The problem is that for the substitute to work, it needs to bend the knees deeply. pistol squats, Bulgarian split squats, front squats.). It's worth a try.īut it's very possible that she'll reject these and all other fruitful substitutes for barbell back squats (e.g. We must open our arms to the gentle indifference of the world.Īir squats, adding weight at an imperceptible pace with the wimpy dumbbells until she's doing real work, might weasel past her anti-squat defenses and get her to do real work. If she's okay with that after a few weeks, spring this question on her: why is bending her knee for a lunge safe, but bending her knee for a squat dangerous? If someone is convinceable, that should work. Here's what I'd try: have her do lunges with dumbbells-heavy dumbbells, no five pound BS-and stick with that for a few workouts. Unfortunately, they might trigger the same danger signals she has for barbell squats. (But it sure helps.) Sometimes just "not weak" is enough. Not everybody has to do a 3-times-a-week back squats in order to live their life healthfully. You could have her do goblet squats until she gets her big girl pants on and realizes that real squats are what strong and healthy people do. She can do a linear progression on everything else if she wants. So doing "StrongLifts" without squats is out of the question. Squats are the most important exercise of StrongLifts 5x5. In fact, on page 41 of the StrongLifts ebook, it says: It's essential to programs like this to squat heavy three times a week. If you're not squatting, you're not doing StrongLifts. What, then, should you have her do instead?įirst, get the idea of StrongLifts out of your head. They are, but you can only lead a horse to water. Let's assume you're not going to convince her that squats are good for her knees. When both sides of your body are engaged, the load is distributed to the muscle rather than the joints. As long as all the forces come from one side of your body (anterior chain or posterior chain), there is an increased risk of injury. Squats protect your knee, and help improve your posterior chain use even in these high stress activities. The impact is much faster than it would be to get the posterior chain involved-thus no help. The force imparted to the knee as your weight is coming down and your foot is already on the immovable earth is up to 3x your body weight.
One of the main factors is the fact that only the anterior muscles are engaged when you land. are all exercises that place much higher stresses on the knee joint. Goblet squats are a good way to get introduced to the movement, get some torso strength, and more easily get to depth. Lunges are acceptable, but if you are worried about knee health the idea of touching the knee to the floor with weights is not really appealing. The bottom line is that there is no lift that can adequately replace squats. The forces are distributed to larger muscles that are able to bear the stress rather than the joint itself.Knees are traveling in ergonomic paths (assuming toes and knees are aligned in the same direction).Gluteous muscles are engaged to initiate the lift out of the bottom.
Posterior chain is engaged, providing a counterbalance from behind the knee.
The depth causes certain things to happen that protect the knees: The important and critical factor is getting the hips below the knees before changing directions. The book Starting Strength has some good information on why this is. I will say that I have had more stress on my knees from martial arts training than I ever had from heavy squats.