30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 12) - The Bad

Be willing and able to dump the weight if you aren't going to squat in a power rack. Please. Videos like this scare me.

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 11) - The Good

Powerlifting purists would balk at the depth, judging by hip-crease to top of the knee standard, but there's not a soul who could question the ease of these squats.

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 10) - Michael Boyle

Mike Boyle came under fire a couple of years ago because of his strong language speaking out against the cult of back squatting. I wrote about it a bit in this post, The Death of The Conventional Squat? While I don't completely agree and dislike hyperbole, I respect coaches that are thoughtful and not afraid to speak their minds even when their opinions won't win them any internet popularity contests...

Those in the hard-core crowd love to bang square pegs into round holes, one size fits all. If the squat is a great exercise, it must be great for every athlete in every situation. I was one of those guys for years, forcing my basketball players to squat, and searching endlessly for ways to help them learn the right technique.
Then I figured something out: There's a limiting factor in squatting we call segmental proportion. Athletes with long femurs relative to the length of the torso will be lousy squatters. These guys were always forwards or centers, six-feet-five or taller.
But it's not just about height - some tall basketball players are actually very good squatters.
The problem is an athlete with these proportions needs an extreme forward lean when squatting, making it look like he's doing a good morning. This athlete will generally be frustrated  with the inability to do the exercise correctly, and may even suffer back pain.
Eventually I could identify these athletes before we got anywhere near the squat rack. Basketball players with exceptionally long femurs always look short sitting down. I remember sitting next to a player and realizing that despite the fact he was eight inches taller than me, we were eye-to-eye when seated in chairs.
My advice to fellow coaches: If an athlete is built proportionately and can squat with good form, go for it. If the athlete is all legs, be careful: You're looking at a square peg... 

To offset leverage, try these options:

• For strength, use front squats, belt squats, single-leg squats with the rear foot elevated (Bulgarian split squats) or trap bar deadlifts.

• For power, try Olympic lifts from the hang position above the knees, along with Vertimax jumps.

from Advances in Functional Training by Michael Boyle

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 9) - Pulling Yourself Into The Squat

"The secret to breaking the parallel is pulling yourself down with your hip flexors. Here is how to learn this skill. Lie on your back with your legs straight. Place your hands on your hip flexors, right below your 'lower abs'. Have your training partner hold on to your ankles and provide some resistance. Arch your lower back - the opposite of a crunch - and press your tailbone into the deck. Slowly pull your knees all the way up to your chest against your buddy's resistance. Not the hip flexor contraction.
When you squat recreate the above sensation: actively pull yourself down and back with your hip flexors instead of passively yielding to the gravity. You will instantly go deeper, improve your control of the weight, and tighten up the arch in your lower back. This results in a bigger, deeper, and safer squat."
- from Beyond Bodybuilding by Pavel Tsatsouline

It's an interesting observation; that good squatters actively "pull" themselves into position. There are a lot of options to try this yourself. The first time I tried it was after seeing an older PLUSA video in which Bernie Gerard (I think) recommended "reverse squats" using inversion boots. It's pretty easy to accomplish with a "Power Wheel", bands, TRX, or even just hanging weights off the feet and using a chin-up bar though grip might be a limiting factor there.

I've spoken with a few people who just don't "get" the hips active role in squatting, and for those who, in spite of all  experimentation, can't "get it", I would suggest the following - wear a heavy ruck and go for a long march with a few hills thrown in. The next day, warm up well and then try a light-moderate squatting session - it should be all the "activation drill" needed to understand how involved the hip flexors are in a heavy squat.

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 8) - John McCallum

SQUAT!

We're only going to talk about one exercise this month. Just one exercise. But if you haven't got the size and strength you'd like, or if you aren't gaining like you think you should then read this carefully because it might be the most important thing you'll do in your weight career.

 The exercise we're going to talk about is the squat.

 And you've got to know one thing - the squats are THE exercise for gaining. They're so far out in front that second place doesn't even matter. If you want the absolute, utter maximum in power and shapely bulk, then you've got to specialize in squats and there's no sense stalling it off.

