whats the rational for using a box on speed squats?

Im not trying to say its not good, just always like to know why.

anyone?

It’s convenient for when you get tired, you can sit there an rest for awhile. J/K. If you haven’t already chech out Waterbury’s response on his forum.

Feedback is one… you always are squatting to at or below parallel, and never stopping short as the weight gets heavy.

You have to flex off of the box instead of just bouncing.

Confidence

It helps you better recruit your hams/glutes/hips for the squat.

AND since speed is a necessity when peforming not only the squat; but the dead and bench, you should work on speed.

Therefore, speed box squats are good.

Box Squat: The benefits of this exercise are numerous. They develop eccentric and concentric power by breaking the eccentric concentric chain. Box squats are a form of overload and isolation. The box squat is the best way to teach proper form on the squat because it is easy to sit way back while pushing your knees out.

I’ve honestly never trained explosively which I’m assuming is the same thing as speed training? How does one do speed box squats without jarring their spine when they come in contact with the box+the load on their back?

Control your decent onto the box, not come crashing down.

You then explode off the box.

I didnt ask what was the rational for box squats but for a box on speed squats.

anyone?

That would make sense. Not sure why I didn’t think of that…thanks ko.

hasn’t it been answered?
it helps with your form (ie sitting back using your Post Chain), stops the bounce out of the bottom, and gives you an exact place to initiate the concentric movment from.
Speed out of the bottom is an important factor for alot of us so getting the pause at the right place is pretty important. always training too high or low would not help this aspect (well in my mind it wouldn’t)

well, still not convinced.
why not just revrese the movement at the sticking point/paralel (or a whereever you want?) you shouldnt shut off your stretch reflex on speed moves - on the contrary. when you shut it off its a different excercise.

Precisely. A different exercise that allows you to build more strength-speed (or is it speed-strength? I alwasy get them confused… :wink: ).

Look, you sit down with the weight. You relax. Then you tense again to come up. That is completely different from just going to parallel and then coming up again, for the reasons Big Martin mentioned above.

hold it char-dawg. are you saying speed squats are done with a pause in the bottom? I dont think so. communication error here between us…

S-man

Yes, glute, you pause at the bottom.

Here is an article by Louie Simmons about box squatting. Very helpful.

Glute, maybe you could tell us what you mean by “speed squat”. Personally, I’ve never heard the term before.

I took it to mean the type of squatting that you do on a speed (DE) day in a Westside program. If you have some other definition, then please share. (As precisely as possible.)

Virtual loading as well. Louie talked about this…

Its like if you were to jump onto your bathroom scale. First, the number would go way beyond your weight… then it would fall back down and register the true weight.

Thats the way it works when you hit the box… if you have 300 lbs of barweight on, then you come down to that box with some decent speed… your body will react to 500 (or whatever)…

i think you are camparing the benefits of two diferent approaches.
They both have there benefits however for the powerlifters the puase or break in the eccentric concentric motion is much more important than a stretch reflex/plyo protocol

so:
The DE box squat is with a pause? so it is actualy an isomiometric excersize (shutting down/lowering stretch reflex and then exploding) and not like regular speed drill (speed bench f.i)wehre you dont stop at the bottom.

am I correct?

Yes, glute, that is a better idea of a DE box squat. You relax your hips at the bottom briefly, then fire them to explode back up. There is a bit of a pause; you don’t just touch and go, as in speed benches.