Box squats are an incredibly effective exercise for increasing body awareness, breaking through squat plateaus, and, occasionally, recovering from injuries. Because for just one movement, those are some pretty impressive advantages. Box squats: are they harder or easier? Here’s why it’s harder.
Box Squats
Squatting to a box is all that a box squat entails. More specifically, box squats entail squatting until your butt taps a box (or bench, or chair) positioned behind you. You can do box squats with just your body weight or weighted with any type of equipment, though they’re commonly done with a barbell.
The height of the box determines where you will squat at your lowest point, which is the biggest distinction between box squats and box-free squats. During regular squats, the ideal depth is with your hips below your knees — but that might vary, depending on your strength as well as ankle, hip, and thoracic spine mobility.
You can also do single-leg box squats as a way to work toward a pistol squat if you’re looking for a challenge.
Benefits Of Box Squats
Both novice exercisers and seasoned athletes can benefit from box squats, but how each type of athlete uses them will vary. A few justifications for adding box squats to your leg day routine are listed below.
Work Your Entire Lower Body
The box squat — and the squat in general — is a killer compound exercise that hammers your hamstrings, quads, glutes, calves, and core. You are also working your upper body if you are holding a weight in front of or behind you. Briefly stated, box squats develop muscular bodies.
Strengthen Hamstrings And Glutes
Many people tend to be quad-dominant, meaning their quads like to take over and do more of the work in leg workouts. Box squats can help you tap into the strength of the muscles in your posterior chain — the back side of your body — including your glutes and hamstrings.
Build Awareness Of Your Squat Depth
The depth to which they are squatting is often not fully conscious of by novice lifters. Box squats are a great way for new athletes to learn what different depths feel like and to receive feedback about how low they’re going without a coach (or video) telling them.
This is because the box is at the bottom of the squat. This aids in the comfort and confidence-building process for novice lifters when using the squat movement pattern.
Get Stronger At The Bottom Of Your Squat
Box squats have another advantage for seasoned lifters who are very comfortable squatting and have excellent body awareness: they can help you get stronger, and in some cases, they can help you break through strength plateaus.
Improve Your Ability To Stand Up IRL
There’s also the fact that squats (and box squats) are the ultimate functional exercise. The more you practice functional movement patterns when you’re young, the more likely it is that you’ll still be able to do them as you age.
Rehab Injuries
Another excellent rehab tool is the box squat. Box squats give you the option of continuing your partial rep squat training without endangering your injury.
Work Toward A PR
Including box squats in your programming can assist you in breaking through a strength plateau because they help you get stronger at the bottom of your squat.
Are Box Squats Easier Or Harder
The Box Squat Performed Correctly Is Harder
First off, I believe it’s critical to stress again how much harder the box squat is than the standard squat. Even some claim that box squats allow them to lift more weight than regular barbell back squats do.
This immediately raises a form problem, which I’ll discuss in greater detail shortly. With box squats, you ought to unquestionably use less weight. Box squats will unquestionably be more challenging for you as long as you perform them properly.
Don’t “Bounce” Off The Box
The biggest error I see with the box squat is when beginners use the box as a springboard to get back up.
In fact, I’ve even heard people say that incorporating the “bounce” will allow you to squat more weight. If you’re going to exercise, follow strict form guidelines and perform the exercise correctly.
And the box squat should absolutely NOT include any bouncing. In essence, box squats are completely ineffective when you bounce.
At the bottom of the movement, there should be a distinct pause. The exercise is more challenging than its conventional counterpart because of this pause.
The box squat error of being wholly relaxed during the pause phase is another common one. It almost feels like you actually sit down on the box and take a few minutes to unwind.
But at the base of the movement, it’s crucial to maintain the body’s muscles contracted and tight. This is more of a deliberate pause than a time for rest or recovery.
Additionally, if you maintain a tight body throughout, you are less likely to suffer an injury.
The Regular Squat Uses Stretch Reflex
When you perform the regular squat you can take advantage of the stretch reflex. Essentially, this is a bounce to rise back up from the movement’s bottom.
The stretch reflex is essentially the body’s reaction to a muscle being stretched or lengthened. Actually, it can be used with a lot of different exercises besides just squats.
When you reach the bottom hole, you immediately literally spring back up to the top of the squat. It is more difficult to use the stretch reflex to raise yourself back up if you descend too quickly (which many people do when they squat).
In essence, the muscles of the body must deal with excessive downward momentum.
The Box Squat Recruits More Muscles Of The Posterior Chain
Another thing to think about is that the box squat allows you to reach back much further than the standard squat does.
As a result, you can maintain a much more vertical position for your shins. The posterior chain and the hamstrings are thus put to much greater use. And the majority of us squatters definitely need more of this in our lives.
Traditional squats are frequently thought of as quad-dominant exercises, but they also ought to work a number of muscles in the posterior chain.
How To Do A Box Squat
A. Put a box, chair, or bench in place. Stand a few inches away from the box, with your feet hip-width apart and your toes pointing straight ahead or slightly outward at a 15-degree angle.
B. Screwing your pinkies into the bar will engage your lats when you are squatting with a barbell. Take a deep breath, hinge at the hips, and bend your knees to lower until the butt touches the box while maintaining a tight core and a tall posture.
C. Sit on the box while maintaining a tight core and a tall chest.
D. Exhaling as you rise, press your feet firmly into the ground, tighten your glutes, and thrust your hips forward to press yourself back up to standing.
E. At the top, squeeze your glutes.