I haven’t squatted in a long time—several years, I guess. After shouldering 340 kg and dislocating two vertebrae in my lower back, a combination of justified and unfounded fears prevented me from returning to the power rack. Despite working hard on leg presses and hack squats, there was still something missing in my quads. And although my back will never be 100% the same as before, I made the decision to return to squats. I think this article will be useful for those who have already suffered lower back injuries, but still want to squat.
Perform all leg extensions at the beginning of your workout. The goal is to first fatigue the quadriceps as much as possible before moving on to squats. When the quadriceps are tired enough, the lower back and gluteal muscles will still be “fresh”. In these conditions, you can achieve very good results using much less weight: after good extensions, squats with 120 kg will feel the same as with 200 kg. Exercises will become much safer, since there will no longer be a large load on the lower back. And the quadriceps will work much more than usual.
After a warm-up set of moderate-weight extensions of 20 reps, perform four working sets. Start with a weight that allows you to do 12-15 reps, pausing at the top for a full second and contracting your quads completely. After this, stretch each quadriceps for 10 seconds and then contract it for 10 seconds.
Then perform two more sets of extensions with a weight that allows you to perform 12-15 reps. Now reduce the weight by half and try to perform the same 12-15 repetitions. This is very serious pre-fatiguing work for the quadriceps. Now, if you hadn’t seen the weights on the bar, you would have sworn that there were at least 250 kg, although in fact it was only 120.
Reduce the speed of repetitions. If you feel like it can’t get any more painful, try slowing down the tempo of your reps. Take four seconds to lower into the squat, pause, then lift in two seconds. No bar tossing or hitting! Stretch this torture for four sets of 12-15 repetitions. The burning sensation in your quadriceps will be as if someone poured a couple of liters of pure acid into them, but everything will pay off in a few days. When I first tried this workout, my hips hurt from my knees to my groin for almost a week. The load was just right! It’s good that I have railings on all the stairs at home, otherwise I would have to spend my life on the first floor. So, don’t worry about small scales. Almost any 200kg squat athlete who goes through a workout like this will feel the same way you do.
Train your lower back. By all means, keep lower back exercises such as hyperextensions, barbell forward bends, or deadlifts in your program. The stronger your lower back, the more likely you are to return to regular squats. Although, with the help of the described technique, you can get such results that you will want to continue working in this style, despite all the “horror” of preliminary fatigue and slow repetitions.
