Squats are an important part of any workout, not only building leg muscles but also quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. They also provide an anabolic aspect to your workout, improving overall muscle building.
If you have realized how important squats are in your workout, you may be surprised to learn that adding box squats can not only bring added benefits to your workout routine but it could also improve your squatting technique overall.
What Are Box Squats?
A box squat is a weight-lifting technique with a box or bench placed behind you. The goal is to aim for a box height for a parallel squat, but you can train with a box that is higher or lower depending on your training. With the weight across your shoulders, you lower yourself to a sitting position until you are seated on the box, pause and then lift yourself up again without bouncing.
Benefits of Box Squats
Box squats offer significant benefits in a workout. The biggest benefit is that it can actually improve your squatting technique. Often, people squat by initiating the knees and not the hips which can overload the quads and increasing the chance of injury. By forcing yourself to “sit back” on the bench, you put more pressure on your hips, relieving the pressure on your knees.
With a box squat, you also tend to take a wider than shoulder stance while holding the bar lower and your knees over your toes. This further increases the stress on glutes, hamstrings and your lower back.
Pausing on the box also forces you to rise from a dead stop rather than “bouncing,” increasing posterior chain power.
Athletes also tend to cheat depth in squats as their weight level rises so a box squat keeps you from doing that. Box squats force you to tighten your body in order to come off the box, getting more benefits from the lift.
How to Box Squat
Begin a box squat by standing in a power rack with the box behind you. Step under the bar and place it across your shoulders then squeeze your shoulder blades together, rotating your elbows forward as if you were bending the bar across your shoulders. Create a tight arch in your lower back, lift the bar and step back, your head facing forward. Push your knees and butt out, then start to lower your body. Sit back until your butt is seated on the bench, shins perpendicular to the ground. Pause, relax your hip flexors and then, with your weight on your heels, push your feet and knees out, pushing upward. Lead the movement with our head, continuing up until you reach your starting position.
Box squats can increase the value of your leg workout but can also improve your squat technique overall. The key is to learn how to do the box squat correctly and to continue using free squatting in order to get a good overall workout. Learn more workout techniques by subscribing to my YouTube channel.
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The Beginner’s Guide To Gaining Weight
There is only one magic formula to gaining weight and it requires that you eat more calories than your body burns. If you are finding it difficult to gain weight despite the fact you think you eat a lot, it is possible you are not creating a calorie surplus. If you are struggling to gain weight, these tips can help you understand what may be happening.
Why You’re Not Gaining Weight
If you are naturally skinny, you may think you can eat anything you want without gaining. You may claim you have a fast metabolism or that you simply don’t digest food the way heavier people do. You may believe you are constantly stressed which can lead to weight loss or that there is some medical condition that leads you to stay thin. However, there is truly only one explanation for staying thin and that is that you aren’t eating as much as you think you are. Track your calories for one week using an app like MyFitnessPal or something similar. It is highly likely you will find that you are not gaining weight because you are eating fewer calories than you are burning.
Somatotypes: Is Your Body Type Important
Your body type does play a part in how easily you gain or lose weight. People with high metabolisms do exist and it is possible you are not gaining because you are very active. Many people who have difficulty gaining fidget more than those who do not, research indicates. If you have a small frame, you may still have difficulty gaining because your body is not built to be big. Even if you have a small frame, have difficulty gaining due to activity or your metabolism is higher than others, if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. The key is to eat more calories than you burn consistently in order to see results.
How to Gain Weight
There are several ways to increase your calorie intake in order to gain weight. You can add more calories to each meal or add additional meals. Add calorie-dense food to your diet such as dried fruits, nuts or pasta. Blended food digests easier than food you have to chew, so add smoothies to your diet. One of the best smoothies includes oats, milk, banana, peanut butter and whey protein. Just as overweight people underestimate what they eat, skinny people overestimate what they eat. Track your calories each day to see what you are consuming. Consider a fitness tracker, such as a FitBit or Garmin, to track both calories and activity each day. Add squats and deadlifts with free weights to your workout to help you gain.
- Eat More
- Eat More Meals
- Eat Calorie Dense Foods
- Eat More Protein
- Drink Shakes
- Track Your Calories
- Lift Heavy (But Safely)
- Be Consistent
The Importance of Nutrition
Eating more calories than you burn will help you gain weight, but not just any calories. You want to be sure to choose healthy options, like whole grains as well as lean meats and dairy. Start by adding 500 calories per day than you are burning. If you are not gaining as you’d like, add more calories, but do so slowly to avoid building belly fat. You need to be consistent as it is the daily average calorie intake that determines true weight gain.
