You know you have seen it, or maybe are guilty of it yourself: Loading up a barbell with hundreds of pounds, un-racking the bar, taking a shaky step backward, and then proceeding to perform short up and down oscillations of which the title “quarter-squat” might be generous. We often tend to laugh at these athletes, or “hate on” videos of these partial squats on YouTube. There needs to be an honest look at the question though: does going to a depth in a squat that is anywhere short of receiving butt-chafing against the gym floor represent something we should be using as coaches and athletes?
The squat is the king of lifts, certainly, and an invaluable tool in the explosive athlete’s arsenal, but what is the best way to perform it? Most strength coaches will say that anything less than parallel is unacceptable, after all, half and quarter squats load up the spine and put much greater force on the quads, but do they have a place in an athletes training? Half squats are the norm in many training setups (many of which are successful), so where do they fit into a training scheme?
To answer this matter, I rounded up three of the brightest minds that I know regarding the issue in order to bring you this first-ever roundtable discussion in sport science. Our lineup includes:
Kelly Baggett: Vertical jump/performance trainer and author of the Vertical Jump Bible
Dave Kerin: USATF High jump national chair with 28 years of high jump coaching experience at the high school and college levels.
Jack Woodrup: Owner of the incredible VerticalJumping.com website and vertical jump expert
(Further bios for these coaches are at the end of the article)
I guarantee that you will come away from this article learning some great new things about squat depth and its use in producing athletes. I have asked each of these coaches 5 questions on the topic.
Here are their answers.
Question #1. To what extent do you believe partials should be carried out for athletes aiming to increase their sprinting and jumping abilities, if any? (squats above parallel to a box, half-squats, quarter-squats, etc.)
Kelly Baggett:
I feel they can be valuable for the following reasons:
- To peak out strength: You can occasionally use them at the end of a strength cycle to help peak out your strength. You’ll be using more weight on the bar which gets you used to lifting a heavier weight, which can then transfer into full range movements.
- Nervous system stimulation: A partial range squat such as a quarter squat can be an effective stimulation method again because the weight is heavier and this extra load can serve as a decent neural stimulus. This can make them valuable during power and peaking cycles. You engage the nervous system strongly with these overload methods and that stimulation can carry over into your specific jumping work.
- To unload the legs: Even though there’s more weight on the bar the legs and hips don’t have to work as hard in a partial squat. This can make them useful at times when you want to maintain strength but reduce fatigue in your legs, such as during peaking cycles.
Dave Kerin:
I believe that they are one of many tools in the toolbox. The coaching skill is in how they are employed. Tough question as there are too many variables not discussed. In general, if you look at sport-specific demands you can see what the ROM is for say a Baseball Pitcher’s leg action or a Long Jumper’s. Remembering that strength does not develop/improve beyond a few degrees past either end of the ROM of a lift and then viewing that against the event-specific movements is a starting point for the prescription of partials. Having said that, I’d also say that too often, someone is lacking in full ROM work & max strength work. This is due to current trends of lesser percentage loading, and limited ROM work. My concerns with partials are knee joint health and Q angle (particularly with females) and lack of posterior chain engagement. Also, partials have a redundant relationship with event-specific leg actions and as such, risk repetitive use issues.
Jack Woodrup:
The use of partial reps in the weight room for explosive movements like sprinting and jumping is a very interesting topic. On one hand, you can see how the thinking works, jumping and sprinting don’t use the same range of motion as a full squat, and therefore why would you choose to overload just the sports-specific range of motion. After all, it is common knowledge that the amount of weight you can handle is limited to what you can use at your weakest point, and in a squat the weakest point is at the bottom position. If you are to use only a partial range of motion repetition you would of course be able to overload using a substantially heavier load.
The flip side of that argument is that you aren’t necessarily trying to precisely mimic the sporting movements in the weight room. Rather the goal of weight training is to increase overall strength and to reduce the muscle imbalances (and therefore decrease the chance of injury) that only doing your sporting movements can produce. Personally, I fall more into this camp.
In terms of partial squats, I am a big fan of loaded jump squats. While you might not use the same heavy loads as you do on a regular squat, you are still overloading to a certain extent the more sport-specific range of motion.
Question #2. How do you feel about the use of half squats by former championship-level athletes such as Ben Johnson? Do you feel that squat training has evolved in the past decades based on progression in strength and conditioning?
Kelly Baggett:
I personally feel Ben Johnson would’ve been better served by lightening up the load a bit and going a bit deeper. He exemplifies one of the weaknesses of partial range squats: The weights can get so heavy the risk of injury to the spine is greater. At ~600 lbs that’s a lot of whole-body stress. I believe Verkhoshansky was also sometimes against partial range squats in jumpers for this reason – they tend to have thin upper bodies and he was afraid the increased weight of a partial range squat would create problems for them.
Dave Kerin:
I am not well versed in all the details of Ben’s lifting, but in my limited discussions with Charlie, I saw him as a true genius. While far from agreeing with all his beliefs and methods, he was one of the best I have known at getting improvement. As for squat training, I don’t believe that pure training has evolved as much as an understanding of the human organism has.
