Starting Strength Squat/Low Bar Squat | Fix Your KNEES!
/Are your awful knees ruining your squat? In this video - our 2nd in a series of Saturday Shorts on fixing the squat - Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers quickly discusses and demonstrates how to solve this problem.
(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 08/06/22)
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Click the button below to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach and start getting stronger TODAY.
The Box Squat: What, How, and Why
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/16/22)
In two of our recent articles, we covered the tempo squat and the pin squat. Today, let’s briefly discuss the box squat.
What is a box squat?
A box squat is a squat wherein you descend, pause with your rear end on a box, stack of bumper plates, or something similarly sturdy, and then squat the weight back up again.
How do you perform a box squat?
You descend as you would in a normal squat - hips go back, knees go forward and out (staying in line with your toes), and your chest points down - but you’re going to heavily focus on reaching back with your hips as you descend.
The box needs to be at a height so that - when your butt is on the box - your hip crease is just below the top of your patella. In other words, the box needs to be set so that you can hit depth. This may seem obvious, but checking this on video is always a good idea if you’re coaching yourself.
At the bottom of the squat, pause a legitimate one to two seconds (“one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two”) and stay tight during this pause. The box will take a little of the weight when your rear end is on the box, but it shouldn’t take much - we’re not relaxing at the bottom, and we’re not rocking back-and-forth. You should still be supporting most of the weight of the barbell.
After the pause, drive the hips up out of the hole as you would in a normal squat and continue your ascent. It will be slower than a regular squat as we’ve taken out the stretch reflex.
Why might you do box squats or where might you see them in your programming?
Perhaps your coach has programmed you within a Heavy-Light-Medium structure or something similar. In this case, you might see a box squat show up as a medium day squat or even a light day squat (the loading and volume need to be carefully managed - especially if it’s a light day squat).
Due to the pause on the box, the box squat eliminates the stretch reflex out of the bottom, so it’s a disadvantaged squat, and thus you’ll need to use a lighter weight than with your regular squat, so it fits the bill for a medium or light squat. However, as with our previously discussed tempo squat and pin squat, remember that “lighter” does not necessarily mean easy.
The box squat, like the tempo squat and pin squat, can also be useful for a number of other reasons - one of which is that it can help a lifter focus on a specific technical issue. For example, if Jim-Bob struggles to reach backward with his hips as he initiates his descent and therefore tends to squat with a rather vertical back angle, a box squat can help with this since it gives a target for his hips. This can help him focus on reaching his hips back for something specific and tangible and thus will help him point his chest at the floor at the same time (because the lifter has to lean over more in order to reach back farther with the hips).
Box squats can also be used to help with achieving depth. Let's suppose that Jim-Bob is just starting off and is not strong enough to get down to depth and successfully squat back up again; in this case, we can set up a box height that is higher than normal (thus creating an above parallel squat). We would choose a height at which he can squat down, touch his butt to the box lightly, and then drive back up again.
On subsequent workouts, we would lower the box slightly each time (roughly an inch) and keep lowering it until Jim-Bob is actually squatting to depth. At this point, we’d remove the box. It’s worth noting that, in this case, we’re just using the box as a marker for depth, so Jim-Bob would lightly touch his butt to the box and immediately drive back up (i.e., don’t pause on the box when using the box for this purpose).
This wraps up our short discussion of the box squat, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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The ONE Thing Fitness Magazines WON'T Tell You About the Squat
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There is one thing that fitness magazines will not tell you about squatting . . .
Lean over when you squat.
Why won’t magazines tell you this and why should you lean over? That’s what’s coming up, and we’ll also give you a cue to help you achieve the correct, “leaned-over” position when squatting.
Why Fitness Magazines Won’t Tell You to Lean Over
First, the authors sometimes simply don’t know any better. They don’t know that getting into that nice, efficient, leaned-over position - not totally horizontal, but certainly not vertical - actually puts you in a better, stronger position from which to drive the barbell back up out of the bottom.
Second, magazines and websites are in the business of selling magazines and clicks, respectively, and on the cover of a magazine, leaning over when squatting might look scary to the average Joe or Jane Doe. To the uneducated public, a vertical back angle looks safer than a more horizontal back angle, but this is because the uneducated person is confusing the concept of a vertical back with that of a straight back.
tyler squats 515 lb with a back that is both straight . . . and leaned over.
We want a straight back, of course, but we don’t care too much about a vertical back.
Of course, the back will be vertical at the start and finish of a squat since we start and finish in an upright position, but throughout the squat, the back will take on a range of angles as we work down into that leaned-over position at the bottom of the squat.
The above reasons explain why magazines won’t tell you to lean over, but why do we actually want to lean over?
Why You Should Lean Over When You Squat
Simply put, leaning over puts us in a better, stronger, more efficient position for squatting for a number of reasons, and we’ll get into a few of those today.
Rob achieves a lean-over position - with a straight back - as he squats 445 lb for a set of 5 reps.
First, you’re trying to solve a geometry problem with your body. It’s easier and more efficient to achieve the bottom position of the squat (i.e., hip crease just below the top of the patella) when you get your segments and your joints out of the way. As a result, you’re going to get your knees out of the way by shoving them forward and out (i.e., sideways), you’re going to get your femurs out of the way, you’re going to reach back with your butt (i.e., hips), and because your butt is going to reach back, your back is going to be leaned over.
If you don’t reach back with your hips and lean over with your torso, it will be harder and less efficient to hit depth in your squat, and if you don’t hit depth, the squat doesn’t count.
Second, you’ve got two joints that act as the primary movers in the squat (technically, it’s the muscle mass surrounding these two joints) - the knees and the hips. The farther the knees go forward when you squat, the more load the knees are responsible for (to be precise, the more moment they are handling). On the other end, the farther the hips go backward, the more load the hips are responsible for handling.
You want to use both of these joints in a manner which allows us to use them each to their full potential, and since the hips are the larger joint and surrounded by more muscle mass when compared to the knees, you want to squat in such a way that the hips are asked to do their fair share of the work, so you reach back hard with the hips.
As mentioned earlier, since you reach back with your butt, you have to lean over with your torso. After all, if you only reached back with your hips and didn’t lean over, you’d fall over backward, so leaning over is - in part - a simple counterbalancing mechanism, and you naturally do it every time you sit down into a chair.
In turn, this reaching back of the hips and leaning over of the torso puts you in an excellent position at the bottom of the squat from which to drive your hips straight up out of the hole.
What About Your Back?
You - as an educated lifter - are not concerned about your leaned-over back because you understand the difference between a vertical back and a straight back.
Your back is going to be straight because you always perform your Valsalva maneuver and brace hard before starting each rep (watch the included video if you’re not sure what that means). As a result, your back is a rigid, straight, steel beam capable of handling your work sets just fine.
Isn’t This Stressful on My Back?
Absolutely, and thank goodness it is. Learning how to read and do math applies stress to the brain, and that’s how you become smarter, and training with weights applies stress to your body, and this is how you become stronger. The bones and muscles of your back are part of your body and thus - just like the bones and muscles of your hips and knees - they need stress to get stronger.
This is productive stress - not inappropriate stress. On day one of your training career, you start with a manageable amount of stress - it might be the empty bar for three sets of five reps for some people - your body adapts, and then you apply slightly more stress next time, and the cycle repeats.
Humans have been leaning over to do productive work for thousands of years - don’t let fitness “experts” convince you otherwise.
How Do I Do This Correctly?
To make sure you’re squatting correctly, use the “Squat Trifecta” cue. Watch the included video below for a more in depth explanation as well as demonstration, but in short, when you prepare to start your descent in the squat, use the following three-part cue: “Chest down, butt back, knees out.”
In other words, you’re going to point your chest at the floor (i.e., you’re going to get leaned over), you’re going to reach back with your hips, and you’re going to shove your knees apart. This will help you achieve the correct bottom position in the squat so that you can efficiently and strongly drive up out of the hole.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)
If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?
Starting Strength Squat/Low Bar Squat | Fix Your AWFUL BACK!
/Is your awful back wreaking havoc on your squat? In this video - our first in a series of Saturday Shorts on fixing the squat - Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers quickly discusses and demonstrates how to solve this problem.
(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 07/30/22)
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Click the button below to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach and start getting stronger TODAY.
The Pin Squat: What, How, and Why
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/02/22)
In last Friday’s article, we covered the tempo squat. Today, let’s briefly discuss the pin squat.
What is a pin squat?
A pin squat is a squat wherein you descend, set the bar on the pins (AKA safeties, crash bars, or spotter arms) at the bottom of the squat, pause for a moment, and then squat the weight back up again.
How do you perform a pin squat?
You descend as you would in a normal squat - hips go back, knees go forward and out (staying in line with your toes), and your chest points down. The pins should be set so that - at the bottom of your squat (when the bar is on the pins) - your hip crease is just below the top of your patella.
In other words, the pins need to be set so that you can hit depth, and checking this on video is always a good idea if you’re coaching yourself.
Once both sides of the barbell are in contact with the pins, pause a legitimate one to two seconds (“one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two”), and stay tight during this pause. You should still be supporting most of the weight of the bar.
After the pause, drive the hips up out of the hole as you would in a normal squat and continue your ascent. Don’t be surprised at how slow the ascent is - pin squats are never fast.
Why might you do pin squats or where might you see them in your programming?
Let’s say your coach has programmed you within a Heavy-Light-Medium structure or something similar - in this case, you might see a pin squat show up as a medium day squat or even a light day squat (the loading and volume need to be carefully managed - especially if it’s a light day squat).
Due to the pause on the pins, the pin squat eliminates the stretch reflex out of the bottom, so it’s a disadvantaged squat, and thus you’ll need to use a lighter weight than with your regular squat, so it fits the bill for a medium or light squat.
However, as with last week’s tempo squat (click here for the article or check out the video earlier in this article), remember that “lighter” does not necessarily mean easy.
The pin squat - again like last week’s tempo squat - can also be useful for a number of other reasons - one of which is that it can help a lifter focus on a specific aspect of his technique.
For example, if Peter tends to squat with his knees too far forward and his back angle too vertical, a pin squat will encourage him to lean over more to get the bar down to the pins. On the other hand, if Mary struggles with hitting depth, a pin squat will force her to correct this - quite simply, if the bar doesn’t contact the pins, the rep doesn’t count (a box squat can be used for this as well). Finally, if Ben tends to relax and “get loose” as he descends, a pin squat will punish this type of behavior, and thus it will remind him to stay tight throughout the entire rep.
This wraps up our short discussion of the pin squat, and in an upcoming article, we’ll move on to the box squat.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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