Starting Strength

bar back down on the pins, the rack does not move. Your position between the uprights will be determined by the depth of the rack (the distance between the front and back uprights).
    Shallow racks are a pain in the ass, and if the dimensions are wrong, the rack can be very hard to use. It should be deep enough to squat inside of, with some play front to back not being a problem. Drift during the set will occur no matter how careful you are, and if the uprights are so close together that you keep bumping them when you move a little, the quality of the set will suffer. If the rack is too deep, the pins will have too much “bounce” because the long span between front and back uprights requires longer, and therefore springier, pins. Having the bar bouncing around on the pins is also disruptive during the set. The rack pictured in Figure 7-2 is 22 inches deep.
    If the rack is not wide enough, it can make loading the bar a problem. A narrow rack will allow an unevenly loaded bar – which they all are while being loaded – to tip. This, and the fact that a narrow rack is potentially very hard on the hands when you’re racking the squat, makes 48–49 inches outside to outside a very handy width for a power rack. The holes in the uprights should be on 3-inch centers or closer. This spacing allows for fine enough adjustments in height that it is useful for all exercises inside the rack, as well as for squatting and pressing outside the rack. (For more details about racks, and the plans for building your own, see the Equipment section of the Programming chapter.)
    Partial squats and presses
     
    These same principles – using different versions of the parent exercise or portions of its range of motion as assistance exercises, which we lump together under the term “partials” – can be applied to squats and presses. Squats and presses, however, respond differently due to the fundamentally different nature of the exercises. The deadlift starts from the floor without a stretch reflex, distinguishing it from a squat in more ways than just the location of the bar. The hip and knee angles in the squat are already more acute than at the start of the deadlift, and this longer range of motion is a terribly critical distinction between the two, since the added ROM just happens to be in the most mechanically disadvantageous part. The only thing that mitigates this mechanically hard position is the stretch-reflex rebound out of the bottom provided by the hamstrings, glutes, and adductors. Squats that start from a dead stop, removing the help provided by the stretch reflex, are quite useful when performed from different positions: just below parallel, well below parallel, and just above parallel. The pause makes the drive up very, very hard; a below-parallel paused box squat done for five reps might be only 50–60% of your 1RM. If you strengthen the squat at these positions from a dead stop, the explosion you must generate to start up from the bottom without the benefit of the bounce makes for a stronger squat when the bounce is added back in.
     
    Paused squats. Paused squats can be done in two ways: off a box or in the power rack. The box squat is an old training method that has worked effectively for several generations of lifters. The box is set up on the platform and behind the lifter, another step back from the regular foot position for safety in backing up to the box. The box can be an actual box, built of wood or metal, a plyometric jump box, or a stack of bumper plates. The height should be variable, the box should not slip against the platform or your butt, and it must be hell for stout. The stance is generally the same as for the squat, perhaps a little wider to allow the adductors to stretch a little more and increase their contribution from the dead stop.

    Figure 7-4. Box squats done with stacked bumper plates. Use what you have, as long as it is sturdy.

    Take the bar out of the rack and step carefully back to a position that allows a firm contact with the box as your hips reach back at the bottom. This distance may vary with the box, but in general your heels will be parallel to the front edge of the box; if you are using stacked bumper plates, their radius will allow your heels to be a little behind the front of the plates. The squat itself will be an exaggeration of the correct form, with lots of attention paid to getting the hips back, the knees out to the sides, and enough forward lean to stay in balance