Pause Squats – Top Reasons Why You Should Do Them
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As a CrossFit athlete, there are several variations you can apply to a traditional squat to enable you to enhance your power, efficiency, as well as technique and translate to better numbers both in and out of the gym. You can decide to go box squats, chains, and bands and lots of other options. Pause squat is a straightforward, but very effective CrossFit training technique.
It confers on you several benefits at times superior to the regular squats. When performing a pause squat, you come to a complete stop right at the bottom of the movement and hold that position for as long as is dictated and after that explode out of the hole. When holding the pause, you are required to remain tight in the hole, an instance that requires both concentration and practice.
The Benefits of Pause Squatting
There are lots of benefits that you can reap from pause squatting. These benefits will go a long way into building your athletic career. Among the benefits include:
Building Horsepower
When you stop the squat at the bottom, you effectively reduce the stress levels mounted on your lower back. However, this position causes your legs to work extra hard so as to push back into the starting position. A pause puts your legs under tension for a longer duration of time and enhances muscle toning. The more you perform these squats, the more your brain and body get familiar with the recruitment of slow twitch muscle fibers and building of strength for the supporting muscles of the lower back, abs, and hips.
Assisting in Other Lifts
In Olympic weightlifting, you are required to drop lower so as to get yourself to the bar quicker as the weight becomes heavier. To a beginner, this can be very uncomfortable, and at times you may feel pinned by the weight to an extent you cannot get up.
Pause squats enable you to hold a deep position for few seconds. As you increase your pause squatting weight, you will feel relatively more comfortable when driving out of the hole during your Olympic lifts. Your deadlift numbers will go up as well because pause squats enable you to smoothly drive upwards from a bent knee position.
Enhancing Your Athletic Performance
There are different types of sports which require that you explode from a bent knee position. Talk of basketball players, football players, sprinters, and the rest, all these require that explosion. Pause squats train you so that you can develop the ability and strength to come out of the hole.When you get better at pause squatting, your explosive abilities irrespective of your sport will greatly improve. Since the squat is one of the major core movements in your day-to-day life, becoming proficient in it will help you in executing different movements in your daily life outside the CrossFit gym.
If you want to give pause squatting a try, then you can do a three-week variation. In week 1, you can do 3 sets of 5 reps using a 7-second pause, week 2, you can do 3 sets of 4 reps using a 50-second pause, and in week 3, you do 3 sets of 3 reps using 3-second pause.