Does “Lifting the Foot” Make Us Slower?

Well, it's been while since I wrote that. Nowadays I lift weights, but I don't squat... I tried to do it for some time, but it's hard to do and there's just a tiniest hint of muscle effort... Lunges (with weights) are a lot easier and glute activation definitely happens and it can be felt next day. With half squats there's bit more muscle effort but it feels bit useless to do it with such smaller range of movement. It's probably not so good move for long legged guys. Even tried weight lifting shoes, caused knee pain and I also realized that I don't want to carry them (I run to gym) or wear them.
Half squats are useless and with a little stretching low bar squares are not that hard to reach parallel. A low bar squat is completely different exercise than the high bar you see everyone at the gym doing. If you do them correctly it is hard to find a better exercise to hit the gutes.

My PT said my flexibility was dismal but I was able to hit parallel after a few weeks of stretching my hip flexures.
 
Plus, if you follow Rippetoe's recommendations for grip width and placing the bar between the posterior delts and traps, you'll increase your shoulder mobility too. At first it was hard to get my hands within my shorty bar's 43"-wide sleeves (the Rogue C-70 bar). Now I can get them within the 32"-wide power marks in the knurling.

I used to hate squats, because they are hard, and it took me a while to experiment and get the technique down, and I'm still refining it, but no other lift will do so much for overall strength and mobility. I also do the other four basic, compound barbell lifts--deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, bentover rows--as well as pullups/pulldowns, but in a sense, they're all just assistance lifts for the squat. In general, I've found that these six lifts are all that's necessary. All the rinky-dink bodybuider exercises and dumbbell stuff are just frosting on the cake, and often a distraction. Just work the prime movers with the basic compound lifts and if you time left over for other stuff, great.
 
https://www.t-nation.com/training/dispelling-the-glute-myth

Bret Contreras wrote this article. i think his blog is the glute guy or he's called that by everyone. he got together with Stuart McGill, the world's leading researcher on back pain. McGill hooked him up to some computers and tested him. these are the best glute exercises per those two.
 
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https://www.t-nation.com/training/dispelling-the-glute-myth

Bret Contreras wrote this article. i think his blog is the glute guy or he's called that by everyone. he got together with Stuart McGill, the world's leading researcher on back pain. McGill hooked him up to some computers and tested him. these are the best glute exercises per those two.
My wife says my ass has gotten bigger from squats. That's all the activation I need.

Have you ever tried Barbell Hip Thrusts? They feel really awkward to me. Also note that Bret is hawking a pricey hip thrust bench.

Bret has never met an exercise he doesn't like. I find focusing on the prime movers with just a handful of big lifts suits my personality better. Plus it's more efficient to work the maximal amount of muscle mass. And the big lifts lend themselves best to progressive overload. In the end though, forget all the studies and do whatever you enjoy the most or feel gives you the best results. If you don't enjoy it, chance are you won't do it for very long.
 
Bl,

i haven't read much of Contreras stuff so i don't know all the exercises he likes. i do know he likes those hip thrusts and yes, they are very awkward. I saw McGill the other week and he said hip thrusts get max glute activation at 250#s. i know that got to Brett's heart cuz he loves those. even though they say squats and dead lifts don't get max glute activation i too will continue to do them. i like them.

moden,
try those before you run next time. :cool:
 
Bl,

i haven't read much of Contreras stuff so i don't know all the exercises he likes.
Just look at the link you posted. So many different ways to attack the glutes alone, so little time. But then we probably need a 100 exercises to properly hit the lats too, right? And the pecs, and so on.

It's easy to get caught up in the onslaught of contradictory information and endless variations on basic training principles and exercises. It fills you up with Catholic-like guilt, all the things you're not doing or should be doing.
i do know he likes those hip thrusts and yes, they are very awkward. I saw McGill the other week and he said hip thrusts get max glute activation at 250#s. i know that got to Brett's heart cuz he loves those. even though they say squats and dead lifts don't get max glute activation i too will continue to do them. i like them.
I get Bret's newsletter. He's a very thoroughgoing researcher, rare in the ST world. I think he is sincere, but perhaps a bit blinded by his convictions and commercial interest. It's also a little hard to believe that he knows more than Coleman, Bolt, Bolton and everyone else who's ever trained, which is basically what he claims.

I also wonder if EMG tests tell the complete story about a particular exercise's usefulness. Seems a bit reductive (is surface EMG activity really equivalent to motor unit recruitment? etc.). I don't have any qualifications, but seems like the health/fitness/nutrition world is full of half-baked ideas based on single variables. That's why there's no limit to the amount of new findings that can be found. Just figure out that something does something, and then extrapolate for a complete theory while ignoring all possible interactions with other things that do things. That's why I go with the pros and their knowledge won through trail and error, and they've always done squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, pullups/pulldowns, and rows, whether they're athletes or bodybuilders. It's a lot easier to observe results than explain them.