Barbell Double Paused High Bar Back Squat

A step-by-step form guide from the Ægir Iron exercise library: how to do the lift, what to watch for, and the muscles it trains.

HOW TO PERFORM

Set the bar across the upper back, high on the traps, and pull it down hard into you.
Take the weight, step back into a stance about shoulder width with the toes turned slightly out.
Take a big breath into the belly and brace as if bracing for a punch.
Break at the hips and knees together and sit down between the feet until the hip crease passes below the top of the knee.
Pause in the hole of the squat, then rise to the halfway point between the hole and lockout and pause again.
Drive through mid-foot to stand, keeping the chest up and the bar over the middle of the foot the whole way.

Both pauses are dead stops, not a slow rev through the position. If the bar is still moving it is a tempo squat, not a double pause.
The second pause is the one that costs you, because it sits where the leverage is worst. Expect to use appreciably less than your competition squat.

Log it in Ægir Iron to track your PRs and estimated 1RM, and to see the sets each muscle gets every week. Free for individual lifters.