In all things, go to the source.
It’s extremely popular these days for people to treat symptoms of disease, or to address perceived causes of illness, without digging deeper to find out what the real source of the problem is.
Coach Mike Boyle recently posted about ditching back squats in athletic training programs in favor of single-leg squats (thanks, Aaron, for linking to this). His reasoning? The low back is the limiting factor for building strength in the legs of athletes.
While that sounds really good, it ignores an important point. THE LOW BACK IS THE PLACE WHERE LEG POWER TRANSFERS TO UPPER BODY POWER-EXPRESSION AND MOVEMENT.
Coach Boyle is saying that his athletes don’t back squat because it’s dangerous for their low backs, or that their low-backs can’t tolerate it.
Well, yes, if they’re substituting hip mobility for low-back mobility. Or if their thoracic spines are so inflexible that they can’t rack a bar on their traps properly. Or if their hamstrings are so tight that their hips dive under when they sit down.
Thing is, the problem could be any OR ALL of those. Or it could be calf/ankle ROM limitations. Or it could be that they just have poor motor-patterning. Etc. etc. etc.
Bypassing the back squat because an athlete has functional limitations is like staying away from vegetables because they’re hard to chew.
You aren’t solving the problem. If anything, you’re going to make it worse!
You have to address the problems before you start loading the body. You can’t slap load on a dysfunctional frame and expect it to iron itself out.
If anyone wants to know how to fix their dysfunctions, go get Pete Egoscue’s book “Pain Free” and read it and apply it to yourself. Or, go to an Egoscue clinic and get a e-cise menu from one of their practitioners. DO IT. It works.
I’m not saying single-leg exercises are bad. I think they’re great! Taking an athlete who is fully capable of deep (full) and heavy back, front, or overhead squats, and putting them through a rotation of single-leg squats, is a wonderful idea!
Just don’t try to shortcut dysfunction by creating new exercises and making dogmatic statements about “always” and “never.”
