So Far Beyond Traditional Back Squats!

Happy Tuesday to everyone. It's been about a week since I have posted my last blog and I was itching to get writing again. This week I wanted to write about an article that my father-in- law sent me a few weeks ago. It was written in the Milwaukee Journal by a couple of medical doctors that were talking about how bad squats are for our youth athletes.

This is a great topic, but I think that the people who wrote the article are about 40 years behind in their knowledge on the subject of squats and exactly what type of squats athletes and especially youth athletes should be doing. The studies and research being done was in regards to traditional "back in the day" of body building  back squats. Which is exactly why I am so upset with this article. They were only looking at one way training that is so long and far passed that they just have no clue in the world on what the alternative things these athletes could be doing. The bottom line of the article was that no one should be doing squats. What do I say to that??? Well, docs...stick to your surgery because you seriously are so far behind in your training and knowledge on this subject.

No crap...If you load a bar up with external resistance on a kid or an adult who is not physically ready to perform that movement what the hell do think is going to happen. Back pain, knee pain, and most importantly just a horrible movement pattern that will take even more time to fix. It has been at least 8 years since Mike Boyle (the Steve Jobs of Strength and Conditioning) has come out and said to never perform traditional back squats again. What these docs failed to inform everyone on is how to use the squat in a more functional and useful manner.

Squats are a primal movement pattern that the human body does naturally every single day. So it is something that I would not take out of programming, but I would say that I would never perform traditional back squats ever again for myself and I would never load up a client's back with weight for squats. Where coaches and parents have gone wrong is that they read a body building magazine about how awesome squats are for you, but have no clue on how to progressively get someone to actually perform that movement. Back squats if perform correctly is a great way to test pure total body strength, athleticism, and power. However, it does have consequences if done poorly. Stress fractures of the low back, knee pain. hip pain, and added dysfunction to the body. These are all things in the article that were stated, which are true, but never was there talk of how to perform this pattern correctly or to do alternative things.They were just telling you that all squats are bad for you.

My suggestions and thoughts are pretty simple to understand. So here are my recommendations when it comes to squats.

1.) Do not talk to a medical doctor about squats.
2.) Google Mike Boyle
3.) Perform Squats in a more functional manner ( De-Load yourself. 99% of the people performing squats cannot perform a body weight squat, so why are going to try and load yourself? Anything put on your back will add load to your spine. They average kid and or adult cannot possibly get themselves in neutral spine position. Even if you are in that perfect position it is still not the safest position to be in)
 4) Master the movement- Toes pointed forward, Weight should be in your heels, Ankles in Line with your knee, Knees in line with your hips, Push hips and butt back just how you would sit down in a chair, and get your butt to parallel with your body weight before adding any external resistance.
4) Perform front squats with Dumbbells, Barbells, Medicine Balls, Resistance Bands, Suspension Trainers, Kettle Bells, Sandbags, or again just your own body weight!
5) Google Mike Boyle again
6)Start  incorporating split squats, dead lifts, bulgarian split squats, lunges, step-ups, or single leg squats in replace of your standard squat
7) Train the movement, Train the joints, then you train the muscles!
8) And people get with the program..body building is dead! If you want to make yourself more useless and not be able to bend over or if you want to destroy your body then you can go ahead and do it. It's cool with me.

The people writing this article had the right idea I think, they were just a little uneducated on how athletes are actually training these days. We are so above and beyond the dog days of body building that it's not even funny. It was a good start for a lot people, but i can guarantee you that Arnold is not training Adrian Peterson, Aaron Rodgers, or Michael Vick!

Have a great week and train hard!

JP