But maybe you should.
Maybe if your squat doesn't resemble and athletic squat that tests leg strength, then it shouldn't count at all.
Purists lament that any arch at all is allowed in the bench -- and they lose their minds when certain feds very loosely interpret how much of a lifter's nether regions should stay in contact with the bench -- but I more bothered at the how the written rules for the squat allow lifters to wear the bar way down on their backs and turn the squat into a good morning, a test of back resilience and glute strength instead of a test of quad and glute strength.
In a thick wad of irony, the people who champion the low bar squat as both a competition movement and a training tool blanch at the inclusion of the sumo style of deadlifting as an acceptable competition movement and a training tool. And I agree with them. The deadlift is supposed to be a test of back strength along aided by the legs, just like the squat is supposed to be a test of leg strength aided by the back.
People who hate the sumo style hate it because it reduces the stress on the spinal erectors. It's a deadlift for people who don't want to tax their backs too much while moving as much weight off the floor and to lockout as possible.
This really seems to be an insult to the lift that's supposed to be the ultimate test of back strength.
The good morning squat is largely born of lower bar placement. The longer the torso is in relation to the femurs, the more upright a squat will be. So some people (dwarfs, most East Asians, a good percentage of whites, and a smattering of blacks) can low bar with zero heel elevation and still keep a fairly erect torso because their individual (and shared) anthropometry is still in balance with a mostly vertical torso, that is the lower bar is still over the mid-foot with minimal increased torso inclination.
But many, many lifters (taller men, most blacks, and a good chunk of whites) with their longer femurs relative to their spines have to use a higher bar placement and an elevated heel to keep the barbell-lifter system in balance with a more vertical torso.
And it's really a wonder what a higher bar position and a proper heel height can do for a deadlift-favored lifters squat form!
low bar with low heel with a belt and sleeves...
notice the forward lean; I'm horizontal when it gets hard
high bar with high heel, no belt, no wraps, no sleeves...
notice how upright I manage to stay
and here is when I was at my peak a few months before that 385
425 high bar, no belt, but with wraps
Also while I was lifting more weight in legal fashion in that low bar vid from years ago, there was no way in hell I could have managed to squat that same weight high bar at all, even with a belt. I would have been crushed. I am much stronger now with my high bar and completely unequipped squat at ~405 than I was with that low bar and belt with 405 x 3.
A simple rule change would eliminate the sumo from powerlifting.
"Both the lifter's legs must be between the lifter's forearms at the start of the lift."
There. Done. No more sumo. The competition deadlift will from then on be the deadlift that tests back strength like no other lift. Hell, even rounded back deadlift in which ALL the vertical bar movement is accomplished by unfurling the back with zero assistance from the hip and knee extensors would count. And would be more bad ass in their own right than the sumo deadlift.
An equally simple rule change would eliminate the good morning squat.
"The barbell must rest on the lifter's trapezius without touching the rear deltoids."
There.Done. No more good morning squats. The squat would be more aesthetic and more importantly it would actually be a test of what the legs can do. The rules as they exist allow for squats with minimal quad involvement.
Traditionally powerlifting training for the "competition" low bar squat has involved mostly getting stronger with the "Olympic" high bar squat. So why not just make the more productive main lift the actual competition lift and -- ya know -- test butt and leg strength instead of butt and back strength. We already have the deadlift for the latter, after all.
You don't get style points in powerlifitng, but even though I won't lift as much this way, I'm going to play the sport the way I believe it should be played. Who knows? Maybe the pendulum for this will swing the way the pendulum swung away from extreme gear back to "classic" lifting and to raw lifting.
I'm writing this as a person who has trained low bar and sumo exclusively for years to take advantage of the rules to lift the most in competition. But now I'm too old to care about placing in local meets or taking state records. I still want to compete, but my audience by a wide margin is composed of the casual gym-goer. I want them to see squats and deadlifts that are as heavy as they are athletic and pleasing to the eye.
I'm going to save ruminations about feet-up benching for another time.
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