Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2350: The 4 Types of Squats Everyone Should Be Doing

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

All squats matter. (1:42) Squats, the king of exercises. (3:11) What makes something a ‘squat’? (6:19) The 4 Types of Squats Everyone Should Be Doing #1 - Traditional Squat (Pros: heaviest load, biggest muscle builder, Cons: injury risk). (7:30) #2 - Front squat (Pros: great for posture, great for quad strength, Cons: less posterior chain, hard to learn). (15:38) #3 - Split squat (Pros: very athletically functional, great pelvic stability, Cons: less load). (21:11) #4 - Cossack squat (Pros: lateral strength, Cons: incredibly low load, requires lots of mobility). (27:34) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Eight Sleep for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump Listeners! ** Get $200 off plus free shipping on the Pod Cover by Eight Sleep. Stay cool this summer with Eight Sleep, now shipping within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia! ** June Promotion: MAPS 15 Minutes | Bikini Bundle | Shredded Summer Bundle 50% off! ** Code JUNE50 at checkout ** Mind Pump # 2135: Barbell Squat Masterclass Front Squats- How to Place & Hold the Bar - YouTube Split Stance Squat (Lunge) Tips & Tricks to Maximize Your Quad, Hamstring & Glute Development The Only Way You Should Be Doing Bulgarian Split Squats ... - YouTube COSSACK SQUAT - Increase Mobility & Leg Strength (TRY THIS SQUAT) MAPS Prime Pro Webinar Suspension Training Series - 4 Favorite Leg Exercises SUSPENSION TRAINER – Mind Pump Store Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Ben Pollack, Ph.D. (@phdeadlift)  Instagram Mike Boyle (@mbsc_online) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pumping. In today's episode, we talk about the four types of squats that everyone should be doing. Now this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, 8Sleep. So 8Sleep is a device that goes over your bed and it cools or warms your bed to improve the quality of your sleep.

And how does it know this? It has AI technology that monitors your sleep, adjusts the temperature, and creates an individualized plan to maximize your sleep. So now you're seven hours at night. It feels like nine hours. It is the world's most advanced sleep system. Go check them out. Go to eight sleep calm. That's Spelled out eight e I G HT so eight sleep calm Forward-slash mind pump and on that link you'll get two hundred dollars off plus free shipping on the pod cover by each day By the way, it ships within the US Canada the UK the UK, some countries in Europe, and even Australia.

Also, this month's sale, MAPS 15 is half off. The Bikini Bundle of Programs is also half off. And then finally, the Shredded Summer Bundle of Programs also half off. If you're interested, go to MAPSFitnessProducts.com and then use the code JUNE50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. Squats! they're incredible. It's one of the best exercises you could do, but there are four types of squats, four variations that everybody should be doing.

Each one of them has benefits. Each one of them should be included in your routine. So in today's episode, we're gonna talk about the four squats you should be doing. All right, as we go through these, did you order them in a way that we would go neglect? I see the bottom one, I think that's definitely one of the most neglected.

I feel like order them in terms of like. Importance? Yeah, maybe. Although, I mean, it could depend on the individual, right? Impact, I would say too. I mean, before we got started, I heard Doug and Andrew chiming in on all the different variations, and it's like, there's all kinds of different squat variations and all squat variations have

value. So I want to make that clear. But the idea of this episode was, the four that we feel like you have to incorporate. You want to limit it to four. This is kind of where we went. Right. There's always tremendous value in rotating through all the different variations. But I do think that the four that we narrow down to, like they need to be integrated into your routine, in your routine at some point. And I would say on an annual basis

is probably how I would specify that. Cause like the next question I think that we'll get following up this would be, well, how often or when? And I would say my goal would be for a client to incorporate all four of these at least in a program once a year. I think long enough to where you get good at them. Right, I'm thinking like the way we structure programs, three months, right? So at least one of these... A whole program cycle, which in our case is normally about a three-month cycle of each of these exercises.

That doesn't mean that they can't go in there or be in there all year, but at least that, I think, is important enough. Yeah, now squatting in general is just, it's a basic fundamental human movement, right? So you could put pressing and pulling, you know, locomotion, walking, running. Squatting is up there as a fundamental human movement.

