Tip: This article is suitable for weightlifters and strength enthusiasts to learn from.
About ten years ago, a retired hammer thrower from the former Soviet Union discovered that traditional squats were not the best training exercise for leg and butt muscles. This statement was considered heretical in the former Soviet Union, because at that time the squat was regarded by most people as the king of leg training. To this day, this remains the mainstream view in the United States.
Ten years ago in the Soviet Union, the full squat was considered the basis of strength training for weightlifting and sports. Soviet athletes - including those in wrestling, running, fencing, football, and swimming - all trained in the squat. But because the hammer thrower mentioned above won the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics and graduated from the Moscow Institute of Sport, his views were taken seriously. His name is: Anatoly Bondarchuk. He believes that high steps have two significant advantages over standard behind-the-neck squats: first, the effect of training the thighs and buttocks is more significant, and second, they are less likely to be injured.
Bondarchuk began his studies as a coach in Kiev, Ukraine. His colleagues, including Soviet coaches, and sports scientists questioned his theories. But over time his theory became accepted by some athletes and coaches. In many sports, athletes have given up squats and replaced them with high steps, and they have achieved obvious breakthroughs. Many athletes have experienced significant strength gains from this "new" movement.
We call the action of adding quotes “new” because it actually has a long history. There are many books before the 19th century in the Physical Culture Library of the University of Texas, which show that step-ups were widely used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, director of athletic training at Harvard University, uses steps as a cardiopulmonary function test. Sargent's method was used 80 years ago and is known as the Harvard Step Test. It utilizes a bench or chair approximately 20 inches highTo make steps, the subjects stepped on the steps within a specified time, and then their pulse was measured.
Steps are also used to strengthen thighs and buttocks. With the popularity of strength training in the 1920s and 1930s, weight-bearing steps began to appear in books and periodicals. However, the weighted squat still occupies a dominant position in the American strength community. The reasons are: first, the famous German immigrant "Milo" Steinborn squatted 500 pounds; second, the publicity of his new record; third, Joseph Curtis Hise Not only did he gain tremendous strength and muscle using high-rep squats, he also influenced other bodybuilders to embrace the squat.
If it weren't for them, maybe stepping on the steps would be more impactful than squatting. Regardless, the squat has dominated leg and butt training since the 1820s and continues to this day.
Squat - Questioned
The Eastern European countries represented by the Soviet Union claimed that their success in the sports world after World War II was mainly due to the squat. They were once influenced by Western, especially American, training theories. But over the years they developed their own coaches and sports scientists, and they began to rely more on their own research. Sports experts led by Anatoly Bondarchuk began to question the squat.
Bondarchuk concluded that heavy back squats pose a potential risk of injury to the lower back. His research found that when the squat reaches the bottom (the moment when it changes from falling to rising - translator's note), the pressure on the lower back is twice the weight of the barbell. In other words, if you carry a 300-pound barbell, the stress on you will be 600 pounds, often more. Depends on the speed of descent and ascent. The faster the descent, the faster the change from descent to ascent, the greater the pressure on the lower back and the more likely it is to be injured.
Bondarchuk also found that during the last few forced lifts of each set, athletes tend to drop a little further than usual to gain bounce and help them pass through sticking points. In addition, he found that no actual exercise was performed in a standard squat position. Based on the above considerations, he believes that stepping on steps with weight is a safer exercise than squatting.
When he first started his research, there were some things that he didn’t know very well. He wasn't sure how high the bench should be, and after trying different heights, he quickly found that his legs and hips were developing. The specific height depends on different needs. Based on his extensive knowledge of anatomy, he found that the higher the bench, the greater the involvement of the biceps femoris. Conversely, the lower the bench, the greater the quadriceps involvement.
Finally, it was discovered that the ideal height is when one leg of the athlete stands upright and the toes are on the ground, the other leg is flat on the bench and the thigh is parallel to the ground. If the athlete's femoral bicepsIf the muscles are weak, you need to increase the height of the bench; according to research by Professor Osse Aura of the Finnish Institute of Sports, the strength of the biceps femoris should be 75% of that of the quadriceps. Below this ratio, the chance of injury increases and performance decreases. Bondarchuk agrees with Aura. He tested the strength of his quadriceps and biceps using leg extensions and leg curls. If the strength of the quadriceps is greater than the standard ratio, the athlete should use a higher bench to strengthen the biceps femoris; conversely, if the strength of the biceps femoris is greater than the standard ratio, the athlete should use a lower bench.
