Answer to: What are good assistance exercises for improving your squat?
by Brian Dick:
I don’t think I’m answering your question directly, because you asked specifically about “assistance exercises,” but assuming positive results will help you overlook the indirect answer, here are my suggestions:
- Squatting with chain/band resistance. By adding chains or elastic bands to each end of the squat bar, the weight gets heavier in the easier segment of the lift. This forces increased muscle engagement for longer
- Plyo Box Jumps – Increase the amount of fast twitch, explosive leg exercises into your workouts.
- Single Leg Squats (On and Off Bosu Ball) – Just as dumbbell bench press helps you to better recognize your weakest limb, and portion of the lift — so too will single leg squats show you your points of weakness. By incorporating the bosu ball you will also shore up strength in the stabilizer muscles, increasing your overall functional strength
- Hack Squat/Leg Press Negatives – Performed either as a hack squat or leg press, load enough weight that you would struggle to perform 5 good reps. With this amount of weight, perform negatives for a 20-30 count on the concentric portion of the lift (i.e., let the weight down for a 20-30 count until the machine’s safety block stops the weight.) Perform to failure (i.e., you are unable to resist the weight for the prescribed amount of time.)