Hating to Squat, Part II
by Thom Van Vleck
I really appreciated Dan’s article. I’ll name drop a little here myself. I used to train with John Ware. He broke Bill Kazmaier’s total records and O.D. Wilson broke John’s record just weeks later as I recall. As Dave Glasgow would say, “WHATEVER, TOPPER”.
I have never been a great bencher. I remember maxing out after a year of hard training and getting a 5lb PR. I went from 360 to 365. It was so disappointing after so much work. A week or so later John Ware was spotting me on a set of 10 on the bench. He made the comment, “Not a single one of those reps looked the same”. His observation cause me to think.
I had no “groove”. I had been a serious practitioner of the singles, doubles, and triples. I rarely did more than 5 reps in a set. What I realized was I was not getting and keeping a “groove”. My bar path was all over the place as a result. My solution was to go unconventional and do 10 sets of 10 with a focus on keeping the same bar path on every rep. I did this for three months. I then maxed out and I benched 405! So one year of training had led to 5lbs of progress and 3 months led to 40lbs of progress!
I had fallen into that same trap. I had not been focused on my form. Just trying to lift as much weight as possible every set and every rep. I figured out in that 3 months I got in 1200 reps. In that year of low rep training I had gotten in maybe a 1000 reps. I’m not saying 10×10 is the best power routine but I think at the time I needed the reps to reset my groove. And it worked! I remember hitting 370, 390, and 405. I’ve never had a 40 lb PR on any lift before or since. I was literally jumping for joy!
As a Highland Games thrower I video myself all the time. Most every throw. Because I find that over time, no matter how much I try to not let this happen, my form degrades. I think it’s from trying to throw too hard to feed my ego. Same goes for the weights. Feeding my ego led to a degrading in form.
So find that love again, like Dan said! And if you don’t have an O. D. Wilson or John Ware to check your form then set up a video.