Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

Personally, I have always saved that for when I really knew I needed it. And I'm sure you're probably sitting there wondering how it could benefit you. But the truth is it's just like supplements in the same sense.

I would never recommend someone to take any supplement if they didn't know what it was for. If they were having trouble with their bones due to a lack of calcium, I'd recommend for them to take a calcium supplementation. If they under severe stress due to hard competitive training, I might recommend including vitamin C and magnesium citrate. If they overtrained until their immune system was worked into the dirt, I'd recommend glutamine. If they were fat I'd recommend eating right before even thinking of supplementation. If they were having trouble making gains, my prescription would be some good old fashioned hard work and increasing calories a bit. And similarly, I would never recommend any supplement "just because". There would have to be a reason!

The same exact thing goes for massages. With the exception of if you were just looking for some relaxation because you like it, I wouldn't recommend a massage unless you really needed it. When you are training extra hard you will know it, because your body will feel it. It's when you know you have trained harder than you ever felt in your life, and you feel like you've literally beaten your body into the dirt.

Unfortunately when you are training hard minor injuries can occur. One year after I first started practicing squats in a suit, I woke up one day with a stiff neck so bad that it felt like I couldn't turn my head or my arms. My neck was in pain. So I went to get a massage, had trouble even getting into my car, and I told the lady where it hurt the most. She spent a lot of time on that area and rubbed some sort of special lotion on it in order to help get the pain to go away. It definitely helped. If I recall correctly, I'm pretty sure I ended up taking that Monday workout off. Later in the week I was ok for bench press day.

There has been other times when I had been training hard week after week, and it eventually catches up to you and beats you into the dirt. Hard and heavy powerlifting is really tough on your lower back. Even bench presses can be hard on your back, especially when you get a good arc. It's been times like that when I really felt I needed a massage to help me relax and make my muscles feel better.

I think you get my point by now. Massages aren't needed just for no reason. If you need it you will know. It's kind of like when you are really tired and you know you need a good nap. In the same sense, when you feel your body is beat into the dirt, you will know. And you will want one.

If you like a good massage then go for it. I would preferably have it done any time after the workout. The logic is quite simple. You don't want to do it before your workout because you don't want to be all relaxed when you get to the gym. You want to be wide awake and psyched up and ready to go. Any day after is fine. In my old schedule I used to train only 2 times per week, a squat workout and a bench workout. So in that example, I might wait until some time after my squat workout or my bench workout depending on how I feel. It could be any day. But I definitely wouldn't have it done on the same day as my workout before the workout. That is a no-no.

Also, I don't think I'd waist my $30 on a massage that wasn't done right. I wouldn't want a poor job done. If my back is killing me I don't want a BS back rub. I want it done right.

As for your question concerning your bones, I wouldn't recommend that at all. I realize that there are many folks who have a different school of thought than mine where they are big believers in supplementation and recommend at least a multivitamin. But that is not my belief. I don't know where the idea ever came from. When I was the strongest I've ever been in my life I didn't take any supplements, not even vitamin pills, and my diet wasn't even that good.

Now if you eat a healthy balanced diet on the other hand you will be in much better shape because you will be getting more of your vitamins. You won't even have a deficiency. You can even go and do the calculations to see the proof for yourself. If you go on fitday.com for example, and put in an example of what a days worth of food is for you, it will make a bar graph showing all the nutrients you will be getting for that day. I even tried an example meal plan of extreme low calories 1700/day, and checked out the bar graph. The graph showed that I was getting way more than the recommended daily amount for most of the vitamins and for some of them I was getting double or even triple the daily recommended amount. The only positive thing a multivitamin pill could do for you is fill a possible void. But it will also make sure you get way more than what you need of most of the other vitamins, which isn't necessarily a good thing. It has been shown that too much of certain vitamins or minerals can be bad for you, so clearly that can be a bad thing.

So I don't know where this idea comes from where everybody all of a sudden "needs" vitamin pills. It's nothing but a bunch of BS if you ask me. Sure, it sounds believable if you don't know what you are talking about; it's real easy to believe. But when you look at the numbers and see it for yourself, you will see that the idea is pointless. Additionally, if you actually go to a health food store where they sell both truly healthy foods as well as supplements and look in peoples shopping carts, you will find that the people who are buying all sorts of supplements and looking for something to magically help them instead of filling their carts with good food, they are the ones who are fat. The people who eat right are the ones who are going to be lean, because of the food, not because of pills.

I'm ready to get bashed now because I know there will be a lot of people who will disagree with me on the vitamin thing. So be it. They can think what they want. But I do my research. And I do believe in supplementation in order to fill a void, if there is one. I don't believe in supplementing just because you think you need it.

So to give you a more direct answer about the calcium, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a void in your diet. If your diet is lacking in calcium, then be my guest and take some calcium. It was mainly when I quit drinking milk and cut down on dairy products one time when I was cutting when I really needed the extra calcium, because I just didn't have enough in my diet.

if your sore get massage..any time u can afford it get one it helps with recovery.