White Men Can Jump

This is my first post, so first of all I’ll give you a little background on me. I just turned 16, and I’ve been lifting for about 1.5 years on and off, and the past 3/4 of a year I’ve been lifting consistenly, and the propery way, ever since I started reading Testosterone.

During all that time, I only worked on my upper body. At first I didn’t work on lower body because I didn’t understand that it is important. But for the past 1/2 year I haven’t been able to because of my basketball season. It just ended a week ago, and I want to do Ian King’s “White Men Can Jump” program during the offseason in order to increase my vertical.

I just did the program this afternoon, and all went fine except for the squats. This is only my 2nd time doing squats, so I suspect that I can’t just go heavy right away like King states in his program. Right after doing the squats, I felt some pain in my lower back that lasted for about 15 seconds, and then went right away. I tried to get some assistance from an instructor so that he could show me what I was doing wrong, but the 2 that were there didn’t even know the proper form of doing squats. Worse, they started telling me that doing squats will stunt my growth, and that lifting heavy in general will stunt my growth also. I can’t just go to a different gym, because almost all the instructors in my country say the same thing. I want to continue squatting, and I know that no one can helpfully critic my squatting form through the internet, but if anyone here knows about some common newbie mistakes during squatting, I would greatly appreciate it.

One place to start is Dr. Fred Hatfield’s website. I can’t post his URL here but he’s known as DR SQUAT and he uses a COMmercial site. Look at his training articles and then go to Squat 1,2,3. He list the fallacies associated with squatting and then gives a narrative of squatting techniques. I’m sure there are other sites but this is a good one as well.

you might take a few weeks before you start the program to just concentrate on form and adaapting to the movements if you are having trouble with the squats. that way you would be more ready for the program after that time and you could make better gains. as for squats, i have heard that before (about lifting heavy stunting growth). i don’t know if it is necessarily all true. i just wouldn’t lift heavy all the time. limit going down to 3-rep sets to once every week or two and don’t go under 5-rep sets any other time. that’s what i’d do…