Ok let’s hear your opinions…
Are box squats beneficial for raw trainees? There is so much conflicting advice out there about this topic. Give me your thoughts on box squats. How do YOU use them in YOUR own training?
Myself, I just started doing them on a regular basis to try to improve my squat strentgh out of the hole. I’m also using paused squats.
Nooo
I’ve been using pause squats to help raw squat.
Box squats are OK for assistance, but the mechanics are just too different between a raw squat and a true box squat to just do box squats.
There is some wiggle room here depending on exactly how you squat, and I know a couple big raw squatters who only train the box squat and I think it comes down to anthropometry. Some of these guy’s front squats look more like shins vertical box squats and I think it is due to the relative dimensions of the femur and tibula/febula.
I’m still getting some normal squatting in during the week. On deadlift day I’ve been doing rep work. After deads I’ll hit squats or ss bar squat for 4 sets of 10-12.
any other opinions? use as a main lift, or supplemental?..
Frenn used Box squats extensively as assistance moves along with GMs and made 853lbs at 242 back in 1970. Louie Simmons used them back in the early 70s to move his squat from 530 to 630 long before suits and Estep used them to squat 700+ at 198 back in late 70s.
Yep they work but you need to use them differently then an equipped lifter
all for em,deadlift stance box squats are money
Yes. Could expand, but the above answers are good
I’ve used box squats to strengthen my glutes and hamstrings, which in turn helped my squat and deadlift. I still free squatted once a week, and put the box squats on my dead lift day.
I set the box a little higher than parallel and get as wide as the power rack allows. It’s sometimes hard to walk it in when it gets heavy, but it’s not bad.
Just make sure you maintain the same movement patern as in your regular squat. Instead of sitting back, as geared lifters do, sit down on to box. The box will probably have to be lower for you to be able to hit paralel
If you want to do a variation do paused squats or squats from pins.
I use them as assistance work. Its hard to say what works and doesn’t work as a broad generalization. Everyone is different and responds to stimulus differently. Some may see huge gains from box squats, others not so much. I figure try them out for a while and see what happens. Every lifter has to figure out what works for them.
As an example, after years of training I know that deficits don’t help my deadlift. There was actually a time when I could pull more from a 3 in deficit than i could from the floor. So now, I don’t do them.
Does anyone reckon a wide box squat would be good assistance for sumo?
I’ll try putting them in on DL day as a secondary lift. This way I’ll keep my normal squats on squat day. Time will tell I guess. I’ll repost in 4 weeks Or so With progress.
Box squat all day and all night. If you can box squat 500 pounds do you think you will only be able to barbell squat 300? I dont think so. Squatting will bring up your squat but so will a lot of other exercises. Westside uses box squats and guess what? their geared lifters are still super strong raw. I am a 100% raw lifter. During my first two months using Westside my barbell squat was 20 pounds stronger (370 to 390) and my deadlift was 30 pounds stronger(405 - 435). During this time I did not do one barbell squat without bands or any max effort deadlifts. There are a million ways to get to the same result. I like westside because the programed speed work and weak point training has brought up my main lifts.
I’m sure they could be beneficial as an assistance exercise, but I don’t see what they offer that pause or pin squats don’t. Plus, with those you don’t have to bother setting up a box.
Pin squats, pause squats, and box squats are all vastly different movements. More than one way to skin a cat. One thing that no one has mentioned yet, squating to a low box (16in) is a great warm up for free squats (for me). Gets the hips free and ready to move some weight.
when i was young and dumb sophomore year of highschool i brought my parallel box squat up 100 pounds with westside stuff. my regular squat had dropped 50 pounds after this stint. however about 2 months out of a year ill ditch deads for a bit and focus on conv stance box squats, always make my speed of the ground for deads beast compared to before hand.
Didn’t you get the memo? Loui/Westside/Box squats died with multiply lifting some years ago…
Different people respond to different things. To throw out that someone is an idiot for using a technique that “died” without ever seeing how it helps them is unwise