[quote]Benway wrote:
There’s been some really good discussion going on in this thread.
One thing I want to point out is the point SRS makes:
[quote]SRS2000 wrote:
I’ve actually found they are aren’t as helpful for raw squatting as equipped lifting. One of the hardest parts of a raw SQ is stopping your descent and reversing the motion to start upward. You don’t train this aspect with a box SQ.[/quote]
I tend to miss my squats right at the bottom, and I definitely found this to be the case. Furthermore, when I switched from box squats back to free-weight squats, I had a lot of issues with my adductors. I attribute this mostly to the fact that box squats don’t require any “stabilization” and the reversal of direction is broken by sitting on a box.
With that in mind, Jakerz brings up a good idea about using the box to keep the form tight and hit a constant depth. I think I might give that a try.[/quote]
It’s not really my idea. I just learned it from 2-SCOOPS who has used it with great success (it’s worked well for me too).
[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
I think it has more to do with how wide a stance the lifter uses. I have competed using both the ‘high-bar/narrow stance’ and the ‘low-bar’ wide stance style. I never thought the box squat did much for my narrow stance squat and found that ‘pausing’ reps in the hole was more effective. While using a wide stance I thought the box-squat had more carry-over. [/quote]
Hmmm… maybe that’s why I love them so much. That may also be why I feel OLY squats have almost no carry over to my comp squat (low bar wide stance).
[quote]Benway wrote:
Hey guys,
I’m curious how many of you compete raw, but use box squats in your training.
Personally, I used to find a poor carry-over between box squats and free squats. However, I had a lot of technique errors in my squat - I was very quad dominant and had very weak hips and poor glute activation. Don’t even get me started with my crazy lumbar rounding, either… I did nothing but box squats in training, and when it came time for me to test my free squat 1RM, it was like an entirely different lift. At the time, I thought box squats were just bad for raw lifters, but I now realize that I might have had a lot more carry-over if I had addressed my technique flaws.
I feel like box squatting might be good for reinforcing proper technique cues. Would you guys generally agree that a free squat for a raw lifter should look very similar to a box squat?
What do you guys think?[/quote]
i use a box in about 99% of my squat work(i free squat only about 2-3 weeks before a meet), my raw free squat is an almost exact match to my raw box squat.
i use the box in a couple different ways but in conjunction with using a box in the past 2 years, i’ve used a safety bar and reverse band setup as well. come april my competition squat will have improved approx 300lbs since using these techniques. hope that answers a couple of your questions.
[quote]SRS2000 wrote:
I’ve actually found they are aren’t as helpful for raw squatting as equipped lifting. One of the hardest parts of a raw SQ is stopping your descent and reversing the motion to start upward. You don’t train this aspect with a box SQ. [/quote]
Same here man…I’ve been freking stapled before with “light weight” if I neglected my free squats for long.
I’ve had pretty good luck with doing raw Dynamic free squat triples with 50%ish 1rm bar weight and Strong bands. I’ll kind of do the “dive bomb” in the hole to really stress that portion of the lift. It’s f@wking brutal for me but it helps tremendously.