Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 880: How to Squat Like a Pro

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin discuss what it takes to master the squat. Tribalism and fostering an open minded community. (2:24) How to Squat Like a Pro (17:30) Why Squatting is Important and what is considered strong for a squat? (18:50) When & How to Add Resistance. (24:20) Our Best Squatting Tips:  The most important keys to getting a good, deep squat, that's actually quite commonly overlooked. (31:34) Takeaways and actionable steps. (47:00) People Mentioned: Warren Farrell, PhD (@drwarrenfarrell)  Twitter Dr. Jordan Shallow D.C (@the_muscle_doc)  Instagram Ben Pakulski ® | Official (@bpakfitness)  Instagram Links/Products Mentioned: MAPS Fitness Products October Promotion: MAPS Aesthetic ½ off!! **Code “BLACK50” at checkout** Mind Pump FREE Resources Chart: Are You Strong? Free Report: How to Squat like a Pro Mind Pump Episode 872: Dr. Warren Farrell- The Boy Crisis Accessories: Rubberbanditz Resistance Band Set Dunphy Squat- Improve Your Squat with this Secret Exercise - YouTube Tension Squat- Increase Squat Depth with this Simple Exercise - YouTube

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, ob-mite, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this simplified episode, Simplified, distilled, of mind-pump, we wanted to talk all about squatting. How to get a really, really good squat. Now we opened up the episode with some fun banter. Talk about how to have an adult conversation

and civil debates on our favorite place to go on social media, which is our private mind pump forum. But then after about 16 minutes, we get into the discussion about squatting. Like how do you get your squat numbers to go up? How do you become a black belt in squatting? Why is a squat so important in terms of movement, but also in terms of performance and muscle,

in our own personal experiences with squatting and find out if you have a good squat. So if you're squatting, you wanna know how you compare with other people, we refer to a chart that talks about, like, you know, what percentage of your body weight is considered, you know, decent, good, and great. In this episode, we also mentioned our prime and prime and pro correctional exercise programming. Very useful for people who want to be able to squat, who may not be able to, because of pain or lack of stability.

You can find those two programs. Actually, they're both bundled together in the prime bundle, which means they're discounted on our website, mapsfitnessproducts.com. Also, this month, this entire month, Maps aesthetic, which is our bodybuilder, physique competitor, and bikini competitor focus program. So this is a program that is specifically designed for people who are solely focused with the aesthetics of their body. They want to sculpt and shape their body to look balanced, to have symmetry, basically to

look pretty. They want it to look really good. Maps aesthetic is 50% off. It's half off. All you got to do is go to mapsblack.com and use the code black50billack50 for 50% off. And then again, I wanna mention, I say this at the end of the episode, but we do have a free guide, you don't have to pay anything for it. On how to squat like a pro, that's available at mindpumpfree.com.

My buddies and I are big sports fans and we, you know, my one best friend is a nineer fan, my other friends of Lions fan, and I'm a Cowboys fan. And it's the funniest thing ever. Get a couple beers in us and watching football on Sunday. He's a big old debate. He's talking. Oh yeah, then it's a debate on who's the greatest quarterback

of all time, who's got the best team of all time. That's the point. And I forget about those conversations. And that was Rams fans. And when you do, when you have it with other sports, fanatics, they come with great stats. You know what the difference is though with sports, although this isn't always true because let's be honest, there have been deaths at sporting events because people identify so strongly with the team that they're willing to fight people over it. Right. Oh, yeah, bro. I don't think I think the problem is when people identify with something

as if it's it's who they are and that if you attack an idea or you're debating a belief that you're debating their very existence and who they are. And it's it's that's what it feels like an attack. Again, why, again, why I say that? It's, it sports for nerds because it's actually very similar. And I mean, where do you think the word fan comes from? It's derived from fanatical. I mean, people get fanatical about their to-

It's blown away. Yeah. People, people get fanatical about their team where it becomes personal. Like, I catch myself doing it too. Like, I refer to the Cowboys as, People he will get fanatical about their team where it becomes personal like it I catch myself doing it too like I refer to the Cowboys as are the warriors more because I do know More warriors probably than I know Cowboys currently and so I talk as if it's my team, you know like I made the call

It was my decision to bring him over it's a weird. It's funny You can actually feel that kind of you know as, as you're at a game, though, or whatever, and you really have been watching these players, like, intensively. And like, you do, you get really, like, wrapped into this tribalism. And you're just like my team and like our song and our fucking uniform. You know what it reminds me of? You ever get an argument with, like, your wife or your girl, and you're going back and forth and then at some point Both of you and this is not super common, but at some point both of you stop and

Then you become objective and rather than protecting yourself and identifying with everything you Hear each other and how quickly those things resolve. Yeah, it's so fast like okay, hold on a second So you're saying I'm this way. I did this and I could see that I can't and then how quickly those things resolve. Yeah. It's so fast. Like, okay, hold on a second. So you're saying I'm this way, I did this, and I can see that, I can't. And then they'll go, well, thank you, I appreciate that. And I can see this. And then it's done.

Dude. Yes, you told me that, and like I've actually been applying that and not like, not like intuitively, just like kind of reciting back like what their point was to them. So they understand that, you know, so that they can, you understand. So they hear what they're trying to tell you, but now it's like, but they're like,

no wait, you got it wrong. You know, you got it wrong and then they highlight where you got it wrong and then oh, that's all it was. A lot of times, it's crazy, but that's such a good practice to apply when you're talking to somebody. It's funny because this morning, so you know, yesterday there was a lot of times it's crazy, but that's such a good practice to apply when you're talking this.