And what you find when you look at movements that are considered fundamental is a lot of carryover when you work through those movements. When you do exercises that mimic those movements and when you can add load to those movements and get stronger at them, you see tons and tons of carryover. Squats are one of them. Squats in general have so much carryover to everyday life, to mobility, to athletics, to muscle building, metabolism boosting. Some of the most effective exercises for those and those categories are squats. And I remember, and not

that these studies mean much, but I do think that they kind of hint towards the, maybe the signal studies mean much, but I do think that they kind of hint towards the, maybe the signal that exercises send to an extent. But remember those studies that showed the hormone response to different exercises and which ones raise the most testosterone in the short period of time. Well, squats are up there always at the top. They cause the highest spike in these anabolic hormones. Now that anabolic hormone spike probably doesn't do anything, but again, I think it's showing us that this is a movement that has a lot of impact on the body. I don't know if I would say, or discount it,

and say that it doesn't have an impact that much, because remember when I went through that three year stint where I came off of competing and I came off of all synthetic hormones and I was trying to naturally boost it back up. Of all the things you had me doing, and you had me doing all the ashwagandha and tongue cat Ali and we were doing stuff nutritionally that we were trying to do to boost my testosterone naturally, red light therapy.

I threw everything at the kitchen sink at it. One of the things that I thought was so interesting was of all the things I was doing, the greatest impact I felt was a heavy squat day or a heavy deadlift day. And I noticed it for a good 24 to 48 hour window post squat. Like I felt, like I literally felt the libido increase, I felt a surge of energy and a mood increase.

Like just all the benefits of what you feel from testosterone, I felt that. And you know, because of that, I leaned heavy into making sure that of all the things I was doing, like that, well, okay, I'm trying to build this up. I'm trying to get back in this routine. So I've found tremendous value in that. And if there's anybody who's trying to

do that naturally, I feel like that's important. It seriously promotes the loudest signal possible, like the systemic effects the squat can provide. I mean, you see that with people that actually grow muscle in their upper body, and you don't really see that with a lot of carryover from other exercises that you're doing, but it's just that overall systemic demand and really raising up the muscle recruitment process all over throughout your body just to sustain that amount of load on your back. It's pretty significant. Yeah. Generally speaking, because someone may, what makes something a squat? Because you're going to see us go through different exercises and they look different.

Um, especially the last two in comparison to the first two, they look very different, but I think a squat, uh, requires that you're starting in a standing position and you're bending, uh, and using the ankle, knee and hip joint, uh, at the same time. So that would make something a squat because there are a lot of variations of the squat.

Some of the, some variations aren't even called a squat, but really are a squat. Lunges are really just a split stand squat or a squat with one leg in the front is doing the squat. So any movement that involves those three joints where you're bending all three of them and you're starting in a standing position could be considered a squat. And again, the ones we picked, the exercises we picked, all address strengths and weaknesses and work really well together. There isn't a single exercise that would replace

all other exercises for the lower body, but the squat in general has got some of the best characteristics. And the four that we picked, when you combine them all, I think you got all the, all the bases covered. Uh, if I, if I say so myself, so the first squat variation is just your traditional back squat. This is where the barbell is on your back. You're, this is the kind of squat people think of when people say squat or

how much can you squat? Uh, now one of the big pros of this exercise, this variation particular is the load of all of the squats and squat variations you could do. You're most likely to be strongest at this one. This is the one where you'll be able to lift the most weight. And there is something to be said about an exercise that allows you to handle high load. Those exercises tend to build the most muscle. They tend to have the most carryover. And a back squat is, if it's not the strongest exercise you have, it's definitely the second strongest exercise you can have.

But among squats, it's the back squat. Back squat, you're gonna lift the most. It's a big muscle builder for sure. Working the entire lower body. And if it's not the king of all posterior chain exercises, then it's number two. It's the queen. Yeah, it's top one, if not top two of the greatest posterior chain exercises, which as a trainer is extra important because as you train more and more people, you realize how

neglected the posterior chain is. In fact, most people are so anterior driven that a big portion of programming I feel, or I felt, was centered around the posterior chain to get people in a more upright posture and neglect all those muscles on the backside, right? On the backside of their body that were just not getting used. And so when you have an exercise

like the barbell back squat, that you can load this heavy and address most all of those muscles in one shot, it's such a great movement. And because most people neglect that side to be able to load and strength train and address all of that in all one single moment, it's the reason why it is the king of all exercises. Let's look at this, go down the list, right. First off, it allows you to load a lot. We said that already, but it requires decent shoulder mobility. It requires decent thoracic stability.

