QOTD: Do you get that 'bounce' at the bottom of your squat?

LadyDeadlift

Hi! I hear people occasionally refer to getting a little bounce at the bottom of their squat. I've definitely experienced it myself and usually feels pretty good / not bad (form/comfort wise) when it occurs.

Question: Do you go for a little spring/bounce back at the bottom of your squats, or do you go down to full stop before coming back up?

krokador

Depends. Pause squats have their place in a structured program when it comes to building strength coming out of the hole. It's a bit more advanced , I guess - you most likely don't need to do it if you're still a novice lifter - although I will do them on warm-ups sometimes , especially if I'm particularly tight that day.

But if you're going for heavy weight, you kinda want that stretch reflex to kick in to help be explosive coming back to standing!

SezxyStef

hmm I have tried that to be honest and I almost killed myself...no joke...

I wasn't paying attention to my grip on the bar and it started to roll forward a bit because the bounce made me lean a bit forward...scared the crap outta me..

so now I don't bounce and I keep a firm grip on the bar..I don't however pause...it's down then straight back up...which is recent for me as I was taking them slow and steady and I found it was interferring with my gains....

rlw911

I don't think I do. I pretty much go down and straight back up. I've been working on my form so much and so long, I concentrate on other things!

On the bright side, one of the gentlemen I've kinda made friends with at the gym, came up and offered me some advice on my squats. He told me I was leaning forward (no *kitten*, I've been working on that since the other guy told me a couple of weeks ago!) and told me to widen my grip. Lo and behold, it worked! I still have to concentrate on tits up, but widening my grip makes it so much easier! :happy: When I first started, I had such a hard time with my shoulder flexibility and as I worked on that, I kept moving my hands in closer to my shoulders. I didn't realize it would have such an effect on my form. It's much easier for me to use a wider grip and naturally pushes my chest up.

LadyDeadlift

Stretch reflex. Heh - I was at a loss for the technical term.

i think I like being relaxed and letting that reflex trigger. For now I feel like it's one of my cues that I can add weight next time.

That said, I'm getting in new 'big' weight for me and with each new add I'm kind of guarding against too much bounce at first...

I don't want to pull anything -- and I kind of think it was a perfect storm of heavy weight, piss poor warm up, and getting too low/too much bounce that lead to a muscle strain in late January that I'm only just now feeling 100% from.

LadyDeadlift

Posting a .gif that this made me think of - haven't done this on the forum before so it's probably going to bomb out...

Edited to add: Bah - whatever. No gif

girlie100

You want the drive out of the bottom to be explosive where the stretch reflex helps, I say squats should be quick but controlled. You don't want to be holding the bottom position unless you are actually training paused squats which serve a different purpose. The movement in the squat should be fluid down then straight up :bigsmile: