"Barbell Squat" belongs to "weight squat". Barbell squat is one of the basic movements to develop lower limb muscles. However, some beginners will feel uncomfortable after practicing squat, such as back pain, tenderness and redness behind the neck, even if the shoulder and neck are padded with sponge. Why is this happening? The main reason is incorrect movements, especially improper placement of barbells. Improper and unsafe barbell placement will not only distract the attention of practice, affect the effect, but also easily cause sports injuries. Statistics show that the barbell slipping off, or tilting, swinging and shaking left and right when squatting, is an important cause of low back pain. Because the barbell is heavy, it is difficult to control when squatting.
Action process: put the barbell behind your neck, grab the barbell with both hands, stand up straight, look straight ahead, and separate your feet shoulder width apart. Bend your knees and squat slowly until your thighs are parallel to the ground or slightly below your knees. After holding, wait for quadriceps femoris to contract hard, and kick and stretch knees to recover. Action rhythm: squat for 2 -3 seconds, stay still 1-2 seconds, squat for 2 seconds.
Squat is a double joint action of stretching hip and knee, which can be divided into three stages: preparation posture, squat and squat.
1. Stand by. Beginners must first determine the exact location of barbell placement. Hold your head high and your back straight, but don't overstretch. After the scapula contracts, put the bar on the raised trapezius and deltoid muscles to adjust the balance. The weight of barbell is shared by four points, in which trapezius muscle bears most of the weight, and there is no need to pad sponge and other cushions. Even if the body is thin and the deltoid and trapezius muscles are weak, you can completely "eat heavy" without any discomfort such as pain. Raise your arms sideways and hold the crossbar with both hands to maintain stability. The heel is padded with a board or barbell about 3 cm thick. Because the total center of gravity of the human body and barbell moves backward after the shoulder is loaded, but the back can't lean forward. Only by raising the heel to passively move the center of gravity forward can we restore to a stable supporting state. The regained balance can also increase the force on quadriceps femoris when squatting. After the barbell is lifted, adjust the position of your feet. The distance between feet is generally shoulder width, and the adductor muscle is too stressed and developed, which is not conducive to beauty and life. Your feet should be in a natural position with an angle of 30 to 45 degrees. The barbell placed on the cervical spine will cause pain, and it will also form a chest bow and waist movement, strengthen the tension of the back muscles, straighten the limbs and straighten the back.
Step two, squat. When you are ready, take a deep breath, bend your knees slowly and control your squat. When squatting, the knee joint is in the same direction as the toe, and the thigh is parallel to the ground or slightly lower than the knee. If the hip falls to the ankle joint, the squat is too low and unnecessary, which is easy to cause joint injuries such as knees and ankles. The speed of squatting should not be too fast. We should master the rhythm, at least the speed of squatting should not be faster than the speed of squatting. Because there is an obvious time effect after muscle stretching, the longer the time, the more muscle strength decreases and the less muscle strength decreases. Therefore, the weight that a weightlifter can lift immediately after squatting may not be lifted after a long pause after squatting. The reason is that he immediately squatted down and stretched with gluteal muscles and quadriceps femoris, which increased muscle elasticity and enhanced muscle strength. The requirements of bodybuilding are different. Squat down to a minimum of 1-2 seconds, and then squat down again. Although the weight of squat has become smaller, the actual stress on the muscles of lower limbs has not decreased, and
Relatively safer.
Squat. The most valuable squat exercise is the squat stage, where attention is focused on the legs, and the legs are full and hard, while exhaling. Hold your head up. Imagine kicking your legs hard and pushing your head up, instead of lifting your hips first and then straightening your waist. During the whole squat process, the center of gravity should be stable and the feet should not move. After the body stands upright, the four legs continue to exert force and contract extremely, so that the knee joint keeps the hyperextension trend of 1-2 seconds.
According to the different barbells, squat can be divided into three types: front squat, back squat and support squat, with different requirements.
