Past few months I've read a couple interesting articles on squats. I thought some of you might enjoy them. I've shared some of my thoughts to go with the articles, but please understand that they are MY thoughts, not Greg's. I've also tried to be neutral with the article titles to prevent any misunderstanding of the article before reading it. The third article is my favorite, followed by the second. The first is kind of short fluff, but still interesting.
Squat Width and Knee Dominance
-I don't really have much to say with this one, other than ... Your knees are used. A lot. It mostly served to reinforce the idea (in my head) that changes in stance and style minimally change how the muscles used.
Sitting Back vs. Sitting Down
- This changes how it looks but doesn't seem to change how muscle activates
- My question is I'm very fuzzy on how well 'muscle activation' relates to much. For instance, the glute bridge has high muscle activation, but it doesn't necessarily work the glutes "better" as it puts them in a mechanically advantaged position... so as an activation drill - cool; as a strength/muscle building exercise it seems like you'd need much higher loads to generate similar stimulus.
- However, something I thought was interesting was that the hamstrings had higher activation in the sitting down group, not the sitting back group. Contrast this with Starting Strength that talks about sitting back to parallel being better because it maximally stretches the hammies, where down/below parallel doesn't.
High Bar vs. Low Bar
- More weight in low bar likely just represents a change in back strength requirements, not taxing the legs differently. Less weight in high bar and front squats is due to more back strength needed.
- I wonder if this is why Double Kettlebell Front Squats feel so hard relative to front squats or back squats - the load is further in front, representing a greater challenge to the back, despite relatively low loads. When my DBKBFS fails, it is always the back, never the legs. Maybe my back is just weak...
- He is impressed with weightlifters ability to squat, despite being in a weaker position, and attributes it to greater back strength due to the massive amount of back work involved in weightlifting, particularly strength for thoracic extension. Low bar for WL is silly - Low Bar allows greater weights due to less demands on the back and a higher depth (more bounce), neither of which helps a WLer.
- He talks about how both Blaine and Chad are trying to get upright as fast as possible, which kind of sounds contrary to what Starting Strength teaches (don't try and get upright, drives your hips up), which he thinks would limit your weight due to back strength or maybe hip strength.
- I really liked this article, despite all the numbers, and learned a lot.
In general the theme is to do what feels best and allows you to squat well. It seems that he comes to the conclusion - it doesn't matter how you squat, just squat. (I guess it does matter how ... I've seen some horrible squats ... hear what I'm saying.)
Squat Width and Knee Dominance
-I don't really have much to say with this one, other than ... Your knees are used. A lot. It mostly served to reinforce the idea (in my head) that changes in stance and style minimally change how the muscles used.
Sitting Back vs. Sitting Down
- This changes how it looks but doesn't seem to change how muscle activates
- My question is I'm very fuzzy on how well 'muscle activation' relates to much. For instance, the glute bridge has high muscle activation, but it doesn't necessarily work the glutes "better" as it puts them in a mechanically advantaged position... so as an activation drill - cool; as a strength/muscle building exercise it seems like you'd need much higher loads to generate similar stimulus.
- However, something I thought was interesting was that the hamstrings had higher activation in the sitting down group, not the sitting back group. Contrast this with Starting Strength that talks about sitting back to parallel being better because it maximally stretches the hammies, where down/below parallel doesn't.
High Bar vs. Low Bar
- More weight in low bar likely just represents a change in back strength requirements, not taxing the legs differently. Less weight in high bar and front squats is due to more back strength needed.
- I wonder if this is why Double Kettlebell Front Squats feel so hard relative to front squats or back squats - the load is further in front, representing a greater challenge to the back, despite relatively low loads. When my DBKBFS fails, it is always the back, never the legs. Maybe my back is just weak...
- He is impressed with weightlifters ability to squat, despite being in a weaker position, and attributes it to greater back strength due to the massive amount of back work involved in weightlifting, particularly strength for thoracic extension. Low bar for WL is silly - Low Bar allows greater weights due to less demands on the back and a higher depth (more bounce), neither of which helps a WLer.
- He talks about how both Blaine and Chad are trying to get upright as fast as possible, which kind of sounds contrary to what Starting Strength teaches (don't try and get upright, drives your hips up), which he thinks would limit your weight due to back strength or maybe hip strength.
- I really liked this article, despite all the numbers, and learned a lot.
In general the theme is to do what feels best and allows you to squat well. It seems that he comes to the conclusion - it doesn't matter how you squat, just squat. (I guess it does matter how ... I've seen some horrible squats ... hear what I'm saying.)