It's funny because this morning, so yesterday there was a lot of debating on our forum, and I don't want to go into the details up, but there was a lot of debating discussing this back, you know, back and forth. But there wasn't any, it was front, like any discussion of debate can feel frustrating, especially if you feel like you're making a good point and you feel like the other person's not understanding what you're trying to say, or if you think you're right and you feel like you're making a good point and you feel like the other person's not understanding what you're trying to say, or if you think you're right and you feel like they're wrong,

that's always gonna be frustrating. But at the end of the day, in the forum, by the way, this was a very touchy subject, and again, I'm not gonna go into the details, but at the end of the day, there was no name calling. Nobody was all pissed off and fuck you, and I'm not gonna, whatever. It was all discussion. It ended very well very well at some point some people just said okay

We just disagree some people kind of changed their mind and so this morning I woke up After sleeping on it or whatever and I thought I was so I felt this overwhelming feeling of gratitude for This private forum that we have. Because we have people on there that are so opposing in their viewpoints, and we do. I don't care what position you, I don't care what subject we're talking about. It could be religion. We have people who are hardcore Christians

and hardcore atheists, and there's been religious debates on there. We could be politics. There's people way on the left and way on the right, it could be fitness, it could be nutrition, we've got keto people on there, we've got vegans on there, and they'll get into these discussions and debates, and the thread will be three, four, five hundred comments long,

with sub-comments and categories. And, but at the end of it, till this day, I, they always end pretty well and civil and people, and I've seen people change their mind or listen to this side, and I'm so grateful that we- No, I have that community. I am too, and it's unfortunate, because some people get turned off by that,

because they look at it like this arguing or debating back and forth, but I think it's like animosity. Yeah, but what I, I mean, I think it's fostered in an incredible community. It's what we talk about. Like none of us wanted an echo chamber. You know, none of us wanted a collection of 3,000 people that think just like us.

We've encouraged that since there was three people in there, you know, to challenge our ideas, to not agree with us. Like that's how people learn. And I think when we have, when we moderate that and, and I think we did a good job, and sometimes, you know, some people can, can get offended or this and that, but I think we do a good job of sliding in there and moderating it and keeping it going in a productive manner because these are the types of conversations that need to be had. And I think it's best when there's people with opposing views versus a bunch of us all getting on there and ragging on a topic and all agreeing. Like, what, how productive is that?

At the end of the day, one of the biggest, most impactful things I ever learned ever in my entire life was, and I learned this from a client, it was to examine and hear the opposing viewpoint to my own in an open-minded way and to seek out the most educated and best communicators of that opposing viewpoint. So an example would be, you know, if I, you know, if I have a staunch believer that humans need to be omnivores and that we need to meet. And I 100% believe that that's just the way it is. I'll seek out the smartest vegan proponents.

And I won't listen to them like I'm ready to attack. I'll listen, open-minded, and I'll look at everything up and mind it. And the result of that has been that sometimes I've had my mind changed. Many times I've just strengthened my own position, but afterwards I'm always a better person from it. And always I have more empathy because you can understand their point of view. That's it. That's 100% because one thing that I found that I think is 100% true and I'll fight this

and argue this all day long is that most people don't have a viewpoint because they're bad people. No. You know, most people have a viewpoint because they're good people. Yeah, and they want better for other people. I think most of the initiatives are very positive in the beginning. Most people are considering other people with policies and actions. It's the unintended consequences. I feel like now we need to discuss how this all plays. And I think that's where a lot of the discussion

needs to happen even more. This is why I love, this is one of the reasons why I love fitness so much. Because fitness is so much more plain and black and white and although there's definite tribalism and camps when it comes to fitness, it's way easier to open someone's mind to other viewpoints and fitness than it is to open someone's mind with more controversial topics.

Politics religion, family, and that kind of stuff. It's just so layered. But with fitness, like tribalism exists everywhere. With fitness, we talk about this ad nauseam, there's people who are in their camps with their training. I only do this and it's the best way. And I only do that and it's the best way. And the way you train is wrong, the way I train is right.

And really the real answer is there's something to take from all of them. And if we're open-minded, we'll learn more. We'll learn more and grow. Well, there's a reason for that though, right? There's because there's, you can actually, you can take somebody from two different camps in fitness. And oh no, this is the way you're wrong with that.

And then if you can just get them to try or open their mind enough to try something different, and then they can actually see and feel the difference, it's much easier to open them up to be more open-minded to other things. With politics and religion, it's really tough. Super tough. Yeah, it's not like you can take somebody

who is devout Christian and say, hey, try atheism out for a while. Yeah, that's what I was saying. And get back to me and let me know how that were vice versa, try atheism out for a while. Yeah, it's me. Right? And get back to me and let me know how that were or vice versa, right? Like, it's a little bit. But just being open to hearing each other and to be okay with the fact that someone

totally different than you and believes in something different. And now I understand if someone's trying to hurt you or steal from you, that's totally different. But it's just, anyway, I was really, really, really grateful and I felt very blessed that we have, I don't know how many people we have in our forum, it's just anyway, I was really, really, really grateful and I felt very blessed that we have. How many people do we have in our form? It's like 3000 now? Something like that, right? Very blessed that we have this community. And for so many different reasons, one is what I just talked about. The other one is from a business

standpoint, it's awesome to have this group of people who will give you instant and immediate feedback on what you're doing right, what you may be doing wrong questions or whatever. It also helps me talk to, I have this connection with many of the people in our forum, just as I see them all the time and we comment on the time and talk to each other all the time.

And so it's nice to be able to keep my finger on the pulse of what's going on out there because sometimes, especially with a media company like ours, you don't necessarily get that feedback. Although social media makes it a lot easier, the kind of feedback you might get on YouTube isn't always the greatest. Oh, it's not constructive. Speaking of that, that's a really, that's one I'm a little frustrated with that and annoyed by that.

