Front Squats, And Why They RULE!

I've said time and time again, if you want to get stronger, faster, bigger, leaner, more powerful, and look like you actually lift weights, get under the bar and do some squats.  Seriously, you can read this article later! go hit up the squat rack for a few sets of heavy triples!

And now that that's done, let's talk about why next time you run off to the gym, you should try putting that heavy bar on your shoulders instead of your traps.  What the heck am I talking about?  FRONT SQUATS!  The ultimate total body squat exercise (save for overhead squats, though those can be a little harder to jump right into).  I'm not kidding, back squats and front squats are two completely different beasts.  To put it in perspective, I can easily rep 280 lbs for a set of three back squatting, then after a minute or two I'll be ready to come back and hit it again.  When I approach my max in front squats (which happens to be about 80% of my max back squat), I literally need to compose myself for quite some time between sets.  They absolutely drain you, and work your body to a whole new level of fatigue.  Don't be scared though, because after a set of good, deep front squats, you'll walk away from that squat rack feeling like you REALLY pushed yourself, and nothing feels better than that.

So what's a front squat look like?  Well, before I attempt to explain via text on a page, I'll show you a video:

This guy definitely knows how to front squat, great depth, great flexibility, and INCREDIBLE strength from the very rock bottom position.  Can you do this?  Absolutely, though obviously we'll start off with a little less weight.

First step in a front squat, approach and grip the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width.  This will ensure your upper back is as tight as possible, and will fight your urge to "hunch" in the bottom of the squat.  Second, bring your elbows down under the bar, and push them forward until the bar is resting on your deltoids (shoulders).  Make it tight against your throat.  Don't worry about breathing problems, and if you are choking just a little, LOOK UP.  It will clear your airway.  I'm serious here, you want that bar tight against your neck, keep it close to you.

Now, un-rack the bar with either both heels under it or in a split position (just make sure you're not using your toes to lift the weight off the rack).  Step back with a couple slow, very controlled steps, and get your feet into a position that's either shoulder width or slightly wider (I go a little wider because I have very long legs).

Now this is important.  You may have learned to keep your legs parallel and your toes pointing straight forward.  If you do this in a front squat, you'll dump the bar.  Front squats require you to remain UPRIGHT in the bottom position, and therefore they might feel a little weird at first.  To accomplish this upright position, the first thing necessary is to point your toes at an angle slightly outward.  When it's time to descend, lock in your lower back, and instead of pushing your butt "back" like so many personal trainers might have told you, push your knees OUT and start to descend between your hips.  This may take time to get right, and you'll need to build up some hip flexibility to get it right.  STAY ON YOUR HEELS.  Don't go onto your toes, or your knees will punish you.  Keep going as deep as you can, continually pushing your knees out, and staying on the outside of your heels.  Once you're as low as you can go (hopefully at least below parallel), drive with your heels, quads, and glutes, and try to stay upright.  A little forward lean is expected under heavy loads, but try to keep it minimal.  Oh, and don't let your knees buckle inward!  Push them out with all your might!  Once you're standing again, feel free to do another.

Now I keep saying to remain upright, but I haven't told you two EXTREMELY important tips to doing so.  Firstly: KEEP YOUR ELBOWS UP!  Don't let them dip.  Keep them parallel to the ground (I mean your upper arm here, your elbows shouldn't point toward the ground at any time in the squat.)  Second:  FLEX YOUR CORE!!!!  Front squats are one of the greatest core exercises of all time BECAUSE they require you to keep your core extremely tight to stay upright.  You have to clench your abs with everything you got, even before you start the squat.  Don't even THINK about heading down until you make sure your abs are TIGHT.  The requirement for a strong core is much moreso than in back squats.

Here's a picture:

Alternate Grip:  If you're having trouble with the classic Olympic grip, you can try the cross arm grip.  You're still balancing the bar on your shoulders, but your grip looks more like one of those russian "hooplah" dancers, if you know what I mean.  If you don't, here's a picture:

I honestly don't like this grip too much, and if you do any sort of Olympic lifting, even as an assistance exercise, DON'T USE THIS GRIP.  But for those of you just starting out, or just doing front squats for the fun of it, feel free to try it out.  Some people like it much better.

