No Squat Rack? No Problem

There are two things I hate in this world: rude people and "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo."

I’vemade it no secret that squats are probably one of my 5 favorite things aboutlife.  While you probably think that’s prettysad, I’d counter by saying that it’s much better than spending any amount of timewatching 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 hoggingthe squat rack and using a barbell for their “all biceps all day” routine, Iwanted to post some of my favorite squat variations. 

Whilefront squats and back squats will always have a special place in my heart, I’velearned 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 videois a movement you need to master before going to any other variation.  Below, I do a split squat hold then add insome weighted split squats. 

Ifthese are new to you, do them without any weight at first, and make sure youonly do the split squat holds.  Once thoseholds are easy, you can progress to adding in some split squats after, or performingthe actual squats by themselves.  Eitherone will work.

Afterthat, it’s time to do a lunge matrix which has been popularized by MikeBoyle.  As you can see, there’s a forwardstepping lunge, followed by a side to side lunge, then polished off with atransverse lunge.  Depending on yourability, these are great as a warm up, or you can weight them with a goblethold (like I did in the video above) for a strength exercise.  They are fantastic at building strength andstability in multiple planes of motion.

Afteryou’ve conquered those, it’s time to move on to the real meat andpotatoes!  Below are a squat variationcalled “Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats.” Very original, I know.  They’re alsocalled “Bulgarian Split Squats,” but I refuse to call them that because I lovefreedom…and America.

Asyou’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 atthe bottom position.  Also, make sure you’repushing through your heel the entire time, otherwise the stress will be shiftedto your knee and away from your hips/glutes. (On a side note, I’m currently working my way up to a notable PR in thisexercise, and will post the video when I get there)

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

Itprobably goes without saying, but these are very tough, and some people mayjust not have the mobility to accomplish them. If that’s the case, that’s totally OK, and there are plenty of otherthings 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!