How to Box Squat Correctly (and why to do them!)
/What are box squats, how do you perform them, and why might a lifter do them? Phil explains.
(This is a Blast from the Past video originally published on 02/28/22.)
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One Clue to Identify a Bad Squat EARLY
/How can you tell that your squat is going to be harder and less efficient than it should be? Watch for this tell-tale sign on the descent and learn how to fix it.
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The Squat: Hips and Knees Together!
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For heaven’s sake . . . don’t do this.
(This is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/17/21.)
A problem that sometimes shows up in the squat is that of breaking at the hips first; in other words, instead of bending the hips and knees at the same time as we start to descend in the squat (which is what we want to happen), a lifter makes the mistake of breaking (i.e., bending) at the hips first followed by bending the knees. Let’s solve this problem.
A) Becky correctly initiates her descent by bending the hips and knees simultaneously.
In a correctly executed squat, the hips and knees will start to bend at the same time. As Becky shows in Figure A, her hips travel backward at the same time her knees travel forward and outward (i.e., in the direction of her toes) - this is what we would like to see, and this allows Becky to maintain her balance over the middle of her foot.
B) Becky incorrectly initiates her descent by bending at the hips first. Becky is exaggerating the error in the image on the left, but it tends to be a bit more subtle as Becky demonstrates in the image on the right (note that her hips have begun reaching back while her knees seem frozen in place).
In contrast, in Figure B, you can see Becky incorrectly initiating her descent by reaching back with her hips - which is correct - but she’s not forcing her knees to simultaneously move forward and out early in the descent.
This error is usually accompanied by the knees moving too far forward as the lifter reaches the bottom of her squat as well.
If you notice that you tend to break at the hips first, the simplest approach is to cue yourself, “Hips and knees at the same time” or “Hips and knees together.” Not surprisingly, the first approach is to cue yourself to do exactly what it is that you want to do.
However, if that approach doesn’t work, you can use an overcue and tell yourself to go “knees first” - in other words, you’re cueing yourself to shove your knees forward and out before you reach back with your hips. This overcue (like all overcues) is a bit of a lie as we actually want the motion of the hips and knees to be simultaneous, but it can be a potentially useful lie if it does the job and fixes the problem.
If those cues don’t work, go ahead and break out a TUBOW (Terribly Useful Block Of Wood) or two and make sure that your knees touch the TUBOWs about one-third to one-half of the way into your descent. If you’ve never used a TUBOW before, check out our video on that topic - TUBOW: The Portable Squat Coach - which is also included in this article.
Becky breaks out the TUBOWs.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better!
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To Stand Up . . . Stay Leaned Over!
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(This is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/10/21.)
I had a conversation this week with one of our members after his last set of squats that went something like this:
Me: “That last rep was spot on.”
Member: “Yeah, that rep was so much easier since I stayed leaned over longer on the way up. It’s so strange how that works, and I sometimes just forget it.”
Me: “Yep, it can be counterintuitive, but you have to stay leaned over to make standing up easier.”
This conversation illustrates a common problem with newer and even experienced lifters, which is that of trying to raise the chest prematurely when coming up out of the hole on the squat. In other words, they try to make their back angle more vertical right away on the ascent. We sometimes refer to this problem as “not staying in your hips,” and today, we’re going to solve this issue.
Remember, during the ascent of the squat, your back angle will eventually become more vertical - after all, we finish the squat in an upright (i.e., vertical) position. However, if you try to make it vertical too soon, it makes for a slower, more difficult squat. To avoid this problem, we cue people to “drive the hips” or “stay in your hips” as they come up out of the hole (very often, this cue is reduced to simply “Hips!”).
With that being said, if these cues don’t work for you and you still find yourself raising your chest too soon on your ascent, try one of the following cues as you drive up out of the bottom of the squat:
“Stay in your lean.”
“Stay leaned over.”