Thread: Can someone explain the box squat?

Louie Simmons can!!!

Box Squatting
By: Louie Simmons

Box squatting is the most effective method to produce a first-rate squat. This is, in my opinion, the safest way to squat because you don't use as much weight as you would with a regular squat.
Let me say first that, no, they won't hurt your spine, you don't use1000 lbs. on a 25 inch tall box, you don't rock on the box, you don't touch and go, and there is no need to do regular power squats before a meet. No knee wraps are worn nor are the straps of the suit pulled up.
By doing sets of 2 reps for at least 8 sets with short rest periods, you will get about a 200 lb. carryover to your regular squat. Two of our lifters finished their lifting cycle before a meet with 8 sets of 2 reps with 505 lbs. off a slightly below parallel box, and both squatted 700 for a meet PR One was competing in the 242s and the other as a 275. Two years before, in his first meet, our 275 pounder squatted 465 - quite an improvement!
There are many advantages to box squatting. One of the most important is recuperation. You can train more often on a box than you can doing regular squats. The original Westside boys (Culver City, CA) did them three times a week, which I feel is a bit extreme, but they paved the way for this type of training. We do them for the squat part of our workout on Fridays and occasionally on Mondays to build hip and low back power for deadlifting. The NBA's Utah Jazz do box squats for the same reason - recuperation. Greg Shepherd, their strength coach, is a former member of the Culver City gym.
The second reason is equally important. It is generally accepted that you should keep your shins perpendicular to the floor when squatting. With box squatting, you can go past this point (that is, an imaginary line drawn from your ankle to your knee will point toward your body), which places all the stress on the major squatting muscles- hips, glutes, lower back, and hamstrings. This is a tremendous advantage-
Thirdly, you don't have to ask anyone if you were parallel. Once you establish a below parallel height, all of your squats will be just that -below parallel. I have seen it over and over. As the weights get heavier, the squats get higher. This can't happen with box squats.
LOUIE SIMMONS' You Want the Secrets? - Click here to go to Westside Barbell
If your hips are weak, use a below parallel box with a wide stance. If you need low back power, use a close stance, below parallel. If your quads are weak, work on a parallel box. If you have a sticking point about 2 inches above parallel, as is common, then work on a box that is 2 inches above parallel. Our advanced squatters use all below parallel boxes. This builds so much power out of the hole that there will be no sticking points.
As an added bonus, box squats will build the deadlift as well by overloading the hips and lower back muscles. Your ability to explode off the floor will increase greatly. One of our 275 pounders, Jerry Obradovich, put 50 lbs. on his dead lift in 3 months by doing extra box squats during that time period, going from 672 to 722 at the 1994 APF Junior Nationals. Chuck Vogelpohl deadlifts only about once in 8 weeks yet pulls 793 in the 242s. Chuck relies on wide box squats on a low, 12-inch box and does a lot of reverse hypers and chest-supported rows.
Now, how do you do a box squat? They are performed just like regular squats. Fill your abdomen with air, and push out against your belt. Push your knees out as far as possible to the sides and with a tightly arched back, squat back, not down, until you completely sit on the box. Every muscle is kept tight while on the box with the exception of the hip flexors. By releasing and then contracting the hip flexors and arching the upper back, you will jump off the box, building tremendous starting strength. Remember to sit back and down, not straight down. Your hamstrings will be strengthened to a high degree, which is essential. Many don't know this, but the hamstrings are hip extensors. Some great squatters have large quads and some do not, but they all have large hamstrings where they tie into the glutes. Remember to sit on the box completely and flex off.
Now, how do you know how much you can full squat if you box squat all the time? Well, let's say you have squatted 600 lbs. in a meet and decided to box squat. Let's say you can do 550 off a parallel box; that's a 50-lb. carry-over. Now you are doing only box squats and you take a weight 4-6 weeks into the cycle. You hit a 575 squat, a 25-lb. jump on that particular box. This will carry over to your 600 contest best. So now expect a 625 at your next meet.
I recommend that you train with 65-82% of your box record on each particular box height that you use. Change box heights every 3-4 weeks. Do not base the training weight on your full squat record! Box squats are much harder than full squats! Do 8-12 sets of 2 reps with 1 minute rest between sets. This is a tough workout! The week that you reach 82%, reduce the sets to 6. Don't train with more than 82%. You can try a max the after you train with 82%. If you are going to a meet, take a weight 2 weeks before the meet. The week before the meet use 70% for 6-8 sets.
This type of squatting is hard work, but each rep shouldn't be hard. Don't get psyched up to do your sets. We have found that 2 reps is ideal because any more may cause bicipital tendonitis and if you are doing 12 sets, you are doing 12 first reps per workout. After all, the first rep is the most important one. This will make your contest squat much better. Our most talented lifters will do best on their first rep and then tire quickly whereas our lower skilled people will do better after the first rep is completed because they use the first rep as a body awareness tool. As they become more skilled, their first rep will be their best.
I know box squatting is not common, mostly because no one knows how do them. After reading this or watching my squat tape you should be fully aware of the benefits. Many great squatters have done box squats including Marv Phillips, Larry Kidney, Roger Estep, Matt Dimel, and of course George Fern, who did an 853 squat in track shorts in 1970. If box squats didn't work, we wouldn't do them. We have 20 lifters who have squatted over 700 lbs. in a meet including a 198 who has done 804. 1 hope this article clears up any misconceptions and leads to great success on the lifting platform.