That's the upper, the kind of the upper spine area, not towards the neck, but kind of where the shoulder blades are. You need to have good core stability. You're going to be holding weight on your back and squatting. So your core has to be strong and stable. Um, and you have to maintain that posture as you squat. It involves the hip muscles, the very powerful muscles of the hips, including the glutes and the hamstrings.

It includes the quads, of course. It even includes the muscles that support the ankle, right? The calves, uh, the soleus muscles. So all, and those are the prime movers, right? But you have to be able to maintain this real tight, stable position with the upper body while squatting, which I like a lot for a lower body exercise. Cause oftentimes when you use your lower body in the real

world, you're not, you know, like a leg press, right? I don't know how, how often you do that in the real world where your whole body's. Where you're relaxed in another place. And it's just your legs that are moving. Typically, you have to use your upper body to support something when you're lifting it. And so this squat allows you, this type of squat allows you to do that. Well, it also forces you to be hyper present, right? In that regard, just because you have to be able to constantly maintain that tension of

protection of your spine and be able to keep your core tight to be able to constantly maintain that tension of protection of your spine and be able to keep your core tight, be able to keep those muscles engaged. Otherwise, you're going to pay for it. Obviously, this is one of those where it risks reward and learning how to improve your mechanics and the skill of the actual squat is at the utmost importance because yes, you can hurt yourself, but the reward is so much greater as a result of that. And going back to my trainer point, like think of the cues that you guys were always giving your clients, like neutral

spine, you know, tuck your chin, shoulders back and depressed, right? Like activate your squat position, right? Activate your core. Like that is all setting up for the squat. So the cues that we were constantly queuing our clients to do throughout their entire workout, because we were always combating this kind of, you know, rounded shoulders, forward head, poor posture, and trying to get them back into this more optimal position. Well, the squat, the squat forces you that to Justin's point, you've got this massive load that is,

would crush you if you're not paying attention and you're not positioning yourself in all, if you're not tucking the shoulders back down, you're not activating the core, getting the spine in a neutral position, right? If you're not bracing, if you're not doing those things, then this thing's gonna crush you. And so it forces that,

and it forces it in this very heavy loaded isometric position. So you're activating all those, even those upper body muscles that promote better posture while you do this great leg exercise. And so I think there's just so much value. It has to be a part of every routine to get. It's the cornerstone of most strength training routines. I will say this, a squat performed, all the exercises will fall into this category,

but a squat performed with appropriate resistance, with good mobility, good stability, good control, so you could do it and you own the movement, is extremely safe, movement is extremely safe. It's extremely safe. That being said, the traditional squat holds a higher injury risk than the rest of the other squats because of the strength potential in particular. Now, of course people are going to say, well, what about the fact

that it's a complex exercise? You have to have good technique. Yes, that's, I didn't say that because I feel like that should be assumed, right? Exercises that have good technique. Yes, I didn't say that because I feel like that should be assumed. Exercises that require more technique, the injury risk is higher because if you don't have the technique right, well then it's not a safe exercise. But that being said, the injury risk is higher on this squat because you can get so strong on it. And I don't mean that the injury risk is high because you're lifting a lot of weight. I mean, if you can get really strong moving one particular way, all of the support ways, all the stabilizing ways, your body's ability to stabilize so

you don't move left to right while you're moving this super heavy weight on your back, for example, or the stabilizers that prevent your knees from twisting or that prevent your feet from collapsing or, or, or your low back from all of a sudden rounding or whatever. All those stabilizers, because of the load that you're lifting, if you don't move outside of the squat and train some of these other variations, which we're going to go over, then the difference between the strength in this movement and the strength that you have when you just move outside of that movement. You could over-respond.

