I am very aware of this type of squating as I had been with a coach whom gets his athletes to take part in this exercise whilst in the gym, but it can seem F*&ing insane!
Just came back from the gym where I had completed my session and bumped into some of my “high jumper” friends whom were doing their session. I watched for a while as they trained and were doing 1/4 squats.
They were putting loads of weight on (considering the size the are) and near breaking backs trying to lift it.
lifting about 260kg ( 572lbs) for 5reps!
I just want to know what the other forum members view on this (in my opinion) insane like training, and if anyone has had any experiences with it in the past?
2 problems with quarter squats
1: How can you be sure you are hitting the desired depth each time, not deeper, not shallower. The tendency is to go shallower as the weight goes up.
2: Quarter squats are known for increasing injury risk to the patellar tendon. Best source for this is the weightlifting encyclopaedia.
i totally f*&ing agree. (i’ll have to stop swearing…bad habbit)
this guy had the smallest waist , (gym belt probably didnt have holes for him!) and the stability through the reps was scarey.
I feel preaching to them about the quality of the exercise seems pointless as both athletes have pb’s of above 2.25m. So be hard convincing them that it aint going to do them no good.
do any of the coaches on the forum encourage 1/4 squats, and if so what spec how and how much weight do you encourage them to use?
It’s not quarter squats but one exercise suggested in Ed Jacoby’s “Complete Book of Jumps” is step ups onto a 6 inch box working up to 2.5-3x bodyweight.
Is there something to partial ranges and high jumpers??? I really don’t know.
I don’t doubt its more dangerous. But if there’s a possibility (or perceived possibility) of extra benefits for whatever reason, a lot of guys are gonna do it.
And, yeah, if they have personal bests like that, well, it’d be damn hard to tell them to try something else.
I imagine it was scary seeing a tall lanky kid get under that much for reps. Probably thought he was gonna break in half. But part of the sport is minimizing weight so they’re stronger than the equivalent stringbean you would identify with that physique in a weightroom.
The reason high jumpers don’t like paralell and full squats is becuase they don’t want a big ass, an expanded rib cage and xtra meat on top. Besides they don’t go anywhere near that range of motion. To get over the problem of inconsistant depth they could do high box squats. If knee probs come the high jumper should forget squats alltogether. Step ups are great and Steve Smith (2.36m high jump) used to include single leg- leg press.
But of course the leverage of the movement will “allow” more weight than the athlete’s back and shoulders will support safely. I don’t know how to address this, just pointing out the obvious .
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