How much do you squat?

**Gibbon** · Posted On: 5/17/2011 1:06pm

Originally Posted by MMAMickey

I don't know why you're surprised. There's a 5'7 guy in my gym squatting 140kg with a 207kg deadlift. I doubt height is as important as overall mass..

I mean it's arguable that height could even be detrimental for lifting in some regards. With two guys the same weight, the taller guy has a longer RoM which will make his lifts harder.

Me no follow. Did you misread "weight" as "height" or something?

I'm 6'3",all legs, and a crybaby, so I constantly tell myself that being tall is worse for lifting. And judo. Sad face.

**Aaron_** · Posted On: 5/17/2011 3:50pm

Originally Posted by Gibbon

Me no follow. Did you misread "weight" as "height" or something?

I'm 6'3",all legs, and a crybaby, so I constantly tell myself that being tall is worse for lifting. And judo. Sad face.

**** you. i wish i had long legs. i'll trade you my legs and you can try using my stumpy-ass legs to uchi-mata people.

**MMAMickey** · Posted On: 5/19/2011 2:04am

Originally Posted by Gibbon

Me no follow. Did you misread "weight" as "height" or something?

Lol you know what, I must have done.. damn tired eyes after an 8hour revision sesh :(

**Franco** · Posted On: 5/24/2011 7:00am

Age, 22
England, UK

5"10 (on a good day)
212lbs

currently lifting:
Squat - 500lbs x 3
Bench - 265lbs (all time pb is 308)
Deadlift - 490-500lbs x 1

**kcvmac** · Posted On: 5/25/2011 5:39pm

Franco, that`s awesome.
----------
Last night, I set a PB for deadlift: 225lbs x 5.
My skinny ass is finally getting stronger.

**War Wizard** · Posted On: 5/25/2011 8:24pm

Holy **** Franco, good numbers. Kudos for posting video too.

God I'm fucking weak....grrrrrr......back to the gym....

**Franco** · Posted On: 5/25/2011 8:39pm

Cheers guys, I feel fairly strong over here, I consider myself pretty weak usually, but thats bound to happen when people you train with guys who squat and pull 800lbs+ and one has benched 500lbs in a meet before.

Guy I work with has also squatted 200kg (460lbs???) x 20

Don't post here much seem so i dont really do any Martial Arts any more, this thread obviously caught my eye though.

Lifting weights is actually the reason I stopped doing martial arts, i started strength training to aid my MMA game and realised I enjoyed lifting weights more than been punched in the face

***TaeBo_Master*** · Posted On: 5/25/2011 9:09pm

Originally Posted by Kintanon

How many pistols and with what weight would you consider video worthy?

20 reps with 25% of your bodyweight added would be the beginning of impressive. 20 reps with 50% of your bodyweight added is worth posting video. 10-20 reps with 100% of your bodyweight added is entering into beastly territory.

Those rep numbers are per leg, btw

***TaeBo_Master*** · Posted On: 5/25/2011 9:21pm

Originally Posted by Travis17

Yeah I see more people on the leg press machine. Just the other day I saw a guy with 6 45s on each side and he was only going down 2 inches before pushing back up. It's funny and sad at the same time. I'm sure he's proud he can do 540 on the leg press.

On Squats I was always taught to hit parallel, and I usually go down 1 to 2 extra inches just to make sure I'm doing a full rep each time. Never felt comfortable doing ATG.

A couple of important factors regarding leg press. First, you have to seriously consider the angle of the press machine. Most are a 30° angle, and the bulk of the rest are at 45° angle. When you're pressing at an angle like that, you're not actually lifting the bulk of that weight. Think of a right triangle from geometry class. The path of the machine travels along the hypoteneuse. But gravity only pulls in one direction: straight down. Thus, you're only resisted by the equivalent of one of the legs of said triangle. To compute the percentage of weight that you're actually using, take the Sin of the press angle (in degrees, not radians). Thus, a 30° angle means you'll only actually be working against 50% of the weight on the machine. A 45° angle is somewhat better, at 70.7, ~ 71% of the weight on the machine.

Thus, putting 540 lbs. on the leg press is equivalent (if we assume the ROM is precisely the same) to a squat with 270 lbs on a 30° machine, and 381 lbs on a 45° machine.

But also keep in mind that leg presses only load the legs, whereas squats create demand on the legs, hips, spine, torso, and shoulders (everything between the bar and your feet has to be strong enough to not be bowed by the weight on the bar). Also, with a leg press you have that nice back rest which allows you to more effectively press into the leg press machine (every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so generally half your strength goes into you pushing yourself away from the weight; with the back rest, this is neutralized). Finally, squats require you to maintain a center of gravity and coordinate multiple joint movements and stabilizations into a fluid motion. Therefore, squats create much greater neural activation, which is what triggers muscle fibers to contract. For all of these reasons, leg presses cannot replace squats. I do leg presses when my back hurts, or for specific training phases and objectives. But I never use them to measure strength. It's kinda like a BJJ black belt rolling with a white belt. Sure, the black belt might get a submission, but it doesn't mean much about his ability.

To put it in perspective, I can put 11 plates on each side of the leg press, for a total of 990 lbs. and do full range reps for sets of 6-8. But I'd have to be having the best day of my life to squat 400 for 1.

Usually, the harder version of the exercise is harder because it places a greater set of demands on the body. Greater demand means greater stimulus which means greater gains. Unless you're hindered by injury or thorough ignorance of performance technique, the difficult choice is usually the better choice.

**fightclubfreak7** · Posted On: 5/25/2011 10:40pm

weight: 155
height: 5ft 9in

I have recently begun a serious lifting program again (strong lifts) about a year and a half ago during my senior year in high school my maxes were as follows:
squat: 360 below parallel
bench: 225
Powerclean: 220
never maxed deadlifts.

I definitely can't lift quite this heavy right now but I'm sure I will get back to this strength if I continue strong lifts