That's right. You know, and then you're going to be in a dire situation. Yeah. To me, one of the best analogies is envisioning like a drag car, right? That has got 1,000 horsepower, and it's so powerful and strong. And it's going straightforward. But the minute you ask that thing

to make a dynamic left or right or turn around. Flips. Yeah, it flips, it rolls, it's out of control. And it's because the body is like that when you've trained the squat so hard, so heavy for so long, and you've neglected all these other things like suspension and handling and all the other abilities that it needs to be able to have.

And so that's where this becomes the, that's the con of this exercise is getting so good at it. Yes. It's in fact. Very like linear, the it. Yes. It's in fact. Very like linear, the direction. Yeah. It's so challenging because it's so great. Like if you start squatting and you get good at

squatting, man, you see incredible gains and you don't want to stop. You don't want to do variations. You just want to back squat. Um, but now your strength ratio between a squat and moving laterally or rotating, uh, or stabilizing starts to become so vast. Because here's what ends up happening.

You're going to move outside of perfect form by a fraction of a degree, but now you can't stabilize that fraction of a degree outside of technique because the weight is so high. This is when injuries start to happen. So the con of this is the injury risk is high because the strength potential is so high. So don't get stuck and addicted to just barbell back squatting, even though it's like you're going to love it. You start doing it.

It is awesome. It is awesome. Uh, the risk of injury gets high because of how strong you get with it. The next variation that I think for sure not enough people do is the front squat. So it's very similar to a back squat in the sense that your feet are, it's bilateral, both feet on the floor, both feet are, you know, relatively pointing straight or whatever, and you're squatting up and down. But the difference is instead of the weight being on your back,

the weight is on your front. It's on the front of your shoulders. And there's different ways to hold the bar. You can cross your arms over like bodybuilders do, or do a weight lifting style one where the fingertips are underneath, but the, because the weight is, is in the front of the body, in the back of the body, it really does change the feel of the exercise. You're going to get more quad activation, less glute activation.

Core stability is totally different. You'll see, yeah, very different. Like the stability with the traditional back squat, it's a lot of low back strength and stability. When you start to move that bar in front of you, you start to feel the sides of your core activate and you got to stand really upright. It's a much more upright version of squat. Well I'd argue too, like in terms of like facing anything in the real world, you're most likely gonna be loading in the front of your body. Yes.

Because you're going to be carrying something heavy, you know, in the front or up on your chest. And to be able to incorporate front squats will get you stronger, more stable, and really help just with normal everyday activity so much more. I know that the word functional has been bastardized in our space, but it is more functional than a back squat to that point. The fact that if you're going to bend over and lift

a couch up, help a friend carry something. Lift it properly with your knees. Like a front squat. Yeah, nobody's going to take that thing and throw it on their back and lift it. You don't ever carry anything like that. So it's more transferable to, you know, your daily task. And so I think it's so important and to be able to do that with good form and technique, if you never front squat and you

don't know how to brace your core that way and hold something in front of you, that you see low back injuries all the time happen because of this and so this exercise is, and the core to me, I can't stress it, it's such a different core feeling. And- Much more demand. Yeah, I mean to me every time my front squat, it's always glaring to me like the amount of neglect

that I have at my core because that's actually, I get more sore in the core many times than I do anywhere else just trying to support that kind of weight in the front. I feel too, that's because you really do have to counter a lot of the forces pulling you forward, which when you're back squatting, that is a factor with some people with the position of the bar, sometimes they go higher, lower to compensate for that. But to be able to rotate in your front squats, it helps you balance and actually improves your back

squats substantially as well. I mean, you would probably, Justin, you would probably make the case to the, it's a more athletic squat too, wouldn't you? Yeah. Yeah. I would tend to promote it a bit more. And again, I would cycle it in a lot more frequently with athletes for that reason because too, I want their stance to be in a certain position and for them to be really comfortable in their forefoot more so than on their heel. If you're on your heels as an athlete, you're dead. Yeah. Now, what's interesting about this is it is a very technical exercise. A lot of people struggle with learning this. You can do it eventually, but it is a tough one to learn.

