Over the past few months there has been a lot of controversy around the back squat and it made me do a lot of thinking, this was shortly after I recorded a PR (personal record)  in the back squat, 405lb bare foot with no belt at 200lb, I felt like I was starting to get strong, based on the strength athlete standard of you’re only strong when you can squat 2x’s your bodyweight.

Then a respected strength coach named Michael Boyle put out a video suggesting that back squats should be removed from all strength training programming based on the fact that the primary weak link is the lower back. To make matters more interesting internationally respected strength coach and physical therapist Gray Cook also argues that the back squat is only useful for lifting as much external load (weight) as possible but for athletics the focus should be on function.

Now you may be asking what type of “function” is Cook referring to? I am referring to functional strength which has become an overused yet misunderstood term and concept.

Functional strength is defined by using the integrated neuromuscular actions (i.e. acceleration, dynamic stabilization and deceleration) that are generated by the extremities (i.e. arms and legs) while being transduced (transferred) by the pillar (i.e. shoulder, trunk and lumbo-pelvic hip complex).

Now before we continue let me make this clear that I LOVE back squatting. But I also LOVE gummy bears and fruit punch flavored (red) Kool-Aid with tons of sugar but I know eating and drinking them can make me more prone to storing bodyfat and developing diabetes. But the more I learn about functional anatomy and biomechanics the more I’m starting to understand that back squatting has the potential to cause neuromusclar imbalances that could minimize performance and maximize injury potential.

Over the years when training athletes for strength we all looked to strength athletes (i.e. powerlifters, olympic weightlifters and strongman competitors) to derive all of our methods. Hey, it made sense that if you wanted to be strong you needed to learn from those who were strong and figure out how to become stronger.  So we examined the training methods and the selection of exercises of the strength athletes and started to immediately implement them into athletic performance programming.

But what we failed to realize was that strength athletes have one primary goal in training: moving the largest amount of load in the shortest amount of time by any means necessary.

But in movement based team sports like football, basketball, volleyball, the martial arts etc the primary goal is: to accelerate, dynamically stabilize and decelerate one’s center of mass to overcome the inertia of an object or an opponent’s body. This is done with explosive movement patterns through efficient biomechanics to maximize elite performance and minimize injury potential.

So the goal of the strength athlete its to move heavy weight, but the goal of the movement based team sport athlete is to display explosive movement patterns for maximum performance and minimal injury. And because all movement based athletes are required to sprint do they really need to back squat?

After months of debate and a lot of research I think I am fully ready to abandon back squating and remove it from my athletes’ and clients’ programming.  But before I get into my reasons take a listen to the following audio:

This was recorded in the midst of a linear speed training session when I accidently noticed that all of my high school athletes were compensating when coming out of their starts. When watching their starts I usually would watch their take offs from a side view or front view, but today for some odd reason I watched them all sprint from a back view and this is what made me start to think.

One thing that they all had in common was that they all started off in a narrow hip width stance, but then they eventually transitioned to wider a stance (base) during their acceleration phase (the first 10 yards) which was their same exact stance (base) they used in their back squat, and then they eventually returned their feet to the initial narrow hip width stance after they transitioned into their top speed mechanics. I also went back to my DVR to re-watch the field drills from the NFL scouting combine for ALL positions and noticed the same exact compensations.

The question that I now ask myself is: Do they know how to be explosive from a more narrow hip stance or have I not properly prepared their bodies for the demands of sprinting?

And as I did more thinking I realized that strength athletes are NOT required and don’t NEED to sprint in their sports (with the exception of some strong man events), but movement based athletes are REQUIRED and NEED to be able to sprint with the ability to stabilize and control their hips, lower back and shoulders.

Is it possible that slow athletes could become faster, and fast athletes could become mind boggling faster by developing higher levels of dynamic stabilization throughout their pillar while learning to display explosive strength from a more narrow hip width stance used in sprinting?

Let that sink in for moment!

Live Your Legacy…“10 Laws Strong!”

Rob “The Kinetic Guru”

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