Obviously, it is difficult for an athlete to lift more than 50% of his squat weight when doing high steps, so the problem of excessive pressure on the lower back is solved. Carrying 100 pounds for step-ups puts much less stress on the lower back than carrying 300 pounds for squats, assuming these are the max weights for both movements. In addition, there is no rebound at the bottom of the squat when stepping up the steps, and the full squat, especially the rebound at the bottom, is a potential risk factor for the knees.
How to do it
The starting position of stepping up steps is similar to squatting. Remove the barbell from the barbell rack and walk to the front of the step. If your gym doesn't have this facility, use a bench or sturdy chair of a suitable height instead. If your chair is too high, place a 100-pound or 45-pound barbell plate under your feet. You can use weight plates or planks to adjust to the appropriate height. When stepping forward, keep your shoulders slightly ahead of your hips, but don't bend your waist. Bend your knees slightly when coming down the steps to absorb some of the impact and ensure safety.
A few years ago Bulgarian weightlifters stopped squatting and replaced them with step-ups. At that time, many Soviet athletes had given up on squats and devoted more energy to training snatches and clean and jerks. The most dramatic example is Leonid Taranenko, the current world record holder in the super heavyweight clean and jerk. Taranenko's clean and jerk performance reached an astonishing 586 pounds. Picture this! Lifting nearly 600 pounds from the ground to an arm's length above your head. But for weightlifters, what was more surprising was that Taranenko had not done any form of squat training for four years before this. Aside from the snatch and clean and jerk, Taranenko's only leg training is high steps -- heavy weights. His best was three reps at 396 pounds per leg. Taranenko's coach, Ivan Loginovich, was one of the most authoritative coaches in the Soviet Union. He had worked with Bondarchuk to study the step-up training movement and applied this movement to replace the squat. The strongest argument is undoubtedly Taranenko's numerous world records.
Soviet and Bulgarian coaches observed the strength training of weightlifters and athletes in other sports. They found that those who gave up squats and didAthletes who do high steps fare better than those who only do squats. Many coaches say that athletes who do heavy step-ups have leg muscles that look like sprinters or jumpers. Climbing higher steps requires more muscles to participate in the movement. The more complete the movement, the better the shape.
Leg exercise plan
The simplest way to incorporate this action into your training plan is to replace squats with step-ups, using the same number of sets and reps. If you are eager for a bigger breakthrough, please refer to the training plan of the Bulgarian National Weightlifting Team (assuming that the athletes can do 170 pounds twice)
1. Sit with bare hands 8-10 times, then
2. Do three sets of 45 lbs.
Bulgarian athletes use heart rate to measure their rest time between sets. They believe that after doing a medium to heavy weight set, the heart rate will rise to 162-180/minute. They rested until their heart rate dropped to 102-108 before starting the next set. In fact, Bulgarian athletes train five to six days a week, using the same training content. They do a lot of leg work as well as snatches and clean and jerks. Unless you are under 21 or in unusually good physical condition, we do not recommend such intensive training. Rest at least one day between the same workouts.
If you don’t like low-rep training, you can first do a few sets of increasing weights to warm up, then do 3 sets of heavy weights, each set of 6 times, and then do three sets of decreasing sets to failure, each set of about 15-20 times. If this doesn't give you a strong pump, it may be an issue with your nutrition or rest.
If you follow any of the above training plans, we recommend that you abandon all heavy leg exercises such as leg presses, front squats, and machine squats. You can continue doing leg extensions, leg raises, and of course calf exercises, but you'll want to pay close attention to preventing overtraining. The essence of all training is to overload the muscles so that they become bigger and stronger, but they must be fully recovered the next time you train.
Try this exercise. It has been proven effective by heavy competitive athletes and weightlifters in Eastern Europe. Yes, squats are a very effective exercise; but taking steps higher will allow you to make even greater progress.