But what's funny is that this is actually the type of squat that I would have a client do before doing a back squat. They just didn't load it. And what it looks like is put your arms out in front of you, no weight. Or like a goblet squat. Yeah. It started with things like that. Yeah. So the irony is it's an easy squat to learn, but once you start loading it with a bar, then it becomes very technical and it's very difficult. A lot

of people have trouble with it. So that would be, I guess, one of the cons. But I mean, in terms of building lower body strength, hypertrophy, especially for the quads, like I have a tough time trying to find a better exercise. Yeah, another con too is that a lot of people, and I'm guilty of this too, when I first started front squatting, is being discouraged because you're significantly

stronger in the back squat compared to that. And so we all have this tendency to be like, oh man, if I'm not lifting as much as this, then it's not as good as that. And so, you know, being comfortable with allowing yourself to be, you know, 50% or less of the load that you can do on your back squat and really perfecting the technique and knowing that it is a new stimulus, a new adaptation, you're going to get gains, you're going to get benefits from it. Even if you can't quite load it anywhere near what you can do on the back squat, don't neglect doing it because it is so valuable in your routine.

One more point for it, Joe, though still is just because you're in that rack position, it's actually going to improve and enhance your overhead press. And two, this is one of those like kind of mid positions where the more comfortable you get with that, especially with Olympic lifts, where we gotta be explosive, we gotta accelerate. And for that aspect of it to be able to stabilize and have control over heavier weight in that rack position, it's gonna help translate to a lot of other lifts. Totally. I would

say a front squat should be, I mean if you really want to have a balanced out routine, should be done at least 50% of the time that you spend on a back squat. Meaning not that they're split 50-50 but if you squat you know 50 times a year you probably want to front squat at least 20 or 25 times that many times. It's got to be one of the staple squat versions. Next would be the split stance squat. A lot of people will call this a lunge. I guess the big difference is they're both squats, lunges, even if you're stepping lunges.

But a split stance squat, typically you get in your split stance and then you go up and down. You're typically not walking like you would with a quote unquote lunge, although it's very similar. I would put a Bulgarian split squat in this because they're all similar enough that the adaptation that we're seeking is similar enough in this, which is like the, you know,

unstable environment, the unilateral work, like the stability component there. I think that's so important when we're talking about squatting. I will, go ahead. And no, and common that you see people that love, like this is common in like the powerlifting community, where they understand obviously the value of, you know,

front squats and back squats, and they do so much of that, but then they neglect unilateral work, and there's a massive discrepancy there and many times this is what's promoting like injuries and issues that they have causing because they neglect this but it's as valuable as the other two. For pelvic stability like you know when you're squatting with heavy weight with both your feet next to each other that's one type of stability you need to build but when you split your stance now

you're creating torsion on the pelvis. Now you have the hip flexors of the back leg and the glutes. And the tendencies to want to rotate. That's right. And so yeah, you have to compensate to have an anti-rotational effect, which really helps stabilize the joint. It is really good for the, and I'll tell you this much, like if you ever want to see a discrepancy, take someone who squats really heavy,

back squats, who never does a split stand squat, watch them do a split stand squat, and you'll see somebody who can squat 500 pounds, all of a sudden can barely do a split stand squat with 120 pounds. Well, you remember when our friend Ben Pollock did that video of himself after, and he's what, a 600 pound plus squatter?

Oh, that guy's a monster. He's just a beast. Yeah, and then I think he, I don't, I think it was like 135 or less on there. And it was just crazy to see how challenging that was for him. And now as far as athletically functional is concerned, this has got to be one of the most athletically functional lower body exercises because in sports very rarely are your feet just together.

Yeah. Typically you're running, uh, your, running your one legs in front of the other. So this is strengthening that kind of locomotion type position, that split stance position. In fact, a lot of athletic coaches, strength coaches say that this is how they have all their athletes squat. Well, that's like your Mike Boyle method, right? Mike Boyle is all split stance like that.

That, or you'll hear how these coaches, they don't do any backloading and it's all front squat, all, and all unilateral work like that for sure. So it's, it's up there. I mean, I, man, I, when I went to a Bulgarian, I'm another reason, okay, or this is, I guess a con, because you tend to be, if you don't do it, really, really weak in it.

