Squatting, as in the Holy Grail exercise move, that is. From the article, “Do You Really Need to Back Squat?”:
Watch Naudi’s Video on the Back Squat HERE
Watch Naudis Video On how he suggests How to Deadlift [ed. – link is to a private video]
While Mike and Naudi have different training methods, their overall perspective on the barbell squat is largely the same
-The squat pattern as its trained (ass to grass, bar on the spine)…this movements run completely counter to ANY athletic/functional/natural movement human beings do
Plain speaking, there is NO sport outside of weight lifting itself where you are sinking into a deep squat position under extreme load that puts direct pressure on the spine
further Contrary to popular opinion, heavy squatting does NOT have direct positive transference to athletics.
What has transfer is improving General Strength In Hip and Knee Extension–Meaning anytime you take a weak individual, and get their legs stronger on literally ANY kind of knee flexion exercise (leg press, single leg press, squats, lunges, smith machine squats, jump squats, etc), their athletic performance will improve.
Also contrary to popular opinion
Heavy maximal training is NOT a sustainable way to train all the time. It is a very American thing to want to lift as heavy as possible all the time.
Yet again, powerlifters that attempt to train this way have an injury rate of 100%. The same also applies to Strongmen. The most elite athletes in the world that specialize in maximal lifting all get injured doing it.
Maximal strength training is useful for athletes, but past a threshold of competency, the risk outweighs the reward.
Submaximal training is the way to train for maximal strength (but thats a topic of its own discussion)
For a lot of people (Americans), doing any kind of exercise is helpful. But unless you’re getting paid to squat as a professional, there’s no reason to do maximal-weight squats with every session. I was doing that with Stronglifts, and though I didn’t get near to my potential, I lifted the most than I ever did in my life.
I actually stopped doing Stronglifts because of an injury indirectly related to the lifting itself: a bruised rib from the belt (it’s my fault for having such a short torso). Even though the max load factor never injured me, I felt like it could have very easily. I went back to my original workout cycles, which was a modified version of the original P90x resistance workouts, but a modified version of Stronglifts where you’re doing more reps with less weight is probably better for you than maxing out.
8 Comments
Back in my college days I kept close track of what bodybuilding was at that time. I recall that few bodybuilders had lifting injuries because the sweet spot for muscle mass was 6-8 reps at your max, and a lot of reps on the way up to that. I have no idea what the orthodoxy is these days.
I think the 70s was when gyms started to get really popular and a lot of amateurs started going, not just for bodybuilding but general getting in shape (normies, basically). The 6-8 reps with some warm up sets of more reps and less weight is a good approach for any body type or stage of fitness. Women’s bodybuilding started in the 70s too, I think, so that definitely would have helped come up with a standard like that.
I used to do p90x. I enjoyed it. I’m not much into deep squats, really, but I do them sometimes. In a brief moment when I was in CrossFit, they always made us do deep squats, and they were kind of mean about it. I’m not much into being ripped. I’m into healthy, active, and strong enough to not lose my muscle mass and bone density as I cross the 50 line…so very soon.
Enjoy being a half century old, you old bag of bones!
Jk. Any kind of squat is hard enough because most people don’t do them a lot to begin with. It’s not difficult to scale it up when you get stronger, either (P90x makes that easy).
I don’t care about being ripped either. I just don’t want to get all sickly/decrepit/low energy/whiny as I get older. There’s probably long term mental benefits, too, but I don’t know what they are.
Most things in life are better when you are fit to one degree or another. Even sickness and death are easier when you are fit. This calendar year I’m filing for Social Security. The comments are nearly unanimous that I don’t look old enough. More importantly, I don’t /feel/ old enough.
Appearance can sometimes be genetic, but other times, especially for older folks, a lifetime of bad habits can take its toll.
Show those old Boomers how to do it, Ed 🙂
I had to put real effort in to develop a functional squat but I have never felt any strong motivation to hoist weights above my head whilst squatting. I’m happy that I opened my hips up and I continue to use medium weight kettlebells to train, ranging from 30lbs to 53lbs.
It’s good to see a subset of people interested in staying or getting in shape, building some strength and so on as we age without crossing over into fit madness.
I don’t have enough time for the fit madness anyways 🙂
I wouldn’t do ultra-heavy lifting unless it was my career, which it isn’t, for the record.