Skip to main content

400 Pound Bottom Position Squat

Here's a video taken tonight of me doing a 405 pound bottom-position squat.  The BP squat is one of the best exercises you can ever do for building massive strength.  The problem is that most lifters do them incorrectly.  Because they lack either proper form or flexibility (or both), they end up doing partial squats.

This is how the exercise should be done.  Notice foot placement and bar placement.  It's tough to get low on a BP squat if the bar is too high and/or the stance is too narrow.


Comments

  1. Now that was impressive! You made it look like it was easy.

    Not only do I not have the strength to squat that much weight, I don't even think I could squeeze myself under the bar that low.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What kind of weight-rep scheme do you recommend for the bottom position squat with (almost) daily training? Started with 3x3 today using my SSB.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anything similar to one of my "high-frequency" training schemes would work fine, as would the "30-Rep Workout" or, possibly, something along the lines of Big Jim Williams's "21-rep workout."

    ReplyDelete
  4. One other thing, Mike, don't JUST do BPS alone when training them high-frequency. Most lifters, myself included, will find them harder on the lower back—when starting really deep—than traditional squats. On the flip side, they ARE easier on your CNS.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the feedback.

    I found doing singles suits me better, so I've started doing the Justa singles routine. Having to set up fresh for each single is easier than to do reps with the BPS. When doing reps it was easy to get out of the groove.

    I am doing Kb C&P Russian Ladders beforehand and DLs afterwards depending on how my back feels.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Feel free to leave us some feedback on the article or any topics you would like us to cover in the future! Much Appreciated!

Popular posts from this blog

Programming Made Simple

  Simple, Easy-to-Implement Strategies for More Size and Strength        If the titles of workout articles are any indication, America doesn’t know how to train.   I can’t speak for other countries, since I haven’t lived anywhere else.   In the past, I have spent some time in Asia for work, and if my visits there were any indication, then I don’t think the rest of the world trains much better.   So I guess there’s that.      Now, if you know anything at all about proper training, and if you walked into any gym anywhere in America, you’d probably come to the same conclusion—that Americans simply don’t know how to train—so why am I singling out the titles of English-language workout articles?   The reason is simple.   Almost every single article I have seen lately—to a friggin’ tee—has almost the exact same title, and it goes something like this: “I did (fill-in-the-blank) for (fill-in-the-number of days...

Full-Body Blast

George Turner’s Old-School Full-Body Program for Gaining 90 Pounds—that’s right, 90!—of Pure Muscle George Turner was in his 60s in this picture!      When it comes to old-school bodybuilders, George Turner remains one of my favorites.   Probably because of the fact that he was more than just a competitive bodybuilder.   He was a gym owner along with being a damn good writer of (damn good) training articles.   He was also a bit—how should it be said?—curmudgeonly.   But he was without a doubt curmudgeonly in the best possible way.   He was, in many ways, similar to Vince Gironda in that regard, just without the disdain for squats.   (That’s right, as much as I like Gironda, he wasn’t a fan of the barbell back squat.)   Myself, I love back squats.   As did Turner.      Anyway, that paragraphic preamble is just a way of writing that, as I was thumbing through an old IronMan magazine this morning, looking ...

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

  The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan  magazine.      In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.”  I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time .  In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...