The Squat

Kelii, USAPL Nationals 369 at 123 lbs.

After reading Mr Brett's post(http://appliedstrength.blogspot.com/2006/10/squat-squat-squat-great-exercise-funny.html) about the squat it got me thinking about this movement that was the center of my existence for so many years and one which I rarely ever do anymore.

After blowing out my knee in my junior year of high school I became incredibly aware of the fragility and weakness in my leg(s). I still competed my Senior year and three years at the University of Iowa despite doing JUST gymnastics and NO leg training whatsoever! THen I blew out my shoulder on rings and my lower body was all I had that would function. This is when I learned that I could run and I set about learning HOW to run. The feeling of having strong stable legs was something that I had never felt before and I knew I would have to keep my legs strong if I were to have even a chance of being athletic with my destroyed knee that would only bend 90 degrees.

SO I ran, then I cycled, falling in love with the professional cyclists freakish quad development and setting that as my goal. Keeping my leg strong was proof that I would not be a cripple!

Then it was bodybuilding , where leg development was my specific fetish and I memorized the routines and training theories of Tom Platz, Tim Belknap, Mike Mentzer and of course Arnold, The squat cage became my temple and squat day was the sabbath. Time to go sacrifice myself at the alter of strength.

Real lifters squatted. Always. Whether they were bodybuilders or powerlifters , if you wanted to be Real Deal you squatted. Plain and simple. It was a proving ground of your seriousness, of your desire to get big and strong for real, of your courage and your aggression in the gym. All the big guys squatted and squatted hard. Many many times my entire routine was nothing but squats and perhaps some leg extensions to death. 12-15 sets of full pyramid squats would let you know very quickly the difference between quality work and just pretending.

My thinking was if my leg was big it wouldn't be crippled.

I trained with some serious squatters as well. Bill Hogarty, a very talented Teen Mr America contender,and built like a combo between rich gaspari and tim belknap would ROUTINELY squat ( hi bar close stance ass to heels) 4 sets of 25 reps with 405, blood spewing from his nose covering the mirror at California Gym like some demonic jackson pollock painting. His legs were like Cotters but 31 inches. Just sick. But thats what I wanted and I worked as hard as anyone to get there. Genetics, as we all know, is destiny, but I didnt give up.

Until I realized I could be strong and not have to worry about being so big if I were a powerlifter and my numbers would speak for my strength.If I could squat 500-600 pounds it would have to signify I had conquered the weakness in my leg and knee. Well, sometimes it does. But in powerlifting it may mean you have a strong back or abs and some good gear.

I had routinely used 405 for sets of five in the bodybuilding hi bar squat to parallel( all my knee will bend)and did lots of reps with lighter weights as I tried to blow torch my quads into growth but I was not at all ready for what a really maximal one rep, 100% weight would feel like. And for the challenge that it would become for me. In the perfecting of the form and the mental confrontation it would produce.

Some say the deadlift is the king of lifts as it is almost impossible to cheat with gear or by cutting the rep. But the bar is in your hand and you can always just let go when it gets really tough. Can't do that with 600 pounds balancing on your shoulders. You are not just involved, as they say, you are committed.

Never in my athletic career had I experienced the singular focus and concentration that the one rep, maximal contest power squat required of me. Both in the gym and on the contest platform.

It was pure confrontation. Just me and the bar. ANd once you committed to it, once you started ducking under to rack that freaking world on your shoulders and walk it away from any support or assistance. To then stand there, calmly, in control, and take that weight down to where it feels like you might never get back up and then do it. Get back up.With every ounce of your being and your mind never so much in just one place in your life.

It required every ounce of my energy condensed to a total body committment like none other I had felt.It used every muscle you had plus way more than you thought you had.Only having to do one rep changed everything. No longer could I warm myself up through a set to get to the strong part. You had to be strong on demand. NOW!. And once your name was called their was no backing away from that platform or that bar. It was like walking into a fight. No turning back.

A true Zen moment if there ever was one.No time for thought, just ACTION! One rep.

That bar on you back , trying to crush you back down was so symbolic to me. Atlas like, trying to lift the world, to conquer it. To lower yourself with it only to stand strongly again.ANd again, and again.As usual in the search for knowledge and truth I went a little too far.It's hard to know where the edge is until you step over it.

And it wrecked me and now the only squats I do is the stretch, trying to rid myself of the excess tension all that strength left me with.Lifting heavy heavy weights with a fundamentally unsound structure makes no sense but hey, I wanted to be a champion and dems the breaks.But I can't recommend it for sane people.

And although bilateral movements tend to bring back the imbalances I have fought so hard to correct, the assymetric single kettlebell seems to strengthen the legs, hips, back and shoulders in the kindest way I have seen, while building real strength.

Real Deal, real world strength.With a movement that reminds me of nothing so much as the power squat.In its mechanics ,in its simplistically beautiful power and the total body connection and committment it demands. And my bad knee and leg is straighter and stronger than it has been in many many years.

And I feel so good that I just dont miss the squat at all. Go figure.