In order to ease what is your no doubt burning curiosity to this somewhat click-baity title……the answer is yes….probably.
Box Squats used to be the subject of a lot of debate 10-20 years ago. For those of you fairly new to the strength world, you may not realize that the dominance and popularity of Raw Powerlifting is a fairly new thing.
For several decades (80s, 90s, early 2000s) most power lifting was done equipped. Meaning that it was generally the standard for lifters to compete in Squat suits, squat briefs, and knee wraps. All of which can add significantly to your Squat totals. As in…100s of pounds. There really weren’t very many “raw” competitions. The question was generally if you competed in Single Ply or Multi-Ply power lifting, with “raw” considered to be kind of the fringe of the competition – if it was offered at all. Today the roles are reversed where major competitions have hundreds of raw competitors and perhaps only a handful of equipped competitors.
Without deviating into a “History of Powerlifting” article…..equipped powerlifting was the victim of a murder-suicide in which they were the victim of both the murder and the suicide. In other words – they dug their own grave and were summarily kicked into said grave by the rise of social media and the simultaneous rise competitive Raw Powerlifting.
Turns out more people would rather see a guy Squat 600 to parallel in a pair of shorts and a belt than Squat 1200 in a suit, briefs, and knee wraps, 6 inches above parallel. I’m not making any judgements about who is stronger because (1) I don’t care (2) it doesn’t matter what I think (3) it varies by the individuals in question.
ANYWAYS…………Box Squatting has been around a long time, but it really got popular in the late 90s and early 2000s when Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell and his lifters were dominating much of the multi-ply power lifting world and his gym was using almost exclusively box squatting in training. Success leaves clues and much of the powerlifting world began to mimic the Westside crew.
The Box Squat is an excellent tool for multi-ply lifting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it mimics the effect of the Squat suit. And it’s a way to train “specifically” for multi-ply lifting without having to get into the suit to squat each and every week.
But as Raw Powerlifting grew and more people got involved, most raw lifters gravitated back to training their squat more traditionally…..by Squatting. Some have clung to the Box as the superior way of squatting, even for a raw lifter, but I think the vast majority of competitors and coaches have found that if one is going to train for raw powerlifting competition, then squatting “sport specifically” is a must. For most, exclusively box squatting just doesn’t carryover to the “free” squat when competition rolls around.
So this begs the question – is there a role for the Box Squat in your training program? And if so, where? and why?
Let’s look at some of the benefits of the Box Squat to see if it might be a good fit for your training…
Recovery. Box squats seem to be a bit easier to recover from for a lot of people. I really haven’t settled on an explanation that I like as to why this often seems to be the case. Italics for seems because I’m going off anecdotal evidence here. But I’ve heard it repeated enough (and this has certainly been my own experience) that I think there is validity to it. The implication is of course that when and if you want to add some squat volume to your training, then box squats might be a very good way of adding that volume in a way that moves the needle without crossing that redline in terms of recovery. For a heavy-light-medium program, a heavy-light program, or even a volume-intensity based program….one or two of those days can certainly be a box squat. This may allow you to squat more frequently and with more overall volume and mitigate the risks of overtraining.
Hamstrings. The most unique advantage to the box squat is not the fact that you can pause on the box and kill the stretch reflex. You can also do that with pause squats and pin squats. But the unique advantage to the box is that you can SIT WAAAAAY BACK. Further than you can with a regular squat or even a pin squat. The box allows for this and keeps you from getting stuck or toppling over backwards. The obvious advantage to this is the massive overload this places on the Hamstrings (and usually the adductors as well). It’s very common for me to teach these for the first time to a lifter and have to stop short of the prescribed volume because the hamstrings start to cramp up a bit. The eccentric loading of the hamstrings is no joke. I believe this to have very important ramifications for both performance AND INJURY PREVENTION for competitive athletes (non-lifters). And because of this, the Box Squat often becomes my primary squat variation for athletes. For bodybuilders with bad hamstrings I think that box squats ending with vertical shins are an underutilized exercise in most routines.
Knees. For the same reasons they build the hamstrings, they also can save the knees. Because the lifter or athlete is forced to sit so far back, the hips are loaded even more in a box squat than a regular low-bar squat. When the hips are loaded to this extent it means even less loading on the quads and knee joint. For this reason, box squats make an excellent tool for preventing and working around knee issues/problems/injuries. For older clients with achy, creaky, arthritic knees, box squats can allow more frequent and pain free squatting with all the strength benefits of regular squats. For athletes who have to balance lifting with the practice and play of their sport…they may benefit from box squatting as a means to let the knees “rest” a bit while still getting their squats in. For those with a knee injury or quad tendon injury – box squatting may let them return to squatting sooner and with more load/volume than with regular squatting.
Power. Box Squatting can build power out of the hole. For athletes who often get “stuck” in the bottom of the squat or are just super slow out of the hole, box squatting may yield some benefits. Especially if you are disciplined about the length of your pause, then squatting without the benefit of the stretch reflex can have great carryover. Personally – I prefer to use Pin Squats or Regular Pause Squats for this purpose. The main reason I’d turn to box squats would be if I was concerned with recovery or if the athlete had knee issues I wanted to work around.
Technique. In my day job as a trainer and strength coach I work with a lot of non-athletically gifted clients. Or with athletes who are good at their sports but sometimes struggle with technique in the weightroom. For those who struggle to master basic squat mechanics or fail to standardize depth, then I often turn to the box squat. Many clients will simply have an easier time with the box squat. And since we aren’t worried about going to competitions, this is an acceptable substitute. At some point you have to get to the “training” part of a training program and you cannot fiddle with technique for weeks at a time with problematic clients. Standardization of depth is different than bad technique. A good squat can be high. But the problem with high squats is that they tend to get higher as the loads increase. So if 225 is an inch above parallel, then 245 is 3 inches above parallel, and 265 is 5 inches above parallel. This makes programming impossible. So we have to standardize depth. If we can’t do it without the box then we do it with the box. You set them at parallel and they don’t come up until after they’re on the box.
