Raw Squat Styles

[hammerfelt]

The only one I know of is Rippetoe. It seems there are at least a few here that do not like this style. So, if not Rippetoe style, what others are there?

[Black_Spit]

The most obvious 2 would be "Olympic" (more upright torso/higher bar placement) and the really wide stance squat with knees forced out hard...

[Skursk55]

Why don't you make up your own style? Play with foot width/angle, breaking knees vs hips, high/low bar, head position, knee spread, everything. No style will suit you better than your own.

[hammerfelt]

I would say I already have my own style. I like reading about others and incorporating bits and pieces.

I had my own style for benching too. I would go for that extra lockout by raising my shoulders off the bench. I could be doing things just as dumb with my squat.

[Horsefromhell89]

I enjoy watching specifically Olympic athletes and RAW powerlifter squat techniques. I actually try to use oly as accessory work in my training. Pat Mendes is awesome for Oly squats. I'm sure you've seen his 800 ass to grass. INSANE. Not sure what happened to him I think he had surgery or something. Excited to see his comeback.

[NorthStrong]

I like how Jim Wendler squats, I have tried it and it suits me well I think. Just like most of his advice, it's pretty moderate, as in medium stance, be comfortable, tiny bit of knee travel, hips somewhat back, parallel, etc.

[getout87]

It's taken a lot of trial and error for me, and I can't particularly say whether I squat high or low bar. I just squat

[Jason2459]

I enjoy watching specifically Olympic athletes and RAW powerlifter squat techniques. I actually try to use oly as accessory work in my training. Pat Mendes is awesome for Oly squats. I'm sure you've seen his 800 ass to grass. INSANE. Not sure what happened to him I think he had surgery or something. Excited to see his comeback.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BROZKNOWS

[ErickStevens]

< - Downward head position, low bar, moderately wide stance, and a normal descent speed.

[samsont]

Pre hip injury I tried to mimic all the westside stuff I was reading and the lifters I saw in the gym I learned in: really low bar, chucks, questionable depth, super wide, minimal knee travel feet forward. Basically did everything to reinforce my bad pelvic tilt. to be fair, I really wanted to get into geared lifting.

after I destroyed my hip trying to hit depth its taken long time to find what works I now squat high bar, close stance, with a heeled shoe, feet pointed really out so I can rotate my leg out, open hips up a lot, let my knees go over my toes & chest up.

one thing I had to modify and helped me with my new stance is moving my grip out to the collars, I can comfortably have a really narrow grip as you see quite a few raw guys do, but it gets my really rounded over coming out of the hole. soon as I went wide I was able to keep chest up and had a great shelf for the bar. Not exactly sure why though.

[Jason2459]

Used to squat w/ wraps, wide stance, lower bar, head up

Can't use wraps anymore and have been working on completely changing my technique up the past year. I've been playing around with just about everything. Feet position, hand position, grip types, head position, chest position, hip positions, breathing etc. It's morphed into kind of what Eric posted above. Lowerish bar, moderate stance, head slightly down, sitting back, little knee travel. Descent is too slow for my liking and need to work on that among a few other things.

[allergic2rice]

Rippetoe? That's a squat style?

[simp3204]

I do a an in-between bar placement not high bar and not quite low bar, and break hard at the hips but drop low to rebound off my hammies while pushing my knees out hard.

I enjoy watching specifically Olympic athletes and RAW powerlifter squat techniques. I actually try to use oly as accessory work in my training. Pat Mendes is awesome for Oly squats. I'm sure you've seen his 800 ass to grass. INSANE. Not sure what happened to him I think he had surgery or something. Excited to see his comeback.

Pat dropped his supplement stack, had surgery and lost a lot of weight.

[NorthStrong]

I do a an in-between bar placement not high bar and not quite low bar, and break hard at the hips but drop low to rebound off my hammies while pushing my knees out hard.




Pat dropped his supplement stack, had surgery and lost a lot of weight.

Hope he gets picked up by a new company

[supmannn]

Rippetoe? That's a squat style?