Scientific findings occur and the lag time between them and practical application has narrowed with the advent of the Internet and similar gains in access to information. Tendon development and health, mTOR, and neural issues (myelination) are some of what I am currently looking at. Fascia was the flavor of the month for a long time and as science marches on, there will be new information to translate into S&C’s progression. Coaches who aren’t at least comfortable in the sciences are at a disadvantage.
Jack Woodrup:
It is hard for me to comment on Ben Johnson’s training program without knowing what else he was doing. I am sure that heavy partials were not the only weight training he did though.
Do I feel that squat training has evolved over the years? Definitely! In my answer to the first question, I outlined the main arguments for and against partial rep training. In times of the past, it may have been in either/or proposition, but now there are a number of ways that you can have the best of both worlds.
Using either chains or bands, or a combination of both, it is very easy to overload the top ends of the squat, while simultaneously having the athlete get all the benefits of using a full range of motion. Once an athlete has mastered the full squat and has seen their beginner gains start to taper off I love introducing them to the concept of accommodating resistance. Chains in particular are a great way to start. They are not as eccentrically demanding as bands, they teach the athlete to focus on accelerating and exploding all the way through the rep, and best of all the loud clanging noise sounds really cool in the gym.
I have two lots of chains that weigh 32.5 kg (71.5 pounds) each. That is 65 kg or 143 pounds of chain weight on the bar. In the bottom position if you have half of that resting on the ground that is a 30+ kilogram difference between the top and the bottom of the movement. Also, I love using trap bar deadlifts, and the trap bar in my gym is one that only has slightly raised handles. So whenever I use the trap bar (unless I have the athlete stand on a box) they are getting some partial rep exposure there.
So while I may not explicitly use partial or reps in my programs that often I am realistically using methods that provide the same type of benefits nearly all the time.
Question #3. What is your opinion on progression in squat depth in athletes? Beginner vs. Advanced? Do you ever feel that there ever would be a point where partials may be more appropriate for one athlete than another?
Kelly Baggett:
I generally recommend athletes squat to legal powerlifting depth where the hip joint breaks parallel. The exception is in athletes with really long legs, for many of them a partial range squat is deep enough that they can’t go much lower without rounding their lower back. For these athletes all I’d ever use is partials. My general recommendation is to try to break parallel or stop when your back begins to round. A taller athlete will sometimes start to round their back at around parallel.
Dave Kerin:
Beginners should have a good instructor, one who knows how to instruct the lifts as well as how to start a first-timer out. I would say that the sooner one (methodically) progresses to full squats the better for many reasons. I have prescribed partials but timing is hard to specify as each individual and their situation is unique by morphology, sport/event, training age, time of year, age, injury history, etc…
Jack Woodrup:
I think I am open-minded enough to not be considered a deep squat Nazi, I definitely believe that all athletes wanting to jump higher and run faster should at least learn to squat to at least parallel though. In terms of beginner versus advanced, I don’t think there is too much of a difference in what is an appropriate squat depth.
The more pertinent question is choosing the right type of squat for the individual athlete that allows them to comfortably hit a decent depth on their reps. Depending on things like limb and torso length, joint mobility and flexibility, etc, some athletes are better suited to front squats, others are fine with back squats, and of course, there are other options as well. These include box squats as well as using different types of bars such as the safety bar which is easier for people with shoulder flexibility issues.
There is one circumstance though that I do use partial reps and that is for beginners who have problems with their knee coming in when they do a full squat. Using partial reps in these circumstances and gradually increasing the range of motion allows the athlete to learn good habits under load.
Question #4. How do you feel partial reps should be cycled throughout the season for athletes looking to use this type of training?
Kelly Baggett:
I would use them towards the end of a strength phase to help peak strength levels. Basically, the last couple of weeks whenever a strength phase is done.
Dave Kerin:
I am of the belief that a high-end athlete should develop maximum strength over the greatest ROM before “partials”.
Partials can be introduced, feathered in with where that athlete is in their sport-specific work/time of year. Similar to my views on Max Strength, I believe that you never fully get away from full range reps and at the least, every cycle should revisit them, and if a noticeable drop-off is observed the following cycle should address this. In presentations, I often discuss the trend favoring power work at percentages as opposed to improving and maintaining max strength. If you think about it there is a similarity between partials and working at a percentage of 1RM. In the case of percentages, I always encourage people to remember that “a high tide raises all ships” meaning improvement to max strength improves the strength at lesser percentages.
Jack Woodrup:
In light of my other answers, I would only use partial rep training with advanced athletes who don’t have access to chains or bands. Where in the season would I use them? That would depend on the type of sport they were playing and the nature of the training and competition demands of that sport, plus their own individual level of development. Regardless, I would generally only use them in conjunction with other full range of motion exercises.
Question #5. Do you feel there is a difference in the way you would use squatting in sprinters vs. jumpers?
