How to Instantly Squat More Weight
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A while back, I had a conversation at the gym with one of our members - “Lou” (name changed to protect the poor soul who I dragged into a conversation). Lou was having a problem with his squat on this particular day, and specifically, he was struggling to effectively utilize the stretch reflex - AKA the “bounce” - out of the bottom of the movement.
Lou is certainly not the first person to struggle with this, nor will he be the last, so let’s briefly discuss how to get a useful bounce out of the bottom of the squat.
What is this bounce that you speak of?
As the squat starts, you descend under control, and then you want to get a tight bounce upward when you hit depth. We refer to the stretch reflex as a “bounce” because this is what it looks like if performed correctly, so don’t worry, you’re not actually bouncing off of anything (such as your calves or something else equally silly). The word “bounce” simply refers to the visual phenomenon that we witness - the rebound out of the bottom will somewhat resemble a ball bouncing off the floor (albeit slower).
The stretch reflex is very useful, and without going into the anatomical specifics of the situation, for now, it suffices to say that it makes for a more effective, forceful muscular contraction when used correctly. In other words, it makes your squat stronger.
With that said, there are two ways to mess this up, so let’s cover them both as well as how to fix each situation (watch the video below to see these solutions in action).
Mistake #1: Pausing at the bottom of the squat (or descending too slowly)
Quite simply, don’t pause at the bottom of your squat. This makes for a harder and less efficient squat as it ruins the effect of the stretch reflex - this is precisely why a pause squat always utilizes less weight than a regular squat.
To eliminate a pause at the bottom of your squat, cue yourself “think up all the way down.” In this way, you are preparing yourself for the upward aspect of the bounce throughout the entire descent, so you’ll be ready for a nice, sharp turnaround the moment you hit the bottom of the squat.
On a lesser note, don’t descend too slowly, either. If it takes you three seconds to reach the bottom of your squat, speed things up a bit. You want a controlled descent, but not a painfully slow descent.
Mistake #2: Descending too quickly
The problem of descending too fast shows up in two ways. First, a lifter might go down too fast throughout the entire movement. Second, he goes down too fast only near the bottom of the descent, i.e., he descends at a normal pace for most of the squat and then speeds up or “dive-bombs” the last few inches of the descent. The second version of this error was Lou’s problem - most of his descent was solid, and then he would drastically speed up the last few inches of the downward movement in an effort to get a better bounce.
The problem with either version of this error is that if you descend too quickly, you will either relax or “collapse” into the bottom of the squat - which is not useful for getting a good bounce - or you’ll descend quickly enough that you’ve created more downward momentum than necessary, thus making it that much harder to turn around and drive back up.
One way to handle this problem is to cue yourself “tight bounce.” If you remind yourself to get tighter and tighter all the way down, you’ll probably do a solid job of not allowing yourself to relax any muscle groups at the bottom of the lift.
Another solution - and this is the solution that helped Lou - is to cue yourself “smooth down, smooth up.” When a lifter speeds up his descent for the last few inches, it’s usually in an effort (however misguided it may be) to get a better bounce, so by thinking “smooth down, smooth up,” Lou stopped thinking about the bounce completely and instead focused on a smooth turnaround (i.e., transition) between the downward and upward portions of the squat. As a result, he controlled his pace effectively and achieved a tighter and more efficient bounce in his squat.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better,
-Phil
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