 About two years ago I had a kid training in my place. I gave him a squat program but he wouldn't go on it. Said he didn't like squats. I let him do what he wanted but he didn't gain much and then about three months ago something happened and I got racky with him.

 He was in the gym when I got there. He was lying back on an incline bench and waving two little dumbells around like he was leading the Boston Pops. I walked over and spoke to him.

 "Having fun?"

 "Not really," he said. "She's pretty rough."

 "That's too bad," I said. "Because I heard something else today that's pretty rough."

 "What's that?"

 "I heard a bunch of kids were going to start working out here, but they changed their minds because you haven't gained an ounce in the last six months."

 He didn't look too concerned.

 "Tell me," I said. "Why don't you do that squat program I gave you?"

 "I'm gonna," he said. "I'm gonna."

 "When?"

 "Pretty soon."

 "You know you won't gain without it."

 "That's O.K.," he said. "Don't worry."

 "Worry?" I snarled. "I don't care personally if you drop a weight on your Beatle haircut. But you're giving me a bad name."

 He looked up and blinked.

 "Now," I said. "I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to drag your fat tail off that bench and start squatting or you can go train someplace else."

 "There isn't any other place to train."

 "I know," I said. "It's a convincing argument, isn't it?"

 He was squatting ten minutes later and has gained more in the last three months than he did in the past year and a half.

- from The Complete Keys To Progress by John McCallum

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 7) - Morpheus

Morpheus Unloading A Squat Knowledge Bomb... (quoting Dan John)

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 6) - Philosoraptor

Philosoraptor dropping a squat knowledge bomb (quote is from yours truly...)

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 5)

There's a lot that's impressive about this squat besides the weight - the control, the form, and the depth are all impeccable. There's really nothing left to be desired here - absolutely beautiful.
Behdad Salimi's 320 Kilogram Squat

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 4)

I don't remember the first time I tried an overhead squat, and I don't do them regularly, but they are always a great squat learning tool. There are a few pointers that are critical:

#1. You must be willing and able to dump the weight if things go wrong. And, if you do them often enough, they WILL go wrong once in a while. Trying to save a bad position is a really bad idea.

#2. A lot of people are going to lack the requisite mobility to do these to depth well... "Load and go" is a very bad plan for those people. They will find themselves in a bad position almost immediately ON EVERY REP.

#3. Refer back to point #1.

#4. DON'T SQUAT WITH WEIGHTS AND BABIES! JUST DON'T! 

(Seriously, what are some people thinking?)

Dan John. He has a way with words that comes from decades of experience, study, and practice. The following excerpt is from his classic article The Overhead Squat:

Monday found me in the weight room. I thought I would just “toss” in a few overheads, just to see what he was talking about. I knew I had to do a few warm ups, so I tossed a 45 on each side of the bar. I thought I would knock off a quick ten or so. I went to the rack, stepped back and let my hands slide out to the inside collars (at just over six feet tall, this is my usual snatch grip), then push jerked the weight up to arms length. Locking my elbows and really trying to pull the bar apart while holding it straight over my head, I sank between my knees, dropped to rock bottom and came back up.

I thought: “Huh? Most not be warmed up enough.” Rep two. “Woah.” Rep three. Aren’t my legs stronger than this? What I was discovering was that the overhead squat requires total concentration, total lockout and perfect positions. There is no cheating; one can’t squirm, roll the knees or hips, or let other body parts help kick in. It builds “Dad Strength.”

When my friends and I used to lift the old six foot bar with cement filled weights, we all thought we were pretty strong. Then, Dad would ask us to help him move a car engine or open a rusted jar of nuts and bolts, or put the ping pong table up on a rack for storage. Yes, I was the strongest kid in the four-house area, but every Dad had that scary kind of strength that allows one to pick an engine out of a Pontiac station wagon and carry it to the lawn.

