Question?
June 12th 2007 18:01
Today a question reaches the desk of NMF:
"I have not incorporated leg routines into my workouts other than my warm-up, which is a not too intense 20 minutes of stairmaster. I want to, but I'm pretty nervous about classic squats. Are there any safe alternatives and what kind of basic, foundation building routine of a few core leg exercises would you suggest. I am at the point where I have the lifting bug and want to start doing some lower body splitting. What would you suggest? And in addition, am I right that you believe working legs will up the metabolism more than anything else by building on more muscle?"
One of the ways that you can incorporate squats into your leg routine, while simultaneously limiting the risk of injury is to do a full(rock bottom) classic squat.That means a squat in which you go as far down as possible with your posterior well below the plane of your knees. I fully agree that squats can be dangerous. The reason is that most people who do them use some kind of partial movement which they call a squat. They then proceed to pile on insane weight. This is turn makes proper form much more difficult to achieve. This causes stress on the lower back and other tangentially related muscles and the result is either an accident or chronic aggravated pain.
When you do a complete squat you will immediately realize that you are not really going to be able to add large amounts of weight to the bar. It just cannot be done by normal mortals. A 200 lb rock bottom squat is significant. In case you are wondering: full squats are not as hard on your knees as partials, where the knee absorbs the pressure of stopping a heavy weight on its way to the floor and reversing course. Also, when you do a full squat you are well served to establish the angle of your back at the top of the movement and do the squat without moving your back at all. It matters very little how upright your back is in a full squat, if you maintain its position through the whole movement. I recommend that you place your heels on a block of wood or a 25lb plate to assist your balance. Try these squats with very light.
Nothing really comes close to full squats for spark the metabolism or send the body a signal that significant exercise is being undertaken. If you cannot do full squats, the leg press and the hack squat are as close as you can get to it. I have written in the past of my love for the old hack squat sled- a relic rarely seen in gyms nowadays. If you have any version of it in your gym, use it.Leg presses on the other hand are the place to load up as much weight as you can and set the machine so that your legs will be driven fully into your torso. Your servant, as always.
"I have not incorporated leg routines into my workouts other than my warm-up, which is a not too intense 20 minutes of stairmaster. I want to, but I'm pretty nervous about classic squats. Are there any safe alternatives and what kind of basic, foundation building routine of a few core leg exercises would you suggest. I am at the point where I have the lifting bug and want to start doing some lower body splitting. What would you suggest? And in addition, am I right that you believe working legs will up the metabolism more than anything else by building on more muscle?"
One of the ways that you can incorporate squats into your leg routine, while simultaneously limiting the risk of injury is to do a full(rock bottom) classic squat.That means a squat in which you go as far down as possible with your posterior well below the plane of your knees. I fully agree that squats can be dangerous. The reason is that most people who do them use some kind of partial movement which they call a squat. They then proceed to pile on insane weight. This is turn makes proper form much more difficult to achieve. This causes stress on the lower back and other tangentially related muscles and the result is either an accident or chronic aggravated pain.
When you do a complete squat you will immediately realize that you are not really going to be able to add large amounts of weight to the bar. It just cannot be done by normal mortals. A 200 lb rock bottom squat is significant. In case you are wondering: full squats are not as hard on your knees as partials, where the knee absorbs the pressure of stopping a heavy weight on its way to the floor and reversing course. Also, when you do a full squat you are well served to establish the angle of your back at the top of the movement and do the squat without moving your back at all. It matters very little how upright your back is in a full squat, if you maintain its position through the whole movement. I recommend that you place your heels on a block of wood or a 25lb plate to assist your balance. Try these squats with very light.
Nothing really comes close to full squats for spark the metabolism or send the body a signal that significant exercise is being undertaken. If you cannot do full squats, the leg press and the hack squat are as close as you can get to it. I have written in the past of my love for the old hack squat sled- a relic rarely seen in gyms nowadays. If you have any version of it in your gym, use it.Leg presses on the other hand are the place to load up as much weight as you can and set the machine so that your legs will be driven fully into your torso. Your servant, as always.
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