Looks good Hopper.


BTW-
How much weight are those yellow plates ?

that grandma looks to be a tough chick.

Nice to see someone that reacts well to constructive criticism. it is a rarity.

Front squats are very useful for developing power in olympic lifts and for developing good leg drive in dead lifts. If you can master front squats they certainly give you all kinds of benefits.

If I had to guess, I would say those yellow plates might be 20 or 25 kilo. That would make "granny's" front squat about 135-155lbs. Those bumpers they are using are really weird. I'm not even sure who makes weights like that. I know that 25kg bumpers are pretty beastly looking things. Almost being too thick to grasp in one hand in a lot of cases.

Oh, upon a second look, there appear to be weights on there as well! I would say that maybe her weight is closer to 145-165! Not bad!

I agree that the box should be more underneath so that you are not trying to sit back and "find" the box. But I think the problem is more that you are simply relaxing onto the box rather than squatting onto the box.

If you follow the bar path it looks as if the bar path is fine until the moment you touch the box and then your are letting go..giving the illusion of sitting back more onto the box then you really are. Just remain tight. Don't rock back. The position of the bar will dictate proper bar path.

i am really frustrated at this whole notion of "sitting back" onto the box. how the heck do you "sit back" onto a box??? everyone keeps mentioning it and yet no one provides a good video...not to add that not everyone is the same when it comes to box squats. everyone has a slightly different way to do things depending on biomechanics.

It's just one training method that people use for box squats. When it comes to back squats they are talking ultra wide stances and yes, it is a powerlifting, or in this case what everyone refers to is a WSB style squat.

There are prob vids of Dave Tate doing it or something.

No, not everyone has to do it that way or would want to.

You sit back more and the torso will compensate. It increases the spinal compression a great deal. In fact it is why a lot of coaches criticize box squatting. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

Here is a vid of the kind of thing people are reffering to. As you can see it has little to do with the way you train:


You can also see the compensatory sit back on the box which is one of the big criticisms. As you can see it is a very wide stance and low bar squat.

Boris actually has a good vid of more this style of box squats with some good tips and kudos on the squat rx thing.

And here is a Defranco training vid with a regular box squat. More neutral back position, narrow grip, prob a tad wider than normal stance...



And here is a link to a guy doing some front box squats. He is using straps for handles like I explained about before. These are perfectly good front box squats.

http://video.kudda.com/clinic/2_Leg_...at_with_straps

Sorry, hits...but anyways I know you like vids :)

oh i dont squat like that and the way im training i dont need to do that either....i guess im fine then :)

the "sitting back" statement really depends on your squatting style. As previously alluded to, there in no real reason to do this unless you are chasing a 600+ squat. The main reason I say this is that hip break squats utilize the posterior chain to a greater degree than knee break squats.

Easy way to figure out if you knee break or hip break is to watch yourself in a mirror. When you squat down, what moves first? knees or hips... easy.

Anyway, since there is greater strength in the posterior chain, and subsequently most support gear is built around this. Thus, if you see a guy with a 1000lb squat, I can say for sure he is hip breaking and that he "sits back" while squatting.

I don't know that I've ever seen anyone put up more than 600lbs in a knee break squat... which is more typically found in olympic lifting/high bar squats/front squats/overhead squats. Because the bar is moved forward, the knees have to track out over the toes in order keep the bar over your center of gravity. Power lifters tend to drop the bar far down the back in order to keep balance when leaning into the squat.

I think the natural squat of most people falls inbetween olympic and West Side squatting. I think that powerlifting has shown the benefits of hip breaking for strength reasons, but the leg development from powerlifting rarely is as aesthetically pleasing as the leg development from olympic lifting. So... in the end it probably doesn't matter what you do so long as you are safe and getting stronger. Most trainees won't be catching a 500lb clean in the full squat position or looking for a multi thousand pound total in competition anytime soon.

Andrew

A 600+lb squat is like a wet dream :biglaugh: I'll just keep trying to sit back!! I def cant sit back as far as westsiders do tho.

E thx for the vids man I love that idea of straps for the front squats.

GPP 1/7/08

Sled drags in grass for 9 mins straight.The damn concil cut the grass so I'll add a tad more weight to make up the resistence!!


I love the sled, it really helps clear out DOMS.