:D

[Edited by medders - 9/1/2003 11:18:30 AM]

no, thats a myth.

poor form is bad for your knees.

stopping early is much more likely to be bad for your knees than going down the whole way. ive been squatting for years and have never had a problem (touch wood!).

when the weight gets *really* heavy, use knee wraps if you're worried.

[Edited by milo - 9/1/2003 2:41:06 PM]

milo, squatting isn't something ever likely to worry me as it's something I won't ever be doing.

I'm female and as far as I am concerned, squatting falls squarely in the realm of 'bloke's training'. I'm not saying that women can't do it, btw, before anyone gets uppity, just that it's not for me.

I'm interested in the theory, but personally I do weights to tone and to build muscle stamina. I'm not after strength, or bulk.

[Edited by TurboKitty - 9/1/2003 2:45:28 PM]

Do front squats you women :)

its the cut shoulders that get me :eek:

Im 30kg off doubling my body weight now :( damm putting weight on :)

Si

[Edited by super_si - 9/1/2003 4:28:00 PM]

Si,

What's your mate been doing? Good morning's with 3 plates? :D

p.s. It's legs and squats for me tonight.

Damian.

[Edited by SPEN555 - 9/1/2003 4:45:21 PM]

Oh, and no, they're not unapproachable. I imagine you have a fair idea how difficult it is to intimidate me if I am determined to do something, but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm more concerned about knowing who to trust. I wouldn't know good technique from bad, so if I'm taught by someone without a clue, I'm not going to learn correctly.

Whilst I don't necessarily mind exercise that hurts, I prefer it to hurt for the right reasons!


Edit: I don't know what the knee problem is either, and things like climbing stairs and changing gear in the Scoob are irritating it and making it slower to mend. It's a major annoyance. My knees are strange though. I have swayback legs, which means my knees are slightly concave. It means I have a natural tendancy to lock them out when I straighten them and it puts a lot of strain on them.

[Edited by TurboKitty - 9/2/2003 11:29:16 AM]

Ken, benches built more chest mass for more guys than any other exercise. But don't forget flyes, incline presses, decline presses, pullovers and cable crossovers. To build mass, keep your shoulders back, to isolate the pecs, and the bar higher up your chest. If you want to focus on strength, keep your shoulders tucked in a little, and lower the bar towards the bottom of your pecs. Although discussion of reps/sets is also necessary - less sets, higher weights for strength; higher reps, lower weights for size.

Any other aerobic activity will drain your ability to build mass. I had a similar dilemma when i first started, but realised i'd have to give up my other sport if i wanted to put on significant size, so i did. That's the bottom line i'm afraid. The more focused your efforts to building size/strength are, the more results you'll see.

Are we really on page 5 already?!! Edited to say NO, it's page 6!! What am i doing??!! :p

[Edited by TelBoy - 9/2/2003 1:57:03 PM]

Britains strongest man reminded me how I needed to put squatting back into my routine somehow.

So yesterday I did my first 4 sets for 5 years !!

Can't remember why I stopped doing them.

But today - Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I can't feel my thighs or bum. Fantastic :)

Can't wait till i get the feeling back so i can do some more :)

If its bad now wait until tomorrow.......

is this some kind of homosexual practice?

Only in your mind ;)

Think i'll stay in bed tomorrow :)

jjones:

I think it's something to do with going to the toilet.

Steve.

and controlled sitting down is impossible ;)

Excellent. Trouble with squat pain though is that not being able to walk is just about as inconvenient as it gets! :D

Thought from the title that someone had just got a new home...

How many barrels so far Medders?

Les :D

hehe - I wish. i haven't done ANY for years. I'm weak like a baby at the moment. Hope it comes back quickly :)

Only just started doing this following my lengthy 'muscle building' thread :) I can do 3-4 sets of 5 reps at 65kg - Is that REALLY crap for a 13 stone 6' bloke??

Also, what muscles does squatting use?

I ain't getting into another 15 pager!!

