The Dumbell Squat

Training HIT
6

I’ve been doing dumbbell squats as kind of a finisher to my leg workout - I do some high rep sets with light weight and a short rest period after I’ve done a (relatively) heavy rear foot elevated split squat close to failure.

My observations:

  • I have to work hard to keep my shoulders back. I have a natural tendency to roll my shoulders forward as if the goal were to set the dumbbells on the floor. With a bar across the shoulders, it is much easier to keep the chest up and shoulders back; that just feels more natural.
  • I do focus on keeping my hands back and over the mid point of the foot. Helps to supinate the hands slightly.
  • I also find it helpful to squat to a box; I set the height at 13”, which means my butt touches down just as I drop below parallel. Keeps me honest on the depth, helps to encourage an upright position, and makes sure that I feel the squats in my quads.
  • I personally prefer to use a narrow stance. That is mainly because wide stance squats seem to bother one of my hips. But it also makes it easier to let the dumbbells hang straight off my shoulder, and again facilitates a more upright torso.
  • Definitely safer than barbell squats for the simple reason that your overall center of gravity is much lower. You are still loading the spine, however, because the weight is still applied to the shoulders.
  • Much harder to load heavily. It is a lot harder to hold two heavy dumbbells that can spin and tilt versus the same weight on a straight bar or a trap bar. And, of course, most people are not going to have big enough dumbbells to match the weights typically used on a barbell squat. (I should probably try the 30/10x/30 protocol as another way of getting more out of the limited weight that I have).

I also have the parts on hand to build a hip belt squat apparatus with a long lever arm (8’ laminated beam). The design will look something like what is shown in this video: JˣSquat™ - YouTube

I’ll still be limited on weight, but once barbell plates are back on stock, I’m hoping it will allow for safer, heavier leg work.

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