i tried box squatting first time ever today, and the load on my lower erectors were quite high. is this normal? I seem to have trouble leading with the traps rather than with my feet.
also, what do you guys think of box squats? do any of you do them consistently?
Are you arching hard the entire way down to the box? What style squat are you performing?
Box squats are awesome. Make sure you stay tight the entire movement.
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.
[quote]matso1236 wrote:
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.[/quote]
Yes. I personally would not sit down on the box all day and smoke a damn cigarette. Touch and go, as soon as you feel the box, you have achieved the depth. Explode up, drive the heels, you know the rest.
[quote]njrusmc wrote:
matso1236 wrote:
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.
Yes. I personally would not sit down on the box all day and smoke a damn cigarette. Touch and go, as soon as you feel the box, you have achieved the depth. Explode up, drive the heels, you know the rest.[/quote]
Most people deload on the box, so you can’t use the stretch reflex to help you, to help build strength out of the bottom.
[quote]njrusmc wrote:
matso1236 wrote:
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.
Yes. I personally would not sit down on the box all day and smoke a damn cigarette. Touch and go, as soon as you feel the box, you have achieved the depth. Explode up, drive the heels, you know the rest.[/quote]
That’s not why you should be box squatting tho.
one of the most misinterpreted exercises. louie simmons would be rolling around in his grave if he were dead 
Depending on how and why you box squat sometimes you can intentionally overload your backside. Yoke and Safety Squat bars are notorious for inducing extra pain on th backside. A lot depends on your technique too.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
njrusmc wrote:
matso1236 wrote:
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.
Yes. I personally would not sit down on the box all day and smoke a damn cigarette. Touch and go, as soon as you feel the box, you have achieved the depth. Explode up, drive the heels, you know the rest.
Most people deload on the box, so you can’t use the stretch reflex to help you, to help build strength out of the bottom.[/quote]
Isn’t that the whole point of the box squat? It is not to teach good depth.
I think too many people box squat improperly based on what I have read lately.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
njrusmc wrote:
matso1236 wrote:
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.
Yes. I personally would not sit down on the box all day and smoke a damn cigarette. Touch and go, as soon as you feel the box, you have achieved the depth. Explode up, drive the heels, you know the rest.
Most people deload on the box, so you can’t use the stretch reflex to help you, to help build strength out of the bottom.
Isn’t that the whole point of the box squat? It is not to teach good depth.
I think too many people box squat improperly based on what I have read lately.[/quote]
Like our entire BFS driven highschool sports system.
MOST people use a 20+ inch box and tap and go. KNOWLEDGEABLE people vary box height depending on weaknesses and pause on the box.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
njrusmc wrote:
matso1236 wrote:
You are probably rounding the crap out of your back when you sit down on the box.
Yes. I personally would not sit down on the box all day and smoke a damn cigarette. Touch and go, as soon as you feel the box, you have achieved the depth. Explode up, drive the heels, you know the rest.
Most people deload on the box, so you can’t use the stretch reflex to help you, to help build strength out of the bottom.
Isn’t that the whole point of the box squat? It is not to teach good depth.
I think too many people box squat improperly based on what I have read lately.
Like our entire BFS driven highschool sports system.
MOST people use a 20+ inch box and tap and go. KNOWLEDGEABLE people vary box height depending on weaknesses and pause on the box.
[/quote]
Our coach in high school didnt even bother with the charade, and had everyone doing quarter squats.
BE VERY VERY CAREFUL not to relax your body when sitting on the box. You can easily throw your si joints out of whack if your not careful.
Just stay tight when you pause on the box, then explode up.
thanks for all the input. i’m having a lot of trouble recently with squats and all the information helps.
i’m box squatting to increase my squat. i cave in and lean forward, so i thought box squatting may help. i’m using a parallel box (hip joint/knee paralllel) using one of those jumping boxes. cannot really describe it. i asked my partner to look for back rounding and shit and he said it was fine. i believe i am staying tight. i’m going to do a mockset tomorrow and tape it and i’ll post it here.
not really familiar with varying box depth-just keeping it parallel for now.
[quote]kickureface wrote:
i tried box squatting first time ever today, and the load on my lower erectors were quite high. is this normal? I seem to have trouble leading with the traps rather than with my feet.
also, what do you guys think of box squats? do any of you do them consistently?[/quote]
I think it also depends on you leverages and your squat style. There are guys that have short legs and can hit depth very upright. These guys don’t use much back when they squat and their box squat closely more correlates to their free squat. Taller guys either have to lean alot to hit depth; or use a very wide stance which usually makes them unstable with heavy weights. I’m tall and I lean a lot when I squat. For me, a heavy box squat bends me way over and I use a lot of back strength to get/keep the bar in the groove. That may be what you are feeling in your erectors.
You should be pausing on the box. By touching and going you will be causing some great compression forces up and down your spine. Secondly, you should be sitting back on the box very softly. Collapsing again will cause some very strong compression forces. As most everyone said, stay tight while on the box. Allowing your back to round into lumbar flexion is a common mistake and the fast track to a herniated disc. I assume that with this being your first time box squatting your emphasis is technique. Louie uses box squats for different reasons with his very advanced lifters. His virtual load concept is not meant for beginners.
I am just an intermediate lifter at best with no desire to powerlift but I do build my training around various forms of the big three powerlifts.
I have always seen boxsquats as an advanced technique and inappropriate for me and most other lifters.
Am I on the right track?
My best answer is if you must do box squats have someone who knows what the hell they’re doing check your form on the box with little to no weight to make sure you’re doing it properly and learning the correct groove before you start stacking on the plates and doing this.
As a side note I used Box squats to teach proper form to some of my soldiers whos form was godaweful.
In summary;
You seat yourself gently (don’t plop) all of your muscles supporting your spine(including the abdominal muscle groups) must stay tight through the entire movement and slightly relaxing your hip flexors at the bottom before exploding back up.
[quote]NCO wrote:
My best answer is if you must do box squats have someone who knows what the hell they’re doing check your form on the box with little to no weight to make sure you’re doing it properly and learning the correct groove before you start stacking on the plates and doing this.
[/quote]
That rules it out for me at this point.
I agree that having someone who knows what they re doing would be very beneficial but I guess even experienced people had to learn the hard way.
My training partner has historically had big problems squatting and using a box has literally transformed his training. He loves using the box and has added over 100lb onto his squat in 3 months using it. I think the benefits of having a depth check and the extra security works for some people.