Squat Problem

[ExtraMile]

For a while now my squat has been very far behind my deadlift to the point of it being just 10lbs or so infront of my bench. I cant figure out why. My current pr's are:
deadlift 319x1
full squat 231x1
bench 198x2

now I have thought about this alot and I started to think the differance between the two is deadlift is more back and less quads, but the squat is more quad and less back. Both work hams, glutes and abs hard. Obviously other muscle groups are involved but these are the main movers.

So if my squat is weaker that tells me maybe its my quads that are weak and my back that is strong? Well the problem is that when I deadlift its the middle portion that is hard, I can always break the weight from the floor which is quad strength but can neve get it past about knee level, which I guess is where the posterior chain comes more into play. Besides my quads are big but my hams look kinda small compared and my back isnt small by any means.

where can the problem be that is giving me such a weak squat and how can I solve it?

 

[musketeer]

My max dead is around 600lbs but I've never maxed more than 450 on the squat.

You're a puller not a pusher this is normal.

 

[shirlene29]

ok, this isnt my thing so take it with a grain of salt EM

its probably normal but remember how we were talkin about uneven muscle groups?

maybe you need to diversify a bit more

 

[moya]

your squat is pretty much olympic style right?... if it were a wide stance PL squat i would expect a bit more weight, but honestly your lifts are pretty much proportional...

 

[Scotsman]

Post a vid of you squatting (heavy if possible). At least for me squats are a much more finicky lift. If any one thing is off then I have troubles with the lift. Also there are tons of little things that can affect squats while deads are a much less "technical" lift honestly.

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[Tblock1]

I think you should try some front squats. They will strengthen your quads if they are weak and will really shoot up your back squats numbers.

 

[Andalite]

My max dead is around 600lbs but I've never maxed more than 450 on the squat.

You're a puller not a pusher this is normal.

Yeah I agree. I can Deadlift 475 but I barely Squat 355 and yet I can Front Squat 295.

It just depends on your body. Everybody is different. Just make sure you work on your hip mobility and you form on Deadlifts is solid. A lot of people have big numbers for Deadlifts but terribly form and then that ends up with them either injured or such bad habits while lifting that they need to take off all the weight and start from the drawing board.

 

[ExtraMile]

your squat is pretty much olympic style right?... if it were a wide stance PL squat i would expect a bit more weight, but honestly your lifts are pretty much proportional...

no, I squat with a shoulder width stance and toes slightly outward, but I squat all the way down like an olympic squatter yes.

@scotsman, I dont have a video of my 231, I have an old video of 198x5 though, this will give you some idea of how I squat although I did take several seconds between reps.

 

[moya]

with a wider stance, legit PL depth and the bar a little lower on the back, i would expect your lift to go up some... so i still dont think it is out of proportion to your dead or bench...

 

[Scotsman]

OK what I can see from your vid:

You are making into two motions. You push your hips back stop and then bend your knees. Try and start bending your knees before your hips get all the way back.

You are drifting forward badly so all your weight is on the balls of your feet and off your heels.

You are leading up with your hips instead of your chest/chin. Try looking up at a fixed point above you on the wall. You are looking into the mirror and wherever you look is where you go. Look forward go forward, look up go up.

You are loosening your core coming out of the hole which is partly caused by not leading up with your chest.

Try and sit back onto your heels like sitting in a chair.

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[oso0960]

Hey EM, I wouldn't worry about it as long as Dead>ATG Squat>Bench.

One thing I noticed when I did the 5/3/1 (which I believe is something similar to what you're doing), my squat ate shit. Sure, I probably shouldn't have keto dieted on it haha, but it ate shit moreso than my bench and dead combined probably because my body was so used to doing it 3x a week. Actually I probably had similar ratios with Dead/squat/bench as you when I was done with it.

 

[joe d]

OK what I can see from your vid:

You are making into two motions. You push your hips back stop and then bend your knees. Try and start bending your knees before your hips get all the way back.

You are drifting forward badly so all your weight is on the balls of your feet and off your heels.

You are leading up with your hips instead of your chest/chin. Try looking up at a fixed point above you on the wall. You are looking into the mirror and wherever you look is where you go. Look forward go forward, look up go up.

You are loosening your core coming out of the hole which is partly caused by not leading up with your chest.

