Not getting tight and solid before unracking the bar is responsible for more missed heavy squats, injuries, and bad performances than everything else.
See, most people just unrack the bar without thinking too much about it; they stay soft or at least don't make a conscious effort to get tight. Then they walk back in that weak position and try to establish tension before squatting. By that time it's too late.
First, unracking the bar without being tight will make the bar feel a heckuva lot heavier, which can psych you out, and walking backward with that suboptimal tension is dangerous. Plus it's harder to assume a strong setup right before squatting if you didn't start that way. So before you take the bar out of the rack make sure that:
By the way, that's why I love cluster sets for squats. For clusters you do a set of several reps with 10-20 seconds of rest between reps. You rack the barbell after every rep.
It will give you the opportunity to practice the setup and unracking of the bar several times in a set. That's on top of the other benefits of cluster training.
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