We’ll continue this three-day discussion on squatting by looking at squatting in the sport of powerlifting. In case you missed them, check out the High/Low Bar Comparison and Squatting in Weightlifting posts. I’ll preface this post by saying I only work with raw, non-drugged lifters. I’ve taken a variety of lifters to many meets, including two raw national meets with the USAPL. If I make a mistake in the geared squatting discussion, feel free to correct me if you’re involved in the sport.

When people think about squatting powerlifting, they’ll probably think of a multi-ply geared squat that isn’t taken very deep. While I’m not a fan of gear, there are many great people in the geared powerlifting world (e.g. Mark Bell and Donnie Thompson). It’s just a different way to train and express strength, yet the standards make it hard to compare one squat with another squat. Apparently SPF judges their squats by the bottom of the hamstring getting to parallel. This is very different than what USAPL/IPF requires with “the top surface of the legs at the hip joint is lower than the top of the knees”. At this point the geared squatting is almost like a different sport because the standardization of what constitutes a squat is different.

Geared squatting typically utilizes mechanics that utilize the maximum potential of the gear; the lifter would be stupid not too. It’s like a NASCAR team not improving their engine to the potential they can; it would result in losing. Squat suits resist hip flexion and therefore help hip extension. When the hip flexes in the descent of the squat, there is compression about the hip that applies a force to aid in the extension of the hip. Therefore the lifter should squat in a way that applies the most hip flexion. The lifter also wears knee wraps to help extend the knees, yet there will be more aid from the suit itself so the “acute hip flexion” squat mechanics are used. This is why we don’t see geared high bar squats; high bar squatting has a more obtuse hip angle and doesn’t use the suit to it’s full capability. The high bar squat would have more knee flexion, yet the suit is under utilized with these mechanics.

The result is a squatting style with a very wide stance (which may have developed to account for larger lifter’s bellies), vertical shins, and an inclination of the torso that creates acute hip flexion. This is what we see in all of the 900+ squats with multi-ply gear. I know many of you are gear haters, but understand that multi-play gear is completely different than single ply gear. “Single-ply” describes the thickness of the material of the “gear”, or squat/bench/deadlift suit. Standard USAPL fits under IPF ruling, and the IPF uses single ply gear.
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