Try and sit back onto your heels like sitting in a chair.

Cheers,
Scotsman

i pretty much agree with all of this. how else are you squatting? i like to throw a lot of variation into my squats.

 

[ExtraMile]

i pretty much agree with all of this. how else are you squatting? i like to throw a lot of variation into my squats.

well lately the variations I have been doing are walking lunges and leg press aswell as the full squats.

I do leg press after deadlifts

Im thinking of changing my squat day to:
Sumo Box Squats
Olympic Style Squats
RDL
Standing Calves
Weighted Abs

@scotsman, thanks for that, when I can squat again Ill retake a video and see if I can do them any better

 

[musketeer]

Second on scotsman's analysis.

Are you still planning on squatting once a week?

 

[ExtraMile]

Second on scotsman's analysis.

Are you still planning on squatting once a week?

i will have a squat day once every 9 days, although i will leg press on deadlift day

 

[JDid23]

i will have a squat day once every 9 days, although i will leg press on deadlift day

how many days apart are leg press/squat?? Maybe you can add front squat or OH squat instead of leg press?

 

[ExtraMile]

how many days apart are leg press/squat?? Maybe you can add front squat or OH squat instead of leg press?

iv tryed before doing front squats after deadlifts my back is usually smoked and makes front squats hard.

lol what is this obsession lately with front squats and OH squat?

 

[Tblock1]

iv tryed before doing front squats after deadlifts my back is usually smoked and makes front squats hard.

lol what is this obsession lately with front squats and OH squat?

Me and Andalite are slowly taking over his mind making him want to front squat...Muahhahahha

 

[ExtraMile]

Me and Andalite are slowly taking over his mind making him want to clusterfuck his routine...Muahhahahha

fixed

 

[joe d]

well lately the variations I have been doing are walking lunges and leg press aswell as the full squats.

I do leg press after deadlifts

Im thinking of changing my squat day to:
Sumo Box Squats
Olympic Style Squats
RDL
Standing Calves
Weighted Abs

@scotsman, thanks for that, when I can squat again Ill retake a video and see if I can do them any better

i mean squat variations. if i where in your exact situation i would try squatting 2x per weak and throwing some variation in there. i usually do shoulder width stance atg with no lockout. sometimes i shoot for as low as 3 and other times i shoot for 20. one time i wanted to see if i could hit 50 and projectile vomited on a rep somewhere in the 30's but i swear it started a nice gain.

 

[ALIN]

For a while now my squat has been very far behind my deadlift to the point of it being just 10lbs or so infront of my bench. I cant figure out why. My current pr's are:
deadlift 319x1
full squat 231x1
bench 198x2

now I have thought about this alot and I started to think the differance between the two is deadlift is more back and less quads, but the squat is more quad and less back. Both work hams, glutes and abs hard. Obviously other muscle groups are involved but these are the main movers.

So if my squat is weaker that tells me maybe its my quads that are weak and my back that is strong? Well the problem is that when I deadlift its the middle portion that is hard, I can always break the weight from the floor which is quad strength but can neve get it past about knee level, which I guess is where the posterior chain comes more into play. Besides my quads are big but my hams look kinda small compared and my back isnt small by any means.

where can the problem be that is giving me such a weak squat and how can I solve it?

Try switching up some exercises in your leg routines. You may be getting stale from the same routine.

 

[musketeer]

You should be squatting every few days.

Your deadlift is relatively good so do it every other week and focus on getting the important stuff right. Your deadlift will NOT suffer from doing this.

If you have a sore back but are still able to deadlift, then you should be doing overhead squats.

Last year I started squatting 3x a week (using all variations) and dropped deadlifts completly. Just for fun about 3 months in I did a deadlift day and confidently worked up to 230kg and the single was so easy I did a double!

 

[SouthernLord]

Instead of doing leg presses after DLs do front squats then Dls. This will increase your squatting frequency and the front squats will greatly help your core and quad strength.

 

[ExtraMile]

You should be squatting every few days.

one of the reasons my squat is so low is I spent the summer squatting 3 times a week and got nowere, i spent the whole summer going from 193-204 then stalling and getting weaker for a week or two then back up and so on. What im doing now is hitting one of the big 4 every 9 days and so far, im having the best strength gains of my life. just the fact of the matter is all lifts are going up the same but my squat stays low.

