Originally Posted by
mattm
But without a spotter, you're confident doing deep squats at full weight?
A single spotter doesn't help much with the squat anyway in terms of safety IMO. The position is too awkward and the bar too far away from the spotter to be able to add much lifting power. Two spotters, one on each side of the bar, is ideal. Otherwise, use the rack and set the safeties a little lower than the depth of your squat, and maybe practice bailing on them a couple times. I've failed this way many times with no issues. Or, if doing high bar squats and using bumper plates, learn to dump the bar behind you.
On a related note, I pulled a lower back muscle doing low-bar squats again. This time on the other side of where I usually hurt myself! Coach even told me not to do squats, but I was stubborn and wanted to anyway. It's super frustrating because I don't ever get to the point of my legs or glutes failing me anymore, just my lower back. Thinking I should dedicate some time to doing lots of lower back work to get it up to snuff. Wonder if it'll even out my hip imbalances though, with both sides being screwed up now