So there's your intro to the front squat.  I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend hitting this exercise ASAP! You won't be sorry.  The gains possible off of front squats are enormous, and a lot of people have found that if they've plateaued on back squats, front squats can push them over that stall point and keep their numbers going up.  As far as Olympic lifting is concerned, the front squat is MUCH more applicable to the lifts than back squats, because you're forced to stay upright (and every single time you clean a heavy weight, you have to front squat it up...see the relation).  Hit the gym and try these bad boys out and you'll look and feel like an absolute monster!

Squat deep, squat heavy, stay tight, and GOOD LUCK! 

My Beef with YOUR Legs

All right, this here's my blog, and though I'll almost always give helpful, hopeful, kind and informative information, a guy's gotta blow off steam sometimes, right?  

I've recently had a string of circumstances in which I've overheard people discussing the infamous "leg day" in the gym.  Oh god, LEG DAY!  HOW AWFUL!  It's been nothing but moaning, groaning, and whining at how sore they are after their LEG DAY.  "Aw man, I hate walking up stairs after LEG DAY..." or, "Man I think I'm going to take my rest day today, I just hit LEGS yesterday and I can barely walk."  I usually just stand there, fuming a little bit, trying not to scream out at them that they have no idea what a real leg workout really is.  Luckily though, self control is one of my better qualities.

So what's my big issue with LEG DAY?  Well, while I can agree with a lot of bodybuilding philosophies, the dogma behind leg day is NOT one of them.  Sure, I can understand you may be sore after some high rep squats, leg presses, and lunges, but I won't tolerate the whining for days on end that follow such a "high intensity " workout.  I put high intensity in quotes because it's all really a matter of opinion, and I hate to say it, but most gym rats have no idea what some top level athletes go through to force their legs to the next level.  Allow me to explain, but before I do, understand that I AM going to bring up Olympic lifting and power lifting yet again, and because I am training for Olympic weightlifting you may think I'm biased.  You're entitled to that opinion, and you probably are right in a way.  I'm biased, sure, but for sound reasons.  Anyway....

Let's look at an amateur Oly weightlifter.  Do you bodybuilders have any idea what they're training entails?  Let's go through the motions of how their training progresses.  When they're  a stark, raw beginner, they're squatting moderately heavy/ heavy twice a week, and probably pretty light for one more day on top of that.  They'll then progress to at least four days of squatting per week, increasing both their volume and weight.  Pretty soon they'll be hitting at least 80% of their 1 rep max every one of their training days.  Once their body adapts, they'll increase the frequency of their training sessions.  A good amateur will be training about 6 days a week, with one double session thrown in there, in which they'll squat in BOTH sessions.  After that?  You guessed it, they'll add one more day.  At first they'll only squat light on this 7th day, but after a while this workout will build up to around the same level as their other ones.  They'll be hitting at least 85-95% of their max almost every day, for doubles and triples.  But this isn't even close to the end.  Oh no.  A professional, world class weightlifter will squat every day, two to three sessions, in which they'll max out multiple times on singles, doubles, triples, 5's, and sometimes even 10's.  On top of that, they'll be using weights that regularly exceed 500 lbs.  And that's just for squats.  Did I mention they do the same thing with snatches and clean/jerks?  Yeah, your leg day doesn't seem so hard anymore, does it?

Now THAT's some depth!

A common powerlifting workout schedule may not be as squat oriented as Olympic style weightlifting, but they're still working legs multiple times a week with far more intensity than you can really fathom.  They usually have one to two days entirely devoted to the heaviest squats they can muster, and usually one day devoted completely to deadlifting (again, at maximal loads).  These guys are the strongest of the strong when it comes to moving heavy stuff around, and they're doing reps with weight I couldn't move in any way, shape or form.  Do that multiple times a week, then complain about those lunges you used to do.