First, support squats. The barbell is located on the upper back, with your arms straight, holding the barbell wide, and then practicing squat. When supporting, try to tighten deltoid and trapezius muscles and fix scapula and upper arm; The forearm rotates inward to make the elbow olecranon enter the olecranon fossa; Tighten the triceps brachii, fix the elbow joint, and complete the "shoulder lock" action. At the same time, the wrist, elbow, shoulder, upper body and barbell should be in the same plane, and the head should be slightly extended forward to support the barbell in a balanced and stable way. It is difficult to support squats and the stability is relatively low. It requires the exerciser's ankle joint, hip joint and shoulder joint to have good flexibility, otherwise it is difficult to complete the action correctly. Even if you can make an action, you are not willing to perform it. In addition, because the strength of upper limbs is weaker than that of lower limbs, the weight used generally cannot meet the requirements of practicing lower limb muscles. If the weight is too large, it needs to be put on a squat rack or carried by someone else. In addition, the upper limbs, shoulders and other parts exert more force and consume more, and the barbell does not concentrate on stimulating the muscles of the lower limbs, which affects the effect. Therefore, in bodybuilding training, supporting squats is generally used less.
The advantages of supporting squats are:
It can effectively develop the flexibility and strength of related joints and increase the stability of joints such as shoulders and elbows. It can effectively develop the muscle strength of the whole body and exercise more parts, which is conducive to the symmetrical and coordinated development of the body.
Cultivate and improve the ability of upper and lower limbs to coordinate exertion.
Second, squat forward. The barbell is in front of the neck, and the correct position of the bar is placed on the clavicle and deltoid muscle of the shoulders, so that the weight of the barbell can be shared by three points. Raise your elbows, the elbow joint is located in front of the vertical plane of the bar, and the upper arm is as close to the level as possible, so that the toe of the deltoid can bear more weight (in fact, the deltoid can bear more than 70% of the weight). At the same time, it is necessary to tighten the back muscles, straighten the upper body, raise the head and miniaturize the jaw, so that the total center of gravity approaches or passes through the center of the support surface to ensure the stability of the movement.
The position of the bar should be accurate when squatting forward:
If the flexibility of wrist, elbow and shoulder joint is poor, it is not easy to complete the action of lifting elbow flat. Often the elbow joint and barbell are in the same vertical plane, and the barbell is put lower and falls directly on the clavicle or even on the chest. This kind of support is not heavy and lasts for a short time, and it can also cause tenderness in the clavicle or chest.
Putting the barbell forward will increase the negative arm and increase the difficulty of supporting the trunk and fixing the barbell with both arms.
If the barbell is put in, it will compress the trachea and carotid artery, causing difficulty in breathing or insufficient blood supply to the head, which may easily lead to fainting.
It is not difficult to see that the front squat requires high flexibility of joints. In addition to ankles, hips and shoulders, the flexibility and strength of wrists and elbows are also very strong. Because of this, it is difficult for many amateur bodybuilders to complete the squat. Some people think that the pressure on the chest before the barbell is placed on the neck is inevitable, and it is very depressing and difficult to breathe, so they give up this sport.
The advantage of squatting forward is that you can train quadriceps more effectively and intensively, and at the same time, you can improve the function of related parts of the body. Therefore, practitioners should overcome difficulties to complete this action exercise.
Third, squat down. The barbell is placed behind the neck. The key point is to raise your head (very important), hold your chest out, contract your shoulder blades, accurately place the bar on the raised trapezius and deltoid muscles, raise your arms sideways, and hold the bar with both hands.
The most common mistake in squat after practice is to bow your head. The law of human body state reflex tells us that the back of the head will strengthen the tension of the extensor muscles of the upper and lower limbs and the back, making the limbs straight and the back straight. This shows that lowering the head is not conducive to the completion of squat movements, especially when the practitioner reaches or approaches the limit weight or the limit number of times. Bowing your head often causes beginners to put barbells on the cervical spine, causing severe pain, and it will also contain the chest and waist and increase the burden on the back muscles. This is why some people have backache for several days after doing squats. As long as you squat correctly after practice and put the barbell in place, you don't need to put a sponge pad on your shoulders. Even if the body is thin and the deltoid and trapezius muscles are not developed enough, you can "eat heavy" and there will be no discomfort such as pain.
