How to fail at squats?
KathyApplebaum
Posts: 188 Member
Making good progress on SL, and it occurs to me that soon I will be at a point where I'm going to fail a squat. When you fail on the DL, you just drop (hopefully in a controlled way!) the bar to the ground. But I'm unclear on what to do with the squat. Obviously, the bar is going to go down to the safety bars, but is there a good way to do that without hurting myself? And how high should those darned safety bars be, anyway?
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The first time I failed wasn't until I tested my one rep max and went to failure on purpose. It ended up being in a squat rack that didn't adjust, so the safety was the same height on the time (which I would have the bar tap it on occasion when lifting). Basically, for me it was go down to squat and nope, not even an attempt to get back up. I sank down, squat rack caught the bars and I was on my knees by the end. Wasn't too bad actually.
Height wise, I tend to keep the moveable ones not too far below my general squat. Warm up sets with the bar are good times to check the safety height.
You could also practice sinking down and letting the safety catch at a lighter weight, if you are so inclined. I never did and it wasn't that bad, but we often recommend trying it out so you aren't surprised by the feeling during that "oh crap" moment when it turns out to be a full fail on a heavy lift.0 -
only times i've failed was by not being able to get out of the hole. piece of cake really - it was obvious to me too that i wasn't going to come up, so there was nowhere for me to go but back down . . . so i did. i basically just re-performed the last few inches of the descent and kept going until the bar was on the rails. and then i sat there and took a short rest. it was nice and peaceful down there
when you're further away from the rails it might be trickier. i have no experience of this though.0 -
Not sure if this helps, but here's a video of me failing at squats... It's not as scary as you think as long as you have the safeties in place and at the right height.
instagram.com/p/BAo1H-jzPL9/0 -
bluefish86 wrote: »Not sure if this helps, but here's a video of me failing at squats... It's not as scary as you think as long as you have the safeties in place and at the right height.
instagram.com/p/BAo1H-jzPL9/
Thanks! That was super helpful. Looks like I should move the safeties up from where I usually find them and I'll have no problems.
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KathyApplebaum wrote: »bluefish86 wrote: »Not sure if this helps, but here's a video of me failing at squats... It's not as scary as you think as long as you have the safeties in place and at the right height.
instagram.com/p/BAo1H-jzPL9/
Thanks! That was super helpful. Looks like I should move the safeties up from where I usually find them and I'll have no problems.
No worries! And you can always test the height beforehand with an empty bar. They should be just below you when you break parallel.0 -
I've failed mid squat at 200lbs. What I did was instead of dropping down, I dropped my hands quickly and straightened my back, hopping forward to get out of the path of the bar. The bar falls behind, landing on the rails. It's loud and awful, but I was safe. Overtime you kinda know if you are gonna be able to do one more.
Weird is failing OHP. I was 3/4 of the way up but couldn't do it and felt out of control to reset the bar, so I stepped back and let the bar hit the ground. Totally use bumpers for that.0 -
I usually have the safeties just a bit below mid thigh level, I think? Anyways, I have failed on squats about halfway on the way up and gravity just does its thing. I would recommend letting yourself sit rather than go for knees (promotes a better bar path down the road! haha, also, bum will probably take the landing easier) and avoiding letting the bar drop if you can (bounces can be dangerous, and noisy). Then you can sit down there for a minute laughing it off, and *video game reference warning* then just goron roll your way out of there. Complete with the disappointed grunt xD
Honestly, failing isn't that scary. Over time you do develop an affinity with your own strength and will know when to push, so it doesn't happen that often. And when it does, as long as you keep calm nothing bad should happen. Unless you try for stupid amount of weights you shouldn't be trying for, you really will have no issues controlling the bar on the way down.
Now I need a shirt that says "Keep calm and rerack" xD0 -
Yup - I sat (aka fell) on my butt. Embarassing, but the safety bars prevented any injury (just dented pride)0
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Actually, I'd like to add an addendum as I checked the height of the safeties, and when I'm standing upright they are barely above knee level. I do squat high bar so when I sink down ATG I need them to be fairly low0
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