Coach Camm: Take your Split Squats to the Next Level

Exciting Exercise of the Week

Ahh the Split Squat.

The Quarantine Killer, The Covid Crusher, The Basement Behemoth.

My clients and I did a lot of split squats during our time away from the gym and for good reason – it’s a challenging lower body exercise with minimal load or even bodyweight only.

But since many of us are back in the gym let’s load this puppy up and talk about why I love the Front Foot Elevated variation.

The traditional split squat variations are regular old Split Squats (SS) with both feet staggered front/back on the floor and Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats (RFESS also called Bulgarian Split Squats) with your back foot elevated on a box or a bench.

With a Front Foot Elevated Split Squat (FFESS), the front leg is elevated on a box, plates, or anything to keep it off the floor. Positioning your front foot this way shifts your body’s center of mass backwards.

With a SS the center of mass is more centered, and with a RFESS the center of mass moves forward.

Well why is that important? If your center of mass can stay back, it allows you to squat down with a much more upright torso and the stacked skeletal positioning you always hear me talk about.

Head stacked over torso stacked over hips.

You won’t be leaning forward in that “out over your ski’s” body positioning.

Check out the form up top or on my Instagram.

It will also shift your weight more on to your heels instead of your forefoot, something I am trying to get most people to feel when they squat.

The bonus with the FFESS is if you do it correctly with the front foot setup much like a piston pumping up and down, you won’t be able to fully lockout your knee at the top.

What you sacrifice in range of motion you make up for greatly with a PUMP.

There will be constant tension on the quad AND ample contribution from the glutes since you can sit deeper into hip flexion with the elevated front foot.

If you're new to split squats this is a great variation to start with and if you're a seasoned pro this is a great one to load up nice and heavy for your unilateral work.

Up Up and Away,

Coach

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