Some of you may ask, what is my least favorite lift out of the big three??? There are three big lifts in powerlifting training: squats, bench and deadlift. Out of the three, I would have to say the “squat” is my least favorite lift but I continue to do them anyways for powerlifting competition. I dislike barbell squats ’cause it can be a confusing lift and it’s a pretty complicated.

The reason why squats is confusing is ’cause everyone in the powerlifting community has their own definition of what a good “squat depth” is. That’s the thing in powerlifting meets. Every powerlifting federation in America have their own depth rules and they’re all different. I post videos of my squat sessions from the gym on social media and another powerlifter says my squat isn’t deep enough. I’m like, “Huh? Really”? I’ve been told by another experienced powerlifter that the right squat depth is that the hip crease needs to be slightly below the top of the knee and I’ve been doing it that way ever since. Unfortunately, other powerlifters say that isn’t deep enough.

I do research on squat depth and I was right… seems like every powerlifter out there have their own definition of what a good squat depth is. When the other powerlifter kept telling me I’m not squatting deep enough, I was thinking he was talking about the USAPL way of squatting. So I looked up on google for the USAPL squat depth and their squat depth rule is a lot deeper. For the past few weeks now, I’ve decided to take my time with squat depth and do it the USAPL way ’cause if I want to do my first USAPL meet sometime in the future, I need to get their definition of squat depth right. Like I said, the USAPL squat depth is a lot deeper, kind of like “ass to the grass” and I’ve been doing squats that way for the past couple of weeks.

I guess I have been doing squat depth wrong after all this time so I decided to slow down, go back to doing lighter weights on squat and get depth right. This time, I have been getting squat depth right and to be honest, it’s feeling really good. Squats maybe my least favorite workout but I’m trying to like it more, though. I feel more comfortable doing deadlift and bench ’cause they are easy… squats are challenging ’cause it’s more technical.

Even though, I’ve been doing deeper squats for the past few weeks, I’m still on the road to 200 lb. squat, though. Earlier this morning in the gym during my squat session, I smashed a 135 lb. single with USAPL “depth” and it was very tough. I can get that number for reps squatting a little higher but a deep squat with 135 lb., I could only do a heavy single. That heavy single with 135 lbs. squat was tough, it was a grinder but I was able to get it up and lock it out.

I love powerlifting ’cause it’s challenging and I want to do it right and take it all very seriously. I want to become a great powerlifter someday, ya know… become one of the greats so I need to get squat depth right and I did. Deeper squat depth will make me a lot stronger so I’ll continue to do them that way from now on.

Kev