Squat Upright- Quad Domination

Before I got hooked on Olympic weightlifting I did the basic performance training workouts. Parallel back squats, full range front squats, a heck of a lot of posterior chain work, sprint work, and plyos. So when I got hooked on Olympic weightlifting I was very glute and hamstring dominant = I kicked my hips out during the squat…including the front squat.

This is an OLD video of my squats- and I THOUGHT I was working on position…wow.

And an old video of my clean- terrible pull…

Imagine the amount of total weekly stress on my back by squatting like this, lifting like this, and then pulling. Inevitably my back gave out and I herniated a few discs from a shitty front squat. I rested, competed hurt it again, rested, tried to comeback, hurt it again, and so on. Long story short I went to various physical therapist and strength coaches- all of them went to the go to point- strengthen your  hips, trunk, and posterior chain.

*If you want to jump straight to the summary points go to the bottom.

Short Sighted

The problem with all these protocols was that they only focused on weakness and not necessarily the movement itself. Many of the coaches and therapists automatically attributed the issues to my back being weak but that wasn’t the issue. It was bad position that caused the injury not weakness in the back and/or trunk. Although at the time my hip flexor was weak, but that was due to me being injured and not working out at that point- which, sadly, the PT didn’t take into consideration.

Fast forward to 2014 and I decided to forget the Jack Ass Fitness Guru and Pretentious Physical Therapists but now focus on how I would re-train a weightlifter that has gone through the same injury . This meant to strengthen the lifter through the correct joint angles, while developing the weaker points too.

I swallowed my pride and did SUPER light weight squats focusing ONLY on position, if I got out of position I’d drop the weight and/or reps depending on how I felt and looked. Then I did a lot of quad activation exercises like:

• Leg Press ….I know sacrilegious, but I needed more quad recruitment and development to focus on my legs and not rely so much on my stronger points- glutes, hamstring, and back. While some may say just do high rep squats- this would revert me back to my old habits =  kick hips out because they are the dominant muscles for me.
• High rep uni-lateral movements- low box step ups, split squats, RFESS/bulgarian split squats, step downs, etc…
• Banded terminal knee extensions.

I did this for a few weeks and at the same time stayed pretty light in the Olympic lifts to focus on staying upright, if at any point I reverted back to an old habit I either cut it or lowered the weight. The point being is that I ONLY focused on good positioning to ensure that I’m developing good habits and strengthening myself in the proper position.

Long story short, I felt so good that I was able to compete again for the first time in 6 years and pretty much hit the same number I did when I was starting to do well- so not too bad.

Heels Elevated

Over the summer I took a trip up to Montreal, during this time I was lucky enough to train and get coached up by Marilou Dozois Prevost- 2008 Olympian- post will hopefully be up next week…. Marilou had actually gone through very similar issues with her lower back and some others injuries too! During our coaching session she explained to me some of the protocols her coaches and physical therapists had given her.

One tip she said helped her a great deal was elevating the heels while still wearing your weightlifting shoes. This would not only strengthen her quads but also all other supportive structures through that specific joint angle- as long as you stay in the appropriate position.

Here’s the kicker, she was recommended to do 10’s in the front squat…TENS! My mouth dropped and I couldn’t believe it but after discussing a bit further, the purpose of this specific exercise selection wasn’t to push heavy weight in the squat but to strengthen her muscles in that specific joint angle, develop her quads, and also re-learn to squat upright.

Protocol I Used

Marilou had used some BIG heel lifts, I believe it was around 2″…this was a bit too extreme for me so I lowered mine down to 1″. This worked perfectly since my back started to act up after the competition, I  decided to start from scratch. The focus of this program was to get my squat positioning solid and develop my quads.

Phase 1: Week 1-3 – squat x5-6 days a week with 10’s- the purpose was to strengthen and be comfortable in the correct squat position and develop my quads. Alternating front squat (heels elevated) and back squat. Each week I would increase the weight by 5-15lbs depending on how I felt.

Ex- Week 1 D1- FSQ 3×10  D2- BSQ 3×10 D3- FSQ 3×10 D4 BSQ 3×10 D5 3×10

*I still did the full lifts, pulls, and quad activation exercises.

Phase 2: Week 4- 6- squat x5-6 days a week with 8’s-  increasing the weight 5-15lbs each week depending on how I felt. At this point the weight and sets were not  linear but now had to fluctuate based on how I felt- a semi- high-low sequencing.

Ex- Week 1 D1- FSQ 3×8 70 D2- BSQ 4×8 80 D3- FSQ 3×8 60 D4- BSQ 3×8-80

The point is that I had to listen to what my body was saying and as soon as my hips started to kick out I would either lower the weight or cut the exercise all together. I also have to be VERY conservative because when I do get out of position it would irritate my back.

*think of the first two phases as a preparatory period for the next few phases.

Phase 3: week 7-? this is where I am currently at. I’m doing a x3 a week squatting cycle- week 1 FSQ-BSQ-FSQ week 2 BSQ-FSQ-BSQ – and so on. High-low sequencing the volume and using the prilepin table (shown below) to give me a range for reps/sets.

*Because I started to feel better in the squat I lowered my heel lifts back down to the 1/4″ heel that I had from back in the day. Just go to your local cobbler and ask them to make something similar to slip in your shoes.

Example- Day 1- High Volume FSQ- 60-65% 25-30 rep range depending on how I feel either 6×5, 8×3, etc… as long as the total volume is on the higher end. Day 2-  Medium Volume- BSQ 60-65%- 20-25 rep range 4×5, 5×4, 6×4, etc… Day 3- Low Volume- FSQ 60-65% 15-18 rep range 3×5, 5×3, etc…

Each week I’ll increase the percentages and then as it gets heavier I’ll start to wave the percentages and volume based on how I feel that day.

3 Point Summary

I probably made this bit long winded, so here’s the quick summary.

• If you want to squat upright, strengthen yourself in that specific joint angle. That means lower down the weight and focus on POSITION. If you kick out the hips, cut the weight and/or lower the reps. This will help build a solid foundation to work off of for your next program.
• Elevate your heels but do this in a progressive manner. The point is to strengthen your position in the correct squat bar path and not focus on the weight- example: Wk1 10’s 40% Wk2 10’s 43.5% Wk3 10’s 48% Wk4 8’s 52.5% etc…
• Do quad activation exercises – uni-lateral, leg press, terminal knee extension, etc…
• In essence, the focus is NOT strength in the conventional sense but to strengthen yourself in the correct position so that we you do need to go heavy it’s not an issue.

Conclusion

In the end, do what works best for YOU…but with good judgement. I hired a pretty well known “fitness guru” (not weightlifting coach) but unfortunately the person did not take my past experiences into consideration and tore apart my back. I went against my better judgment and paid for it. Ah gotta love fitness marketing….

Anyways, the best advice I can give is to focus on POSITION first and to keep in mind that weightlifting is very subjective to the athlete- some people can get away with certain “flaws” while others can’t. With all that said,  of course there is a time to push your limit, however you should keep this in mind- Marilou’s coaches programmed her to peak around twice a year- that’s an ELITE weightlifter programming her peaks for around 2 competition a year. Despite this there was still PR’s through training but from my understanding it wasn’t something that she really pushed for.

Train smart,

Team Fusion Weightlifting