Leg weights

[Track_man]

@hemann

Heres my take on why charlie, and even bigger faster stronger have stated that parallel squats are most effective. (charlie has said “half squats” which to me means either parallel or 90)

Compare the angles of the legs when accelerating. When the toe is in contact with the ground, the knee is never bent more than 90 degrees. Therefore, developing range of motion strength beyond that point is less necessary. However, if one were to always squat at 90 (3-4 inches above parallel) and -just one time perhaps- they were to start their acceleration in practice or a meet… and their leg surpassed 90 degrees and went closer to parallel-- their (hamstrings, most likely) would be at much more of a risk for injury because the muscles have not been developed properly beyond 90 degrees. I have actually witnessed this with several athletes. Torn ligaments in the knees and hamstring pulls and tears are terribly common with track athletes not squatting to proper depth!!

With that, it would be very difficult to mistakenly start accelerating with the legs bent beyond parallel, so I would strongly reccomend doing parallel squats. BFS has always sung their praises, but I know a lot of people take what BFS says with a grain of salt…

lifting is not meant to be specific to your sprinting. Bolt and tyson both use machines and they do some stuff (i can guarantee) that would make you wtf? when you see.

But as I was saying, the point of lifting is to provide a stimulus and strengthen the neccesary muscles. deep squatting does more to strengthen the posterior chain than parallel squats do, however, if your parallel squat got to a certain level… then you’d have enough posterior chain strength anyway, and atg squatting wouldnt make much difference…

In my next GPP, im planning on using both… and progressing both.