Box Squats for Weightlifting
I really like Box squats for weightlifting. It helps with flexibility a lot better than stretching, builds up the often dormant hip muscles and is a great way to teach proper bracing and tempo. At RAW Barbell Club we actually use the Box Squat to teach people how to better front and back squat.
When building a weightlifter our over arching long-term goal is to make the athlete better at Snatching and Clean & Jerking. That doesn’t just mean heavier, it means: more comfortable, pain free and with better and better positions.
Normally to build stronger and better positions we use auxiliary exercises like squats and pulls. In particular the back and front squat. If you get stronger in the back and front squat you will generally have stronger positions in the Olympic lifts. That is why this is a strength sport. If however your squatting itself looks like poop (💩), then we have bigger problems. There will be less and less carry over to the olympic variations.
What do we do then? Well sometimes we need to go one step even further and actually build the squat. Box Squats will not make your Olympic Lifts better. But what it can do is improve the positions of your front and back squat. This will in turn allow you to move better at these movements and eventually once you spend the time apply your new strength will have a carry over to your lifting.
In fact it’s greatly helped Zofia with her strength and positions! Even her depth (surprisingly enough).
Key points are to keep your chest up (vertical torso), and your shins vertical (perpendicular to the ground). Go as wide, and sit back as far as you can manage to with the above conditions and you’ll be on your way to building up your squat in no time.
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Box Squats for Weightlifting
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