Height, squats and step-ups

[Guest guest]

Lepine wrote:

>The farthest down I can go is just over parallel and that again is

>with quite a bit of bending at the waist (is this bad, I mean so much

>bending? - I've never had back problems in over 10 years of squatting),

>with a wider stance than I would prefer using and with my knees going

>over my toes.

>

>Now with all that, I still fall over backwards if I try to squat all

>the way down. I can't even do it without weights on my back unless I

>extend my arms out forwards and bend over at the waist a fair bit!

>I've used overhead squats and front squats which do allow me to stay

>balanced in going all the way down. I'm 6'3 " and all legs (and

>arms...). I've gone with two strategies (thank you Mel!) to get my

>squat down, the first being static stretching in the lowest squat

>position possible with weights and the other just doing my squats

>with some type of elevation under my heels (I'm down to 2.5lbs

>plates...).

This was very interesting for me because I had the exact opposite

experience. I am 6 " 2 and also long legged. I would rate my flexibility as

fair. I began my squatting by going down to parallel and never got anywhere.

I always felt awkward. Then, on a whim, I began going full down. For some

reason, this felt much better.I began making great progress. I can't explain

why but it just fels right. However, if you are progressing with power

squats why worry? Many strength (and other)athletes squat this way.

I would also like to comment on the step-up article:

1. How can anyone think that a step-up with a bb on your shoulder is safer

than squatting (especially in a cage)?

2. Although I like to train certain movements to failure (but not the

squat), it seems to me that training the step-up to failure (as is

reccomended in the routine given) is suicidal.

Yehoshua Zohar

Karmil, Israel

_________________________________________________________________

Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.