squats - FreeTrainers.com Forums

Group: General Fitness & Exercise

General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 382, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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squats

skinnyrobin Posts: 224 Joined: 2002/05/10	2002/05/15, 03:46 PM I don't want to do squats because i heard that this exercise crams the spine and stuns growth... how else can i train the muscels i would have trained by doing squats? (i do hometraining without weights) please help me-i really want 2 increase my leg muscels!

fireloard Posts: 665 Joined: 2001/03/27	2002/05/15, 03:56 PM Lunges and Machine curls are some things I guess you could sub in but I used to avoid squatting until recently. I would say these are pretty much a must if you want to develop some glutes.. it shouldn't stunt your growth (wasn't there a long thread on this?) and the only times I ever feel like my spine hurts is if I have bar sitting too far up on my neck which I think ends up putting too much stress on your back/spine (?).. try to spread your shoulders back and act as if your flexing your back then rest the bar on the ends of your shoulder.. from there it almost feels like it could fall off but you just hold it up there.. then squat down parallel and you should feel everything in your glutes.. This is a good article on squatting someone I think posted before: http://www.drsquat.com/index.cfm?action=viewarticle&articleID=5
skinnyguy Posts: 86 Joined: 2002/05/03	2002/05/15, 04:05 PM If you are doing squats without weights then I doubt there will be much pressure on the spine. Growth stunts only occur(rarely) with young athletes who push themselves very hard and squat using a weight over 2 times greater then their own bodyweight. Like fire said, try lunges. Also use stairs in your exercise and feel the BURN! Up and Down _-^ -------------- Vaya con Dios... Keith
jsambu Posts: 34 Joined: 2001/01/23	2002/05/15, 07:14 PM if you do squats right then you shouldnt run into any problems. just remember that your knees should never go past your toes when you squat down, and once you are all the way down your legs should be at 90 degrees, it you go any lower than that your spine and knees will be affected. oh yeah and one more thing, its a proven fact that squats also allow for more growth in the upper body.