GAME CHANGER EXPLOSIVENESS: SQUATS

FACT: All the baseball skills in the world aren't going to help you much after Little League if you don't possess the physical tools.

MIKE TROUT: GAME CHANGER EXPLOSIVENESS!

One of the best year round exercises you can do for your game are squats!

Starting out? Do 'body weight" squats! Then... graduate to weights!  

Squats provide a strong core workout for your abs.

It recruits muscles from you quads, hamstrings, glutes, hips, and back to name the big ones.

Practice the following form over and over again with a broomstick or your own body weight.

Stand up right now.

         BODY WEIGHT SQUAT FOR BEGINNERS

Squat down. Did you just bend at the knees first? Or did you push your butt back?

Focus on getting the form right and you will unleash the power of the squat and prevent knee injuries.


The proper form for the squat is as follows:

• Place the bar on the rack in a position that’s a couple inches below your shoulders.

• Do not use any foam padding on the bar.    
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• You want the bar resting on your back. If it hurts, you have the bar in the wrong place.

• Place your hands in a comfortable position so that you can get under the bar. Some like to have their index fingers on the outside rings.

• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and rest the bar on your upper back. There should be a nice little groove for it to rest on. Do not place it too high. It should not be up towards your neck.

BARBELL SQUAT FOR EXPLOSIVENESS

• Stand up with the bar and take a slightly wider than shoulder width stance.

• Start thinking of the squat as a back and forth movement with your hips instead of an up and down movement with your butt.

• The first movement you make is not down! Don’t start bending your knees first. The first movement you make is to stick your butt back.

• Continue pushing your butt back further and further until your upper legs are parallel to the floor.

• Your lower legs should be close to perpendicular to the floor. Your knees should not be hanging out past your toes. If they are, you more than likely started the squat movement by bending your knees instead of pushing your hips back.

"IT'S NOT WHERE YOU'RE AT, IT'S WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

• Once you reach the bottom, press up on the bar hard by pressing your heels through the floor. The weight from the squat should always be on your heels…not on your toes.

• While moving upwards, press out with your knees. Do not let them buckle inwards while you press the weight up.

PISTOL SQUATS:

ONE LEGGED PISTOL SQUAT

Pistol squats will also improve leg strength and explosiveness.

They can be helpful for fixing structural imbalances that can cause chronic pain and injury.

Split squats are recommended because they help  balance your agonist/antagonist muscle pairs (such as hamstrings and quadriceps) and the pairs of limbs (right and left legs).

It’s not enough just to have the appropriate strength ratio between the hamstrings and quadriceps; to achieve structural balance, the strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings on the right leg should be equal to the strength of those of the left.

Split squats with heavy weights will help you gain serious strength in the lower body, but they also require you to activate the trunk, making them a useful “core” exercise (keep the trunk erect by contracting the abdominal muscles, and avoid anteriorally tilting the pelvis).

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