Box Squats

Ask any woman over the age of 35 what body part she wants to improve most, and most likely it will be her derriere and thighs. It was my slowly softening behind that actually sparked my interest in Physique Competition. For this target area, most trainers will recommend the classic exercises: squats, dead-lifts, lunges, hip thrusters, and step-ups. Variations like split squats, sumo dead-lifts, etc., may also be used, to bring in variation, but that will depend on how your body is responding, and the technical repertoire of your trainer. I don’t often do squats as I tend to recruit my adductors a lot in comparison to my glutes and quads, making my thighs rub together after about 4 weeks of training with squats. (When a squat is done properly, there will be a lengthening of the Adductor Magnus by way of its insertions, engaging it in eccentric contraction during the decent, and allowing them to contribute to hip extension when performing the concentric portion of the lift) This is not a look a Fitness Model is really going for. We want toned, muscular legs, but shape and definition is much more important than size. I did “box” squats this month, at 5 sets of 5, to build up strength in my hips so that I could nail my legs next month with some high volume work. I have another important photoshoot coming up in January and I want my legs to stand out, so everything is geared towards that end result. Just today I noticed my thighs starting to touch again, so I took them out, and I’ll be focusing next month on exercise that target hip extension, classics like stiff-leg dead-lifts and romanian dead-lifts.
xoxo
Michelle