I mean, at the end of the day as a business, like I'm always watching the numbers, like numbers don't lie, right? So, and we consistently, now, right, it's been scaling up since we started this, you know, it was as little as 50 subscribers a day we were adding back when we first started and it's up to now anywhere between five and 700 new subscribers every single day that adds to the Mindump TV YouTube. But then, you know, we put a video out like Warren Farrell out there and, you know, I just thought it was such an incredible conversation that we had and, you know, we get this slew of people that come in and just like,

you're so angry because I'm here for the fitness channel and you guys are trying to open my mind to other things and so the, I'm here for the fitness channel and you guys are trying to open my mind to other things and so the I'm out It's like okay later. See you later See you later if you're if that's where you're at in your life I want to grow but I don't want to grow like that right exactly But that's okay. That's their that's their prerogative I mean you you do as a as a business is your you shape who your audience is right and at the end of the day You know mine pump is more than just fitness

But we're very much fitness I was gonna say I mean when I think that these topics are are closely related Mm-hmm. I think that our it's all health as well. Yeah, our personal social health. It's all it's all tied together or relationships I think that that's the unfortunate part is that people want to again separate it. It's not separate. It's all a part of it. What I love about the forum is that it's so different as far as everybody's point of view, but there is a common theme amongst everybody and everybody in there is growth minded. Everybody is there to better themselves, both mentally, physically, spiritually, whatever. they're all there to better themselves.

And because of that, that's what really unites everybody, which is cool, because we can all disagree on many topics. And I think it's very healthy that we disagree on many topics, because then you have, and it's kind of cool. We've definitely attracted a lot of really intelligent people, like that. The forum is not lacking any brilliant minds in there. There's a lot of really, really intelligent minds that are sharing their opposing opinions in there. So I really, I really do appreciate that. I know it's been a long time since I've given

you kudos, but I remember early on, so I mean, that was really your baby. I mean, you, you have definitely driven a lot of the conversation and moderated a lot of the stuff that goes on inside that forum And I think in my opinion, it's one of the most valuable things That we offer as far as all of our programming and things that we have out there because of that like a lot of people Don't know that and you could get on there and literally ask a question about anything But specifically, you know, something related to your health or improving your fitness journey. And within minutes, you'll have, you know, PhDs and trainers and therapists and, you know, very intelligent people responding to you and then

engaging in a conversation. Well, it's so cool because, you know because growing up, you get certain friends that are more growth-minded and you can explore topics with your friends and your family, but I mean, that was very few and far between. And this is a whole community of people that you can present just any question that's, in relation to what's on your mind and get some really valuable feedback.

I also like that everybody on there, most everybody on there has that sense of humor where it's hard to offend people. Like they're not afraid to make terrible jokes opposed like really, really great memes about us. Yeah, dark memes or whatever. And people will like, I have to go on there and delete shit all the time.

There'll be, there'll be a thread about what they'll post memes and they're the worst, most terrible, like hilarious, but really dark shit. Yeah. And they'll just be 500 debt deep and I'll be like, all right guys, I gotta take a delete that. You know this is getting bad, you know? But nobody's getting, nobody's getting offended

or everybody's kind of like, you know, cool and knows that nobody means anything, you know, negative or bad about it. So. No, that being said, I really want to think, you know, the part of our audience that appreciates and allows us to weave in and out of different conversations because I don't know how long personally

I would want to do mind pump if you forced me to only talk about working out. I mean, I love fitness, I know that's our expertise in our field, but I love all aspects of it, and I love other things that are going on in our world right now. So I appreciate those that appreciate that in us, and allow us to have these conversations that challenge all of our thoughts and opinions. And today, we're getting back to our roots. I know one of the things that we always comment on as much as we start to go left and right and all over the place that at our core, we are fitness professionals. That is our expertise.

And sometimes just getting back to some of the basics and talking about topics that may seem simple to us or basic is some of the most game-changing things that we can provide for people. Right, right. You know, what I wanted to get into today, because we have a new guide that's out titled how to squat like a pro. And I knew it would do well, I knew it would fly,

it's free, you know, we're not selling it. But the response has been phenomenal. And it's free, you know, we're not selling it. But what the response has been phenomenal. And it's because I know why squatting, you know, it's one of the most powerful, impactful, and result-producing exercises you could do. It's also a fundamental human movement. And it encompasses, it's got a lot of carryover. If you had a rating system for exercises, this would probably be the most important. And it's doing very, very, very well.

People are downloading it and sharing it and really enjoying the content. And the squat guide is, it's not about like the basics in the sense like, how to squat and what to do. It's really, you know, how to squat like a pro. Like now that you know how to squat and you've got the kind of basics down,

how do you take your squat to the next level? How do we master the skill of it? How do we master the skill of it? How do we get stronger at it? How do people get really fucking good at squatting? You know, one of the questions a lot of people ask me is what is a, here's a good question for you guys. What is considered strong with a squat?

And I know that the individual variance is gonna be dramatic, but generally speaking, what would be considered a really strong squat for a man and a really strong squat for a woman as a percentage of their body? Didn't we pull up? I think a teen nation did a really good article on this a long time ago.

I wanna say like in our early like 200 episodes or 300 episodes, we actually posted this somewhere. Do you guys remember that article? And it actually had men, women, your body, way. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And it had like every, the big compound lifts, kind of like what was considered. What to kind of shoot for. Yeah, maybe Doug yeah, yeah, yeah, and it had like every all the big compound lifts kind of like what was considered what to kind of shoot for

Yeah, maybe done yeah, maybe Doug can look that up. It's a and it was you know TNation Weight to strength ratio chart. I that's like that. Yeah, I would I would Google I know I know for me my goal was squatting was always to be able to double my body weight It was always my goal. Can I squat twice my body weight? Which is a pretty big goal. I mean if you're a 200 pound guy that's a 400 pound squat and I'm talking about a good squat by the way like a nice full squat. That's not super common in gyms. Now it's not gonna make you a powerlifting champion but it's not super common to see a man be able to squat or a woman. Two times your body weight.

For a woman maybe one and a half times your body weight right? One to one woman. Two times your body weight. For a woman, maybe one and a half times your body weight, one to one and a half times your body weight. So I think the range that I always tell people is, for if you've been squatting for a long time and you don't have any injuries, to consider yourself pretty good at squatting. For a man, I would say my opinion, the range is between one and a half to two times your body weight

and for a woman it's one to one and a half times your body weight. So if you're a hundred and thirty pound female, you know, a hundred and thirty two, you know, what is one and a half, a hundred and eighty pounds, you know, and for a male, two times, oh there it is. There you go. So what does it say here? So it says, this is cool. So it breaks it down, male, female and then it's decent, good and great.

