Box Squats

What is the Law of Accommodations? In laymen's terms it means that doing too much of one thing will get you nowhere. We, as humans, are highly adaptable to our environment. Sometimes we need to shake things up in order to progress and move forward. Box squatting can be one method to rattle the tree.
So how do we box squat? Sit back, knees out, back arched, and head up. Ok, that was overly simplistic, but not really. When learning to box squat build from the bottom up, In this case the bottom being the lower body. We want to take a wide (a lot wider than shoulder width) stance and move the hips first and back so that we end up sitting on the box in a position that will allow the shins to be perpendicular to the ground (or slightly behind the heels if we're focusing on Glute/Ham strength). The knees are pushed outward and track over the feet. The back is arched and the head is neutral (looking straight ahead or slightly up). Pause at the bottom for a second or two and relax the hips, but nothing else. Then explode out of the hole by flexing hard with the hammies like you're performing a leg curl. Think "spread the ground apart" with the feet and knees instead of applying pressure straight into the ground. See, easy.
Don't get too hung up on the details. The bar should be place on the shoulders where it is "comfortable". If the bar is in an uncomfortable place for the lifter it will throw them off. The depth of the box will be based on the flexibility of the lifter. Ideally it will be 1-2 inches below parallel. Fill the abdomen with air (belly breath) before the start of the movement and hold it until you're standing again.
Keep repetitions and weight low while the sets can be higher. We're looking to improve explosive strength by moving the bar quickly. Once the bar stops moving quickly (either through too many reps or too much weight) we're wasting our time.
If done right (as with most things in life) box squatting is safe. One last thing to remember: most people sit on the toilet with better form than they squat with.

When Specificity Fails

Have you ever been told that the best way to improve a skill is to do just that skill? It makes some sense. If you want to improve your squat, squatting more frequently is going to be a lot more beneficial than doing leg extensions or leg presses. What happens, however, when you have a weakness that isn't addressed in the exercise you're trying to improve? Let's just say, as an example, that your hamstrings aren't as strong as the rest of your lower body (i.e., quad-dominance). So when you squat you shift forward coming out of the bottom position. Doing more squats won't fix this problem. Your quads will just compensate and carry the load that your hamstrings should be taking. Now is the time to train our weaknesses. 

How does this apply to the Olympic lifts? Maybe we have good hips and can dive quickly under a clean of 100 lbs., but we can't front squat 100 lbs. Is doing more cleans going to help us stand up with the weight? Eventually it will, but not as quickly as if we focus on the weakness. 

Train smarter to train harder.

Trajectory

Today let's spend a couple of minutes on the path of the bar. If we examine the diagram above we can see that the bar does not follow a straight vertical trajectory. The bar will start in front of the lifter's area of base (A) and as the bar rises and the knees shift rearward and straighten the bar moves over the area of base (B). The bar will continue in an flat "S" shape as it moves forward after brushing the upper thigh in the clean and the hips in the snatch. Completing the arch as it is caught slightly behind its original starting point. In examples (C) and (D) we can see faults in the trajectory that in all likelihood resulted in a missed lift. Example (E) shows comparisons of three outcomes. A miss to the front (dotted line 2), a good lift (1), and a miss to the rear (dotted line 3).
Also of note is the minimum height required to receive the bar in, this case, the snatch. The bar only need travel high enough for the lifter to dive underneath it. Due to the snatch being received in a higher position than the clean it needs to pulled higher.
Pull steadily from the floor, explode near the hips, shrug hard, and dive under the weight and you will be successful.

My first Foray

                                                                        Ivan Stoitsov
Bear with me as we're starting on this Oly blogging journey together. This will be a learning experience for one and all.