Let's get this place fired up with LEG TRAINING!

I'm too overjoyed about this new incredible forum to even talk leg training yet. This is awesome! I'll be back.Raphael

You crack me up, McCauley.  That's all I have to say. The big RC makes his new Perfect Peaking debut within hours of the launch - I like it!  You're everywhere, dude!

I think box squats are probably safer than regular squats, but you also go deeper than parallel (which is actually most beneficial if you really want to incorporate your glutes) but is it safe if you have knee problems?

Box Squats ~ favorite of mine!  Keeps me safe, parallel, good pause at the bottom and eliminates any momentum!  Great new website design! 

It's the training forum Joe...and what better way to break our new home in than by talking about something that will just wreck you? ;)

Box squats: Just an awesome tool. For starters, it provides a very different leg workout. As those who do them regularly will tell you, the benefites are truly numerous.

For starters, you get a much more potent glute contraction out of the bottom. Granted, you get significant glute involvement in any squat you do. But with a box squat you are talking away the possibility of momentum and any sort of kinetic energy that is generated from stretching tissue at the bottom of the squat. It may not sound significant, but it is. And when you combine that with good depth control, courtesy of the box, you have a formidable exercise.

I love doing these in a couple of different ways actually.

First option: Very traditional cadence with controlled motion obviously and a powerful motion out of the bottom.

Second option: Is to use it almost in a ballistic fashion with lighter weight and really explode off that seat. You are going to come up so powerfully that you will likely end up on your toes (hence the lighter weight). But that is a great way to tap into those fast-twitch muscle fibers. Athletes often benefit from this kind of ballistic training as it helps things like vertical jump, etc....but for the bodybuilders, it really gives you a training modality that many don't use.

In terms of rep counts, you have a lot of options. Everything from 1RM down to very high reps. So where and when you use this exercise are going to be largely determined by what you are trying to accomplish at any give point. But regardless, it is a lot of fun and if you stick with it for a bit, you will see progress you ahve never seen before.

Oh cool!  I wanted so badly to get on here and spit out a 1500 word essay on leg work...but it looks like I was beaten to the punch.

guess Ill just stick to short and sweet posts.  

good stuff!!

Great write-up, Sean, of how to approach this movement properly. There are always other effective ways of performing them, of course . . . . . . . . . which, unaccountably, you seem to have missed.

I haven't seen this exercise performed for the best part of 40 years but it does have amusing memories for me. At that time, most of us didn't really believe in them, probably because there were a few power lifters in the gym, that considered it as "cheating" and let everyone know about it. But there was one guy in our gym that most certainly did not consider it so. Picture the scene -

After arriving at the gym and Bench pressing for what seemed like an eternity, it was the turn of demonstrating his power on the Squat. He used to set up his box and then placed a thick 4" rubber pad ( previously used for Bench pressing ) on top of that. It turned out to be close to a half squat, in fact. He used to load 400 lbs on to the bar, stagger backwards with his mates assisting, "drop" down on to the box and bounce his way, legs quivering, to the upright position for his single attempt. I am not sure about the state of his spine these days, if he is still with us, but It made for entertaining stuff at the time. He was quite serious about his abilities to squat 400 lbs, too. At least, when he was in the pub with a pint of beer, everyone within earshot heard all about it. I was an instructor at the time and my estimate was that he couldn't have done a competition squat with more than 250 lbs. Needless to say, he never tried!

I digress. Apart from that, Box Squats are fine!

my first post on here in awhile!...anyway BOX SQUATS are awesome. I use them with a good degree of frequency .they have brought my squat [not speaking of free bar squatting] up like nothing else[they are awesome tool to teach form as well] explosiveness out of the bottom of the hole I agree 1000% That power lifting is a

great yet sadly untapped resource for most bb

Okay, that's it - I'm doing box squats next week.  I convinced Sean they're worthwhile but I have yet to see him actually do them.  He says he has, but you never know with that guy.....

Two ways they can be done effectively - a powerlifting coach/friend of mine used them with his team as a heavier, second squat day.  Back squats on Monday, then heavier box squats on Friday.  He was the first Division I coach to have every weight class squat over 600 and win a national title doing it.  The slightly shallow depth does allow more weight - but the transition onto and off of the box is obviously critical.

Leading up to the heavy stuff, it's a ballistic movement.  Box squats aren't touch-and-goes, they are putting all of your weight back onto your hips, rocking back (keep your lumber lordosis locked in if you don't like neurosurgery and having someone tie your shoes for you), then transitioning up into a forceful squat, leaving the ground onto your toes, and recovering back into another rep seamlessly.  Lighter to moderate weight allows for this movement to be effective for form training and for explosive power; only as you get heavier and heavier is it less ballistic and more controlled.  I'll sometimes use a light weight (135) at the end of a squat session and actually do jump squats - coming off the ground at least 4 feet - or maybe 2 inches - depending how I feel. 

Can we get one of you guys to make a video showing the proper form for these??

This thread and you guys fired me up!  I had an awesome leg workout today! 

 under used tool you've been writing my split for a while and Im yet to use them.  

I tried them when I first read this, but wasn't sure my form was right.  I found a video on the internet using google and I wasn't far off.  I am going to try them again this week and go a bit heavier, but not too heavy until I really get the form down, plus my knee won't allow me to go that heavy anyway.