Oh, so they say decent for a man for squat is one and a half times body weight. Good is two times body weight. Great is two and a half times body weight. For a female, it's decent is 75% of your body weight. Good is one and a quarter times your body weight. And great is two times your body weight. I'm not gonna disagree with that.

Yeah, no, no, I agree with that. I remember when we first looked at this, we all agreed. I thought this is why I wanted Doug to pull it back up because I thought they did it. And they go all the way down. Bench press, deadlift. I think these are all.

Have you guys hit those numbers? Let's start at the top. Let's see what's your best squat to weight ratio that you've ever done? Oh look, they have deadlift, bench press, they have everything on there. But let's talk about squat. What's the best that you've ever done. And oh, look, they have deadlift bench press. They have everything on there. But with squat, let's talk about squat. What's the best squat you've ever done to your body weight?

Four 20 is the most I did. And I was at two, probably about two, oh, five to two 10 when I was competing. So you hit that. You you were right there. There's that two. Right. That's just good. That's just good, though.

I got five hundred when I was in college. How much did you weigh? Two 15. So that's fucking. You're that's what is that? Is that two and a half? That's almost two and a half. Good though, I think I've grabbed 100 when I was in college. How much did you weigh? 215. So that's fucking, what is that? Is that two and a half times? That's almost two and a half? It's gotta be, right? That's pretty damn good.

Well, you're the best squatter. Well, that was my strength was squatting. So squatting and then bench, but bench, I think I hit two. So I definitely didn't hit two times with my body. Yeah, for me, bench was a little under two times. For me, Ben, the most I've ever done is one and a half times. Yeah, it was like a little over one and a half. I've never done more than one and a half times with a body.

What is that? 405, yeah, it was a 215. Or yeah. Okay, by deadlift, I surpassed that. This says the great is 2.75 times your body weight. I've done three times. Damn. Body weight for deadlift.

Interesting, this is a pretty cool chart. But yeah, the squat is a pretty fundamental foundational exercise. But would you make sure that you copy that and send that to Jackie so she can put that in our show notes because I think people appreciate that. It'd be cool to see people, yeah. Like put their stats out there.

Yeah, no, this is a really cool article. It was a long time ago they did this, but I remember looking at it going like, oh, I totally agree with these numbers. I think these are really cool. But what I love about this is strength is the focus. And I think we get away from that sometimes when we try and basically put out there what people want to know

is how to change their body, how to look more aesthetically pleasing. This and that. I just love metrics like this where it's something intangible, but you can achieve more. Like if you put a lot effort into it, you know, something intangible, but you can achieve more. Like if you put a lot of effort into it, you grease the groove, you know, so to speak, you know, as Pavel said,

and you apply, you know, the mechanics and the technique, you really see results. Well, let's be honest, if you're a guy, and you're in the good to great range with your squat, or you're a girl, and you're in the good to great range with your squat, your lower body probably looks pretty good. Right. Let's be honest, right? Now you might not be a body builder, you might not have like the greatest looking legs of all time, but if you're a female and you're squatting one to one to one

to one to one in a quarter or one and a half times your body weight, the chances that your legs look way better than they did beforehand are fucking massive. Like you're probably going to look pretty fucking much like you guys. I think it's almost almost impossible to be in the good to great way better than they did beforehand are fucking massive. Like you're probably gonna look pretty fucking like you're gonna look like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty fucking like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty

like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty

like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty like you're gonna look pretty for increasing my squat weight. So there was a period of time where I was very focused on the three lifts and I was like,

I was determined to double my body weight and bench press, which I never did. To, I was determined to go two and a half times my squat, which I never did and triple my deadlift, which I did do. But the thing that was the biggest game changer for my squat, one of the things that was, it was a simple thing that I did to my squatting

that really took to the next level, was I used variable resistance. It was a fucking, and it was such a game changer because up at this, until this point, I'd been squatting a long time, and I'd been doing them for a long time, and I was decent at them. But I remember the first time I added,

you just say chains or bands, what kind of variables is this? Both were game changer. Chains take a lot more add to you. Bands, I am actually more partial to bands, to be quite honest. Bands just feel smoother and don't seem to damage the shit out of me like chains are grind.

You're grinding too much. Now from top to bottom or bottom to top. Or does it matter? So I like to do, I like to use the bands to make the bottom of my squat lighter on the top of it heavier so that it followed my strength curve. So I would attach the bands to the top of the cage. So that when I went down into the squat, the band was stretching more and more and it made it lighter at the bottom. So that was a game changer for me. And my theory on this is this, and I remember when way back when I was a kid

and first started squatting, the first time I ever really squat it, and I remember I was with some bodybuilder guys and they were trying to get me to squat and at that time I really had, and I remember I couldn't even, I could barely squat 135 back then, and they wanted to put 225 on there.

And I'm like, get out of here, dude, I can't even come closer to that. And he's like, you just need to feel the weight. You need to feel what that weight is. So you can get over that and you're not afraid anymore to lift it, you'll see, you'll see your weight increase. And he was right, I remember after I felt that 225 on there, now a sudden 185 was doable for me.

And so I think what a lot of that is, and I don't know if it's the central nervous system that is getting adapted or used to that much weight on your back, but the feeling of being able to put a weight that you couldn't squat without the assistance of the bands, right? So the first time I ever hit 405, I had already done 405 multiple times with the bands assisting me.

