follow if youre "only" doing it for yourself etc. Anyways great video and great work! I will try out both the bb sidebends and the psoas curls.
When I did squats regularly, I used 465 lbs and did six sets of 8 squats a set, 2 days a week. i couldn't get anything out of 1 rep a set, very little muscle development.
Push your knees more to the outside when squatting. You need to open them more. Also, your heels go up, when in the lowest portion of the squat. In time, that shift of the weight to the toes will make your knees hurt. And probably your depth is a little too much.
Hey i do Bench 3 Times a week now ...Goal Size and strength 5-12 Reps ... Do i need Singles to get stronger ? Becouse they are taxing Long Term ....and If i get stronger on 5-12 my one Rep Max get Up automaticlY
Oh yeh. Improve a 5 rep max and ur single will go up for sure man. If u do singles as well ull be just able to contract harder. Ull get better at doing singles basically.
The thing that I have been focusing on, is focusing on what actually matters. What exercise actually matter in the gym and sticking to those exercises. This is key because there’s so much stuff in the fitness industry that could be cool to do but do they really matter? No.
when you say what actually matters are you referring to main lifts? such as bench, deadlift, squat etc? because i find doing accessory workouts help a little with the main lifts aswell
Build your bench press with 5's. 10's are too draining. Maybe ingest some glucose during your squat session so your bench press will be strong. I do a few tbs of pure maple syrup.