65kg is fine. Actually, not bad if you've never done it before. Within a year you should be doing 100kg. Most blokes seem to level out at 120kg or thereabouts - it starts getting heavy then. Just don't forget to keep pushing your limits - it's easy not to do that with squats as it's such hard work. Keep with it.

Muscles it works? Quads, mainly. The outer quad with a narrow stance, inner quads with wider stance. Also the teardrop muscle above your knees. The glutes (bum), your lower back (although do NOT rely on your back to squat, *so* many guys do, unfortunately), leg biceps a bit and calves a bit. But the overal metabolic benefit goes way beyond that, as you'll discover. :)

Yeah, thats the bit I can't get my head round - I'll trust you on it though. I quite enjoy squats actually but it does feel like the sort of exercise that could go very wrong if you don't focus, etc :eek:

Big time. In fact, although i don't want to scare anyone, sometimes it's worth going through your mind what you would do if you get stuck at the bottom, assuming you're using free weights. I can remember the first time i was caught with 160 i think it was. No way was my spotter going to do anything, it could have injured him for life. So in the end i had no option but to push the bar back off my shoulders and onto the side supports of the squat rack, and leap forward to avoid the bar brushing my back on the way down. Quite unnerving.

In one sense it helped, because i knew i *could* escape if absolutely necessary, but on the other hand it was such an unpleasant experience that it put a sort of mental block in the way of doing anything which i wasn't fairly confident of getting. I'm not sure which feeling was stronger - probably the latter as i grew older, when self-preservation becomes more important than the last 5kg on the bar!

I wouldn't recommend actively practising your "fire drill", but do make sure your squatting environment is safe in case you do have to get out of a non-lift.

There, that's put you off hasn't it?! :D

When squatting just cast your mind back to that picture doing the rounds of the weightlifter with what looked like a jam doughnut stuck to his bum after straining a bit hard...........

Also found an amazing bit of kit whilst squatting. A moulded piece of plastic that attaches to the bar which kind of fits your traps / back. Made the bar sit in the right place. Never seen one before.

Paul

I've been using free weights but the rack seems to have two supports that stick out about 50cm above the ground. I've calculated that if I let myself fall forward (i.e tuck my head into my nuts) that I'll be able to comfortably do so and the bar will stop on the supports before I get to dangerous angles or overly strain my back. I'll then just have the job of getting myself out of a rather compromised position :eek:

The 'ring' picture was NASTY!!!

squatting rocks

imho the second best compound lift there is and vital in *any* training program.

make sure you go as deep as you can. i go pretty much ass to the floor. you dont need to go that low if you dont want, but make sure you go to parallel at the highest.

i would say a "good" amount to be squatting is twice your bodyweight for a single rep. be sure to warm up tho!

be careful of going for a one rep max with this exercise tho, unless you have spotter stands or better still, a decent power rack.

as far as muscles worked.. this has been covered above. depends on your stance of course and how low you go. quads and hamstrings mainly tho.

Twice bodyweight = "good"..??!! :eek:

Blimey milo, you've got high standards!! I'd call that "outstanding"..!!

Isn't squatting as far as that bad for your knees?

i know people who consider *benching* twice your bodyweight is "average".

twice bodyweight squat is not that difficult if you follow a proper powerlifting program and work on your weaknesses. wsb programs are great for this, and with proper rest and nutrition there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to add at least 2kg per week to your max squat. over a year, this is 100kg+.

given our 13st+ (85kg-ish) example who can squat 65kg for 5 (let's be conservative and say a 1rm of 70kg). adding 2kg a week to his max, it should only take him a year to reach this goal.

Nope, not if you get used to it. I also used to go very low, although there's a fine line between a deep squat and using your calves to bounce back up.

In fact i'd say squatting to parallel is worse for your joints; that's the mamimum leverage at 90 degrees after all. But i always used Tubigrip as well, that's a massive psychological, as well as physical advantage.

Hmmm, I can't imagine my knees liking it much.