You Need to Eat More Protein
Increase the amount of protein you eat each day, such as chicken, fish and eggs. Add 1 gram of protein per pound of body-weight per day to build muscle and for recovery. Some of the best protein options include steaks, ground round, chicken breasts and thighs as well as tuna, salmon, mackerel and sardines. Eggs are good source of protein as are dairy products like milk, cottage cheese and yogurt.
Top Protein Sources:
- Steaks, Ground Beef
- Chicken Breast
- Turkey Breast
- Ground Turkey
- Tuna
- Salmon
- Mackerel
- Eggs or Egg Whites
Eat More Meals Throughout the Day
Small meals are easier to manage than large meals, so aim for six to seven small meals per day rather than three. Start by waking up earlier and eating breakfast. Too often, skinny people eat nothing for breakfast which means they are getting no calories before noon. You need at least eight hours sleep, so that leaves you only 16 hours to eat each day. Start with breakfast around 7 AM, adding a snack 10 AM. Lunch should be around 1 PM, another snack around 4 PM and then dinner around 7 PM. Keep in mind these are not large, more than 1,000 calorie meals, but smaller meals that are between 500 and 700 calories.
What You Should Eat
Choose foods that are high in calories and nutrition. Although vegetables are healthy, they do not have many calories. Keep vegetables in your diet for their nutritional value and fat-burning properties, but if you want to gain weight, you also need to add foods like nuts, dried fruit, dairy, grains, potatoes, fats and meat. Try to avoid junk food even though it is high in calories. McDonald’s food is calorie-dense, but also contains significant amounts of fat, sugar and sodium. Although eating chips, cookies, fries and ice cream may add calories, it can lead to extra fat around your belly. That does not mean you can never eat at McDonald’s or enjoy a cold beer every now and then. The best rule of thumb is 90 percent quality food and 10 percent junk food.
Train Consistently
Lifting helps trigger muscle mass building in your body so you want to include lifting weights in your workout. Lifting also increases your appetite helping you to eat more. If you eat more than you burn, lifting keeps food from being stored as fat. Use free weights which are more effective and safer than machines. Include compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press and rows. Always try to lift more than you did in your last workout and be sure your form is correct. Your body needs rest, so don’t do more than three full body workouts each week.
Supplements for the Skinny Guy
Blending food in liquid form helps you digest it more quickly. You can make your own weight gainer shakes by combining:
- 100g Oats
- 1 Banana
- 1 tbsp Peanut Butter
- 300ml Whole Milk
- 2 scoops Whey Protein
Mix everything in a blender for 1048 calories, 120g carbs, 80g protein and 28g fat. Avoid processed weight gainer shakes as they are often full of sugars. If you aren’t a fan of smoothies, simply drink whole milk.
These tips and suggestions are designed for people who have difficulty gaining weight when working out. For more tips on workouts, nutrition and weight, subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
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The Best Hamstring Strengthening Exercises
The joke of skipping leg day is an old mainstay within fitness communities, and this is largely the result of leg exercises being harder to adhere to in the past. With less motility than arms, finding the right regime of easily-performed exercises for various leg muscles, especially the hamstring, can be something of a nuisance.
Today, we’re going to look at the best exercise routine for strengthening your hamstrings. Before we begin, it goes without saying that you want to balance these evenly, and never be excessive with speed, routine length, or the like. Injuring your hamstring can be excruciatingly painful, and can temporarily (or in rare cases, permanently) reduce or take away your ability to stand or walk.
How do I Know My Hamstring is Underfit?
If you already have a decent regime of general leg exercises, you may be unsure if you need to alter any of your routines to provide a better workout for your hamstrings. There are symptoms that can easily be picked up on, though.
- Cramping, Spasms, Charlie Horses – Charlie horses are very painful, uncontrolled contractions of muscles that are essentially a form of acute cramp. The most common Charlie horse that happens within the leg is in the calf muscle, or along the sole of the foot, but they can also occur in the hamstring and other upper leg muscles, if they’re not properly fit. It’s worth noting that this can also be a symptom of potassium or vitamin deficiencies as well, though if that’s the case, such problems will occur in other parts of the body as well.
- Gluteal and Upper Leg Fatigue – If walking, standing, squatting and other leg-related activities result in significant fatigue across the back of the upper leg, or the base of the gluteal area, this can be a sign that your current routines aren’t sufficiently exercising your hamstring, causing it to fatigue much more quickly than other muscle groups.
- Restless Legs – True restless leg syndrome is not what we’re talking about – that’s something that a physician should address immediately due to it being a symptom of much more severe problems than your workout routine. However, mild restlessness, which leg workouts should usually help to abate, can indicate some muscles not being properly worked, and your hamstring is a prime candidate for this.
