Last week on T-Nation Nate Green posted an article The Squat:Good Exercise Gone Bad? In which he talked to several coaches about legitimacy of the squat due to comments made by Mike Boyle. In the article Mike makes the case that the squat isn’t a leg or hip exercise so much as it is a lower back exercise. Due to his conclusion about squats,he has cut the back squat from all of his programs with his athletes. Everyone always seems to get upset when you pull the “King of All Exercises” from the program for some reason. I agreed with all the contributing coaches in the fact that there is no such thing as a bad exercise. There are exercises that aren’t going to be as optimal for the individual due to limb and torso length differences,but with correct technique,any exercise can be accomplished correctly with everyone.
What it gets down to for a performance coach such as Boyle or Chris Korfist (another individual who seems to get heat for “bad mouthing” the squat) is that they enhance performance in the most timely and efficient manner possible. Efficiency means not taking steps backward,like when an athlete injuries himself training. There is more than one way to skin a cat and the back squat is just another tool in the tool box to enhance performance. Like it was stated above,some exercises are going to be more beneficial and accomplish the same task or goal as the squat with fewer issues for some individuals. As Christian Thibaudeau stated,“shorter legged,longer torso body types are typically better at squatting and the longer legged,shorter torso body types are better at deadlifting.” The “squatters” are typically the types that need to be extremely conscience about quad dominance.
In his article The Deconstruction of Speed Development Chris goes over how many times he has seen the “King of All Exercises” ruin one of his sprinters who has returned from the college strength program and the coach had the athlete due nothing but squats. When this happens,the once fast hip dominant runner is now a slow quad dominant runner. Enhancing performance is the name of the game and big squat numbers do not always mean running faster,jumping higher or performing better. It seems like too many college strength coaches get so caught up in the numbers game that they lose sight of the real purpose. That is partly due to lack of job security and how dealing with “sport” coaches isn’t an easy task (everyone wants the athletes to do what they did).
Typically with most athletes I deal with,mobility and strength are the most glaring under developed qualities that will increase performance right away. In the end,quickness and power are the true qualities of a high level athlete. Whether the squat,squat variation,deadlift,or pull variation is used doesn’t really matter as long as the athlete develops the strength. Now,being able to squat is an important and essential movement pattern,but it’s a movement pattern that can be grooved or strengthened with altitude landings and depth jumps as well. So using any optimal lifting movement,depending upon the athlete and then in teaching them to land properly you will inherently be teaching the squatting pattern. Landings are much more difficult and involve larger faster forces,which transfer over to the sporting realm much better then back squats anyway.