The Anterior Chain

[tamfb]

I am not dogmatic about anything, I have used single leg lifts with my athletes for example spilt squats 205x5 and the athlete squat max was 485.

My point was I don’t think single leg movements are very efficient for building max lower body strength and dont allow for the biggest bang for the buck when following CF system. Remember CF systems dont include high vol ol’s.

Also ask James about all the hip injuries etc they had at Pitt after Coach K went away from all the heavy lunges etc.

@twhite03

I don’t think you can be dogmatic either way about this issue. Many roads lead to Rome. Even Charlie mentioned that he didn’t consider lunges, split squats or step-ups to be single leg lifts because they are supported on both legs. Personally I find that once you reach a certain level of maximal strength, you can afford to shift the emphasis to some other options like the step-up or split squat as long as you maintain your strength on the squat (perhaps as little as once every 10-14 days). We’ve seen Asafa do just fine with the exclusion of the squat and even Pfaff mentioned in his latest seminar that the squat was not the end-all-be-all that many make it out to be. He mentioned that a high box step up can actually be as effective and more challenging. I believe his leg series replaces the squat in his program if that is the decision made.

Speaking from personal experience I really do like squats, however I’m not really interested in going over a 5RM ever again as I’m not convinced that it’s necessary to continue to improve. Additionally I’ve found that high volumes of olympic lifts matched with a leg series of 2-3 exercises such as step-ups, lunges, weighted jumps, etc is just as effective, if not more so.

I’ll keep both in my program however as both options have worked for me in the past.