How to Change Up Your Squat Routine

If you are no longer seeing the same results as before, you may have hit a roadblock in your training. This is fairly common in weightlifting and can be caused by a number of different things: number of sets, number of repetitions, order of exercise, type of exercise, or weight used. To combat this, changes are needed in your routine. An exercise that people commonly hit plateaus with is the squat. If you’ve ever been unable to increase the weight that you can squat, don’t worry, there are ways to switch up your routine to achieve maximum growth and strength gains.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Add wall sits. With your back against a wall, go into a sitting position with your knees bent and lower back arched. Your thighs should be parallel to the floor. Hold for as long as possible. This is great variation for improving the bottom of your squat and can be done at the end of your workout to burn your quadriceps.
2. Try death jumps. This plyometric exercise increases the amount of force produced over time and will improve your squat. Stand on a box and step off. Do not jump off, as this will load the knees and increase the landing stress. Upon making contact with the ground, jump off as fast as possible.
3. Add box squats. Use a box or platform and place it behind you. The box should be the height of the bottom position of your squat. Come down like doing a normal squat and sit on the box. However, don’t put all of your weight on the box. Pause for a count of one and come up. These will improve the bottom position of your squat.

Tips & Warnings

• Increase the speed at which you perform squats. Explode on the way up and perform repetitions as fast as you can.
• To increase hamstring and gluteus involvement, squat with your toes raised. Make sure your calves are thoroughly warmed up.
• If having a problem with a certain point of your squat, work on improving it. For example, if your sticking point is the lockout, perform quarter squats.
• Widen your stance places more emphasis on the hips and will help strengthen all aspects of your conventional squat.