![]() A single leg squat or split squat are both great options to keep your legs equally strong and adds the challenge of stability to your movement. Unilateral movement (single leg or single arm) is another progression that is particularly helpful for endurance athletes, by helping address or prevent muscular imbalances. If you find that the back squat is a challenge to complete with good form, you can regress the movement to a goblet squat or wall sit until you master those movements and are ready for a progression. Your first goal should always be to complete the movement with good form, as pushing through a movement with poor form can lead to injury and will not help you achieve the goal. Once you have mastered a back squat, for example, you can increase the difficulty by progressing to a front squat or overhead squat. Exercise ProgressionsĪnother option to progress your workouts is to choose higher skill movements as you master the lower skill movements with excellent form. These training variable adjustments allow you to increase the difficulty of a workout without changing the exercises performed. This increases your time under tension to 8 seconds per rep, with twice the time on the eccentric movement. An adjusted tempo could be: 4 seconds to lower, 2 second pause, 2 seconds return to standing, and 1 second rest. When you slow down the eccentric portion of the squat (the downward phase), you cause more muscle damage that encourages growth. To encourage more muscle growth, which translates to more strength and power, you can manipulate this tempo to increase the time under tension. That results in 5 seconds of time under tension, with even effort on the eccentric and concentric movements. When performing a squat, your tempo may be: 2 seconds to lower, 1 second pause, 2 seconds to return to standing, and 2 seconds to rest. Rep tempo is an advanced variable that impacts the time under tension for the target muscle groups. When you can complete 12 squats with good form, you can make the movement more challenging by increasing the number of reps or the increasing the weight lifted. ![]() ![]() The most basic of these variables are reps and load. A few variables you may consider are: reps, load, rep tempo, rest between sets, and range of motion. There are many training variables that can be adjusted to progress your workout. To demonstrate these approaches, let’s look at the squat, one of the core exercises to improve leg strength (which translates to a pedal stroke in cycling or foot push-off in running). To continue progressing, you may consider two different approaches: adjusting the training variables or choosing more advanced movements (from low skill to high skill movements). Once you have established a base of strength training experience, you will be ready for more advanced movements to continue improving and maximize your time in the gym. ![]()
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