Our biggest problem as tall lifters is not our height, but the fact that tall people generally tend to have longer limbs in proportion to their body.
If you have long femurs and you’re not really that tall, you may also have the same “problem”, although I wouldn’t actually say that having long femurs is actually a big problem and now I’m going to explain why and how.
Just because you’re tall doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not built for squat.
Very few people are really “built” for squat. Just take a look at one powelifting competition. All competitors have completely different technique, whether they are in the same weight class, first place or the last place.
Tall people struggle with worse leverages because they have longer bones even if they don’t have disproportionately long femurs.
So yes, just because you’re tall you’re probably going to have harder time lifting weights in general.
Having said that I really want to ask you one thing, does that fact really affect the way you train?
The answer is yes and no.
“Yes” because there are going to be some difference just because you’re tall, (although minor) and “no” because you’re going to go through almost the same process as if you were short. The only difference is going to be in the end results.
This is good news for you and I’m going to try to repeat is as often as possible through this website!
You’re not handicapped because you’re tall! Keep that in mind while you read this post!
Having Long Femurs Isn’t a Problem!
Having long femurs isn’t the problem by itself. People usually think that this is some sort of nightmare for squatting and they think that they have been dealt some bad genetics card.
Which luckily, isn’t totally true.
There are a lot of elite level powerlifters that have long femurs. Layne Norton and Mark Macqueen. Both of them are elite level squatters with long femurs.
There are a lot of guys who can squat big weights with long femurs, just keep that in mind.
You will struggle a bit more than somebody who has shorter legs but that also isn’t an absolute statement.
Just because you have short legs that doesn’t mean that you will be strong. Having short legs doesn’t have nothing to do with being strong.
Strength doesn’t depend just upon the leverages, there are many factors that go into strength.
Individual strengths and weaknesses is one of those factors.
You can have strong quads and long femurs like me, which is an unique mix. You can have really strong back and hamstrings compared to your quads, like Layne and Mark for example.
Bone length isn’t the only thing that affects your squat. Just Remember that!
Also, just because you have long femurs doesn’t mean that you’re going to suck at squatting forever.
People with long femurs think that they are “not built” for squat because they naturally lean forward when they squat.
Of course you’re going to lean forward when you have long legs. It’s just simple geometry. Just accept it and move on.
Does that mean that you SOULD lean forward on purpose and not pay any attention on how you squat? Of course not!
The fact that you lean a bit more forward than somebody who has shorter legs doesn’t mean anything. It just means that you’re using more of your hips and hamstrings than you use your quads.
What you will be glad to hear is that there are some solutions to this. You actually can use more of your quads even if you’re tall and you have long femurs!
People who have long femurs usually stress and worry so much about how their squat looks like (the forward lean, or “stripper” squat) because they are constantly comparing themselves with a “perfect” squat technique.
What they don’t realize is that there is no such thing as the “perfect” squat.
You don’t learn the right way to squat. You FIND the right way to squat!
They forget why they started squatting in the first place!
There is no “right way” to squat. Nobody have ever set some rules for the “right way” to squat.
You’re not a bad person because you’re leaning forward a little when you squat.
You don’t want to have a flexed spine when you squat because if you do you’re going to injure yourself eventually, but you can lean forward and have a straight spine!
Squatting isn’t a moral issue and how your squat looks like depends on how you’re built. It’s as simple as that.
- Did you started squatting because you want to lift the most amount of weight?
- Did you started squatting because you wanted to build your quads?
Squatting for Strength Isn’t The Same As Squatting for Hypertrophy
What you want to understand before we go into the subject is that when you’re trying to learn the best way to squat you’re most likely trying to squat because of one of these two reasons:
- You’re trying to gain strength – Technique that is most efficient
- You’re trying to build legs – Technique that puts the most stress on the muscles
There is a difference between these two and we’re going to cover this in this article extensively.
You’re going to squat in a certain way if you want to lift the most amount of weight possible, and you’re going to squat in another way if you want to maximize quad growth.
When your goal is to lift as much weight as possible in a most efficient and safest way your biomechanics allow you (strength), your goal is to engage the most muscles that you can to lift the weight.
You want to do that through the shortest range of motion which is still within the powerlifting rules.
It is completely unnecessary to squat deeper than the powerlifting rules if your goal is purely strength.
If your goal is strength you need to have some restrictions to do that because if you didn’t have any restrictions or rules you could just do a quarter squat. Don’t do that…
If you’re not at least following powerlifting rules to squat, then you’re not even squatting. You’re just doing knee bends.
Powerlifting rules dictate that you need to squat bellow parallel.
This is why powerlifting squat is usually much more different than a olympic squat or bodybuilding squat.
When you want to build your quads your goal isn’t to lift the weight in a most efficient way possible, your goal is to stress your quads in the safest way that is possible for your biomechanics.
So there is a difference between squatting for strength and squatting for muscle size.
Squatting For Quad Development
When you’re squatting for quad size (or leg size) you’re not going to squat in the same way as you would when you’re trying to lift the most weight.
The key difference here is range of motion and muscle mass being used.
When you’re trying to lift as much weight as possible you’re trying to use as much total body muscle mass to do that.
In that case you want to be as efficient as possible while at the same time trying to move the weight through the least range of motion that is needed to satisfy the powerlifting rules.
But when your goal is muscle size you want to do the most range of motion that is safe for you wile at the same time focus on lifting the weight with the quads.
I’m not saying that you need to “spiritually” or “mentally” focus on feeling the muscle, what I am saying that you should focus your technique so that your quads do the most work through the longest range of motion that is safe for your joints.
You don’t want to squat deep if squatting deep hurts or bothers you in any way.
This is why people say that you need to squat deep if you want to build quads.
This is because when you squat deep you’re working your quads through greater range of motion then you would if you squatted half way down, or to parallel.
This is also one of the reasons why powerlifters will focus on high bar squat at some points in their training. There is more reasons to do high bar squat but building more quad size is definitively one of the most common.
Same goes for front squat. Usually, you’re doing front squat because you want to build quad strength and size.
I really wanted to clarify this because I see that many people don’t really realize that there is a difference between squatting for strength and squatting for hypertrophy.
If you want to build quads, you should do deeper squat that is more suitable for building muscle, but if you want to lift more weight then you should adjust your technique to do exactly that.
There is also a HUGE programming component here if you want to build muscle or if you want to increase strength.
This article has only covered the difference between two types of squat.
Summary
There is a difference between squatting for strength and squatting for bigger quads,
If you want to lift more weight you should try to find the technique that allows you to utilize the most muscle mass as possible through the shortest range of motion that is defined by the powerlifting rules.
If you want to build your quads you should try to find a technique that allows you to safely (for your joints) go through the most range of motion that is possible for your quads.
Keep in mind that there is also a huge programming difference between training purely for strength and training purely for muscle mass.
I covered the difference between the two in this article so if you want you could check it out there!
Have fun Squatting!
