What’s the purpose of Zerchers?

[deadshot138]

And how could these dudes call these zerchers? Does anyone do these regularly? Picked up conjugate again and they throw these in on ME lower days sometimes.

 

[Rory's Jab]

90% of Westside training is special exercises that contribute to one of the three main lifts. Simmons believes in, "Leaving no stone unturned" and cycling in as many movements as necessary that may contribute to your total.

That said, yeah, I think they're dumb.

 

[Halge]

I dunno. In this context, maybe Westside use them for the same reason that JTS and others are implementing belt squats? Which, if I recall correctly, is to keep loading the legs without putting load on the back, shoulders, arms, grip.
Although from the video, it almost looks as it is being used to overload, which isn't the purpose of the belt squat.

 

[boingyman]

We used to rotate that in when we did conjugate training. Personally I felt like I leveled up doing max effort movement in this lift as you gotta have no fear and attack the bar. First time doing it I was like that shit hurts holding it in your arms until one of my training partners smoked 500. Then I was game.

 

[TrueBias]

These types of lifts are present to do nothing more than cure boredom.

 

[deadshot138]

I dunno. In this context, maybe Westside use them for the same reason that JTS and others are implementing belt squats? Which, if I recall correctly, is to keep loading the legs without putting load on the back, shoulders, arms, grip.
Although from the video, it almost looks as it is being used to overload, which isn't the purpose of the belt squat.

They are doing like sumo rack pulls and calling it Zercher squats. Today I did something similar to this but I had the bar in the crooks of my elbows and my starting position was a below parallel squat. Was very difficult. Only managed 365lbs

 

[Halge]

They are doing like sumo rack pulls and calling it Zercher squats. Today I did something similar to this but I had the bar in the crooks of my elbows and my starting position was a below parallel squat. Was very difficult. Only managed 365lbs

Yeah, that's a proper Zercher squat, as I understand the excercise. There are all kinds of Zercher variants, it seems. I did Zercher shrugs for a while (long, long time ago), because I didn't like holding the bar in my hands. I came up with it by myself, but turns out there are plenty of instruction videos on the same movement on the Internet. It was... fine, I guess, if you feel shrugs serve a purpose.

Back to the topic, I don't really know why Westside would call their variant Zercher squats at all, to be honest. Seems like their variant changes some of the crucial points of the traditional Zercher squat.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

ok so I've been a lifter for yeeeears and recently (3 years ago) inherited land in the country and moved there. I'm finding that many things get lifted zercher style just because of odd shapes/sizes/grips.

 

[nicapica]

ok so I've been a lifter for yeeeears and recently (3 years ago) inherited land in the country and moved there. I'm finding that many things get lifted zercher style just because of odd shapes/sizes/grips.

this. it leads to great grappling strength to. I do them on deload days. But if u do any form of manual labor youll see the benefits in this movement.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

this. it leads to great grappling strength to. I do them on deload days. But if u do any form of manual labor youll see the benefits in this movement.

Yeah man come to think about it I wind up zerchering most things. Logs, rocks, bags of soil, my dog lol

 

[nicapica]

Yeah man come to think about it I wind up zerchering most things. Logs, rocks, bags of soil, my dog lol

its an actual functional lift. ive personally never romanian deadlifted my drunk gf of the ground but i sure i have zerchered deadlifted her off the ground.

 

[chubbman]

Ain’t no squat racks in prison boy.

 

[deadshot138]

The squat harnesses they use are like $200, not sure if worth

 

[AtlSteel]

Ain’t no squat racks in prison boy.

Legend has it there were no squat racks in Zercher’s gym so he came up with inventive ways to load up for squats. Funny that they have become a thing if this is true.

 

[chubbman]

Legend has it there were no squat racks in Zercher’s gym so he came up with inventive ways to load up for squats. Funny that they have become a thing if this is true.

I may be wrong but I think he owned a scrapyard of bought metal from one to make his own equipment... upon failing to make a decent squat rack he then came up with the whole zercher style... this may be number 1 bullshit tho.