No Squat Rack? No Problem

I’ve
made it no secret that squats are probably one of my 5 favorite things about
life.  While you probably think that’s pretty
sad, I’d counter by saying that it’s much better than spending any amount of time
watching E! or “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”

Anyway,
since Monday is always bench day, that means Tuesday or Wednesday should be squat day.  To help avoid the skinny legged bros hogging
the squat rack and using a barbell for their “all biceps all day” routine, I
wanted to post some of my favorite squat variations. 

While
front squats and back squats will always have a special place in my heart, I’ve
learned that they probably aren’t the most effective (or, dare I say,
functional?) ways to build leg strength. 
While that statement is probably a blog post in itself, this first video
is a movement you need to master before going to any other variation.  Below, I do a split squat hold then add in
some weighted split squats. 

If
these are new to you, do them without any weight at first, and make sure you
only do the split squat holds.  Once those
holds are easy, you can progress to adding in some split squats after, or performing
the actual squats by themselves.  Either
one will work.

After
that, it’s time to do a lunge matrix which has been popularized by Mike
Boyle.  As you can see, there’s a forward
stepping lunge, followed by a side to side lunge, then polished off with a
transverse lunge.  Depending on your
ability, these are great as a warm up, or you can weight them with a goblet
hold (like I did in the video above) for a strength exercise.  They are fantastic at building strength and
stability in multiple planes of motion.

After
you’ve conquered those, it’s time to move on to the real meat and
potatoes!  Below are a squat variation
called “Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats.” 
Very original, I know.  They’re also
called “Bulgarian Split Squats,” but I refuse to call them that because I love
freedom…and America.

As
you’ll see in the video, I set up in the bottom position.  The set up on these is VERY important,
because we want you to have a vertical shin and 90 degree angle of your knee at
the bottom position.  Also, make sure you’re
pushing through your heel the entire time, otherwise the stress will be shifted
to your knee and away from your hips/glutes. 
(On a side note, I’m currently working my way up to a notable PR in this
exercise, and will post the video when I get there)

So
what’s the point of all these variations? 
Well they build single leg strength and stability much, much better than
traditional squats.  Once you’ve mastered
all of them, you can move on to Single Leg Squats, which I show below:

It
probably goes without saying, but these are very tough, and some people may
just not have the mobility to accomplish them. 
If that’s the case, that’s totally OK, and there are plenty of other
things in your arsenal to make you big and/or strong.

Anyway,
hopefully you learned something…and thank you again to my girlfriend, Lindsay,
for being so patient and taping all of those videos.  Thanks for reading!