Upstate Elite Fitness

Strength Training’s Worst Kept Secret

Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Brandon in News

Strength Training’s Worst Kept Secret

After gaining 65 pounds in just 3 months, a lot of people have been asking me what the secret is.  The conversation tends to go a lot like this: “How did you get so huge so fast?” To which I reply, “Steroids.  Lots of Steroids.”  Of course that doesn’t satisfy anyone, so they continue to press me.  Then I drop the mind blowing secret weapon on them: Squat.  Heavy, deep, and often.  There is no other movement so useful for the development of size, strength, coordination, and balance.  It really is the secret weapon for strength training.

Structural movements like the squat do all sorts of wonderful things for your body.  Done at appropriate intensity, they increase bone density, muscle mass and tone, and set up a hormonal environment in your body that preps everything for increased strength.  If you are neglecting heavy squats, you are cheating yourself and everyone in your life.  As Coach Mark Rippetoe says, “Stronger people are harder to kill than weaker people, and more useful in general.”  And there is no better way for a person of any walk of life to get stronger than by squatting.

Many fitness enthusiasts new and old are wary of squats.  They are a technical movement and require proper mechanics in order to do them safely and effectively.  The first thing to address is your stance.  You want to stand with your heels about shoulder width apart, and your toes turned out about 30 degrees for most people.  The basic motion starts with the hips unlocking and sitting down and back as the knees bend.  You will return to standing in much the same way you got to the bottom of the squat.  I will attempt to outline four primary points of performance for the squat that can get you started squatting safely today.

1. SAFE Lumbar Curve
2. HEELS!
3. Knees OUT!
4. Squat DEEP!

1.     Natural spinal alignment puts your back into the safest and most efficient position for transferring energy from your hips and legs to the bar.  Natural alignment is a position in which your spine takes an S-curve.  You want to arch your lumbar spine and maintain a tight back through the full range of motion.

2.     As you squat you want to be able to feel the weight of your body riding on your heels through the whole range of motion.  To understand how that feels, simply stand up and then lift your toes slightly off the ground.  Your weight should now be properly balanced in your heels without causing you to fall over backwards.  In order to maintain that balance on your heels when you squat you must also…

3.     Shove your knees out to the sides as you squat.  Your knees should track right over your toes as you squat.  Remember that your feet are turned out somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees, therefore your knees must be as well.  This is important for a myriad of reasons, although I’ll only go into one here.  It allows you to reach proper depth in the squat by alleviating most people’s hip impingement issues.  If you try to squat with a narrow stance and your feet pointing straight ahead, you would be pretty unusual if you could hit proper depth in that stance.

4.       Depth is a key factor in a correctly executed squat.  In most people, simply seeing the crease of the hip break the plane of the knee is a good indicator of proper depth.  If you are squatting by yourself, it can be very helpful to set up a box, bench, or other object to squat to for awhile as you get used to deep squats.  You may have heard from any number of sources that deep squats like I am advocating are bad for your knees.  All of those sources are wrong.  By squatting deep you actually strengthen your knees and make yourself less prone to injury.  I will write another article soon discussing all the benefits of deep squats, so watch out for it!

This should give you a good start on understanding the best exercise in the gym.  If you want to be stronger, healthier, and look better, do not neglect the squat!  I will put some videos together in the near future to further explain how to squat safely and effectively.

Until Next Time,

Brandon