@southernlord that is a good idea and I think I will try it, what rep range do you suggest? I was thinking of doing a 3x8, using the same weight for all sets and increasing when i can get all sets for the number of reps with that weight...

 

[SouthernLord]

one of the reasons my squat is so low is I spent the summer squatting 3 times a week and got nowere, i spent the whole summer going from 193-204 then stalling and getting weaker for a week or two then back up and so on. What im doing now is hitting one of the big 4 every 9 days and so far, im having the best strength gains of my life. just the fact of the matter is all lifts are going up the same but my squat stays low.

@southernlord that is a good idea and I think I will try it, what rep range do you suggest? I was thinking of doing a 3x8, using the same weight for all sets and increasing when i can get all sets for the number of reps with that weight...

3x8 sounds good. How many DL sets are you planning on?

 

[ExtraMile]

3x8 sounds good. How many DL sets are you planning on?

2 heavy sets, probably 3 warmup sets. I will ramp up to a set of 5, then I will hit a set of 5-8 reps of deficit deadlifts.

Im gonna miss leg press it was making my quads grow like weeds, is there anyway i could incorperate higher rep leg press in aswell? I think front squats deadlifts and leg press in the same workout would be pretty much another leg workout lol

 

[SouthernLord]

2 heavy sets, probably 3 warmup sets. I will ramp up to a set of 5, then I will hit a set of 5-8 reps of deficit deadlifts.

Im gonna miss leg press it was making my quads grow like weeds, is there anyway i could incorperate higher rep leg press in aswell? I think front squats deadlifts and leg press in the same workout would be pretty much another leg workout lol

Legpress after squats on Squat day.

 

[ExtraMile]

Legpress after squats on Squat day.

squat day is gonna be brutal! sumo box squats, oly style squats, leg press, RDL, calves and weighted abs!

 

[SouthernLord]

squat day is gonna be brutal! sumo box squats, oly style squats, leg press, RDL, calves and weighted abs!

You don't need to do all that. Squats, leg press, and rdl is enough. Super set one calf exercise with one ab exercise at the end of your workout. Do oly squats one week and wide stance squats the next. No need to do them both in the same day.

 

[ExtraMile]

You don't need to do all that. Squats, leg press, and rdl is enough. Super set one calf exercise with one ab exercise at the end of your workout. Do oly squats one week and wide stance squats the next. No need to do them both in the same day.

well actually it was something I was gonna try, ramp up to a double or triple on the box squats then 3x3 with the same weight oly squats, alternating them sounds good though I might try it.

this is off topic but iv also got a military press problem. despite reducing the frequency to once every 9 days i still cant add 5lbs a week. I manage 5lbs but get 1 rep less or sometimes 2 reps less so its not exactly progress, do I really need to microload? Only thing that put my OHP up was switching to seated dumbell press, which stalled after 4 weeks or so but then when I went back to standing BB I was stronger. Should I just alternate between these two every month?

 

[SouthernLord]

well actually it was something I was gonna try, ramp up to a double or triple on the box squats then 3x3 with the same weight oly squats, alternating them sounds good though I might try it.

this is off topic but iv also got a military press problem. despite reducing the frequency to once every 9 days i still cant add 5lbs a week. I manage 5lbs but get 1 rep less or sometimes 2 reps less so its not exactly progress, do I really need to microload? Only thing that put my OHP up was switching to seated dumbell press, which stalled after 4 weeks or so but then when I went back to standing BB I was stronger. Should I just alternate between these two every month?

Prioritize weighted dips in place of OHP. You can do seated BB or DB presses as an accessory lift on dip day.

 

[ExtraMile]

Prioritize weighted dips in place of OHP. You can do seated BB or DB presses as an accessory lift on dip day.

yes sir

can i ask why u think i should do dips first and how it will help?

 

[cjangelo]

My humble suggestions:

1. Buy Starting Strength and Practical Programming.

2. Read, clean up your squat form.

3. Make some goals, revise your training to achieve those goals.

4. Gain weight.

5. Be patient. You're only a teenager, you're moving heavy weight already. Keep up the good work.

take care,

 

[SaiBoT]

I think all you need to fix your form is box squats:

YouTube - Squat Rx #13: Box SQ, Pause SQ, OI SQ