For strength athletes, few things can cause a stronger feeling of anxiety than a long paused back squat, so be prepared when scrolling onward. In Bobb Mathews latest video, he pause squats a strong 183kg (405 lbs), which is a feat that’s been done before my multiple athletes, but there’s a twist.
Instead of pause squatting the 183kg (405 lbs) for a few seconds to add a little tempo, Matthews takes the weight for a 21-second pause. Yes, you read that correctly, for a 1/3 of a minute Matthews sits in the hole, then grinds out the rep, which gave us some solid second hand stress.
In Matthews Instagram post he writes, “21 seconds.. of WAR! You saw me fail.. so do I give up? HELL NO!!! I challenge anyone to beat that!!”.
Shout out to @KingoftheLifts’s Instagram for sharing this video, which is where we found it
[Why pause squats are beneficial for strength, power, and improving form!]
If we had to describe this paused squat in one word, then we’d probably have to go with “grit”. The fact that Matthews was able to grind through the full concentric without form breakdown was pretty epic, especially after failing this lift in the previous week.
In respects to pause squats, this is definitely one of the tougher (and longer) pauses we’ve seen in the recent past. One squat that comes to mind featuring a long pause is Dan Weierich’s 35-second pause with 160kg (350 lbs) from back in December 2016. At the time, this lift went viral in the strength community for quite some time.
[Want more paused lifts? Check out Pete Rubish’s 10-second paused deadlift with a crazy 297kg (655 lbs).]
Why did it go viral? Weierich not only pauses the weight in the video below, but he also solves a Rubik’s Cube while doing so.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOGbgVVlBzj/?utm_source=ig_embed
Pauses, or isometric holds, can be performed on a variety of movements for a plethora of benefits. Whether they should be performed for 20-seconds is another story.
Feature image from @ssjbobb Instagram page.