Today is Back Squat Monday, and I decided that I needed to write about how much I love squats. My training partner, Lindsay, and I started a tradition that we will do heavy back squats every Monday. Today we did a heavy 5x5. Before we started, our eyes got really big, but once it was over it felt good to have squatted that weight! Now I can't stop thinking about how much I love squats. Kind of gives you butterflies, like the perfect 1st date or something. I can't help it, I love 'em.
What is there not to love about squats?
There is no other exercise like the SQUAT!
The great, Mark Rippetoe is a huge proponent for the squat. In one of my favorite books of all time, Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, he stated that a squat when performed "perfectly balances all the forces around the knees and the hips, using these muscles in exactly the way the skeletal biomechanics are designed for them to be used, over their anatomically full range of motion" (Rippetoe, 2007, p. 8). It is THE most EFFECTIVE tool for increasing strength, power, and size! Squatting, if done the right way can hit the core like no other exercise. Not to mention, by doing squats you get strong as shit! In my opinion, if squats aren't in your workout regimen, you ain't doin' squat (pun intended).
What about safety? Isn't squatting bad for the knees?
Are you kidding me? The squat, when performed correctly, "is the safest leg exercise for the knees, it produces a more stable knee than any other leg exercise" (2007). It is when squats are done partially that the knee is subject to shear on the anterior tibia, which can cause tendinitis. Let me put it this way, full range of motion (ROM) produces full strength! Half ROM produces half results. By the way, by doing partial squats you may subject yourself to injury. So in effect, ASS to GRASS is the proper way to squat! You've got to DROP IT LOW to reap the true benefits! Plus, you'll look good in jeans, That's all I'm saying.
Although I am partial to back squats, there are so many other kinds of squats out there. In my Bubba Gump voice, let me list them:
- Front Squats
- Overhead Squats
- Kettlebell Gobblet Squats
- Jump Squats
- Squat Lunge
Oh, I almost forgot the, good old-faithful, air squat!
I could go on and on about this lovely movement, but I won't bore you with the biomechanics of it all. For now just know that you should be squatting, and squatting regularly!
Like I always say, squats keep you young!
Squat on my friends, squat on!
Look at this picture. Do I need to talk anymore?
references:
Rippetoe, M. (2007). Starting Strength: basic barbell training (2nd ed.). Witchata Falls, TX: The
Aasgaard Company.
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