Partial Power Rack Squats

My wife and I are doing some home remodeling projects and this past weekend, I was at Lowes doing some shopping. I ran into Jim, an old friend of mine and we talked for a few minutes and then Jim said "How long has it been since we last talked or saw one another. I thought it had been 6-8 months, maybe as much as a year,but we finally figured out it had been almost four years since we last saw one another. We exchanged phone numbers and e-mails and promised to get together for dinner with our wives.

I walked away from the conversation wondering how could I have let four years pass without staying in touch with a good friend like that. This is the same type of feeling I get when I come across a particular exercise or technique that has sort of fallen out of my routine. I wonder how I let those types of moves slip away. That is one of the true benefits of keeping some sort of training journal. A journal or a log is more that just a notebook filled with a record of your workouts-its a place to document what works and what does not work. Its a place to record new ideas and concepts so that when you hit a stall in your training, your always able to pull out new ideas and inspirations. I like to read my log every couple of months and look for those "nuggets" that are hidden in there. About two months ago I came across one of these gems and I wanted to share it with the board.

The exercise is called a Partial Power Rack Squat and the name alone describes it.You will be doing partial squats, with a very limited range of motion within the safety and support of your trusty power rack. The reason for doing so is that it overloads your body into using much heavier weights than you squat with. This gets the body used to handling increasingly heavier weight. If you take a heavy squat out of the racks and it "feels heavy" when you are in the upright position, then I believe (in most cases) you are mentally screwed and have little chance of taking the weight down and up for the target number of reps. I also think that the upper body is often the "weak link" in squats as the legs are so much more powerful and than the upper body and the partial squats help to overcome this.

After you do your regular squats, set the weight into its normal pins and then take a pair of power rack pins and place them in the holes directly beneath where the j-hooks are bolted. Start with your top regular squat of the day and set up exactly as if you were doing regular squats.Stay tight-flex everything in your body that can be flexed! Descend down until the bar touches the pins-touch ( dont bounce) the pins ( kiss them with the bar) and stand back up with authority. Repeat for 2-3 more reps, again this is just to get you in the groove. For your next set add 50lbs and again do a controlled set of 5-8 reps. You want to be sure that your technique and squatting mechanics are identical to your regular squats. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT,turn this partial movement into some some of "feats of strength" it is an adjunct exercise and NOT a lift. Throw another 25lbs on the bar and do 4-6 reps. No more than two working sets per workout. The next time you squat you can move the pin down one hole and repeat the same two sets and reps. I like to vary the height of the pins from each workout to the next, but my range of motion stroke is never more than ten inches and I like working in the 6-8 range best. (I am 5'7" just for a point of reference)

Do these once a week and watch your squat increase along with some increased development in the upper quads, erectors and traps. You can also get a length of plumbing insulation ( dirt cheap at any hardware store) and use this to insulate the pins when you lower the weight-this will protect your bar and will lessen the impact on your joints.

Key Points

1) Stay tight throughout entire movement
2) Use the partial movement to duplicate the same portion of the full movement
3) do these AFTER your conventional squats
4) reps in the 4-8 range seem to work best
5) 100lbs over your best max squat is about the most you will ever need to do
6) Vary the height of the pins
7) Keep a training journal if you dont already have one

Hope this works for some of you

Keith

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