Sebastian Oreb teaches his finest squat cues.
Final up to date on April fifteenth, 2025
Australian Energy Coach Sebastian Oreb is the coach behind 2018 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) Hafthor Björnsson’s 501-kilogram all-time deadlift world document. In April 2025, Oreb dropped 20 years’ price of muscle-building gems throughout a leg exercise. Oreb’s squat-focused coaching cycles are clear-cut.
I squat twice weekly and use deadlifts as an adjunct.
—Sebastian Oreb
Oreb emphasised fatigue administration, prioritizing squats adopted by stiff-legged deadlifts (SLDL) This technique components the overlap between the 2 actions, which hit the identical muscular tissues.
SLDLs enable a deadlift variation to proceed coaching the muscular tissues,” Oreb famous. Nevertheless, deadlifts are extra posterior-focused than squats, that are quad-dominant. Alternatively, alternate heavy squats and deadlifts weekly.
Oreb’s Quads-Centered Leg Day
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Focused Quads Progress
Low-bar squats—putting the barbell decrease on the rear delts—are extra hip-biased. Putting the bar increased onto the trapezius muscular tissues biases the quads by forcing a extra upright torso.
You’re not constructing the quadriceps if all you do is low bar squat and maximize hip flexion.
—Sebastian Oreb
Oreb illustrated high-bar squats together with his heels on a weight plate to shift his middle of gravity onto his quads. Elevating the heels helps keep upright posture and stability.
Technical Squat Mastery
Oreb defined upper body bracing: “Palms shut, elbows again and down, lats on, and large breath to brace.” These cues preserve the shoulder blades again and the lats lively, stopping again rounding. “
If you happen to’re folding on the decrease again, your lats aren’t on. This ensures your higher physique is braced.
—Sebastian Oreb
Relating to the optimum squat tempo, Oreb suggested a gradual eccentric adopted by an explosive concentric.
Brace, management; once you’re locked in, bounce [out of the squat].
—Sebastian Oreb
Because the backside of the squat is essentially the most difficult, Oreb pauses to construct energy and confidence.
Stiff-Leg Deadlifts as an Accent
SLDL bias the again, glutes, and hamstrings. Oreb dropped the bar as an alternative of reducing it to the ground since eccentrics are fatiguing, which favors energy over hypertrophy.
The much less you bend your knees, the much less you utilize your quads, the extra you utilize your hamstrings.
—Sebastian Oreb
“[SLDLs] have higher carryover as a result of we’re nonetheless lifting off the ground,” Oreb elaborated, describing SLDLs as extra favorable than Romanian deadlifts (RDL) for a stronger standard deadlift.
SLDLs recruit hamstring musculature extra throughout concentrics than RDLs and SLDLs discovered that the latter—the elevate part. (1)
Quantity and Fatigue
Oreb debunked the misperception that extra units are higher.
Two units of that—loads. The stronger you might be, the heavier the load, the much less whole quantity it’s best to carry out.
—Sebastian Oreb
On account of elevated central fatigue, superior lifters can profit extra from decrease quantity and excessive depth. Oreb leveraged lengthy inter-set breaks—between six and eight minutes—a technique many specialists agree maximizes efficiency and outcomes.
Extra Strongman Content material
References
- Coratella G, Tornatore G, Longo S, Esposito F, Cè E. An Electromyographic Evaluation of Romanian, Step-Romanian, and Stiff-Leg Deadlift: Implication for Resistance Coaching. Int J Environ Res Public Well being. 2022 Feb 8;19(3):1903. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19031903. PMID: 35162922; PMCID: PMC8835508.
Featured picture: @australianstrengthcoach on Instagram