Because the back squat is easy to do, heavy load and high safety factor, it is loved by everyone and is the first choice for practicing squat. It is found that squat can develop quadriceps femoris and gluteus muscles at the same time. Therefore, if you want to develop lower limb muscles, squat is not enough, and it must be combined with supporting squat and flashing squat to be effective. If possible, it's best to practice squatting, or sit and kick, or stand with your hips alternately. If you only have barbells, you might as well use different standing postures such as split legs or squat legs to change. Squats with legs apart can be done by standing at different intervals; One-legged squat and one-legged squat are both effective. These movements can make up for some early squats and improve the interest in practice.
In short, the barbell must be stable when practicing squat, so that the practice is safe, effective and painless. To this end, please pay attention to the following points:
Do your best. Squats are heavy, don't blindly increase the weight. You must be careful when practicing without protection and help.
Obviously, barbells should not be placed directly on joints or bones, but on flexible muscles to improve endurance. Let the barbell contact with the shoulder as much as possible to increase the contact surface, reduce the pressure, avoid the pain and maintain the stability of the barbell. In addition, the barbell should be close to the total center of gravity of the body or pass through the center of the supporting surface. In short, a clear placement position is the basis of barbell placement.
The right action. It is wrong and dangerous to bend over and practice squats. Be sure to look up when you do the action.
Reasonable action rhythm. Don't put it down too fast or too low when squatting, otherwise it will easily damage joints such as knees and ankles. The reason why the barbell is put down quickly is that the supported muscles are too loose. The barbell is heavy and has a certain speed, which will lead to the inability to get up or slide. The survey shows that barbell slippage occurs during lowering, accounting for more than 70%.
It is very important to protect and help when practicing squats. There are mainly two ways: "holding the waist" and "holding the bar". Waist: Behind the practitioner, stand in the same direction, put your hands around the waist of the practitioner and squat together. Grip: Stand in front of or behind the exerciser and hold the barbell with the palms of both hands up.
Beginners use the weight 15-20RM to experience the action first, and start to do what they can, and don't blindly increase the weight. Practitioners should be cautious in the absence of protection and help. When resting between groups, walk around to avoid congestion of lower limbs. In addition, the weight of barbell is transferred from the back to the lower limbs during squat. To improve the weight of squat, the strength of muscles in related parts also needs to be strengthened.
"King of Squats" Brent Mikesell
Maxwell's training plan takes four days as a cycle. On the first day and the third day, I specialized in doing squats. The next day, I practiced bench press, push-ups and chest. On the fourth day, I practiced hard pulling, straight leg hard pulling and leg bending. The second day's movements are all bench press auxiliary exercises, and the fourth day's movements are all hard pull auxiliary exercises. Maxwell doesn't usually arrange auxiliary exercises for squats. He believes that squat itself is the most comprehensive exercise, and only when the waist is uncomfortable will you consider using leg lifts. Mike Searle's training follows the typical weightlifting training principle, with multiple groups, heavy weight, few times and long rest time between groups. His squat weight is generally not less than 4RM, the hard pull weight is not less than 6RM, and the leg rest weight is not less than 8RM. The weight of push and chest push is relatively small, generally 10~ 15RM, because these two movements are easy to be injured. The weight for leg lifting is the largest, at least 3RM.
