i thought that its time this post was made...
in my gym, we don't have a squat rack... yes, i know its hard to believe, but the truth is: we dont have a squat rack...
so your probably wondering how i manage to squat such heavy weights without a squat rack right ?
this is what i do: i place the barbell on the pull-up machine (its a machine which has two protruding rods for parallel bar dips and one rod at the top which is parallel to the ceiling and meant for pull-ups). i place the barbell on the parallel bars of the machine. then i add weights on either side..
then, i clear the bar and take 2-3 steps behind so i can squat freely...
now, the danger is, that if the weight is too heavy, i'm gonna get stuck at the bottom position of the squat and there's no way to get the weight off me...
thats why i don't do such heavy squats all the time (i'm referring to my max effort days).... i've had a bad experince... a while ago, i had taken 90 kgs for the squat (if you include the weight of the barbell, its gonna be 101 kgs) and i finished 1-3 reps with
perfect form, and then i got stuck at the bottom position and i could not get back up... my thighs were screaming in pain.. thats when 4 instructors came running and "deadlifted" the weight off my back...!!! damn.. i was so shaken up with that, i decided that no more less than 6 rep squats for me: instead i'll do deadlifts...
thats why i do deadlifts on my max effort day: to me its a substiute of the squat but just more fun....
i know your gonna say that if there's no safety bar how do i know that i'm doing my squat A2G? but the answer is simple: i
always have a trainer / instructor (we call trainers "instructors" out here) watching my form and plus: the mirror in front of me speaks volumes
...