LOWER BODY MOVEMENTS

In our Strength Training System, most exercises that are being considered for a specific program will be placed into one of three general movement categories. Lower Body Movements involve the following movements: knee extension, hip extension, and plantar flexion. Lower Body Movements are those that will help increase strength in the lower back, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus muscle group, hip extensors, flexors, adductors, abductors, and the muscles of the lower leg (calf and ankle). Bilateral Movements are prominent within the program, but we also utilize a lot of unilateral variations which are more sports specific and help reduce stress placed on the body during training.

FRONT SQUAT EXERCISES

Front Squats are an alternative Bilateral Squat. Due to the change in bar placement, the biomechanics and physical demands of the lift become different. A front-loaded movement pattern requires a more upright torso placing slightly more emphasis on the legs than hips and lower back. This reduces the amount of load required to perform the lift, and subsequently less stress to the body. We utilize Fronts Squats or variations of them, year-round. We typically only utilize Back Squats during the off-season, which requires more time for recovery.

Front Squat: Goblet

• Hold a dumbbell in the goblet position. Hold one end of a vertical dumbbell underhand with both ends of the dumbbell touching the chest. This will prevent your posture from leaning too far forward.
• The movement begins with an athletic stance. Feet are slightly wider than hip width. The width of stance can vary based on the ability of the athlete to maintain an upright posture to full squat depth.
• Feet should be pointed out slightly.
• Maintain your head in a neutral, double chin position
• To begin, slowly and under control, driving your hips back as you maintain a relatively upright posture. Take a deep breath and hold it during the decent.
• Don’t let your knees come inward. It’s important that your knees track over your ankles and that your thigh, knee, shin and foot are all inline during the movement.
• Once you achieve full squat depth, push your feet through the floor as hard as possible when squatting back to the starting position.
• Depth will depend upon several factors ranging from flexibility to hip structure, torso and limb length and proper stance width. As a rule of thumb, top of thigh as close to parallel to the floor is the goal. Don’t let your hips rotate underneath, always keeping a flat lower back
• Your chest should always come up first, before your hips. Not the other way around. This will always be your biggest challenge.
• Don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement