Zercher Pin Squats (Zercher Anderson Squats from Pins)

Set your pins or spotter arms of your rack to the designated height in your program. You should have records at all heights as they build different starting strength based on different joint angles and leverages. If unspecified mimic the joint angles shown in this video with the hips above parallel. Choose either a shoulder width stance or slightly wider. Position yourself under the bar and get into the Zercher position grabbing the bar with the crook of your elbows. Keep your arms parallel and separated when using light to medium weight. When the weight gets REALLY heavy, you may want to interlock the fingertips as seen later in the video.

Brace your core, take all the “slack” out of the bar by creating as much whole body tension as possible and getting as tall as you can before driving through the legs and sending the hips forward to lift the bar off the pins. Whenever you are deadlifting or squatting try to focus on moving the hips forward as opposed to lifting the weight UP. Lower the weight under some control but don’t waste all your effort on the eccentric.