"Giving up" on a movement (squats)

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Hey folks.Thanks so much for all you do. This perhaps tips into consultation territory - but I’ll ask incase there’s a general point here.

I’m wondering if the juice is worth the squeeze with barbell squatting in my programming. I’ve been training ~3yrs. All BBM templates mostly Powerbuilding. Having run PB2gen2 non-comp I’m now back to comp. I’m 39, enjoy SBD training but not planning to trouble a meet anytime soon.

Bar and shoulder position when squatting has always been super hard for me. I have an asymmetry with one side being way less flexible (no history of traumatic injury). Takes a lot of warming up to get even into HBBS. In attempting to resolve this I overdosed too much ‘shoulder mobility’ work I wasn’t ready for and an injury then flared up that I’ve been working back from for ~6 months.

Now largely back to baseline I’m still limited by shoulder positioning. The bar never feels as stable as I’d like. I’ve followed a bunch of ‘do these stretches’, I’m spending more time under the bar & making my secondary pattern a paused squat. But I’m sinking a lot of training resource, time and energy into this and starting to wonder if I could be putting this into more work with SSB, hack, leg press, belt squats etc.

I’m conscious you advocate that a full and complete life exists without any specific resistance training modality. But I do enjoy Powerbuilding style of training. So I’m conflicted. Are some people just destined to live under a safety squat bar? When do you think about recommending to folks that they’re over-indexing on one movement and not using their training resources effectively?

Thanks so much for your time, really appreciate it.

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Hi there!

I understand the challenge / dilemma you’re describing here.

Given that your goals aren’t oriented towards competitive powerlifting, I’m curious as to what you view as the specific benefit you’re pursuing by trying to “force” a traditional barbell squat in this way?

Do you view the training effects of the SSB as being “limited” in comparison, or any other perceived downside to its use long-term?

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Thanks so much for your reply :folded_hands:

I have felt motivated by pursuing 1RMs in the traditional three lifts. I am anchored to those movements & enjoy solo-non-competitive-powerlifting. I also feel motivated by working on technique & trying to get better at something that’s challenging.

Long term goals are enjoy consistent training and accumulate strength to carry into later life. I’m also targeting waist circumference and have recently enjoyed taking up running.

All that to say, I don’t think I have any particular need to specialise in powerlifting or would feel limited by other compound squat movements. My understanding from your materials is that I could expect similar training benefits long term.

I still have a feeling I’d be “giving up” / losing something I was enjoying pursuing. But also… the energy going in is likely disproportionate to my actual goals.

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I understand. It sounds like you’ve placed value on those lifts simply because they are viewed as “traditional” lifts.

In other words: in an alternate universe where competitive powerlifting had historically been based around the SSB squat (or the barbell front squat, for that matter) + bench press + deadlift, I suspect you would not be putting as much mental and physical effort into barbell back squatting just for the sake of it.

So yes, if it is taking up this much energy, not only would I expect similar training benefits long-term from making a more tolerable/accessible variation your “primary” squat … but you might even get better results from being able to push it harder, or push additional supplemental movements like the ones you listed above.

In my opinion & experience, it can be just as fun/rewarding to pursue PRs on less conventional lifts & variants as the main ones – this is why I’ve switched between conventional and sumo over the years, trained the reverse-grip bench press for 1RM PRs just as much as the “regular” competition bench press, trained high bar squats at least as much as low bar squats, etc.

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Thank you, makes total sense. I think that’s super accurate re: traditional movements. Definitely feels worth a try to run something a bit more accessible and see if I can push it and some other movements further :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks so much again for your time & replies! So grateful for all the work BBM does.

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