And I remember, remember- It's so humbling. Oh God, it was, it was, this was tough for me because I remember the girl I was dating at the time. You know, she was, she was working, I think she was doing Bulgarian split squats with like 20 or 25s. And I was struggling with the same way to do that. And that was like such a shot to the ego.

And like, you know, my young dumb ass at that time, you know, chooses not to do that. Not doing that one. Yeah, yeah. Because I was so weak in it. Instead of having the trainer mind and go, man, the board is out, highlight that I'm neglecting this and I need to address that. So one of the cons of this is that, you know, if it's something you've neglected for a long time, you've gotten so bad at it that you just ignore it

all together when it's like, there's, which by the way, as you get older and wiser and more experienced in lifting, that's where the gold is at, right? That when you find an exercise that you are terrible at or you're extremely weak at, uh, for somebody who's been lifting for a long time, there's a huge opportunity for progression, for growth, for strength gains, for muscle gains. And like, so to, to shy away from that is silly because that's hard. more you've been lifting the longer you've been doing this for It's so hard to find big jumps and gains when it comes to building muscle or building strength

But until you find stuff like this, that's really challenging. So don't shy away from it if this is a car the gains are yes Yeah now one of the pros of this Type of a squat is you can also work with very little ankle mobility or with a lot of ankle mobility, depending on where you place that front leg, how far you allow your knee to travel. Which is normally a major limiting factor for your clients. Right. So a lot of people can't do traditional squats, back squats, because their ankle mobility is lacking and so you have to do all these mobility exercises. Sometimes you rise the heel to allow

them to squat deeper, but with a split stance, that doesn't become an issue at all. Also though, you can work on ankle mobility with a split squat, meaning you can challenge it and move that knee forward and really work on ankle mobility in a way that traditional squats don't necessarily do. Now, one of the cons of course is load, but I will say this, some of the best split stance squatters, the load they can lift is not nothing. It's phenomenal. You look at Olympic lifters when they're coming out of a, you know, a fast lift, oftentimes they catch the lift in a split stance and they can really support a lot of load. So you're not going to be able to lift as

much like this, like you would with a back squat. So the load is lighter, but by no means is this, you know, this, this definitely can turn into. It's not limiting. You could really progress. You can. Another, another con is that back foot. Some people have issues with the stabilizing or support themselves with their toes being bent. But I think that's just the mobility issues that if you continue your practice and work, then you can, you're able to do it. Yeah. And another positive of this, and this was something that I got to see firsthand when I, when I started to really train Bulgarian split squats more often, um,

was how much it contributes back to the, the, the backloaded squat. Um, you, if you neglect the Bulgarian or the split stand squat and you don't ever do that, and then you focus on it and you get really strong many times that just simply doing that will break you through a plateau on the back squat. So we've talked about already how valuable the back squat is, how many gains, how much gains, how awesome that is. And then a lot of times what happens is you hit a plateau, you can't get past a certain weight and you're kind of stuck there. One of the best things to break through those plateaus sometimes is I'll take a client and we'll go solely focused on Bulgarians, get really strong

at Bulgarian split squats, then come back to the squat, the barbell back squat and watch us break through a plateau. Next up is the Cossack squat. This is kind of like a side lunge some people would say, but the reason why this exercise is in this list is because the top three all move you, it's basically in front of your body or straight ahead, right?

Cossack squat works on that lateral stability and strength. And I'm going to tell you right now, and I've experienced this myself, you get really, really strong moving with traditional squats, front squats, back squats, split stand squats, and you do nothing for lateral stability. The discrepancy between the strength that you have when, when you're facing forward and moving forward and back versus side to side becomes so big that you actually become an injury, uh, the injury risk goes through the roof. And the next thing you know, you have to catch yourself moving sideways or

whatever, and you're like, why do I feel so, uh, you know, awkward or unstable? And it's because you don't do anything to develop that lateral strength, which is what a Cossack squad does. It lets you step out to the side, go down, come up and push yourself out. How are you going to change directions as an athlete with any kind of strength and power, you know, unless you train it. And that's a big component. I know not for everybody to consider, but two, even from, you know, building up your body to be able to build up your legs and really highlight and emphasize some of these other muscle groups that really help to contribute with the stabilization