So it's like, okay, I got used to feeling what that felt, what 405 felt like on my back when I'm at the top of that squat. And then when I get to the bottom, I get this nice assistance out of there. So it's not like I'm really squatting up here 405. But it got me, I broke through that fear. Because if you've never, you know, anybody that's listening right now, you know, when you start getting up to that 300, 350, 400, 500 type weight on your back,

it's, I mean, it feels like you're, it's a big difference than squatting on your body weight, like squatting your body weight, it feels so much more controllable when you're holding something on your back. You feel like if you mess up a little bit, you're gonna squash you. Yeah, there's definitely that,

it's interesting because it feels it, it feels kind of bro, sciencey, like, right? Like you want to just like get the weight on there and be able to acclimate to that weight. So you feel the weight and like you react to the weight, but it really does. I mean, your body definitely like reacts to that and like it, it understands and learns how to go

through those mechanics, you know mechanics under that amount of stress. And I do also find value and I used bands and chains from the other direction too, where I was more focused on the exposivity coming out of the grind of the lift too. So if I was working more on power specifically, I would use variable resistance to kind of help to enhance that process, kind of shooting out of position. But yeah, I mean, such great tools to get you sort of, when you feel like you're at a bit of a halt and your progress is sort of like,

you hit sort of like that stalemate, like that's where I really incorporate. Well, studies are clear. Studies are clear on variable resistance. They're effective. You add them to any routine and you do it appropriately. And by the way, this is an advanced technique. So if you're beginner, I wouldn't waste your time doing this.

But you will progress faster if you add them appropriately. So the studies are quite, quite clear. But for the people listening who don't, quite sure what we're talking about, picture somebody in a squat, so they have a bar on their back, there's weights on the bar, and then there's a band wrapped around the bar at the end

and then attached at the cage above. On both ends. On both ends. And so now what's happening is that, that's like a built-in spotter. Yeah, that band is assisting a little bit, but what happens when you squat down is you stretch that band out,

and what happens when you stretch a band the further you stretch it out The harder it pulls and so what happens is that the bottom of the squat the band is pulling more Then when you're at the top of the squat now. Why is this important? Well all exercises have a natural What's called a strength curve? Okay, and if you imagine doing a squat, think of the most difficult part of squat, then think of the easiest part of squat. Now obviously, for most people, the easiest parts the top. Like if I just go down two inches

and come up, I can lift away more weight than if I go all the way down to the bottom. The bottom is where I'm gonna be the weak corner squat game. And now there's this inherent problem with resistance in the sense that, if I'm maxing out at, let's say I'm doing 315 and I can do 5 reps max, the reality is I'm maxing out at what I can do at the bottom of the squat. I'm not maxing out at what I can do at the top of the squat

because 315 is my limit in my weakest part, which is at the bottom. What a band allows you to do is it allows you to overload the rep at the, even at the top. So now I can load the bar with say 375 and at the top of the, of the rep, it's closer to 375, but when I get down to the bottom it's 315. So now I'm challenging the repetition or challenging the exercise through the full range of motion of the repetition. So it feels heavy, the same heaviness and intensity at the bottom as it does at the top.

Now, why is this important? Well, muscles, when you get stronger with your muscles, the way you train them is quite specific. So if I train a muscle within a particular range of motion, most of the strength is gonna go to that particular range of motion. So what this means with exercises like squats is, the top of the exercise is getting less of the benefit

than the bottom because that's where I'm challenging myself the most, but when I add bands, now I've kind of remedied that a little bit. And so it gives you this kind of more full appropriate application of intensity in relationship to the strength curve that you have when you're doing the squat. So it allows you to handle more weight and a very safe way.

Again, you have to be experienced. But then you progress very quickly. It's great. I swear to God, the day I did this, my squat went up five or ten pounds the following week. It was like right away. I remember right away, I did it, and you know, when you've been working out for a long time, one of the things about doing it for you know longer than 10 years is I can I know you guys the same way I can tell the second I do something. Oh, this is good like I can I can feel it like oh shit

This is gonna be good Yeah, and I could tell right away and I was right I came back to the squat the following week. I didn't use the bands and I was like holy shit I think I added like five or ten pounds to my squat, and I was stuck at a particular weight for a long time. I know another game changer in terms of like mastering the squat and the skill of the squat that I found was finding out sort of where your body's compensatory patterns would really your body's compensatory patterns would really sort of shut down and you would lose muscle tension. Okay, so basically what I'm talking about is when you rely heavily on the momentum and

the inertia of the force pushing you down and then you're trying to sort of rebound that inertia and utilize that to propel you back up. So that's something that I definitely had to address because of the way that I squatted. And when initially I first started squatting was more power lift sort of style where the whole emphasis on the squat was to just get out of there as quick as possible.

And so I would drop in and I would utilize that momentum so that it'd springboard me back up. So what did you do just slow down the rep? Slow down the rep, I also, which I guess was coined a dumpy squat, but basically used the prop, used the tool, used the stick to push up into the cage. And what that did was just that amount of effort of me

just squeezing and pressing, translated to it radiated the rest of my body to create more overall muscle tension. So I would drop down into the squat and then you find where your body just wants to relax, but you keep pressing and you could feel throughout your body where that deficiency lies.

Who's really good at this is Jordan Schallow. If you ever watch him squat, it's really unique compared to a lot of power lifters. Like he, the eccentric motion for him is like, he takes like four to six seconds to get down in his PR lifts. So it's really cool. Now, my theory to why you rarely see him injured

is because of that. He has such great control through the full range of motion versus a lot of Olympic lifters. Olympic lifters in particular bounce. Right, they, they definitely, I mean, they're, they're, well, that's part of their lift. Right, explosive, the jump into it. Right, so I see a lot of people, you know,

mimicking that way of squatting versus really controlling the movement all the way through the full range of motion. If you don't own a lift, the lift will own you. And that's just the fact. I don't care what the lift is. If you're not in complete control of the entire range of motion, when you lose control, then that exercise will own you. And if I were to rank,

not all exercises are created equal in any sense of the imagination, including effectiveness and including injury potential. And if I were to list exercises in terms of injury potential, squats are not at the top, but they're in the upper half in the sense that, if you squat properly, they're very safe, very, very safe. If your form breaks down, it goes from safe to dangerous.

