Speed Box Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- A barbell, a box and a rack
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a box behind you at a height that puts your thighs at or just below parallel.
- Rack a barbell across your upper back and step back until the box is right behind you.
- Load it lighter than a working squat.
- Sit back onto the box under control, keeping the shins close to vertical.
- Settle briefly without relaxing the trunk, then drive up as fast as you can.
- Reset the brace before the next repetition.
Common mistakes
- Dropping onto the box. Sitting under control is the exercise; landing on it puts the impact through a loaded spine with the legs unloaded.
- Rocking backward and using the bounce. The pause is what makes the drive start from a standstill, which is the whole reason to combine a box with speed work.
- Relaxing on the box. The trunk stays braced through the pause; letting it go and re-bracing under a loaded bar is the least supported moment in the lift.
- Loading it heavily. Speed is the variable being trained, and a bar that cannot be moved fast has turned this back into a box squat.