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I was reading Muscle Mag, and saw a picture of Arnold squatting with a board under his heels. I was just wondering: does anybody knows what the benefit is of doing this?
I tried it and I liked it a lot. I felt like it hit my quads to a greater extent.
I've heard people suggest it for bad squat flexibility
Read this article. Very helpful.
[url]http://www.davedraper.com/squatting-with-raised-heels.html[/url]
"Using a raised heel posture is actually a better position under weight for people with a short torso, longer leg femur proportion. There's no question that a longer torso (and a longer tibia bone - the distance from your knee to your ankle) will improve squat form due to simple body mechanics.
In the 80's there were enough damaged knees for the experts to say that elevating the heels caused knee problems. Biomechanic science now tells us that body proportions will give us the correct answer - if your leg femur is proportionately longer that your torso length, elevating the heels is a viable answer for you, even though that might hurt the knees of your squatting partner."
If you're normally proportioned, which you probably are, it will feel more comfortable because the degree of hamstring stretch is lessened. This is putting more force on the quads and will mess up your knees in the long run though. The fix is stretching your hamstrings until squatting properly feels better. And until then, keep squatting without it and focus on depth and the tension on the hamstrings, its a great stretch in itself.
It helps with balance as well.
Edit: But I would focus on doing it without the board for the above reason.
I have always done it this way, and I have never had any knee problems, nor has anybody I know that has done it this way for thier life. if you push off your heels (like your supposed to), then there is no diff in the pressure on the knee.
the reason I use the board is due to bad ankle flexibility, and I want to go ALL the way down. so if you have this issue the boards under the heels is the way to go.
Buy weightlifting shoes.
[QUOTE=Mattman1217;604048443]Buy weightlifting shoes.[/QUOTE]
this.
[IMG]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a307/robertodimaano/Picture031.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Arm_Wrestler;603851813]I was reading Muscle Mag, and saw a picture of Arnold squatting with a board under his heels. I was just wondering: does anybody knows what the benefit is of doing this?[/QUOTE]
It's a quick but temporary cure for poor flexibility. It will shift your CG forward, and allow your knees to move furthur past your feet, which can be a problem for knee health. It also causes all the load to be placed on just the balls of the feet and the heels and leaving ther center of the feet unsupported, also a bad idea.
Get rid of the board, Squat with your feet flat on the floor, and work on your flexibility. The only other viable alternative is to get a pair of [i]weightlifting[/i] shoes (as pictured in the above post), which will provide a bit of heel lift while at the same time support your entire foot.
I thought I read somewhere there is a difference between flexibility and mobility. You might be flexible enough to do the exercise but the mobility isn't there because you haven't worked in that range long enough, specifically for the exercise or activity. So basically you train the movement and over time you can do it easier. :)