Seventeen years to four plates
repost from January 2024…
2005
I back squatted for the first time at Great Bay Athletic Club. I’d been reading about squats in bodybuilding magazines I bought at the grocery store and finally decided to give it a try.
2006
As a high school senior, I hit 405 pounds on the back squat with a couple of training partners. The depth was questionable, and I’ve wanted to do it right ever since.
2007–2008
I kept squatting heavy—back or front squats—every week without fail. Never missed a training day.
2009–2011
In college, I goblet squatted and deadlifted a lot. There was only one squat rack in the gym, so we didn’t use it often.
2012–2014
My back hurt all the time. I kept getting injured. I started to believe back squats were dangerous, irresponsible, and a waste of time. I swore them off.
2015–2016
Maybe they weren’t dangerous… maybe I just moved poorly and had terrible mobility. I started from scratch—relearning how to squat and working hard on improving my range of motion.
2017–2019
I discovered ultrarunning and rarely lifted weights. Squatting wasn’t a priority.
2020
Time to get strong again. I followed a training cycle and built back up to a 305 squat—my first time over 300 in more than a decade.
2021
I wanted to build on that progress and trained hard in the fall. I hit 355 pain-free. That was a big deal.
2022
This was going to be the year I made a run at 405.
December 2022
I got hurt squatting. Then we had a baby. Training took a back seat.
March 2023
I started physical therapy, spent extra time on breathing, mobility, and warm-ups. I squatted light once a week through May, slowly rebuilding control and confidence. I hit 305 easily in May and went into running season feeling good about my back.
August 2023
After finishing a mountain ultra, I leaned into kettlebells. I trained consistently, got in a ton of high-quality reps, and enjoyed the simplicity of doing the same thing every day.
September 2023
A gym member inspired me to squat every day. I committed to a program—40 squat workouts in a row.
November 2023
I wrapped up the Easy Strength program feeling strong. I was tempted to go for 405 but reminded myself to be patient.
I hit a clean 355. A few weeks later, I tried 365 and it moved well. It looked so solid on video that I made the jump to 395—and got it.
December 2023
The plan was to do 3 singles at 315 with long pauses. The third one felt easiest of all, with a 4–5 second pause. I went up to 345. Easy.
Then 375. Still easy.
I loaded four plates: 405. And I got it.
Most importantly—nothing hurt.
I’m pumped. It’s been a 17-year journey of fighting with, and trying to master, the squat.
There are two points I want to make:
If you want to get better at something, you have to commit to it.
I’ve only run a handful of times since August. I had to put other parts of my fitness on hold to chase this. You can’t do everything at once.If there’s something you want to do—but don’t think you can—you might just need more time.
There were multiple times I thought I’d never back squat again. I didn’t need to give up. I needed more patience. More time. More reps.
—Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Justin Miner
@justinminergain