Mike Searle believes that if you want to be a high-level weightlifter, there are two points that need special attention. First, there can be no "respect complex". Core strength is the key to overall strength. Maxwell considered himself lucky. When he was a child, he often engaged in manual labor, which has personal experience. However, people who have never experienced manual labor tend to mistakenly equate strength with upper limb strength. Some athletes train hard, but their strength has been growing slowly, just because they spend most of their time on bench presses, but they refuse to practice squats seriously. Second, if you are committed to lifting weights, you must forget your figure. Many weightlifters train with bodybuilders. However, weightlifting and bodybuilding are very different in goals and training methods. Weightlifters have the strongest quadriceps in the world (probably only weightlifters can compare with it), but the degree of separation is far less than that of bodybuilders, who have sculptural quadriceps. Bodybuilding requires athletes to reduce their waistlines as much as possible, but unless their waistlines reach a certain level, it is difficult to have strong strength. Bodybuilding emphasizes medium weight and high strength, while weightlifting emphasizes heavy weight and medium strength. A clear goal is the first condition for progress, which is more important than training methods and efforts. It's hard to concentrate on training if you are vacillating about your goals.
Maxwell's love for weightlifting is beyond words. He was an excellent football player when he was a child. If he had focused on football, he would have been a millionaire by now. But Mike Searle prefers the collision sound when barbells touch the squat rack and the shouting sound when athletes exert their strength. For him, this is the most beautiful music in the world. What attracts him most about powerlifting is the feeling of squatting. "That kind of happiness is really hard to describe," Maxwell said. "Every time I see a thick pile of barbells on both sides of the barbells on the squat rack, I have a heroic feeling and I am eager to conquer them. When I squatted to the lowest point and began to exert myself, I felt that the world seemed to be on the edge of heaven and hell, and only I could save it. I tightened every muscle in my body and tried to make my legs start like rockets. At the moment when I stood completely upright, I felt that there was almost nothing in the world that I couldn't do. Weightlifting makes me full of love and passion for life. "
Mike Searle worships all the Hercules in history, but Ed Coan is his favorite. He thinks Cohen is not the strongest weightlifter in history, but he is the most tenacious weightlifter in history. The competition in weightlifting is very fierce. Once the champion is surpassed, it is difficult to make a comeback. However, Cohen has repeatedly redoubled his efforts to surpass his opponent. Cohen lived in an era when his weightlifting performance was at the bottom, and his appearance was particularly valuable to the weightlifting industry at that time. Mike Searle believes that the world of strength weightlifting has begun to recover, but the competition is more cruel. Nowadays, many experts are squatting at 1 1,000 Jin, eyeing the throne of powerlifting. Maxwell said, "I want to be the ruler of an era like Cohen." When people told Mike Searle that he was the top strongman today and became the idol of countless weightlifting fans, Mike Searle said, "My goal is squat 1207 pounds." It is generally believed that the highest record of standard squat in history is 1206 kg. Judging from Maxwell's amazing power growth rate, this goal is very likely to be achieved.
Maxwell spares no effort to promote powerlifting to people every day. His own training achievements and lifestyle are the best advertisements. Mike Searle said, "People still have some misunderstandings about strength weightlifting. But as long as people see me, these misunderstandings will soon disappear. Some people say that squatting hinders height growth, but I am 6 feet tall, much taller than my parents. Squat stimulates bone growth and promotes height growth. Some people say that squatting is bad for my waist, but I have never had a serious waist injury. Weightlifting is much more dangerous than gymnastics. Others say that squatting is easy to get dizzy. In fact, on the contrary, squatting is the best aerobic exercise, and my circulatory system and respiratory system are very healthy. Facts speak plainer than words. Among high-level athletes, the health status of weightlifters is obviously better than that of gymnasts, boxers and swimmers. Most of the adverse consequences such as injuries are caused by wrong training methods. " Maxwell listed some common mistakes, including insufficient warm-up and nonstandard movements. He particularly emphasized two points: First, we must attach importance to aerobic training. Aerobic training provides enough energy for weightlifting training, and running, climbing stairs and other sports are needed by every weightlifter. Second, stay away from dangerous actions, such as pushing, bending, stretching your neck, flying birds, etc. When practicing these weight-bearing movements, the probability of injury is extremely high, which exceeds the value of these movements themselves.