Relatively quickly. Now, most exercises, those are a lot of exercises that I don't like that. Like if you do curls and your form is perfect or you do curls and your form is loose, the injury risk goes up a little bit. With the squat, it goes up a lot. And so you want to own, and this is why you get the whole like, oh, don't squat, it's bad for your knees or bad for your back, or this is because people have,

you know, experienced what it feels like to squat without full control. Now, on the flip side of that, or the other side of that, I should say that's important, is that controlling a repetition means you're going to activate more muscle fibers. It means you're going to yield more benefit out of the lift. And this is why, now, we can look at bodybuilders for a second. I know we're talking about how to squat like a pro or squat really great.

Bodybuilders sometimes are not the greatest squatters. But the reason why I'm using bodybuilders is, if you look at how bodybuilders who've had a long career in bodybuilding tend to lift, they tend to emphasize control quite a bit. I'm just going to spend Pekolsky as a great example. Yes, there you go. When you look at a bodybuilder who, again, is not dealing with a lot of injuries and you

look at the way he's been able to develop his body, like, you know, they were, we were all together lifting when we were up in Tahoe and him and Jordan were squatting. And you know, when you watch the way they squat, like it's very slow and controlled and owning the entire movement versus, you know, those guys are both massive and strong and could probably throw 500 plus pounds on there in a normal workout and get after it. But I think they were squatting with 225 or 315,

which I know is well, well, but under their potential. Right. But knowing that like that's when you're just training on a normal day, well, well under their potential. Right, but knowing that, like that's when you're just training on a normal day, there's no reason to be. You can't be stressing off. I just did this, so I haven't squatted in a while

because I've only been doing split stance exercises to address an imbalance in my sides. The other day I got out of the barn, I said, I'm gonna squat and see how I feel, and I could feel that I felt strong. Like, oh, this is gonna be good. And I wanted to push the weight, but instead, I kept literally 135 on the bar.

135 pounds on the bar, and my reps were like, four or five seconds down, four or five seconds up, go down as low as I can with tension, so maintaining my knees in position, keeping my core tight, coming up, flexing my quads, keeping tension, 15 reps. I did three sets of 15 reps and my legs were fucking toast. Oh, I'm sure you were, blah.

I did that yesterday, last night, we were in here, Katrina and I, we were like, we weren't gonna work out, it was late after we all met with Doug and so that and hanging out. And I was like, let's, she's all, let's get some squats in and I was like, all right, I'll just do three sets of 20, three sets of 20 with 145, I was fucking just destroyed too, just destroyed from that. Yeah, that's the beauty of an exercise like the squat. You know, the other game changer for me with squats, and I just said not all exercises are created equal.

Some exercises, and I can't quite explain why, but some exercises really, really respond well to frequency, like really respond well to frequency. Squatting is one of those things. Squatting is weird. Like, you could squat every day if you're relatively advanced and but working out for a while. You could squat every day and so long as you monitor your intensity, you're going to

get stronger real fast. Yeah, and you keep progressing. It's really weird. On social media a while ago, there was this whole squat every day challenge. It was a challenge, yeah. And I was watching, I had friends that were doing this challenge.

There's legitimacy. And dude, they were all like, my squat went up 30 pounds, my squat went up 40 pounds, I gained, you know, 10 pounds of muscle. Now you gotta say with that too, or you know, you glazed over it with the talking about intensity, that's so important. Yeah, you can't beat the crap out of me. Yeah you gotta say with that too, or I know you glazed over it with the, talking about intensity, that's so important. If you're gonna beat the crap out of me.

Yeah, because like, for example, I just did that last night and for sure overreach, like I'm really sore today. So like, you know, I wouldn't, you wouldn't wanna push your intensity level that hard every single day because that's, little in the, you know. Oh yeah, it's stress management, you know?

And it's a matter of like what you're introducing stress-wise. So like if your body isn't a place where you can up the intensity of stress for that day, that's a good day to lift heavy. And then, you know, the opposing day, you just have to assess that based off your body's feedback, you know, where that intensity lies. How much load to really apply, or just, you know, for the purpose of that day really mastering the mechanics and the skill, and just going over that movement, so you keep that same skill and signal alive. So it's just one of those things that, if the thought process around the squat was more about, you know, how do I

improve upon the skill of it, you're just going to keep progressing. Now, you know, how do I improve upon the skill of it? You're just going to keep progressing. Now, you know, something else to add to squatting like a pro that was a big difference changer for me, right? Was one, to your point, Sal, the frequency thing. For many, many years, squatting was very infrequent in my routine. It was, I treated leg day as, you know, I would do random exercises almost every time I did legs, I tend to gravitate more towards leg press and

lunges because squats did just destroy me. And so it was never a consistent every single week. I would even be squatting much less once to twice or maybe even three times in a week. And when I move that up to all, I mean, I can't now I can't remember the last time that I didn't squat at least once in a week, if not two or three times in a week. That's been one of the biggest game changes. Now, in addition to that, it's also been one of the greatest tools to kind of give me feedback on the breakdown or where I may have imbalances. So not only do I love squatting for the gains that I got from it and how much you added like you added like two inches in your legs.

Yeah, I definitely saw a huge difference. Just I mean people we need to like appreciate that adding two inches to your legs after you've been working out for 15 years. That's a big. That's a big gain and it came from squatting a lot. That's all that's all 100% 100% and I, and I talked about this on the show before that, you know, I avoided it a lot because my mechanics were so poor and, you know, and, and honestly, I was a young trainer at that time and I really didn't know why I just thought I was not built to squat because I was

tall and lanky and I had a terrible squat. My low back would be on fire after I did it. And so I'd still make myself do it, but then when I do it, it would just be, I would be miserable and I was like, man, this sucks. Instead of actually using that as a great feedback tool. And so that's how I look at it now. So even yesterday, I can feel myself soaring. What I noticed is my left IT is tighter than my right.

