The zercher squat is an amazing strength exercise that can build solid muscle throughout your body and turn your hips, thighs and trunk into bulletproof walls of strong steel. With the zercher squat, you rest the bar across your elbows and up against your body. It is a brutal lift and because of the bar position, it forces the lifter to engage the abs and low back to a great extent and also builds great hip drive if done correctly. It can be done through full range beginning standing or can be done out of the bottom off of a rack. Zerchers can also be done with a cable, which is a great way to work the legs while deloading the spine. They will force you to learn how to squat correctly because if you don't, both the bar and you are going forward. They can be used for a max effort exercise for heavy sets of 1-5 reps or with the cable can be done for higher reps on a deload or high rep workout.
So, walk up to the bar, get your elbows right under it and get the bar up against your body (usually around mid abdominal region); unrack it and set your stance (usually just outside shoulder width). Keep your elbows tall, take a big breath of air in and sit back through your hips while pushing out to the sides of the floor that you are gripping with your feet, and engage your glutes. When you hit depth (below parallel with a stable low back), drive up through your glutes while pushing through your heels. Get ready to get strong. Heres a vid of me hitting 335lbsx5 after pulling heavy rack deads a few weeks ago followed by Corri hitting a set of cable zerchers a while back. These will build your competition squat and dead real nice. If you are looking for a nice big bang variation to put into your program, definitely give zerchers a shot. (Note: these are harder than a back squat and pretty close to front squats; you'll definitely do much less weight than a back squat and less than, a little more than or similar to a front squat depending on your individual strengths and leverages. Get these up and watch your other lifts rise.)
So, walk up to the bar, get your elbows right under it and get the bar up against your body (usually around mid abdominal region); unrack it and set your stance (usually just outside shoulder width). Keep your elbows tall, take a big breath of air in and sit back through your hips while pushing out to the sides of the floor that you are gripping with your feet, and engage your glutes. When you hit depth (below parallel with a stable low back), drive up through your glutes while pushing through your heels. Get ready to get strong. Heres a vid of me hitting 335lbsx5 after pulling heavy rack deads a few weeks ago followed by Corri hitting a set of cable zerchers a while back. These will build your competition squat and dead real nice. If you are looking for a nice big bang variation to put into your program, definitely give zerchers a shot. (Note: these are harder than a back squat and pretty close to front squats; you'll definitely do much less weight than a back squat and less than, a little more than or similar to a front squat depending on your individual strengths and leverages. Get these up and watch your other lifts rise.)
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