Overhead squats build that kind of strength. For an athlete, it turns your body into “one piece.” Unfortunately, for the past few years, misguided athletes have been taught to do upper body one day, lower body another. Or worse, front of the thighs one day and back of the thighs another. One day soon, people will be asked to train the muscles that pull the left thigh in, then rest that overfatigued muscle for the next 21 days. Wait, you’re right. It is already happening.

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (DAY 3)

Squat Rx #10: Set-Up and Breathing was another one of those I-see-people-giving-up-a-lot-of-weight-from-the-git-go-and-should-make-a-video videos.

I'm always amazed at how nonchalant people are while approaching a challenging weight. If you wait until you've stepped out of the racks to get serious, it's already waaaaay too late. Set-up and proper breathing are crucial to a solid squat with maximal or near maximal weights. Of course, these are skills that need to be practiced and automatized if you want them to be there "when it counts".

While shooting Squat Rx #10, I missed a squat with 405lbs - not something I'm proud of as it's not particularly heavy but I wasn't in great "squatting shape" at the time. I thought about editing it out, but decided to include it anyway - it didn't seem honest to leave it out completely.



I added the text to the video later while editing because I felt I hadn't explained the breathing properly. If I were to re-shoot this, I'd make sure to talk more about diaphragmatic breathing in detail.

I've talked about breathing a little over the years here on the blog and this post, Squat Rx: Posts on Breathing, has links to most of them. This article, Improving Squats With Diaphragmatic Breathing and Voodoo by Jim Laird, is a great resource as well. Enjoy!

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! (Day 2)

I made the first Squat Rx video over five years ago now. At the time, I had not seen or read anything properly addressing what I consider to be a very, very common cause of/contributor to lower back pain when squatting - the lower back rounding out at the bottom of the movement.


Soon after I uploaded the video to YouTube, I noticed that there had been a few "butt wink" and "lumbar rounding" threads popping up on internet message forums at the time, and the "squat form police" bandwagon was soon to follow. For a lot of trainees, who don't like lifting heavy anyway, the video served as an excuse to "squat with just the bar until I nail down proper form". I don't know how many times I've had to say "You'll never learn to  squat heavy with proper form squatting only the empty bar", but it bears frequent repeating. Like those famous words from Iron Mike "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." - you need weight to solidify your form under stress.

As far as the content is concerned, I think the video stands up pretty well - it's still an under-corrected problem among people who squat deeply. The first two or three minutes are very solid, and the advice to follow a "bottoms up" approach to correcting the movement is something I believe in very strongly. Overhead squats are a great drill and can do a lot to tighten up someone's form, even with lighter weights.

There are some drills presented in Squat Rx #1 that are probably of questionable value for correcting the problem - "wall walks", for example, while being a great drill for shoulder girdle mobility, may not be an exercise I'd recommend to someone without a modicum of motor control, and motor control/kinesthetic awareness is often exactly THE issue for people who just can't seem to figure out proper postures and positions within the squat. So, what I'm getting at is, if you have a lower back rounding issue, the wall walk ain't the answer...

If I were to reshoot the video, as far as content is concerned, I would start with a script (rather than simply scratching out notes). The addition of hip and thoracic mobility work, and a few proprioception drills to help the trainee find an "athletic posture" would make the video all the better. There are a number of great resources out there now in these areas, but having them all in one place and briefly introduced is the attraction of a instructional video zoning in on a specific issue like this. In addition, better camera, lighting, sound, and a good looking model like Jen Sinkler or Neghar Fonooni would make the series a thousand times easier to watch... Maybe someday!

30 Days of Squat (Day 1)

30 DAYS OF SQUAT!

In September, I'll be revisiting some of the Squat Rx videos - adding commentary, reflecting on what was done well, what was not, and what I'd do differently if I were to re-shoot them. I'm looking forward to sharing and talking about some great squat performances, instructional videos, and words of wisdom and inspiration.

If you have topics or questions you'd like me to cover, please don't hesitate to drop a line here, at Facebook, or Twitter. Thanks for joining the conversation!

Jen Sinkler of Experience Life Magazine wearing an awesome t-shirt!