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Re: squat assistance exercises??

Posted By: Roger Hendrix (c-24-22-151-30.hsd1.mn.comcast.net)
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2008, @ 11:52 a.m.

In Response To: squat assistance exercises?? (Tony Foster)

Even short lifters can have the problem of forward lean or the 'good morning'-type squat form. What we've found can help a lot of lifters is to widen your stance, sit back, working at keeping your shins perpendicular to the floor when below parallel.

An assistance exercise to correct this problem can be box squats. To correctly do box squats, one uses an exaggerated wide stance, toes pointing outward, somewhat. When sitting on the box, try to sit way back near the back of the box, keeping your head up, chest out with your back arched.

Sit on the box, do a slight pause, relaxing the hip flexors, then power up. I've seen lifters with terrible form get used to doing box squats correctly and become excellent squatters. I build a box with 3 heights: 12", 14" and 16". New box squatters may have very tight quads and hips and may need to start with the 16" side, working down to 12" and even an 8" box height.

Other assists for strengthening the lower back are good mornings and even Romainian deadlifts. You can also try to deadlift sumo style, which requires you to keep your back straight and sit back.

Messages In This Thread

• squat assistance exercises??
  Tony Foster (c74-196-4-252.dh.suddenlink.net) -- Friday, May 9, 2008, @ 11:09 p.m.
  • Re: squat assistance exercises??
    rich (cpe-98-28-197-22.woh.res.rr.com) -- Saturday, May 10, 2008, @ 9:38 a.m.
  • Re: squat assistance exercises??
    Roger Hendrix (c-24-22-151-30.hsd1.mn.comcast.net) -- Saturday, May 10, 2008, @ 11:52 a.m.
    • Re: squat assistance exercises??
      James Campbell (cache-dtc-af11.proxy.aol.com) -- Saturday, May 10, 2008, @ 5:23 p.m.