Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

I used to do lunges with dumbbells, but I now do hack squats below parallel and change the spacing of my feet between sets. I think I get a better workout on the muscles used in lunging and I don't have to worry about bothering fellow lifters as I stroll through the gym with DBs at my side doing lunges. I don't perform this movement on a regular basis but throw in a couple of sets of hack squats after a deadlift or squat routine on DL day about once a month.

i do walking lunges HEAVY, in the 3 to 8 rep range with DB, but i often use straps, great "core work" and really friggen hard on the legs, i found it often increases my leg strength when i go to somthing else.

Its great to do single leg work. Many people over work many lifts like squats. Single leg work can help you go to new levels.

I do those too , they are very tough. I don't have the flexibility to go to the floor.

I was really into doing pistols but recently I switched to doing them off of a sturdy high table where my leg can just hang off to the side without hitting the floor. Like a step up but without any ground contact. I found pistols to quickly become too much of a balancing act. If you're after strength I highly recommend this variation instead.

I hate them! They hurt and make my legs too big!

The cool thing about lunges is that you don't NEED any special facility or gear to do them. I was just reading Bruce Lee's 'Tao of Jeet Kune Do' and he recommended doing 200-300 daily with emphasis on speed. I decided to try this and found that it is much harder than one would think. For shits and grins I'm going to put than in as a training objective and see where I'm at in 9 weeks.

I got stuck in a situation where calisthenics was the only means of exercise available to me. I did get to the point to where I did 200+ lunges (per leg) daily. It seemed once I approached this level of output I began to push back my threshold of physical limitation. It was/is very motivating.

One thing to note is that my junior college lifting instructor said that when working with bodyweight, daily training is okay... I found that not necessarily to be the case the hard way. Squeeze in a day of rest or two weekly.

I've become a big fan of split side lunges, as seen here about 15-20 seconds in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJECepNeCJ0

Pretty cool video anyways.

I am a basketball player but after I squat (which is 2x a week now-accum.) I always do a signle leg move. I usually stick with the same move for 2 or so sessions and then go to the next. I usually cycle between bulgarians, step-ups and those. I had never seen those before I saw that video and thought, "That's awesome. I gotta try that." It gives a good stretch at the same time too.

I'm not sure it would be good for hockey players. i'm pretty sure I remmeber reading that they have somehwat overdeveloped Vastus Lateralis' compared to their VMO's and that move has got to be hitting the lateralis more than the medialis. For hockey players, try bulgarians with a 3 second pause at the botton. That will *thrash* your VMO.

I do overhead walking lunges, great for grappling sports such as wrestling, judo and MMA. Hate doing them, but the results are just too good

I COULD DO PISTOL SQUATS WHEN I WAS A YOUNG'UN!

No, I can't do them anymore, thanks for asking. WAAAHHHHH! ! ! (Sniff!)

I started out by steadying myself with my spear before progressing to doing them free-hand. Since we didn't have pistols back then, we referred to them as "Nahoogah" squats.

One time (snicker!) . . . one time (HA!), sorry . . . one time one of the other guys was trying Nahoogah squats, and when he was at the bottom of the movement, I STEPPED ON THE BACK OF HIS LOINCLOTH. HA! HA! HA! That was our version of "de-pantsing" someone, since, obviously, pants hadn't been invented yet.

Ditto. Sandbag or sandbags, overhead or a partially filled barrel of water held overhead. They make squatting seem real easy.

TNT

I had found a correlation between doing heavy sandbag lifts and squats. I had abandoned squats for a while, and focused on lifting a heavy sandbag from the floor to my shoulder. I would do it in two movements: 1) I lifted the bag from the floor into my lap, and 2) I then heaved the bag up onto my shoulder from the "lap" position.

The combination of having to first lift it from a low crouch, and then thrust it upward explosively out of my lap actually translated well to squats when I resumed them after a long layoff from squats. In no time at all I was back to doing 24 reps with 300 lbs. in the squat.

Hmmmm . . . "thrust it upward explosively out of my lap" sounds suggestive. Will I get in trouble with the "naughty police?"

Didn't your loin clothe get in the way???

We get empty 60 liter barrels FREE from the brew your own store (that's a whole nother thread) and partially fill them with water. 30 liters of water will weigh about 65 lbs. I watched a 300 lb. powerlifter end up on his ass in the tall grass attempting lunge walks with about 20 liters (45 lb). Lots of shits and giggles with this one. 90% of the battle is getting it up to your shoulder and then overhead.

TNT