It's like
@John K knows my spine...
Back when I had a gym membership I was into barbell, and could back squat about 1.8x my bodyweight as my 1RM. Until I tweaked my lumbar.
In addition to that, a friend of mine is a chiropractor (and longtime bodybuilder since the 80's), who has taken x-rays. I've got disk thinning at C7-T1. So due to cervical degradation I'll never back squat again. Frankly I don't miss it anyway. I never felt the back squat helped me much with real world strength. Since you still need a rack to get that weight up there...meh. Pass. I don't find any appreciable loss in quality of life since I quit heavy squats.
- I'm more impressed with someone who can clean and front squat 150-200lbs vs someone who needs a rack and can back squat 350lbs...
- Since I'm working with my 32KG bell in S&S, I'm also using the same weight more frequently for goblet squats. I try to focus on mobility. Sometimes I pry for awhile. Sometimes I curl it at the bottom. Sometimes I just sit in the pocket and feel out all the kinks in my lumbar and hips. It might take me 45-60 seconds to do a set of five reps. Sometimes I'm slow and it takes 20 minutes to get in my three sets. Sometimes I just want to pry a couple times and then bang out a set of 10-15 all at once. I just try to leave a few reps in the tank.
- I've toyed with double KB front squats. I didn't have too much trouble banging out a couple sets of 3 reps with my 32KG and 24KG racked. Frankly they seem easier in some ways. I find my thoracic stabilizers tire faster doing goblets vs double KB front squats. Perhaps because I'm more vertical with racked bells?
- If I ever get to the point where I feel like I need to squat heavier I could continue to do S&S and perhaps once a week warm up with an alternate front squat. I found I can still do some prying with double racked bells. There are also Cossack and split Bulgarian squats with single bells. Those will work the quads!
- As a bonus, my legs have thinned out some in the last 20 years. It's nice to be able to go into the store and find a pair of pants that fit or I don't need to take to the tailor.
With all that said. I understand how Joe Average could live just fine doing good quality goblet squats with a 32-40KG bell. Nothing wrong with that and you still keep your hip mobility. Keeping my range of motion in my hips is
critical. I think that's partly why goblets are emphasized so heavily in S&S.