I preface this post with the declaration that I fully understand how stretching does not generally improve performance, represents an unnecessary opportunity cost, where time would be better applied to more sets, reps, sleep, nutrition or nurturing meaningful relationships. I totally get all of that… now, on to my question. A little background; I have had incredibly tight external rotators of the bilateral hips for my entire life. I can’t sit on the floor with crossed legs for instance. I must put my legs outbstraightbin front of me to sit on the floor. If I try to cross one leg over the other while sitting in a chair the knee of my top leg will point nearly completely vertical to the floor. Is there any chance that what I perceive as a severe mobility abnormality contributes to the fact that my squat has always been a nagging and lagging lift. I always make solid progress in all other lifts, but can never manage to drive my squat up. I’ve managed 465, but it was merely survival. In contrast I pulled 570 and bench in the mid to high 300s at a low 180s body weight. I could probably squat 405 now with a gun to my head and it would not be pretty. I’m 35 otherwise healthy lifting for nearly 2 decades. Any thoughts are immensely appreciated. Thanks!
Your squat performance is unlikely to be related to non-specific flexibility. If you feel like it’s a limitation, you might consider spending more time in the bottom of the squat to “stretch”.
-Jordan
Ok. I’ll give that a shot during warm ups and see if that helps. Thanks for all of the high quality information you all put out.