Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The Death of Squats

The death of squats? Yes. That is what I advocate.If you are serious about getting stronger, you have almost certainly asked yourself, "Should I squat or not?"If you have never done them, deciding about doing them can be difficult. Experts disagree. Some experts think that they are the best exercise bar none, while others think that you should never do them. The discussion can be very confusing.Your body is unique. Nobody knows what you should do, and I am not here to try to tell you.You will live with the consequences either way. If you do not do them, obviously you will not benefit from doing them. If you do them, you may hurt yourself if you do them incorrectly or, even if you do them correctly, eventually have to give them up due to knee pain.I will tell you, though, that I have found out that, at least for me, doing them and deadlifts (or variations of both) are the most productive exercises. In my experience, nearly everyone can master them and would benefit from doing them. However, I also say never use them in training!Of course, if you are a power lifter, you will need to use them in contests, and, even if you are not a power lifter, you may occasionally want to establish a one rep max. With those exceptions, though, I recommend never using them. Kill them! Stop using them. Be their death.Why?There is a better way.Use box squats instead.Done correctly, "boxes" are safer and more productive.According to Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell, "Box squatting is the most effective method to produce a first rate squat." If you want to get stronger, use them instead of squats. That is true even if you are a power lifter.Since they are more difficult than squats, you must use less weight. Using less weight means that they are safer. I only recently discovered them; I am 63 years old and in recent years I have had to wrap my knees while while training. Now that I use them, I do not have to wrap my knees anymore; there is no more knee pain. I am excited about that!So, unless you do them occasionally in contests or to establish a one-rep max, I suggest that you, too, consider using "boxes" instead of regular ones.If you decide to try them, how should you do them? You can purchase books or DVD's that show you how, and you can even find free videos online showing how to do them correctly. Here, though, are the main points:Set them up in advance. Set the barbell on a power rack (or something similar) so that you will be able to descend to a box or bench of the proper height. (I myself prefer a safety-squat bar to a regular straight bar.) The proper height is where the tops of your thighs are at or just below parallel to the floor.In some respects, they are very similar to traditional barbell back squats. Wear a weightlifting belt; before descending, fill your abdomen with air and push out against the belt for the duration of the rep. Keep your back tightly arched. Control the bar; do not just drop down and try to bounce up. When descending and ascending, push your knees outward. When ascending, keep your head up and try to push your traps into the bar first, followed by your hips and glutes and finally by your legs.Never sit down when descending; instead, sit back and down. When ascending, never turn the movement into a good morning by raising your hips first.Rather than bare feet, supportive (preferably high top) shoes are best. Use a wide stance. Instead of having your toes point in the direction of your thighs, have them point a bit more forward than that.The key difference, of course, occurs at the bottom of the movement. Doing these, you will actually sit on the box for a moment. Keep everything tight except for somewhat relaxing your hip and glute muscles for half a second or so. When you are sitting correctly on the box, your shins will be just past perpendicular.Do not rock on the box. Do not fail to pause on the box; in other words, do not just touch the box and ascend. Except for your hip and glute muscles, do not fail to keep all your muscles tight throughout the rep. You should not need to wear knee wraps.It will require several training sessions before you master the movement. Of course, start with a relatively light weight. You will soon be able to start increasing your poundage. If you want to build strength quickly, do 8 to 12 sets of 2 reps with one minute rest between sets.You should also find that you will experience less DOMS (delayed onset muscular soreness) when you switch to them.If you teach yourself how to do box squats properly and give them a good trial, I predict that you will never go back to using regular squats in your training. You will discover for yourself the benefits of the death of squats!Copyright 2009 by Ironox Works, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dr. Dennis E. Bradford has been training for over forty years. For free beginning and intermediate training programs as well as a lot more useful information on exercising and eating well, just use the menu buttons or search box at his popular website http://www.lasting-weight-loss.com/ For more information on any of the six ways of living well, visit his blog at http://dennis-bradford.com/ and select the category tha

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