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Isaac Callihan

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January 31, 2023

The King of Squats

Everyone loves to thing that the hack squat is the king of all squats but I have a different opinion in that the split squat is. But you may ask what is the split squat? The split squat is a unilateral leg exercise that increases lower body strength, muscle hypertrophy, balance, and stability. Often, lifters and athletes have a dominant leg, leading to muscle imbalances, movement compensation patterns, and overuse injury. The split squat has you focus on one leg at a time, so therefore you’re able to better strengthen, well, one leg at a time. This means you’ll be less prone to injuries that could be caused by muscular compensations, that is, a discrepancy in form due to one leg making up for the other leg’s incompetence.Unilateral exercises have been shown to increase muscle growth and address bilateral (two-legged) deficit issues, leading to increased bilateral performance and strength. Increased muscle activation is a key benefit of performing movements such as split squats.Whenever you run, jump, sprint, and cycle, one leg is, at some point, doing more work than the other. By performing a split squat, you’ll bolster unilateral strength, enhancing your ability to move. You don’t need a heavy split squat to walk up the stairs more efficiently, but your joints are more effective if used more often. So by performing knee flexion, which is a key movement in all of the activities mentioned earlier, your joints will be better prepared to run, squat, and jump.If you are not doing split squats in your training I ask you to add them in and I promise you will not regret it!Coach Isaac

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