2-16-14 – Max Effort SS Yoke Bar Squats
I knew today was going to be a great day! Not only did I wake up in a great mood but today I got to work with the SS Yoke Bar! I love working with it! It makes the squat harder because you have to concentrate to keep your body even tighter than usual because the bar position pushes you forward. Since your arms are in a different position from a squatting with a regular bar it makes it difficult to keep your back tight. Squeezing your shoulder blades together is vital while squatting with this bar.
All of the sets felt great! I was hitting proper depth and coming out of the hole with speed. It helped having a good crew of guys around me that I could feed off of. I made sure as I unracked the bar I squeezed everything as tight as I could to make my body stable. This helped a great deal as I was squatting. It allowed me to get in a good position with all of my squats. The set of 495 lbs I felt my hips come forward while I was in the hole and my left knee cave in. I had enough power to complete the lift but this made me want to put on knee wraps for the heavier set. The last set I had 515 lbs, the bar weighs 62 lbs but we consider it 45 lbs. I made sure I stayed tight as I unracked the bar. It felt light coming down but a little heavy coming out of the hole. I made sure my knees tracked out and didn’t allow them to cave in. It felt good to get heavy weight on my back, even better since it was an awkward position due to the bar.
I finished with a downset and some accessories. Needless to say, today was a great day!
MAKE IT HAPPEN
SS Yoke Bar Squats |
Warm ups |
bar 2 x 8 |
2 x 5 - 135 |
185 x 3 |
225 x 3 |
Working Sets |
275 x 2 |
315 x 1 |
365 x 1 |
405 x 1 |
455 x 1 |
495 x 1 |
515 x 1 |
Downset 315 x 5 |
RDLs 4 x 10 - 135 |
Seated Band Spreads 5 x 20 |
Reverse Hypers 5 x 10 - 160 |
Abs 5 sets |