Your Athletes Should Be Box Squatting

Coaches who don't see value in the box squat are doing their athletes a major disservice. This article is geared more towards sport athletes, but even if you are a powerlifter, olympic lifter, or strongman, there are tremendous benefits from implementing box squats. As for athletes go, you first need to ask; do we need them to be better athletes or better squatters? Obviously we want our athletes to be proficient at all movement patterns, especially one like a basic squat pattern, but I don't need my athletes to be elite powerlifter level squatters, I need them to be better athletes! Even if its something I may not be a fan of, if its going to make my athletes undoubtedly better, I am going to implement it without hesitation. If you know something provides a lot of value and can make your athletes better, why would you not find a way to implement it for at least a period of time?

Sports are played from a dead stop position most of the time. Coming out of the blocks in track, firing out of your stance in football, reacting to balls off the bat in base/softball, reacting to spikes in volleyball; you get my point. Seconds, even milliseconds matter; this is why everyone loves speed. Box squats can develop that extra twitch to shave down those milliseconds that matter. Why? When you sit on the box and briefly pause, you are reducing the stretch shortening cycle, which is going to force you to fire off the box quicker so you don't get stapled to the box. The stretch shortening cycle uses the kinetic energy being stored during the eccentric portion of a movement, almost like a rebound coming out of the bottom end of a movement. Anytime you implement pauses or tempo's during reps, it can disrupt the stretch shortening cycle as well. Box squats builds tremendous starting strength, which allows us to enter our acceleration phase much sooner. When you normally squat down, you naturally kind of spring back up because your muscles want to return to their normal resting length. Theres a little bounce out of the bottom that a squat regularly gives you. When you sit on a box, your muscles naturally relax eversoslightly, this teaches your body how to contract your muscles faster for a more explosive movement. This helps athletes get in and out of stances and positons faster as well as reacting quicker, getting from point a to point b quicker than other athletes.

This type of starting and explosive strength literally transfers to every sport. I can't name any that wouldn't benefit from this being a regular part of their training. If anything, its going to make you more explosive which is going to increase your jumping and speed directly. Most coaches will run endless agility, plyometric and speed drills alongside endless wind sprints and wonder why their athletes aren't actually getting more explosive and more fast twitch like. The box squat isn't the only exercise that does this by any means. But when done right, it builds tremendous results that makes it a really great tool thats hard to ignore in my opinion. When athletes have that 'pop', you know it. Box squats done consistently over time develop that pop in an individual. I know if an athlete is either moving more weight or moving the same weights faster off the box, they are getting faster and more explosive which is going to improve reaction time, verticals, speed and agility scores.

Box squats are great for many other reasons as well. Teaching an athlete how to squat to the same depth consistently, can be altered for each athlete's build, great workaround for limitations/injuries. At the end of the day, it is a tool that can be added to the toolbox and utilized when and where you see fit. Its just another exercise, much like some coaches use trap bar deadlifts over power cleans, or just changing the variation of the squat you are going to utilize. I don't ever see the front squat being as scrutinized as the box squat, when they both are variations of the same thing that help you become bigger, faster, stronger. Either way, I know what I am going to continue doing for my athletes.