Dangers
Let’s take a moment to talk about how important leg exercises are as a whole. On a cosmetic level, if you focus only on your upper body, you will look patently ridiculous. We’ve all seen those guys who spend all day lifting and bench pressing, but neglect their legs entirely. They look like cartoon characters!
But, on top of this, you also greatly increase your risk of knee and hamstring injuries, and these can have lasting or permanent ramifications, leaving you permanently walking with a limp, or experiencing significant pain.
It also makes squats much harder to do, as well as any practical lifting to carry or move heavier things.Gender Doesn’t Matter
Something else we need to point out right now, is that this is just as important for women as it is for men. The same danger of leg injuries can happen if a woman’s hamstrings aren’t properly trained and well-exercised.
Equally, let’s all be honest. What kind of legs do most men prefer on a woman? Scrawny, neglected beanpoles? Or, is a woman with shapely, toned legs usually preferred? And, ladies, which would you prefer? Healthy, toned legs, or skinny, weak ones? It really matters for both sexes, equally.
You Don’t Need Crazy Equipment!
One last thing to point out, before we look at the six most effective exercises is, while having some decent equipment at your disposal does help, but you don’t need ridiculous, expensive and overwrought equipment to get a solid hamstring workout.
We live in a time that’s unrivaled historically in both fitness and nutrition sciences, as well as the elaborate equipment we can produce. This equipment is all well and good, but you really only need a few simple things, to get a full workout, including hamstring-targeting routines.
There are two routines we’ll look at that need some fitness equipment usually, but you can makeshift these if need be.#1 – Romanian Deaflift
The Romanian deadlift is one of the simplest routines you can do. Simply hold a weighted barbell at shin level, arms straight, bending horizontally at the waist, and partially at the knee. Lift upward until your legs, waist, and arms are straight, the barbell at just below your pelvis. Hold, tightening your legs slightly, and lower back down in a controlled descent.
#2 – Barbell Back Squat
This is another simple exercise. Hold the barbell across the back of your shoulders, just at the base of the neck, elbows bent, palms outward. Have your legs apart so your feet are just past your shoulders.
Bend at the knees, outward, producing a spread-legged squat. Hold, and lift back up slowly. Remember proper squat form with this one.#3 – Bulgarian Split Squat
This one should not be attempted by people with hip or knee trouble. Start with one leg bent at the knee, behind you on a bench. Hold weighted dumbbells at either side of your body. Bend your other leg at the knee and hip until it’s at a near sitting position, your leg on the bench at a J-like bend as a result.
Use some tension in the benched leg when returning to a standing position. Alternate between legs, evenly.#4 – Glute-Ham Raise
This one is best served with leg press equipment. Lie face down, legs braced, cushion under your upper legs. Cross your arms across your chest, and lift yourself to a vertical position at the knees. Hold, and lower yourself back after a couple seconds. This is one of the most powerful (and fatiguing) hamstring exercises.
#5 – Leg Curl
This is the other exercise best suited with a weighted leg press. Lie face down, bracing the weighted lift just above your heels. Bend at the knee, as far as your leg and the weight will permit. Hold for about one second, and lower it back under muscle control.
#6 – Kettlebell Swing
This exercise is usually a “cooling down” or “finishing” routine, and is one of the higher kinetic impact exercises. This also works as a partial cardio exercise, so if your doctor has warned against excessive cardio, be wary of this one. Using ball weights, start bent horizontal at the waste (similar to the Romanain deadlift), the weights held back, between your legs. Bend up at the waist and the knee, swinging the weights in a parabola until your arms are almost level in front of you.
Swing back into the start position under control (don’t let inertia do it for you). Be extra careful on resuming the start position, that you don’t allow inertia to bring your arms at high speed into your groin – it doesn’t matter what your gender, that will hurt.
To learn more about hamstring exercises and other difficult group targeting routines, subscribe to my YouTube channel today. I have so many awesome things to show you!
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How To Get Bigger Arms | Edge Fitness Arm Workout
Hey everyone! In this video it was arm day. For this workout video we decided to meet over at Edge Fitness in Deptford, NJ. As many of you know, we love to superset our workouts, especially our arm workouts. This means every time we complete a set of bicep exercises, we perform a complementary triceps exercise. It’s the best way to get the blood flowing! You can perform this workout by yourself, but it’s a tougher workout when you have partners. Pushing to the limit, less time between sets.
Don’t get hung up on the amount of weight. Feel free to reduce the weight and keep the reps high.
How To Get Bigger Arms Workout
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