A well written article mike I loved it answered so many questions I have been pondering. I will defiantly save this and read for future reference.
Thanks. I almost didn’t post it here because it’s kinda short and general in nature. I’ve been writing for an Australian magazine and it’s more of a fitness magazine than a sport performance magazine so the audience is a little different. Glad you found it useful.
How do you suggest to implement both types of squat?
To be honest I stick with a high bar, close stance squat for about 85% of the year. I generally will have squatting in the program 1x/week for about 48 weeks of the year and 2x/week for about 20-36 weeks of the year depending on the athlete. I don’t really do too many cycles where we go wide-stance, low bar position exclusively however it depends a little on the athlete. If there’s a serious glute deficiency that might be a better solution. When I do low bar squats (or other variants), they are typically accompanied by high bar, close stance squats on another day that week.
Will specific hurdle drills also help to improve hip power, or maybe more importantly hip stability so that the power can be maintained and controlled?
Good article. Simple and to the point. Im a little surprised that you didn’t mention the hip thrust or other hip hyperextension movements. I have found the barbell hip thrust to be the mussing link in my glute recruitment. I have moved into a power cycle and getting carryover in my bounds that I at least partially attribute to hyperextension movements.
What kind of feedback are you getting from your athletes who have implemented the hip thrusts?
I think its where you lie on the floor and place a barbell with weight across your pelvis, then thrust up into a glute bridge - I use these and find them quite useful.
Start with the single leg version. As a sprinter you should have no problem banging out 15-20 reps. Then move up to 135 lbs on the hip thrust. Focus on squeezing hard at the top of each rep. The results should come quick. I paired mine in the same session with Bulgarian split squats to really hit the glutes and to have a loaded stretch of the hip flexors which will help in ROM for the hip thrusts.
I went from working with 135 for 8 to 275 for 6 in only a few weeks. WARNING! Once you get above 225, make sure you have some serious padding.
Well if you do the Bulgarian split squat with full ROM then you will get a loaded stretch of the hip flexor. I prefer dynamic stretching and full movement through ROM to manage mobility. So just set up and perform BSS where you feel a stretch in your hip flexors.
