Hi Docs,
I’m starting week 9 of Strength 1 and I’ve got Pin Squats programmed for day 2, but I’m not sure how to proceed.
The safeties on the power rack at my gym are set at the lowest setting and unable to be adjusted (seems counterintuitive given the term “safeties”…), so I can’t squat down to those.
my gym has several combo racks, but I’ve been told by a friend that doing pin squats on a combo rack’s pins are a faux pas. The pins on all but one of the racks is too short for me to reach without completely folding over, though I could feasibly make that one work.
Or should I sub them out for something else? Like a 2-1-0 tempo squat seems like it could sort of replicate the motion of the pin squat, just without the feedback you get from the pins.
What do you think?
I would either use the rack that works for you, do a 2-ct paused squat, or a box squat- taking care to not sit too far back and make it something weird.
As it turns out, the tallest combo rack safeties were still too short and paused squats are already programmed on Fridays.
Westside time it is
I’d almost want to see the safety situation you’re working with, as it would be a first for me. It would also suggest that no squat rack in the place actually has safeties that work, which is another issue lol.
That said, I’d probably swap paused and box squats around, e.g. do paused squats on day 2 and box squats day 3.
I’ll swap the box squats and paused squats in that case.
And to clarify, the racks at my gym do have safeties which are high enough that I can lean forward/backward and set the bar down on them if necessary (I’ve done this before). I just can’t stand up with it on my back after I get that low and bent-over.
I’m 6’3” with a fairly long torso, so the highest setting for the safeties is about 2” below the lowest point of my bar path when squatting (closer to 1” for the tallest rack). To get down to the safeties, I need to bottom out and lean over.
Yea, that safety situation is very unique. Every rack I’ve ever used has safety “holes” from bottom all the way to the top of the rack such that one could squat, bench, press, and do rack pulls in the rack at various heights. I’ve honestly never seen a rack that stops having safety holes at a specific level.
On the other hand, you may be saying that you’re in between safety holes with a 3" spacing and either you’re too deep or too shallow with the existing options. If that’s the case, a set of mats like you might use to do deficit deadlifts from can be useful to get you to the right level.
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Oh, I was talking about the combo racks, those safeties can only go so high.
There’s one power rack with holes all the way up but the pins were creatively installed so that they cannot be moved.
That’s a very interesting gym!