Kelly Baggett:
I would separate the jumpers into 2 groups – bilateral and unilateral. I strongly emphasize squats, and squatting depth, in bilateral (2-foot) jumpers. In my experience the average athlete performing typical weight room (partial) squats will often put an immediate few inches on their vertical jump just by making it a point to achieve proper depth. Squats and squatting depth are a little less important for a unilateral jumper in my opinion – they’re important, but unilateral jumpers tend to be taller and the event doesn’t favor quite the same degree of quadriceps activation as a bilateral jump – thus they can get by with partial range squats and single leg movements such as lunges and step-ups.
For sprinters, I emphasize squatting but not as much as I emphasize the posterior chain and hamstrings: Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, reverse hypers, glute ham raises, and even leg curls in conjunction with squats, Bulgarian split squats, or lunges. I don’t feel a squat is necessarily paramount to a sprinter – they can get by with other quad-dominant lifts such as Bulgarian split squats or lunges. The sprints are more glute and hamstring intensive than the jumps are so some level of quadricep dominant exercise is important, but not AS important as squats are for a bi-lateral jumper.
In other words, I don’t know of many bi-lateral jumpers who’ve improved immensely without really emphasizing squats, but there are sprinters who’ve improved immensely without squatting at all. Likewise, there are unilateral jumpers who’ve improved from nothing but partial range squats or step-ups. The squat, particularly a fuller range squat, is most relevant to a bilateral VJ in my opinion.
Dave Kerin:
Yes but probably not as much as some might feel. I don’t have too much history with high-end sprinters and strength work so I will stay in my neighborhood. I would say that there isn’t a lot of difference between event-specific demands and strength needs of a 100m runner vs. a Long Jumper. As you move across the Jumps from LJ, PV, TJ to HJ, event demands do change and HJ having the least in common with sprinting is where the most difference is found. Even there, you have High Jumpers who trend toward long duration – large ROM at plant as opposed to high speed – lesser ROM jumpers. The difference comes with the speed of effort.
Quads – high speed, posterior chain – lower speed. Full Squats engage the posterior chain, Partials are more Quad specific.
Jack Woodrup:
Oh definitely. For a start, sprinters would actually focus more on deadlifts than squats as my primary lift. The reason for this is that sprinting is much more dependent on glutes and hamstring strength. Of course, I would complement this with other lifts to create a balanced workout but my primary heavy lift would be a deadlift or one of its variants.
For a jumping athlete, I think it is less important whether or not you use a squat or a deadlift, and here is why. Even though it is generally accepted that a vertical jump is more reliant on quad strength, the reality is that many athletes who are training to improve their vertical jump are doing so with an eye on getting better at a sport that involves plenty of running as well.
As a result of this most of these athletes will get just as much benefit from choosing either a deadlift as their primary lift with some supplementary exercises that place added emphasis on the quadriceps, versus choosing a squat as their primary lift and using posterior chain-based supplementary exercises.
For the sake of this hypothetical argument though, if I could only choose one exercise for the sprinters and one exercise for the jumpers, and that exercise had to be a squat, and again for the sake of argument we are talking about a pure standing vertical jump rather than a running jump, than I would use a wide stance box squat for the sprinters as this places a greater emphasis on the hips, glutes, and hamstrings, and for the jumping athlete, I would choose the front squat as this places greater emphasis on the quadriceps.
Conclusion
This concludes our first round table sports science discussion on a great topic. Many thanks go to each coach for their input. Please take some time if you haven’t already to check a little bit more out about each contributor to this article.
Author Biographies
Kelly Baggett:
Kelly Baggett is the owner of Higher-Faster-Sports and is an expert trainer and writer in regard to vertical jumping, speed, athleticism, and body composition. He is the author of the world-famous Vertical Jump Bible, and is soon to hit the market, Vertical Jump Bible v2.0. Kelly took his own standing vertical jump to over 40 inches in his own training pursuits and has successfully trained many athletes to record performances. He has been featured by sites such as bodybuilding.com and ericcressey.com. You can find his home page at www.higher-faster-sports.com
David Kerin:
Dave Kerin’s time as USATF Chair for Men’s & Women’s High Jump has coincided with a resurgence in the event. The last 2 years have brought 2 new American Records and a World Championship with Chaunte Lowe & Jesse Williams among USA’s medal favorites for this summer’s London Olympics. Dave’s coaching career began with 14 years at the HS level followed by 14 years of collegiate coaching where an athlete set still-standing NCAA D III records in women’s high jump. A requested speaker and published author, he is perhaps best known for his work: “What is the most direct means to achieve strength gains specific to the demands of jumping events”.
Jack Woodrup:
Jack Woodrup is the owner of the exceptional website devoted to vertical jumping: www.verticaljumping.com Jack has shown himself to be a true expert and pioneer in the field of jump development and is based out of Melbourne, Australia. He is the first to develop a vertical jump training program that uses computer software to create custom training programs suited to the needs of the athlete.
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