Assisted Squat...

Hi

In the Assisted Squat - are the hands resting on the bar, or are you gripping the bar and pulling against it?

What would the ideal be?  I'd assume resting vs pulling?

Regards

Dave

PS: Mainly because I'm doing them by 'pinching' the edge of a table...

Hi David, the pulling it is necessary to assist. if you have access to a lat machine in the gym you can consider to use the bar of the machine to assist the ascent position and with the time decrease it. also grabbing the bar of the stallbar with the pinky can reduce the amount of assistance.

I don't have a problem with squats - don't need assistance.  

So should I 'assist' myself even if I don't need the assistance..?

Hi David,

If you are feeling comfortable with your assisted squats, you are welcome to try for mastery (step 9) as long as your iM is also ready to progress. If you are still working on the iM, I suggest simply using the hands for balance. Like Alex said, the amount of help can be self adjusted. It can even be as little as having just your pinky on the bar.

Thanks for the replies.

I will just hit the 'easy' smiley face until it becomes not easy, or the the iM becomes a limiting issue...

7 hours ago, David Tapson said:

Thanks for the replies.

I will just hit the 'easy' smiley face until it becomes not easy, or the the iM becomes a limiting issue...

What workout are you on?  I'm on 5 sets of 9 which I still feel like i don't need assistance but I'm staying with the program knowing it won't be long before it catches up with me.  You could always throw in an extra couple sets if you don't feel like you're getting enough out of it

On 10/25/2016 at 6:44 PM, Malcolm Watters said:

What workout are you on?  I'm on 5 sets of 9 which I still feel like i don't need assistance but I'm staying with the program knowing it won't be long before it catches up with me.  You could always throw in an extra couple sets if you don't feel like you're getting enough out of it

I'm still right in the early stages - 3 sets of 5 half squats.  I normally do a 10 - 15 full squats every second day or so just to maintain some flexibility, so it's a bit strange to be assisting myself to do 5 half squats.

However, I will build up weekly (hit the easy button) until the volume becomes challenging and then take it as it comes.  I figure that there is no point in throwing myself in halfway through the progressions and have something fail due to some issue I have not recognised.

6 hours ago, David Tapson said:

I'm still right in the early stages - 3 sets of 5 half squats.  I normally do a 10 - 15 full squats every second day or so just to maintain some flexibility, so it's a bit strange to be assisting myself to do 5 half squats.

However, I will build up weekly (hit the easy button) until the volume becomes challenging and then take it as it comes.  I figure that there is no point in throwing myself in halfway through the progressions and have something fail due to some issue I have not recognised.

That was basically the way I saw it.  In a couple weeks you'll be at 5 sets of 9 then on from there.  (I still do full squats though)