Reprinted Articles

The DOC Squat concentrates on power and taking advantage of every aid you can lay your hands on such as thick belt, knee wraps, lifting suits, increased sophisticated style, by using feet spread past shoulder width. Then the bar is carried as far down the back as your P.L. rules allow, (below the delts) a considerable amount of forward leaning to allow the glutes and spinal erectors (low back) share the weight with the thighs. In powerlifting this lift is considered complete when top of the thighs hit parallel.

The P.L. technique will let you lift up to an extra 20% more poundage than the traditional more upright and deeper squat techniques in bodybuilding. If you have ever listened to Fred Hatfield’s advice, then you will be aware that you should wear padded towel so that your neck suffers less pain from the bar across the vertebral column and that you should not relax while in the low position, as this will probably damage your knees. It goes without saying that guys with shorter legs do heavy squatting with more ease.

Arnold Schwarzenegger really did not have a genetic advantage with his long legs, but after making the common mistake of training his upper body harder than his legs, made real progress once he did train legs hard, recalling at times he trained for 3 hours or more on squats alone, getting in about 5O sets and always making best progress with the standard squat. Arnold like all who have learnt the hard way, warns never to bounce when in the low squat position and to use controlled movements throughout.

Possibly the strongest and certainly best recognised bodybuilder for his leg development is Tom Platz. Tom who began bodybuilding when just I4 yrs old, and remembers his first squats were I set of IO reps with 9Olbs/4Ok, became a powerlifter at I9. His early training was tough with basic squats his main exercise. He would choose a weight of around 25Olbs/II3.3k and just squat for IO minutes at a time, working up to I5O reps, resting and then repeating.

In 1982 at the Mr Olympia contest, the guy did 2O reps with 5I5lbs/233.5k and 8 reps with 635lbs/288k at a mere 22Olbs/99.7k bodyweight, and incredibly enough without using knee wraps. I must admit that I have always looked up to Platz’s strict controlled form and it’s still pretty welll the same. Squats is must for all champs and make sure you get a good look at Ronnie Coleman’s amazing legs.

Should you ever come across Flex Wheeler, Chris Cormier or Kevin Levrone doing a front ab and thighs, you can just see how hard and well they have trained. Any up and coming champion will have to do a variety of squats, but always using common sense as a guide. If you do take this type of training seriously then avoid over training, bad form and do over do it with the weight used.

The whole idea of this exercise is to make your muscles work hard and the amount of weight you use is irrelevant, so don’t worry what anyone else might be lifting and concentrate on what works good for you. You should try lighter, high reps squats as this will favour someone looking for development rather than just wanting to power lift. So even if you hate squats, do them and feel good about it afterwards.

Last 5 posts by Mick Hart

• Training Techniques: Training Massive Muscles (Part 1) - July 4th, 2008
• How To Get Massive Muscle Growth - June 19th, 2008
• The Roid Rage"Past and Present (Part 2) - June 5th, 2008
• The Bodybuilding Machine ...Past and Present (Part 1) - May 26th, 2008
• Squats, Heavy Squats And Squatters (Part 2) - May 16th, 2008

Tags: Exercise and Fitness