Partial Squats are the Shit

Jamie Chaos

April 26, 2010

Well, apparently I can’t count, and it was 525, but the depth was good and had I not been sweating my fucking cock off, that would have been far easier. As you can see in my progression over the last few months (the first two vids are from the first two weeks of Jan), dieting and doing a shitload of retardedly heavy partial squats, Paul Anderson style, has definitely paid dividends.

Additionally, I dropped the bodyweight days and started doing two a days for the last two months, doing the Bear in the morning and then a seriously heavy lift at night , or on light days (when I was too sore to do anything useful), doing 20-30 mins of arms, neck, and calves twice a day has paid off. Who says lifting 11 times a week will make you smaller and weaker? A pack of lazy, lying motherfuckers, obviously.

“There’s no such thing as overtraining- just undereating and undersleeping.” – Barbarian Brothers

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Jamie Chaos

I am a former all-time, all federation world record holder in raw powerlifting at 181lbs, a record I broke just to say fuck you to the internet’s “lifting” community and the powerlifting community at large. Over the last ten years I’ve written over 500 articles on strength training, nutrition, and supplementation, and continue to do so simply to fight the tide of weakness and sadness that currently pervades the scene I’ve called home for the better part of three decades. I’ve got personal trainin certs, BodyPump and BodyCombat certs, a BA in History and East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona, and MBAs from the Vienna University and University of South Carolina on my side, in addition to some sick lifts and a hell of a lot of rage. What the fuck have you got?

23 responses to “Partial Squats are the Shit”

kman

April 25, 2010

badass. crazy as hell, but i cant wait until the ATG nazis get here and go crazy
Mike

April 25, 2010

Well, this IS the lowest we've seen you squat, haha. Nice work.
Glen MacCharles

April 25, 2010

I use partial squats to train for the yoke walk whenever it comes up in competition.
Zackington Dreyfuss

April 25, 2010

Fuckin beast. I love partial squats.

One question though… Should I stick with a weight and just try to get it lower each time or should I just go up in weight with limited ROM?
Jamie Lewis

April 26, 2010

I use 700 as my static weight that I try to get as I lower the pins, but I'll occasionally go way over that for short ROM lockouts, and go under that for bottom-position squats. Frankly, I'm trying to make 700 my benchmark but mix it up a bit every now and again.
Anonymous

April 26, 2010

11 times a week?? …YOU'RE NOT HUMAN!!!
Jippo

April 26, 2010

I'm not gonna lie i pretty much jizzed over the 945 and the 500+ front squat. That shit is coming on in leaps and bounds my friend!
Jamie Lewis

April 26, 2010

hahaha, Thanks, fellas!
glenn pendlay

April 26, 2010

OK, ill be the asshole depth-nazi. Your very strong, especially for your weight, but i wouldnt call that a full front squat. For me to call something a full front squat, you have to go down as far as you can, till the hamstrings smash into the calves. I couldnt find a vid of one of my lifters doing a full front squat on youtube very quickly, but here is Donny Shankle doing a 463lb clean and jerk, at the bottom of the clean, that is about where you want to take your front squats. Id be very interested to see what you could do all the way down… personally id be more impressed with 400lbs all the way down than with 525 the way you did it, but thats just me, lol.

http://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaStrength#p/u/1/UrQ7Jq1s95o

glenn
Anonymous

April 26, 2010

Damn, does Donny Shankle have a blog? I'd rather read that…
glenn pendlay

April 26, 2010

No, lol. He does not have a blog that he posts in regularly… but he does have a blog at californiastrength.com, he posts something every week or two… and he also comments on the training blog here and there. He also has his own "general training" section on the Pendlay.com training forum. But i will guarantee you none of that is as entertaining as this one. And, I dont mean entertaining in a bad way,lol. I do think this is a cool blog. I wish Jamie was in California, I think my guys would enjoy training with him here and there!
Jamie Lewis

April 26, 2010

Glenn-

I don't know if I even possess the flexibility to do a front squat atg, haha, but I'll start working them into the rotation.

I've hazy plans to move to the Bay area at some point, so hopefully I can get in some workouts with your guys while I'm out on that coast. At the very least, I'd keep everyone amused with my hilariously bad Oly form, haha.
glenn pendlay

April 26, 2010

If you end up moving, you wont have hilariously bad form. 🙂
Mike

April 27, 2010

I think he was implying that he doesn't care and will retain bad form purely as an act of defiance, haha.
glenn pendlay

April 27, 2010

hmmm… man this blog is like a bottle i just cant resist one more drink of, then another, then another, then pretty soon ill be laying in an alley somewhere with no pants or shoes, lol.

But, to the point at hand, bad form equals low weights, as evidenced by a 295lb clean from a guy who can partial front squat over 500lbs and can probably do a full front squat with over 400lbs. No one in their right mind WANTS to do lighter weights. I am sure that there would be even more chaos, and certainly more pain, if Jamie could clean 350 or 375lbs, lol!!!
Anonymous

April 27, 2010

i'm sure his attrocious form has more to do with it than his FS strength
Jamie Lewis

April 27, 2010

Good god. A 375lb clean would be ridiculous. I could make the Bulgarian D team with that! Haha. Well, the women's D-team. At 50kg.
Anonymous

April 29, 2010

My most recent tested max full power squat was 405. What should I be doing partials with as my target to bring to full depth?
glenn pendlay

April 30, 2010

You dont intentionally do partials in the front squat, lol. Back squat maybe.

And Jamie, you little fucker, a 375lb clean would be ridiculous, haha. But I think you could do it, if you wanted to. Take this as inspiration, Justin Brimhall did a 352lb clean, at 16 or 17 years old, weighing about 158lbs. His best front squat at the time, full front squat, was around 350lbs, roughly. He couldnt have deadlifted over 400lbs, of that I am sure. Of course around the same time, he jerked 375lbs for a double off the rack, lol. My boy Justin is now an aviator in the USMC. The boy has balls.

yeah, you could do it if you had the balls to train for it…

glenn
Dray

May 12, 2010

Now you're basically calling him out Glenn. lol
Jamie Lewis

May 14, 2010

I have the balls, but last the wrist flexibility. It just occurred to me that limp wristedness and Oly lifting go hand in hand…
Jamie Lewis

May 14, 2010

*lack
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