Squats and injuries

WITHOUT REST: do not stop in the final position but keep a constant muscle tension throughout the movement. Instead of fully extending your knees and resting at the end of the ascent, try to go down when your knees are still slightly bent, you will be amazed at how much more intense the exercise will become. The greater fatigue will require a reduction in the load and this will only benefit yours. joints. If you perform the exercise at the multipower you can ask a friend to place the stops at a height of about five centimeters lower than where the bar was at the beginning of the exercise.

MULTIPOWER YES OR NO ?: like all machines, the mulltipower or smith machine also offers some benefits but also some disadvantages. Surely this tool is useful for those who do not have sufficient technical qualities to perform the traditional squat correctly. However, the machine forces the subject's spinal column to follow a forced path during movement and this causes several problems for the lumbar vertebrae. For this reason it is good to start the exercise with the feet twenty-thirty centimeters in front of the pelvis. In this way the stresses on the knees increase and the risk of injuries, but the back is relieved by remaining straight throughout the movement. multipower also makes it easier to perform the front squat (a variant of the traditional exercise in which the barbell is held in the front in the upper part of the shoulders).

THE BELT: it will be useful to adapt to your thin waist the wide leg pants that will accommodate the powerful thighs developed with this exercise! Seriously, the use of the containment belt, so dear to powerlifters, makes sense only during the most demanding series. It is certainly more useful and profitable to concentrate on strengthening the abdominal, oblique and lumbar muscles, actively contracting them during movement. Use frequently. the belt during training has the same side effect as the torso. This artificial support prevents the abdominal muscles from working freely, interfering with their development. It must also be considered that if on the one hand a tight belt decreases the risk of disc herniation, on the other hand that of inguinal hernia increases considerably due to the strong intra-abdominal pressures that are created.

VARIATIONS: half squat, front squat, dumbbell squat, multipower squat, jump squat, squat with swiss ball on the wall, sissy squat, single-joint bodyweight squat.