Bottom line, you'll build strength squatting heavy and squatting often.  You may think it goes against conventional knowledge of muscle recovery, but that's exactly the point.  You force your body to adapt to heavier weights, because you're lifting them so often.  Even me, the skinny kid from Vermont, has put about 100 lbs on his squat so far with the Olympic lifting technique, and it's only been about 6 months of serious training.  And that's self coached.  There's a reason the greatest Olympic athletes were squatting over 500 lbs by the time they were 19.  I think John Broz, one of America's finest weightlifting coaches, puts it best:

"If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you'd start squatting every day. Other countries have this mindset. America does not."

Now I don't mean to take anything away from serious bodybuilders.  Judging by the size of their legs, they know how to train to get what they want.  But that's just it.  They want size, definition, vascularity.  Strength comes in behind those.  Again, that's fine if that's your goal, but it certainly isn't mine.  I'd rather squat super heavy weight with big legs than medium/light weight with GIANT legs.

One more issue I have with a bodybuilder style leg workout, is the depth of the squats.  What the HECK are you guys thinking?  I regularly see these big fools get under a bar with WAYYY too much weight, groan as they barely manage to lift it onto their back (or neck if they're REALLY inexperienced), hunch right over and squat a full 4 inches.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  You're killing your knees, getting no real leg workout, and most likely destroying your lower back.  To get strength, you need to squat deep.  To squat deep, you need flexibility.  Look at any Olympic lifter, or even power lifter, they have ridiculous hip flexibility and can maintain a tight back even into the deepest of squats.  They're building solid legs.  Why aren't you?

NOT DEEP ENOUGH!!!!!

Anyway, there's my little rant.  To anyone around me, don't complain about leg days.  I may be a skinny kid with pretty skinny legs, but I'm still squatting 6 days a week, with double sessions every other day.  I don't find anything difficult about your stupid lunges, quarter squats, or leg presses.  And next time I see you straining to push 500lbs on the hack sled a full two inches, don't be surprised if you hear me chuckle just a little bit.

If you're looking for strength, squat heavy, squat deep, squat often, and don't cry about it.  GOOD LUCK!

Can Plants Build Muscle?

There's a huge debate out there, one I constantly read about and observe in order to hopefully be better educated about the subject.  We as humans are quite happy with choosing certain diet plans, sticking to one or another based on our needs, desires, and beliefs.  Probably the biggest, broadest categories of different eating styles are as follows:  Vegetarian, vegan, and a more common, omnivorous diet.  Everybody who chooses to live and eat a certain way has usually thought pretty hard about it, and if "done right" any of the above schemes of consumption can be extremely healthy and beneficial to the human body.

...But enough of all the silly "everybody wins" attitude.  For as long as I can remember every meathead I see at the gym has always wondered one thing:  Can you build muscle on a vegetarian/vegan diet, or should those pesky vegetables be avoided as muscle building tools?

Well, in all honesty, this question is probably one of the hardest to answer in the entire muscle-building world.  Let me first say this:  There have been successful bodybuilders, strength athletes, and all sorts of other world champion athletes that have followed any one of those three diets, so theoretically, you can have world class strength, endurance, and agility by eating just about anything.  If you do it right, that is.

We all know how to get protein from cows, pigs, birds and fish, so let's discuss plant protein for a minute.  That's right, plants have protein!  Some have a whole bunch!  Beans tend to be very rich in protein, like Garbanzo beans, red beans, black beans, etc.  However rarely will you see a vegetarian/vegan with too much muscle on their frame. Why is this?  Plants have potential to be pretty substantial protein sources, if you eat enough of them, so why is the vegan bodybuilder such a rare occurrence?

Because MOST PLANT PROTEINS ARE INCOMPLETE!!!  And what does that mean, exactly?  Well, it's a funny thing really.  An incomplete protein is one that's missing certain essential amino-acids required by the body to be fully metabolized.  All that protein you just consumed from those veggies won't be used for muscle repair until their incomplete components are completed via combination with OTHER incomplete proteins.  Depending on the plant that's consumed, you may get a certain mixture of proteins that when combined with the consumption of a different plant will finally match themselves together and become a complete, USABLE protein.  Here are a few examples of different plant combinations that will yield complete protein when combined sometime throughout the day (combining one food from every list will yield a complete protein):

List One (foods low in sulfur) Green beans Asparagus Broccoli Potatoes Lentils Soybeans

List Two (foods low in tryptophan) Barley Mushrooms Chard Green peas Garbanzo beans Brown rice

List Three (foods low in lysine) Almonds Pumpkin seeds Pecans Yams Brown rice Corn

On a side note, until recently it was thought that to complete the incompletes, one must consume the required parts within the same meal.  This has been disproved, and as long as the two parts are consumed within relative rapidity of each other the body can still complete and use the protein.


