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Squats found to cause long term harm!
Squats have long been the cornerstone of leg training in the US and the world over. However, a new training methodology is emerging from the Eastern European Sports Training institutes. The dominant Soviet bloc Olympic athletes have discovered that doing squats can potentially harm the lower back. Studies have shown that in the bottom position the load is twice as much as the actual weight. For example, if you're doing 300 lbs, at the bottom position your back is stressed with a load of 600 lbs. This load can be even greater the faster you ascend or descend, which poses over the long term, the risk of serious injury. The riskiest element of this exercise is that there is a tendency to "bounce" an inch or so beyond the bottom to get past the sticking point. This places great stress on the lower back and is dangerous to the structure of the knee. Several Olympic champion weightlifters of the 60's are now unable to walk because of compression injuries of the lower spine due to excessive squat lifting.
What the Eastern Europeans have devised is a combination of single leg exercises which protect the lower back and knee while focusing more completely on the thigh and hamstring muscles which need to be strengthened. The beauty of these two exercises is that they can produce equal or superior development of the thighs and hips with far less weight than the squat - by about 2.2 times. For example, you would need to squat 220 lbs to get the same amount of workout done with 100 lbs. And you would be less likely to get injured while training. The proof of success is Leonid Taranenko, the current holder of the world record in the clean and jerk in the superheavyweight class. (586 lbs!) Taranenko's main form of heavy leg training are the step up and the squat lunge.
The Step Up
Place the barbell over the shoulders behind the head. Be careful to keep your shoulders over your hips as you step up onto the box. Resist the tendency to bend forward at the waist. On the down phase, let the trailing leg bend slightly to cushion the descent.
Current biomechanical research concludes that hamstring muscles should be approximately 75% as strong as the quadriceps muscles. If you have experienced a pulled hamstring or quadriceps, you probably had a strength imbalance between the two opposing muscles. A simple way to measure your hamstring to quad strength ratio is to do a 1 rep maximum of a hamstring curl on a machine and then to a 1 rep maximum of a leg extension for the quads. Your lifting results should be as close as possible to 75% in ratio.
Varying the box height for step ups: The higher the box the more emphasis is placed on the hamstrings. The lower the box the more emphasis is placed on the quadriceps. The two ideal box heights are 12" and 18".
Squats found to cause long term harm!
Squats have long been the cornerstone of leg training in the US and the world over. However, a new training methodology is emerging from the Eastern European Sports Training institutes. The dominant Soviet bloc Olympic athletes have discovered that doing squats can potentially harm the lower back. Studies have shown that in the bottom position the load is twice as much as the actual weight. For example, if you're doing 300 lbs, at the bottom position your back is stressed with a load of 600 lbs. This load can be even greater the faster you ascend or descend, which poses over the long term, the risk of serious injury. The riskiest element of this exercise is that there is a tendency to "bounce" an inch or so beyond the bottom to get past the sticking point. This places great stress on the lower back and is dangerous to the structure of the knee. Several Olympic champion weightlifters of the 60's are now unable to walk because of compression injuries of the lower spine due to excessive squat lifting.
What the Eastern Europeans have devised is a combination of single leg exercises which protect the lower back and knee while focusing more completely on the thigh and hamstring muscles which need to be strengthened. The beauty of these two exercises is that they can produce equal or superior development of the thighs and hips with far less weight than the squat - by about 2.2 times. For example, you would need to squat 220 lbs to get the same amount of workout done with 100 lbs. And you would be less likely to get injured while training. The proof of success is Leonid Taranenko, the current holder of the world record in the clean and jerk in the superheavyweight class. (586 lbs!) Taranenko's main form of heavy leg training are the step up and the squat lunge.
The Step Up
Place the barbell over the shoulders behind the head. Be careful to keep your shoulders over your hips as you step up onto the box. Resist the tendency to bend forward at the waist. On the down phase, let the trailing leg bend slightly to cushion the descent.
Current biomechanical research concludes that hamstring muscles should be approximately 75% as strong as the quadriceps muscles. If you have experienced a pulled hamstring or quadriceps, you probably had a strength imbalance between the two opposing muscles. A simple way to measure your hamstring to quad strength ratio is to do a 1 rep maximum of a hamstring curl on a machine and then to a 1 rep maximum of a leg extension for the quads. Your lifting results should be as close as possible to 75% in ratio.
Varying the box height for step ups: The higher the box the more emphasis is placed on the hamstrings. The lower the box the more emphasis is placed on the quadriceps. The two ideal box heights are 12" and 18".