around the hips, around the knees. It's vital to address that because you are going to get lateral forces. You're going to get rotational forces as well. To be able to react appropriately, have strength in those two, this is a different range of motion. So every time we go in a little bit of a different range of motion, it's like a very brand new exercise to your body. And so to be able to have strength in that while having something similar, maybe I'm

squatting, but my leg's a little far away from me in that type of position where if I'm an athlete and I'm moving like that or just in light weight, I'm squatting, but my legs a little far away from me, uh, you know, in that type of position where it's so if I'm an athlete and I'm moving like that, or just in life in general, uh, can I get myself out of that safely with strength? And so this is one of those that it's, it's just overlooked quite substantially. When I look back at all the clients, um, that I train that suffered from some sort of an injury. So funny because people talk about like exercises,

like heavy deadlifting and squatting is so dangerous. And I never had a client that got hurt with me deadlifting or squatting. I did have clients though that were really strong with squatting and deadlifting, get hurt doing the most basic things at home. Yeah. And it's almost always a very basic rotational movement

or lateral movement. Yep. It's like pulling a weed in the garden, and they throw their back out having to rotate that way. Or moving to the lateral, having to move really quick to the side to do something. Or playing with their kid tennis, like not even that difficult, you know, and

then something goes like this is how people get hurt is they get really strong in one direction and they neglect the rotational and the lateral component. And we as kids, we don't, it's built into our life. When you're a child, when you're a child and you, you, you rough and tumble play and you wrestle and you roll around and you go to the gymnasium. Challenging everything. Yeah, you are.

You're moving in all these dynamic planes and as silly as that may sound, it's so valuable to you being in control of your body and protecting yourself when you move in all these different planes. As we get older, we tend to move in that, that sagittal plane all the time. We're just forward and back, forward and back. Rarely ever do we do anything rotationally or laterally anymore. And then when the body does call upon it, cause it will, it will highlight itself.

It will, it will surface in your life somewhere. And then the embarrassing part, it's normally doing something very basic and that's where clients would get hurt. It's always something like that. And it took me a long time as a trainer to recognize that. And the embarrassing part, it's normally doing something very basic and that's where clients would get hurt. It's always something like that. And it took me a long time as a trainer to recognize that this was my fault as a coach

and as a trainer for neglecting movements like this and not incorporating it. Because I put so much value in the first two exercises that we talked about because we know how important those are and neglected to do the other ones. And it was my fault that my clients are getting hurt doing these really basic stuff because I wasn't programming that lateral and rotational component. I know what I really like about this too, is it connects the ankle, the knee, the hip, uh, connects the upper body with this lateral movement because you see a lot of exercises, especially done on machines that attempt to strengthen muscles that help with lateral stability,

but they don't connect the ankle with it. So when you go down, you move to the side, imagine a tennis player running to the side and you've ever seen those tennis players, I mean, they get a real low angle with their foot. Yeah, rolling ankles is a real consideration. That's right. Now, this exercise does require more mobility, and for some people it's very difficult, but slowly scale yourself into a really deep Cossack squat.

If you, especially if you can load it, uh, I've, I've only known very few people that can load a Cossack squat really heavy, but man, does it develop like bulletproof hips and ankles just from being able to move? It's a great regression to this is to use the suspension trainer for support and to take yourself through that. That's what I do.

Right? And even just doing that, body weight supported with the suspension trainer and practicing that lateral movement in a caustic squat is so valuable to your training routine. And if you got to start there, start there. Start by just doing that and then progressing to a place where maybe you don't have to hold the suspension train anymore and then maybe you can hold one dumbbell that goes to the inside of your ankle and then maybe you can eventually get to a point where you can load it with a barbell on your back but just simply doing that and moving through the progressions through that and again if it's really hard and difficult that's where the goal is at that's

where a lot of the the gains and the benefits come. So don't neglect it just because you're not good at doing it. Totally. Look, we have a free How to Squat Like a Pro guide. So it's a guide to teaching how to squat like a pro, cost nothing. It's at mindpumpfree.com. You can also find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam is at Mind Pump. Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically

transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes, and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump!