Ben Pignatone heres a loaded article and question you posed to me but I will venture out and respond, although I may start a tidal wave of retaliation...Is the back squat unsafe? If you were taught it incorrectly yes. Is it still the king of exercise? Yes. Should you remove it from your program? I disagree. The back squat is too fundamentally sound and has allowed all types of people reap incredible benefits from strength, to mobility, decreased back pain...the list goes on. I agree that the squat is more of a lower back exercise than purely lower body, but I disagree that at some point the back begins to take more of the load as weight increases....if your form stays on point and identical to when you first began squatting (assuming you were coached correctly), and the joint angles at your ankles, knees, and hips were almost exact from day 1, then whether you are squatting 135 or 500 relatively your back has been taking the exact same % of load as you have progressed in weight....this means that your back has gotten stronger, GREAT!! However to say that you should eliminate the exercise from your training is INSANE!! Listen we get it, not everyone wants to squat a grand but you dont have to eliminate it from your training regimen because youre strong enough you simply use different rep schemes, pause sets, increase/decrease tempo, CAT to increase rate of force development....all these things are good. Of course when you squat single leg your spine only takes half the load but that doesnt mean (in my professional opinion) that you are getting the same training. If you squatted 250 x 1 doing SL Bulgarian splits doesnt that mean you should be able to squat 500 with two legs? No? Why? BECAUSE YOUR BACK IS WEAK!!!!!! It doesnt matter if you squat with 1,2, or 10 legs if your back cant handle the load then you will NOT develop. I am opposed to strictly training SL especially with squat variations because you cant develop your core strength, increase BMD, or tax your nervous system nearly as close as you can with 500 on your back and two legs under you. At least not without supplementing more exercises that target your core....you want a core targeting exercise? Every time you take a shit push as hard as you can, when it gets easy, eat a block of cheese and try to shit again....thats a core targeted exercise right there. Yes most athletic movements are performed off of one foot at a time, but the forces that your body are able to generate parallel the forces your body can absorb...if you train your legs to theoretically be able to carry 500 on your back, but you have not trained you back to be able to carry that load, then when the amount of force your legs can generate travels through your body where does is dissipate? Through the spine, most especially through the lower back area resulting in ruptured, slipped and bulging discs...hell yeah sign me up for that please......yeah right.....now, playing the Devils advocate here, you can completely nullify everything I just said and train purely SL all day as long as, like I said before, you supplement enough specific core exercises to support the forces your body is being trained to generate....but lets face it....if I told you that you that you had to spend 6-8 hours a week in a weight room so that we can get all the specific exercises in to ensure that we are strengthening each joint appropriately and progressing all joint strength relative to each other equally so we can maximize your level of performance and minimize your risk for injury a serious athlete would say hell yeah lets do this Im committed....news flash for 90% of the coaches in S & C/PT, your athletes are not serious athletes. They will shut down and choose to do nothing before choosing to do anything that takes that long to get better because it eliminates precious time that they can be spending on improving their skill set for their sport (which is actually what makes them better right?) Even worse, they will choose to do the prescribed exercises half ass and THAT is when you see most injuries is at half ass speed not balls out.....But if you said, we can spend 3 hours a week in the weight room performing a variety of multiple joint, traditional movements that will not only make you stronger but transfer immediately into helping you improve you skill set for your sport...youre gonna win that battle every time.....Final thoughts....if you want to be stronger and minimize back injuries in the squat, then STRENGTHEN YOUR FREAKING BACK!!! This not only will allow you to train with greater loads more safely (assuming your coach is critical about form) but will prevent you from injuring your back if you get caught in an awkward position both lifting and competing in your sport.....Josh Cue can I get an Amen!? What are your thoughts?
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 04:28:42 +0000
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