Easier to type than "low bar, head down, medium stance, elbows back, hip drive squat style".

[allergic2rice]

Easier to type than "low bar, head down, medium stance, elbows back, hip drive squat style".

I didn't know rippetoe invented a whole new style of squatting, what a genius.

Sounds like a sh*tty squat though.

[Huskarl]

Easier to type than "low bar, head down, medium stance, elbows back, hip drive squat style".

aka a bad squat

Edit:

[Jason2459]

I didn't know rippetoe invented a whole new style of squatting, what a genius.

Sounds like a sh*tty squat though.

aka a bad squat

Edit:

I bet you can't even unrack... oh wait... nvm

[hammerfelt]

Alright, now we are getting somewhere. If Rippetoe is a "bad" style. What is a good style? High bar, wide stance, head up, elbows up, break at the knees? j/k

Sounds like most do their own thing.

[NorthStrong]

Alright, now we are getting somewhere. If Rippetoe is a "bad" style. What is a good style? High bar, wide stance, head up, elbows up, break at the knees? j/k

Sounds like most do their own thing.

Most do their own thing, just play with it over the next while and go with whatever is the most pain free and allows you to move big weights.

[Xuaxace]

I do the stance called trial and error



That said, dan green stance is one that appeals to me a lot, I have a similar stance but not as upright, probably due no oly shoes.

[Jasonk282]

Alright, now we are getting somewhere. If Rippetoe is a "bad" style. What is a good style? High bar, wide stance, head up, elbows up, break at the knees? j/k

Sounds like most do their own thing.

There is no good or bad. It's what works for you. Personally for me I prefer Olympic squats, though I used to work low bar as well. To me Olympic feels more natural.

[Muscle Mania Matt]

I think of it as an arcing continuum. One one extreme you have heavy knee displacement, virtually no hip displacement, and a near-vertical torso. On the other end of the spectrum you see the opposite: extreme hip displacement, no knee displacement, and heavy torso lean. Most people will fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, with their own bar placement and foot placement that fits them. None are necessarily wrong, none are necessarily right.

[samsont]

There is no good or bad. It's what works for you. Personally for me I prefer Olympic squats, though I used to work low bar as well. To me Olympic feels more natural.

they squat in the Olympics??

[Jason2459]

There's definitely a wrong way to do a squat no matter which style or mix of styles you do. Regardless you do not want to let your knees fall in, need to keep them pushed out no matter how much they travel, hips down and back regardless of what breaks first, don't get on your toes, tight upper back, abs pushing out creating an internal belt. etc. I've always been a Dan John fan and one of my favorite learning to squat videos he speaks to multiple forms of squatting in that you have to basically stay balanced.

[samsont]

damn, a 50 minute dan john video I haven't seen yet. I'll watch that later.


and then probably be motivated to do a bunch of loaded carries, goblet squats and front squats.


dan john is awesome, reading his stuff and progressions is what got me back to squatting properly

[Jason2459]

damn, a 50 minute dan john video I haven't seen yet. I'll watch that later.


and then probably be motivated to do a bunch of loaded carries, goblet squats and front squats.


dan john is awesome, reading his stuff and progressions is what got me back to squatting properly

It's awesome. I wish there was video of the entire seminar as he periodically refers to something they covered previously like bulgarian squats. I've watched it many many times and always forget about it until a thread like this comes up and watch it again. I always get something out of it.

[Jasonk282]

they squat in the Olympics??

You know what I am talking about.

[allergic2rice]

what I personally did was watch all the videos I could find on a lot of the top raw squatters in the world and then try to mimic their technique. Then I kept tweaking it over time

[Black_Spit]

what I personally did was watch all the videos I could find on a lot of the top raw squatters in the world and then try to mimic their technique. Then I kept tweaking it over time

I actually did the opposite - I mean I did something like that at first, but it wasn't until I kind of disregarded conventional wisdom that I started making real progress.

Since we all have different leg and torso lengths, different belly sizes and other natural leverages, it only makes sense that there's going to be many different styles along the spectrum mentioned before.