The biggest news last week, judging by the reaction on Internet strength-training forums, is Mike Boyle’s attack on conventional squats, particularly the part where he looks right into the camera and says, “Don’t do conventional squats anymore.”

Doesn’t get any less ambiguous than that.

Boyle’s rationale is that the weak link in squatting is the lower back, which he says is a poor transducer of power. The muscles of the legs are worked better in a split stance, where the back is less of a limiting factor. His preferred lower-body exercise is the rear-foot-elevated split squat, or RFESS. Most of us know it as the Bulgarian split squat.

I got the email from Mike the same day as everyone else. The difference is that I wasn’t really surprised by his position. When I was at TMUSCLE, I edited Mike’s article on split squats,…

Tags: Tags: deadlifts, mike boyle, split squats, squats, strength, training

On a completely unrelated thread, a reader asked this question:

I, like many others, have been taught similar squatting techniques as outlined in your book. However, I was given an article recently by a personal trainer who has CHEK qualifications like Alywn. It advocates going through the full range of motion (i.e. letting your hamstrings touch your calf musles) when squatting. The article, called “How to perform a squat”, can be found here. I would be very interested in your views on the article.

I downloaded the article, and it’s clear the author, Tony Boutagy, has a different view of squat technique. Here’s how he says you should start your descent:

The knees first move directly forward as far as possible. After the knee initiates the movement, the hips lower down as low as flexibility allows.

As I wrote in NROL, if you see an inexperienced lifter in the gym…

Tags: Tags: form, squats, training