If someone down the gym tells you that their favourite exercise is squats, well they would be either genetically gifted, they may be a masochist or just a bullshiter. While squatting is as a natural position as resting or having a pee, it is in fact as unnatural as my x wife’s tits when having a heavy weight crushing into your neck and straightening up from a curved spine position. Although it is an unnatural movement it doesn’t mean it isn’t a quality exercise, but the normal reaction would be that you get it over and done with asap.

One of the all time great squatters would have been the late Paul Anderson who was unofficially crowned the “Worlds Strongest Man”. He once said that he must have done thousands of squats while training but that he had detested every single one of them and went on to say that he could no way understand anyone he said the contrary. It is a sad fact that squats hurt but that they are an essential part of any body-building routine.

Doing knee bends with a barbell across the back of the neck, aching chest and gasping for breath, may actually be pleasurable for those most suited being the mesomorph and endomorph mixes. If you as a normal guy would like to cut back on a bit of pain then try rolling up towels around the bar and perhaps don’t dip quite so low and keep the bar parallel. This is a much more comfortable approach to the exercise and is a lot more suitable for those of you who are more likely to be doing this exercise…the skinny guys.

The more “let’s say” naturally muscular guys don’t tend to do the weight training thing or if they try it, well it will be short lived, but what the hell…they don’t need to. Once again it’s you skinny guys who have the real urge to gain in muscle and strength and then keep it up. Did you know that George Eiferman could carry out 150 consecutive squat reps? – and on one leg!

Now if we are going to take strength training seriously then our schedule must include squats or some form of knee bends. You may come across coaches that are against this form of exercise saying it could lead to hip/knee joint injuries and then there are some of the old boys who claim that their joint problems are a result of heavy squats, such as Grimik who still did squats in his 70′s but subsequently required a hip replacement.

You can actually go over the top when it comes to protecting your joints with wraps as development results can be affected. Although the idea is for wraps to prevent injury, if you do over do it, well it can cause the joints and connective tissues to weaken. n the other hand a competing weightlifter would benefit through being able to lift more as well as protecting himself from serious injury.

Development is not the same as power lifting so it would not be advisable to use them. If you have short leg bones which gives better leverage, you could probably squat onto your haunches. As we have mentioned squatting is a natural way to sit, but lifting double our body weight will only put stress on our spinal column and knee joints.

Those who can go so low in squats, or even squat snatches, and arise uninjured are in the minority. Why? Because it just ain’t natural for most. But please note we are talking about HEAVY squats and will continue to do so in part 2.