So I know there's some sort of breakdown in the kinetic chain from when I was squatting. And so now I can go back and I can start to use our tools that we've created for people like Maps Prime Pro and I could start to unpack my squat and go like, okay, do mobility, mobility, and working on, and mobility really is just control over your range of motion, like good controls, really all it is. So it's not more range of motion, because that doesn't mean anything unless you have control over it.

It's not control over short range of motion. It's having large ranges of motion with good control. You improve your mobility, especially in an exercise like the squat where the range of motion can be so big because it is like a full good under control squat, you're sitting on your hunches, but you have good tight control, you don't have a breakdown in form. Most people can't do that. Most people can't do that.

I couldn't. And honestly, I attribute that, the growth in my legs to actually that part was just the consistency of squatting and working on the squat to improve upon it and improve upon it. And when I'm looking at improving, I wasn't really looking at my strength as much. Like it was more about my depth and control for me because it end to be pain free. It was like, my goal was, can I get in a really deep squat consistently? And not hurt. And not hurt afterwards. Not feel my low back on fire, not feel my knees all achy, not feel my hips, like someone sticking a knife in there, like, you know, I had presidus for

years. It was just a common thing. I was constantly battling that. I've been completely. It's gone. I don't have any issues with that. Once I address in your hip. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I and it once I addressed My hip mobility and began squatting on a regular basis. I haven't had problems with that in years now So you know, it's funny that those are the things that kept me away from squatting But once I started to go after it and this is the the recommendation that I have to people listening right now because I know I'm not alone in this that there's probably a lot of you that have just said fuck squatting because it hurts or bothers you and

What you got to remember it's not the squat that's hurting you It's the breakdown in your body that that is and instead of just avoiding it and then trying to find other exercise I think it's an important topic because you know most people when they see a subject matter like this like mastering the squat They think immediately how much weight can I keep increasing? How much load can I keep applying to this very specific lift where you went through that process every Inch that you went down in depth was like a whole new load you had to account for. You're starting from a different position where your body is learning that position. It's learning and now we have to apply load

and increase it gradually just like you did from where you started. Let me say, let me communicate it this way. So imagine if you couldn't walk. Imagine if every time you tried to take a step, it hurt really bad. Now your goal would be every day to try to learn how to walk without hurting and get good at it.

Because we all understand that walking is a fundamental human movement, okay? So is the squat. The squat is also a fundamental human movement. So if you find yourself in pain and you can't do a squat because something hurts, your goal should be, and yes, I know that there are definitely situations where this may not be true, whether you have an injury or some kind of a genetic difference in your body, but that's actually quite rare. Squatting

is something that humans are supposed to do, just like they're supposed to be able to stand up tall, just like they're supposed to be able to reach up above their head with their arms, and just like they're supposed to be able to walk. And I know that someone's listening right now going, like, well, my doctor said absolutely no squatting. Yeah, of course, I hate that.

And you gotta remember that. And you have to remember that. I don't know squatting with that, you know, form and terrible conditions. Right, that's their job is to protect themselves from lawsuits. Right. If I'm a doctor and I just fuse some disc on your back and then you say, Hey, I'm a big fan of my pump.

They tell me I should keep squatting. He's going to disagree. And he's going to disagree because of that exact reason is that you've already had a major injury somewhere there. If you squat with bad form, you potentially can hurt it again. And so, that's the shitty thing is that we have doctors that are giving that advice because they need to because they have to protect themselves. So, I understand why they tell clients that, but the reality is exactly what Salis saying is that, if a doctor told you, hey, you probably shouldn't walk anymore, would you just give up on it?

Like, there's no way I would give up on it Like I don't want to just say if there's a possibility I could walk again I'm gonna do everything in my power to work towards that the And the funny thing is why do we treat that different than squatting like squatting is as fundamental as walking because you have to You have to get up and get down for the rest of your life And if you just ride it off as a movement that you can't do because you had some sort of a surgery, well, fuck, you know what's gonna happen

is all that shit's gonna compound and you're gonna in five, 10, 15 years. But that's not even the big problem. It's not even the people who have a surgery who'd say they can't squat, although that is an issue. It's the people who've never had any issues. They've never had a surgery, they've never had, and they just can't squat, and there's like a hurts,

and so I'm not gonna do it. And there, again, it's a fundamental human movement, and the goal is to get good at it, and when you do get good at it, and you train it, because it's a fundamental human movement, your body develops in the way it's supposed to, and the carryover of strength that you have from squat is phenomenal. If your squat goes up, so does your deadlift. If your deadlift goes up, your squat doesn't necessarily go up. Power lifters have known this for a long time. In fact, many of them will take a week or two weeks off

deadlifting, just focus on their squat in order to get their squat to go up. It's got that much carryover. And here's some takeaway advice for people listening right now who do squat and who just want to get a bigger squat and see what happens, because I'll tell you what, you get your squat to go up and wait

with good control, watch what happens to your physique, watch what happens to your muscle, and watch what happens to your other lips. So here's some good takeaway advice. I think you should be squatting between two to four days a week. I think one of those days should be a hard squatting session. One of those days should be a mobility-based squatting session, although I do think mobility work should be done every day, but I'm talking about where you're devoting the whole workout to mobility and movement. That's one of those days, and I think one of those

days should be with varied resistance. We're using bands and chains and working with these, and what's what happens? Watch how fast you progress, it's fucking insane. If you really soar, if you feel really burnt out, make sure you reduce the intensity, and then when you start to feel good, you boost the intensity, but like I said, one of them should be purely on mobility. One of them can be hard.

One of them can be this kind of working with variable resistance. And then if you are doing a fourth day, go in there, do higher reps, and just kind of get a little bit of a pump and watch what happens. It'll work. Take some time with it. Take it incrementally. Wherever you are currently, just shave, go down that just half inch, another inch. Work with tools and use a bench and work your way out.

Like what you need to do is teach the body where to apply force and how does some of that force to be able to get you up and to get control over your body through that movement. And you guys are continuing to speak to the advanced group because I know that the squatting like a pro is more geared toward that. I'm going to keep speaking and addressing the people that want to squat like a pro, but think they can't. And you know, this is again, this is why we created prime and prime pro. Like if you are somebody who deep down you want to, but you're afraid to because of injuries or because

it's hurt in the past, this is not me telling you, oh, you should just squat. And so you just throw on weight and then you just push through it. No, let's figure out what's going on. And that's why we created those programs is it's designed to help you address the imbalances that you have going on your body and start to work towards that. And that because that can become your workout, like fuck following a maps of regular maps program, like literally pick up prime or prime pro and start just working on your squat.

I don't know how many times now that I do this and I never used to do this in my first 10 years of my career. This would never happen. The back half of my my career this happens all the time like yesterday night. I'm just not in the mood to do anything. I've got a long day. I just don't feel like exercising, but just me getting three sets of 20 on squats,

and I feel like I had a great fucking workout. I mean, that's, it's the one movement I can do that with. There's not a lot of movements that I can just go into the workout, and that's all I do, and I could leave it and feel like I really accomplished something because it addresses the entire body. It's such an incredible foundational, fundamental movement. It's such a powerful tool.

And if you can figure out a way to get your body to be able to use that tool, your progress is going to explode. If you don't use that tool, are there other exercises that can build muscle and strength and all that stuff? Of course, there definitely are. But for the vast majority of listeners, nothing, none of them are gonna be able to do what a barbell squat would be able to do for you. And so if you're not able to do it, you know, my advice, work towards your,

you know, work on your ability to be able to squat for a long time. Like Adam says, prime and prime pro, if you do both those programs together and live in them for a while, get yourself to the point where you can squat with good control, good stability, good mobility, and then start pushing the squat like I said earlier with four days a week or whatever. Man, watch what happens to your progress. And I'm talking about not just direct progress, of course your legs and your lower body you're gonna develop.

The indirect stuff that comes from squatting as well. I talk about all the time on the podcast, how resistance training is the best way to get lean because it speeds up your metabolism. Let me tell you something, you get good at squatting and you start squatting and you develop half of your body because that's what your legs account for is, half of your body.

Watch what happens to your fucking metabolism. Watch what happens and how many calories you start burning a regular basis. You wanna to get lean, that's a great way to do it in indirect way, but it's a very powerful way to do it. And then, of course, the rest of the body starts to develop as well, because although there is a specific stimulus that happens when you train a particular part of your body, there is a systemic effect that tends to happen as well. And there's this old myth, it's not a myth, there's this old saying I should say in bodybuilding where they used to say one of the best ways to add an inch on your arms is to add 50 pounds

to your squat. This is an old school saying bodybuilders have been saying for a long time. And there's definitely some truth to it. Like I know guys who neglected their lower body or were able to do some of these amazing exercises, through them in, and they'll message me and be like, my arms and shoulders got bigger, like what the hell's going on? There's that systemic effect that happened. Well, speaking to the indirect things

that you mentioned right there too, is when I talk about the brositis in my hips, it wasn't squatting that fixed the brositis in my hips. It was the immobility that I had to address in order to squat well that in my hips, it wasn't squatting that fixed the presides in my hips, it was the immobility that I had to address in order to squat well that fixed my hips. And the same thing goes for low back. I can't tell you how many clients that I've trained that were afraid to squat

because their low back hurts all the time. And then when they squat, it makes it worse. And instead of us saying, oh, it's just never squat again. Okay, let's start figuring out why that is. And very, very calm, this is super common is to have low back pain. Okay. And a lot of that is because we sit in desks all day, all day long, we sit in our cars all day long, and you get these really tight hips. And then you try to load that and then you go down in this deep squat

deeper than you're used to going to. And then it pulls on the low back and then it aggravates your low back. So what we need to do is we need to open on the low back and then it aggravates your low back. So what we need to do is we need to open up the hips and we need to gain mobility and flexibility and range of motion in the hips to allow you to comfortably deep squat. Now once you get there, it doesn't matter how much weights on your back, you'll start to see the low back start to feel better and better. It's not necessarily because you're squatting, It's because the work that you need to do in order to squat well and that's where the real carryover is.

And then what's neat is when you've put you spent some time and it took me at least a year. I'd say a solid year of really, really trying to address this to where now I have to put little very little effort into priming. I can get down into a very deep squat. And just by me keeping up this consistent deep squatting every single week has now continued. So I had to put a lot of work in to get there, a lot, a lot of work, a lot of consistent priming, constantly doing my hip mobility stuff to get to where I'm comfortable in a very deep squat. Now all I have to do is deep squat on a regular basis and it keeps all that pain away.

Yeah, you know, I want to touch again on the variable resistance because I, although you're starting to see people use it a little bit now, I still think people don't really realize that the power of it. You guys have both used chains and bands before, right? Yeah. What do you guys prefer between the two bands? It depends, right? I like if I'm going from the top up assistance,

I really like bands assisting me, like we talked about, but I like chains too. I do like the way the chains feel coming out of the hole. I really do. It's good for the grinding list, sure. And you're right, there is something that feels different. Even though the strength curve should kind of match, there is something that feels different. You know, even though the strength curve should kind of match, there is something that feels different when you're when you're coming out,

hold with, with chain. So one thing that I learned from a pat watching power lifters is one way to apply chains is, you know, obviously you have a heavy chain that hangs off the side of the bar. So when you're squatting more, you know, the chain is hitting the ground, and you're lifting less of the chain. So the weight's lighter at the bottom heavier at the top. What they'll do is they'll attach at the bottom of the chain, they'll attach a bunch of other chains to the bottom

so that when you come up that last four inches, the weight significantly jumps. So you know, have you guys ever felt that before? That is a really interesting feeling at the top of through you just, you get real tight at the top and you really get the power into that extension. Yeah, it's really awesome. Well, the guide that we have is free. The title of it is had a squat like a pro will have the link on the show notes but if you can remember this this link you oh yeah, it does go to mind pump free dot

com. You can download the guide, check it out. And of course, if you have any questions feel free to to DM any of us, so we try to answer all those DMs. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps on the ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by

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