You squat to a box that allows you to sit on it when at the bottom most position of the squat. The idea is to pause on the box for a solid 1-2 seconds and break the concentric-eccentric chain. This allows you to improve starting strength and explosive power in the squat, which is essential for getting maximum effort lifts up.

Just in case you're too lazy to read the lengthy Simmons explanation, although I highly suggest it. Louie knows his shit!

Good info thanks P-funk and CowPimp.

I'm still a bit hesitant...my deadlift is at 127.5kg (281lb) for 4, squat about the same, i'm 17.

Done a bit of looking around...I think I'll just keep regular squatting for now, sounds like a) box squats just give me a bigger chance of injury and b) I can probably keep seeing gains on reg. squats for a while.

Thanks again for the info guys.

Originally Posted by P-funk

Louie Simmons can!!!

And I was going to chime in on this, when I saw the thread title!

If you're looking to add another type of squat, I would also recommend the full squat. That's the only squat I use and I love it. It's a true lift because you go down until you can't anymore, pause, then go back up. It forces you to use a lot less weight than normal squats, too, and it's obviously much more difficult with such an increased ROM. I've made some very good gains using this type of squat.

isn't a full squat a normal squat in the first place..? you should've always been doin a full ROM

Box squats are for speed out of the hole. You also have to make sure the box you are using is the right box for your size. If you use a box too low you will never get out of the hole. If you use a box too high then you are basically doing a half squat that is not great either unless you are doing that to feel weight on your back. Also make sure you stay arched, and keep everything really tight at all times. Lastly do not roll on the box. Hit the box, and get up. You do not want to sit there for a long period of time. Remember this is for speed. You only pause if you are doing pause squats. that is a whole different thing. Good luck!

is there a video of someone doing box squats?

go to www.deepsquatter.com there is a section there called team taylor. Click on that you will see a whole bunch of stuff.

Hit the box, and get up. You do not want to sit there for a long period of time

well thats not entirely true, I mean obviously not for a long preiod of time but a main factor in box squatting is that you are relaxing the hip flexors on the bottom and breaking the concentric/ eccentric chain. You don't want to sit there, but you defn want to pause. its should be a dynamic movement, thats how speed is built out of the hole... anyways, I agee with the rest of your post

Originally Posted by gr81

isn't a full squat a normal squat in the first place..? you should've always been doin a full ROM

No. Normal squats are when your thighs are parallel (powerlifting squats). Full squats are squats that go down so far it's almost impossible to go farther. Your butt should be a couple inches from the floor. People who post their stats in their signatures always go by the parallel squat, or at least that was my impression since they post it in a powerlifting manner (squat deadlift bench) and that's how powerlifters do it.

When someone above mentioned getting out of 'the hole,' this is actually the best thing for that. Every rep is farther down the hole than normal squatters would dream of going. That's real power.

well first off my post was just intended to poke fun of the guys who don't go downstairs and just do half movement squats, but if you really want to get into it, parallel or inches below IS a full squat, you talking about ATG squats where you can't go any farther down, so my first post was accurate. by your post your implying that anything short of ATG is less than a full squat, which is not the case. Any squat where you aren't even goin to parallel does not qualify as a squat at all, maybe a sissy squat...lol. believe me son, I am the last person here you need to be defining a squat and powerlifting technique to..

When you are talking to the right powerlifters, you will find out that we do not believe in squatting to parallel. You have to drop 1-2 inches below. What I was saying was, when you hit the box you do not do a 2second pause. You hit the box arched, you do not roll. You hit it sit for a second and drive it up through the hole. Yes I know this movement is to strengthen the hip flexors. You should also try it with bands!! Great for core and stability!! Trust me, I am edumacated!!!! LOl!!

yeah man I love training with chains and bands, do it all the time. I know when your having a ME training session your not loungin on that box for many secs.. its all good.. more than the squatting I really like deading with the bands..

SO when you train with bands, do you just put a resistance band around a BB and yourself?

Originally Posted by mr_oo3

SO when you train with bands, do you just put a resistance band around a BB and yourself?

??? and yourself???


Loop the band around the bottom of the power rack and then around the BB. Just make sure you have someone there you hold the bar down while you loop a band around it or it may go flying up.

Originally Posted by gr81

I really like deading with the bands..

When you got the bands, did they come with instructions for using them on various exercises?

Originally Posted by gr81

well first off my post was just intended to poke fun of the guys who don't go downstairs and just do half movement squats, but if you really want to get into it, parallel or inches below IS a full squat, you talking about ATG squats where you can't go any farther down, so my first post was accurate. by your post your implying that anything short of ATG is less than a full squat, which is not the case. Any squat where you aren't even goin to parallel does not qualify as a squat at all, maybe a sissy squat...lol. believe me son, I am the last person here you need to be defining a squat and powerlifting technique to..

I really wasn't trying to argue or anything (I'm certainly not the type of kid who comes online correcting 50 people who actually know what they're talking about and insists he's right). I couldn't quite tell if you were being sarcastic so I figured I'd post and one of us would be corrected (me in this case). I just thought that saying something was a full squat meant you were going ass to the grass, so when you do a squat all the way down until you can't go farther, is ATG the only name for it?

Ah, yes, and if you go to exrx.net (I'm sure you're familiar) the 'full squat' on there seems to be ATG style, which is another reason why I thought full = ATG.

When you got the bands, did they come with instructions for using them on various exercises?

yeah I have a booklett from Elitefts.com going over how to set them up and the whole nine.. I actually have like two of these books

its all good squaggle, I was just clarifying