Specificity is one of the most important principles of strength training. The SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) states that, in short, you get what you train for. So if you want to get better at squatting, you’ve gotta squat. Same goes for any of the other competitive powerlifts.
However, the longer I’ve trained and coached people, the more I’ve realized that there are some lifters who are more sensitive to extended periods of heavy loading with one or more of the competition lifts. The squat is probably the biggest offender of the three, perhaps because it can do a number on both the lower body (hips, knees and lower back) AND the upper body (elbows and shoulders). Sometimes we have to get creative and build the squat by NOT squatting.
Sounds sacrilegious, but part of being a coach is finding creative solutions to a lifter’s problems. When squats aren’t playing nice with a particular lifter, here’s the strategy I’ll lean on to maintain progress.
A Sidenote on Specificity
While I do believe in the SAID principle and abide by it for the most part, I don’t think specificity needs to be as specific as we think. In fact, many lifters take it too far by doing almost nothing but the competition-style squat, bench and deadlift multiple times per week. This lack of movement variability may actually NOT lead to movement mastery.
Without getting into too deep a dive on motor skill development, if you never introduce any variability into a lifter’s routine, that lifter eventually loses the ability to adjust their movement strategy when their scenario changes. They get used to the same stance, same bar placement, and even the same environment and equipment (bars, plates, visuals, music, etc.). This can cause problems in competition when they’re out of their comfortable and familiar environment.
And when you’re a one-trick pony, you can develop poor technical habits without realizing it. I’ve been down this road in my own training. After never doing any squat other than the competition-style back squat for years on end, suddenly, you’re squatting high without realizing it, leaning forward too much, favoring one leg too much, etc. Sometimes you need movement variability to snap yourself out of these habits before you dig yourself too deep a hole.
Here’s a recent video explaining my thoughts on how specific powerlifting training actually needs to be:
Anterior-Loaded Squats
If back squats are causing problems, my first solution is to try anterior-loaded squats. Namely:
- Safety bar squats (not actually anteriorly-loaded, but more so than back squats)
- Front squats
- Zercher squats
- Goblet squats
- Double kettlebell front squats
Placing the load in the front of the body instead on the back tends to make squats feel better for several reasons. First, the anterior load automatically increases core engagement. The abdominal muscles reflexively engage to prevent your body from falling forward. When you get this level of core activity, you tend to get better positioning of the pelvis and better joint centration of the femur (thigh bone), so your hips can move more freely. This tends to reduce tightness and/or pain in the hips and lower back.
Next, getting the bar off the back instantly relieves shoulder and elbow stress. I’ve gone on record many times saying that back squats are responsible for far more upper body injuries than the bench press. Get the bar in the front and your upper body automatically gets a paid vacation day.
Finally, you’re never going to squat as much weight with an anteriorly-loaded squat compared to a back squat. Just by virtue of switching the placement of the load, you’re gonna have to take pounds off the bar. If you’re beat up, this can be just what the doctor ordered. Finding ways to make the exercise more challenging WITHOUT adding weight to the bar can help you recover while still training hard.
Deadlifts
Depending on how a lifter squats, the deadlift can be the right basket to put most of the eggs for a while. A low-bar and/or hip-dominant squatter can see tremendous carryover to the squat just by doing a lot of deadlifting.
Deadlifting (conventional, at least) tends to be easier on the hips and still trains the glutes (the primary hip extensor in the squat) and torso in a way that will carry over to the squat. Hip extensor (glutes and hamstrings) demands are nearly identical in the conventional and sumo deadlift, while knee extensor (quads) demands are higher in the sumo deadlift. So theoretically, sumo deadlifts would have more application to the squat, but if you’re backing off the throttle on squats due to hip issues, it’s unlikely that sumo deadlifts would be the right course of action. I’m not just saying that because I’m a certified sumo hater.
And let’s not forget that it’s entirely possible to do deadlift variations that start in more hip flexion, making them more similar to the squat. Consider:
- Deficit deadlifts
- Snatch grip deadlifts
- Low-handle trap bar deadlifts
Even just a slightly lower hip position at the start of the lift can dramatically increase the amount of push you need from your quads to get the movement started.
Leg Press/Hack Squats
If there’s one piece of equipment I wish we had room for at Bonvec Strength, it’s a leg press. After I’m done doing heavy squats or deadlifts, the last thing on planet Earth I want to do is direct quad training via lunges or split squats. No thanks. If I could just pop a handful of plates on a leg press and go to town, I’d be eternally grateful.
But we don’t have the space. So creative hack squat variations will have to do.
Most leg press and hack squat variations are positioned as such that the knees are significantly further in front of the hips and the load compared to a back squat, which biases the quads more. The quads are the main mover in a squat regardless of stance width or torso angle, so smashing the quads in any way, shape or form will do some good to maintain squat strength.
Hack squats also provide an opportunity to keep the torso much more upright than squats or leg presses (if you were to turn a leg press so that the feet were on the floor, you’d see that I looks kind of like a good morning). This can feel better on the lower back for many lifters, making it a solid choice if squats don’t agree with your back.
Leg Curls
You don’t have to be a biomechanics expert to understand that the hamstrings are far less involved in the squat than the deadlift. No matter how much old school powerlifters wax poetic about the hamstrings being key to a big squat, that’s just simply not the case. The hamstrings undergo virtually no change in length during the squat because they cross both the hip and the knee, both of which go into flexion and extension simultaneously during the eccentric and concentric phases of the lift, respectively. Sorry, but you’re not automatically going to become a world class squatter by doing thousands of good mornings, glute ham raises and reverse hypers.
However, I do believe that building up large hamstrings, specifically behind the knee, can provide a significant advantage in the squat from both a movement execution and longevity standpoint. The entire premise of knee sleeves and knee wraps being beneficial during the squat is that they bunch up behind the knee, providing some extra stability and rebound out of the bottom. In simpler terms, they give you artificially bigger hamstrings. The larger your hamstrings are, the sooner you create hamstring-to-calf contact, which provides both support for the anterior knee (and theoretically more resistance to overuse injuries) and a little extra boost out of the bottom of the lift.
Good mornings and RDLs are tremendous for building up the proximal hamstring (closer to your glutes), but to add bulk to the distal hamstring (back of your knee), you’ve gotta hammer some leg curls. Nothing compares to the convenience and direct effect of machine hamstring curls. Even if you don’t have a dedicated leg curl machine, I encourage you to get creative with any sort of cable machine you have, like this:
Sample Training Session
Here’s an example of how we’d lay out a training session designed to build the back squat without actually back squatting:
Narrow Stance SSB Squat: 3×5 @ 7 RPE
Deficit Deadlift: Work up to 1×3 @ 9 RPE, then sets of 3 @ 90% of top set until you hit 5 sets or 9 RPE again (whichever comes first)
Prone Leg Curls: 3 x 2 RIR @ 10-15 reps
DB Foam Roller Hack Squats: 50 total reps @ 35 lbs/hand in as few sets as possible (wear straps, but don’t put the weights down til you’ve completed all reps)
appreciate the hamstring curl info…much appreciated
Thanks for reading!