The king of all leg exercises and the one that produces the greatest results for leg development is by far the squat. The standard, bar on the back squat. This exercise will make or break you with respect to lower body growth. The more effort you put into mastering this exercise, the greater your results will be. In fact, though mainly a leg exercise, squatting has direct effects on your entire physique.
As with any exercise, there is always a risk to reward ratio that you have to take into account. I’m going to share with you some of the tricks I’ve used over the years to maximize the use of squats for greater gains, minimize the risk of injury and propel my own leg and overall development to new dimensions.
Heel Plates
Speak to any weightlifting coach out there about the pressure displacement in your feet when performing the squat and what you’ll hear is to always shift most of the pressure to your heels and then drive through the repetition from there. This is a very effective training strategy as it allows you to generate the most power.
What I started to do years ago was to emphasize this even more so by putting a 2 ½ pound plate and sometimes a 5 pound plate directly under my heels so that when I take the weight off the rack the pressure in my feet immediately shifts to my heels, helps with getting down deeper in the squat by alleviating some of the stress on hip flexibility and then promotes the driving through the heel phase.
Bar Placement on Traps
Typically speaking there are two areas of the traps where you would place the barbell when doing a back squat. The first bar positon which is more commonly associated with bodybuilding is a high trap bar placement. This helps keep an in-line or straight line down body position when squatting to ensure back posture is perfect. The second area of the traps where you would place the bar is more associated with powerlifting, and that’s a low trap bar placement. This position brings the hips more into the movement and is advantageous from a leverage standpoint.
My preference is a combination of the two. I don’t like the bar sitting up too high on my traps as it bothers the structure of my neck and I don’t like the “pulling down” feeling of having the bar too low. So I go somewhere in the middle, and that seems to help keep my posture perfect and still take advantage of decreased distance to move some heavy weight.
Toe Position
This is a fairly standard trick that I have seen many experienced lifters use, and that’s a foot stance with your toes pointed slightly laterally about 25 to 30 degrees. When you squat you want a slight inversion to your stance so that you can power through your heels and strongest part of your foot. When you point your toes out laterally just a bit, this helps with that strategy and you can dig in and drive through your heels and the outsides of your feet with tremendous power to push through even the deepest of squats.
Use a Box
This is another trick I learned from a powerlifting friend, and it’s very useful for developing the explosive power to drive out of the deepest part of the rep in a squat.
The key for using this tactic is to use a box that is high enough or low enough so that when you start your decent, your glutes will reach the box when your upper and lower legs create a 90-degree angle. In some instances, you can even set it up so that you go deeper than that, but a 90-degree angle is what is most commonly used. Once you rest your glutes on the box, pause for a second and then drive up as hard as you can through the upper portion of the repetition. Concentrate on the explosive drive off the box. The amount of power you will gradually accrue from doing box squats is phenomenal, and when you go back to performing standard squats, you’ll quickly see just how beneficial this strategy is.
Use Bands
The use of resistance bands when squatting is something relatively new to me but not so much in the world of squats. One of my good friends introduced this strategy to me in two separate approaches. The first approach is using the bands as added variable resistance where the band is constantly pulling down on you and the bar. The second way is the use of a band in the reverse fashion where it helps you and takes some of the resistance away from you on the negative but then disappears during the positive portion of the rep.
After experimenting with both scenarios, I have discovered that both approaches are equally effective. On the days when I’m looking to add more time under tension, I’ll have the bands set with the constant pull. On the days when I’m working on explosive power, I’ll have them set in the reverse so I can ease into the hole and then explode up taking all of the weight as I ascend through the rep. In either case, your squat game significantly increases when you incorporate these strategies.
When it comes right down to it, there are no tricks when it comes to training. You have to be willing to put in the work, be consistent, pay attention to your nutrition and the gains will come. A tweak here and there is always beneficial, and a different approach to whatever it is you’re doing is always welcome. Regardless of what you do to improve your squat, make sure a solid foundation is in place by using the principles of Max-OT and remember; you can’t build a house without a foundation!