Some plant proteins are even complete right out of the box!  For example: soy protein.  It contains all essential amino acids, and has anti-carcinogenic effects on the body (a double win.)  Don't expect to bulk up on this stuff though, because while the jury's still out on the overall effect of large amounts of soy on the male gender, it's been rumored countless times that soy will increase the hormone estrogen, which is a female hormone and will hamper muscle building attempts.  Small amounts are completely healthy though, and I still have a little tofu in my salad every day.


So it's very possible to get a decent amount of protein from plant based sources, you just need to know your stuff, do some research, and be ready to restructure your meals.  And there have been many extremely successful people who have already done this.  I mean come on, just head over to veganbodybuilding.com and read a few of the success stories, clearly there are some smart cookies over there (egg free cookies too.)

But now on to the fun part.  MY OPINION!!!  And what do I say?  I believe that if you're like me, a guy who works out frequently and has decent knowledge regarding food, who ALSO has big muscle/strength goals in mind, skip out on trying to get a lot of protein from plant based sources.  In the end it's going to cause you a lot of trouble for not much gain.  Think about it:  Would you rather balance an entire day packed full of various incomplete proteins in a desperate attempt to consume more than 100 grams of protein, or eat a chicken breast, a can of tuna, and a protein shake, and be done with it?  All three of those are complete proteins, and will build muscle MUCH FASTER than any plant combo ever could.

Vegan Bodybuilders

NATURAL omnivorous Bodybuilders

Notice the difference in mass between natural omnivorous bodybuilders (Chad Shaw and Jim Wilet) and a couple of famous Vegan bodybuilders (Ed Bauer and Alexander Dargatz)

In fact, that's the case with most animal/dairy proteins.  THEY'RE COMPLETE.  No mixing and matching is necessary.  They can be readily consumed and absorbed in mass quantities.  And if you look around on the web, sure you'll find the occassional no-neck vegan posing in a ripped "most-muscular," but for every one of those guys I'd be willing to bet that there are thousands of meat eaters who are just as big, strong, and shredded.  That's the problem with vegetarian muscle building for the masses:  Unless you completely devote yourself to the craziest, most fanatical plant diet in existence, you're going to have a very hard time putting even fractions of the mass on that the the average omnivorous person can.

Am I saying to forget the plants?  HELL NO!  I eat so many veggies I might turn into a brocolli spear.  But I don't eat them for protein, I eat them for their complex carbs, fiber, and LOADS OF NUTRIENTS!  I let the meat and whey take over my needs for protein.  I'll aim for around 150-200 grams of protein per day, and I can't even imagine doing that with all plant based sources.  If I was vegetarian, I might be able to pull it off with a whole bunch of protein shakes.  If I was vegan, I'm not sure what I'd do.  I mean I've got a few ideas, but wow would it be an adventure.  Don't get me wrong, the vegans have got some great ideas and I love incorporating certain vegan recipes into my diet every now and then.  But for muscle building, it's not in the realm of what I need.  Again though, I'm sure I'll get shot for saying that, or called lazy, uneducated, or similar things.  But hey, it's still an opinion that I believe in, and a lot of people would agree with me.

So, here's the bottom line:  Is it possible to gain muscle off of vegetarian/vegan diets?  Yes, definitely.  Is it a feasible muscle gaining diet for the masses, one ready and waiting in the wings to replace our carnivorous and omnivorous habits?  NO.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  If you want muscle, eat meat.  Don't rely on veggies, nuts, soy burgers and salad to do it for you.  Eat some chicken.  Eat some beef.  Chomp that turkey, and pack it on.

GOOD LUCK!!

References:  


http://www.nutribodyprotein.com/protein-types.php
http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/802982/get-your-protein-with-meatless-combinations
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/articles/get-enough-protein-veg-diet.php