The NEW Squat Kings?

It is everyone’s default, short on time? Don’t have a lot of equipment? Want to lose weight, gain muscle, improving conditioning? Then just do it!!!

SQUAT!

Easy enough advice right? Good blog, alright talk to you later. Nah, just kidding!

Being able to own a great squat is a great thing. Squats have so many benefits from building strength, using a lot of muscles at once so you can also use it as a fat burner, and just an overall efficient exercise. I can’t really debate any of these points for sure.

Where I get a bit frustrated is how we look at teaching and distinguishing different squat variations from one another. Listen, the kettlebell goblet squat was definitely a move in the right direction. We got people to understand they didn’t have to squat with a weight on their back to get all the great benefits of squatting.

In fact, for most people NOT squatting with the weight on the back is preferred as the back squat has shown time and time again to be the HARDEST on the body. Before the back squat police come for me research has showed over and over to get the same results without the pounding to the back, so no, you don’t ever have to back squat.

Which is great for many because the other problem with back squats is that we don’t get a lot of feedback from exercise. Huh?

One of the big reasons that we see so many bad back squats is that most of us, no, ALL of us move better when we can use load for feedback and create tension. That’s why I try to get people to see the squat a bit differently. Of course the squat builds up the lower body, but done RIGHT you also need a strong core and upper body.

That is because you are one connected piece, not a Frankenstein mess of muscles! That’s why in our DVRT educational programs the time we spend the LEAST upon is the squat. How is that possible when SO many people struggle with it?

For one, a lot of the DVRT exercises we teach leading up to the squat clean up a lot of technique issues allowing us to build success in the squat faster. The other is that the different holding positions of the Ultimate Sandbag in our squat progressions give us great feedback and help us use the RIGHT muscles to move better.

You will notice in our DVRT videos and pics that we aren’t just about holding the Ultimate Sandbag when we are squatting, we want to create tension against the Ultimate Sandbag. The Bear Hug Squat is such a great example.

The load placement allows us to use some really good weight to build strength, but the position also allows us to easily integrate the lats and core with our squat. What ends up happening? A beautiful squat almost every time even if you do have some mobility issues.

That is because mobility restrictions are many times a byproduct of not using the core. Because the body feels unstable during the squat the body falls forward or doesn’t know where to exactly go, these DVRT progressions solve this issue.

Then there is the beauty of something that looks so simple in our DVRT Front Loaded position. A moving plank squat that makes the same weight of Ultimate Sandbag feel so much harder because of the different leverage position during the squat.

Like the Bear Hug, we aren’t just holding the Ultimate Sandbag in the crooks of our arms. You see this mistake all the time! We want to try to “break” the Ultimate Sandbag in half with our forearms to use those lats and core again. How powerful is such an easy cue like this? Well, just look how my own squat changes quite dramatically JUST focusing on this one concept.

We don’t use our Ultimate Sandbag squat progressions because we are trying to be different than everyone else, we do so because it makes the squat BETTER! I’ve never had anyone had knee or back issues doing our DVRT squat progressions because they learn to move better and use their body in the most natural ways. Sadly, we don’t focus enough on this on our training and miss the REAL beauty of these exercises!

Find out why DVRT continues to change how people are training for real world strength! Save 25% and get a BIG gift with coupon code “holiday” when you invest in our online educational programs or Ultimate Sandbags HERE