Pause Back Squats

[Ben Glidewell]

I am just wondering how I should be approaching pause back squats in general and as specifically programmed in the General Cycle with 3RM and 2RM. Should I be more concerned with pushing for a PR or making sure I am getting a full 3 sec pause in the hole? As the weight creeps up my ego chimes in with finding a max and I find myself still pausing in the bottom and not using a rebound, but admittedly counting faster to add more weight...

Thanks!

[Greg Everett]

Originally Posted by Ben Glidewell

Should I be more concerned with pushing for a PR or making sure I am getting a full 3 sec pause in the hole?

if you don't have the same pause in the bottom as your previous PR, it's not a PR anyway. Make the pause happen.

[Ben Glidewell]

Thanks for the response Greg… PR deleted. I will admit that my first round on the General Cycle I was very strict with the 3 second pause and I saw the returns on max day. Would you mind to explain how/where/when/why you program pause back squats and presses if they are different?
Thanks!

[Greg Everett]

I like to use pause squats for 2 primary reasons:

1. They really improve postural strength - for people who tend to lose their posture coming out of a squat, including knees going valgus, back rounding, etc.

2. They help strengthen the very bottom range of motion, which greatly helps the pull from the floor in the sn and cln, and also gets bouncy lifters stronger (i.e. lifters who bounce really hard in their squats - often this precludes them from developing balanced strength in the full squat rom).

So i use them with certain lifters when we need to correct that stuff, or I may use them with people who haven't demonstrated a particular need for them if we're doing a squat strength emphasis cycle.

[Ben Glidewell]

Thanks!

[Ben Glidewell]

I am having a counting/timing discrepancy… At Catalyst how do you execute pause back squats? Spotter counts, lifter counts, use a stop watch or timer?