weight vs form

Hi guys

Been wondering on this topic for a while mainly because of squats but it would be the same for most other excercises aswell.

Which is better doing squats at 100kg and not going down all the way or doing 80kg with good form?

Good form is always the best but there is a time and place for forced reps and negatives.

I agree with David, but not to the extend that it could cause an injury

I switch things up. Always good form,but not always PERFECT form. To break through a plateau I feel you have to sometimes sacrifice some form for a while just to get the hang of it.

I wouldnt recommend it though as there is a fine line between bad,good and perfect form. Also the risk of injury is higher.

waldo go for the better form. ass to the floor bud. normally if your form is correct you will be able to lift heavier with the squats.
there is a couple of pointers to get the squat right.
you could try the box squat to get your form perfect.

when you squat you need to keep your head up. try to look 15 degrees higher than eye level. if you look down while squatting the weight will push your upper body down and you could injure yourself. while standing by the squat bar push your but out. keep your feet little wider than your shoulders with your toes pointed outward. when going down you should feel most of the force on the outer part of your feet. use your hips to drive the weight upwards. its allot of hip force. if you battle to get the form perfect go little bit lighter and do it correct.

you should be able to do at least your own body weight with perfect form.if not hit leg presses till you can.

x2 @ everything Gab said!

Form form form! Don't screw around with squats.

Never ever sacrifice form for weight, plateau or not, hitting a plateau is not related to form but diet and training that's not intense enough ie rest between sets and to low reps etc. as Kai Green do eloquently put it we are bodybuilders not weight lifters.

gab wrote: waldo go for the better form. ass to the floor bud. normally if your form is correct you will be able to lift heavier with the squats.
there is a couple of pointers to get the squat right.
you could try the box squat to get your form perfect.

when you squat you need to keep your head up. try to look 15 degrees higher than eye level. if you look down while squatting the weight will push your upper body down and you could injure yourself. while standing by the squat bar push your but out. keep your feet little wider than your shoulders with your toes pointed outward. when going down you should feel most of the force on the outer part of your feet. use your hips to drive the weight upwards. its allot of hip force. if you battle to get the form perfect go little bit lighter and do it correct.

you should be able to do at least your own body weight with perfect form.if not hit leg presses till you can.

Hi GAB, if you say you must be able to do your own body weight, how much reps / sets should you be able to do it?

Also, I've seen / read that when doing squats your knees should bend until your upper leg forms a 90 degree angle with your calves? Don't know where I got this from, but that's certainly not ass to the floor?

Thanks!

hi bench86.

there i 2 types of squats that i know of. the one i have described and the one you described.

the ass to the floor squat use allot of hip muscle and the other one not so much hip muscle.
i only used to do the typical 90 degree squat and thought i was pretty strong. then i saw a video of where the ass to the floor squat was instructed to cross fit athletes.

i gave it a shot and discovered i was weak as hell. i could only do like 2/3 of what i normally could do. then i decided to do it the power lifter way as the guy instructed the cross fit athletes. i now can do the same weight as with normal 90degree squats but found im a bit more stronger than i use to be. i have allot more balance and stability. i have deffenately improved hip power.

it helped me with dead lifts too. my back is much stronger and my hamstrings has improved allot.

as to the reps and sets this is what i can do.

4 sets warm up +-30% of max weight for 10 reps
4 sets of max weight. 8-10 reps (max weight for all 4 reps is not 100% what i can lift but for the duration of the 4 sets)( lets say its like 80% of what i can lift with 1 or 2 reps)

i do about 40 kg above body weight now. when i started i barely made my own body weight as the muscles around my hips was weak an only depended on my quads and back to lift the weight.

you have to find the weight where you are happy with to start with. dont compare yourself to other guys in the gym for not everybody in the gym has legs like tree stumps.

i do squat much hevier as before and im not on any gear. just natural.

ill look for the vids name but i think these guys are on you tube too.

I agree. Form is the most important. Kai Greene said he's not a weightlifter, he's a bodybuilder. Sure there's guys that can bench and curl more than him. He's more concerned about doing the exercise correctly and focusing on stretching and contracting the muscle

gab wrote: waldo go for the better form. ass to the floor bud. normally if your form is correct you will be able to lift heavier with the squats.
there is a couple of pointers to get the squat right.
you could try the box squat to get your form perfect.

when you squat you need to keep your head up. try to look 15 degrees higher than eye level. if you look down while squatting the weight will push your upper body down and you could injure yourself. while standing by the squat bar push your but out. keep your feet little wider than your shoulders with your toes pointed outward. when going down you should feel most of the force on the outer part of your feet. use your hips to drive the weight upwards. its allot of hip force. if you battle to get the form perfect go little bit lighter and do it correct.

you should be able to do at least your own body weight with perfect form.if not hit leg presses till you can.

Thanx much gab. Ill definatly scale down to get my form right doing well over my body weight now. Where this concern came from accually is that I was born with a spinal issue spine was shaped like an S, went for a opp at the age of 7 and it fixed a lot with appearance.

The prob is that when I'm squatting even going very light my hips sway to the right when coming up, basicly throwing me off balance. But yeah I'm working on it as its the best that I can do about it. Thanx for the adcvice will give it a go and report back

Koe007 wrote: Never ever sacrifice form for weight, plateau or not, hitting a plateau is not related to form but diet and training that's not intense enough ie rest between sets and to low reps etc. as Kai Green do eloquently put it we are bodybuilders not weight lifters.

Thanx bud ill be doing some adjustment to my weight for my next sessions.

Here's the feedback. Thanx for the help guys I took some of the advice and got some help from one of the big boys in gym. Dropped down my squat from 110kg(with bad form) to 80kg 4 sets 8 reps with pretty good form. My current weight is 83.3kg. Definately more concentration on the muscle but not as much pumps as I expected, think ill decrease my resting time a bit next week.