Squats: 3 sets of 10-15 reps Arabesque: 2 sets of 5-8 reps each side Step-down: 3 sets of 4-6 reps each side Glute bridge: 3 sets of 10-15 reps Calf raise: 4 sets of 10-12 reps each side (you can do 2 sets each of locked knees and bent knees to work both the superficial gastrocnemius and soleus muscle)
I would suggest anyone who wants to do squats (especially loaded beyond body weight), or any serious strength training in general, to check out strengths training channels. As much as I value Coach Parry for running advice, I don’t think the form of strength exercises is shown or described sufficiently in some aspects. Some cues for the squat: - You can (and should!) absolutely drive the knees over the toes, as long as it’s pain free (!) and fits your anatomy, this will build knee resilience in this part of the range and put more load on the quads. - go below parallel/as deep as you can on the squat. The range of motion shown in this video is more of a “quarter squat”. - Keep your knees apart when driving up (engaging your adductors will help with that) - as described in the video, keep the chest pushed up to avoid rounding of the upper back. Also keep your glutes engaged to avoid rounding of the lower back. - Weight should be equally distributed in the triangle of heel and left+right side of the ball. I would not put all the load on the heel and especially not lift my toes (putting weight on your heel is more of a cue to not lift the heel). Also don’t put too much weight on your toes. The mid foot should be well planted on the ground. Different foot positions will have different effects on the targeted muscles and stability. Most people will easily do 20+ reps of body weight squats. To progress, squats need to be loaded with weight and this can get dangerous, if form is lacking. For calf/heel raises: - increase range of motion: don’t stop in the shown starting position, but use the step to let the heel drop down (controlled) below your toes before you drive up again. - for running, you can and should actually bent your knees slightly when doing the heel raise, as it will target different muscles - If it get’s too easy, just rest the span of one foor on the heel of the other/working foot and do the sets for each side separately. If you go very slow and controlled, this will be sufficient load for most people. In general: 10-15 reps doesn’t mean, that you just need to go through the motions for 10 to 15 times. If you could do 20 or 30 reps, doing 10 will be a waste of time. You should be barely able to do more reps, when you are done (perhaps 1-2 more, if you really tried very hard). If you could easily do more, you should load the exercise with weight, to keep you at a point of reasonable muscle fatigue at the end of your reps.
Great comment! I wanted to write about the exact same thing. If it's not a weird way to shift squats to do something they're not the best at and making them more difficult, you totally should extend the knees over toes if your dorsiflexion allows (many people are losing their dorsiflexion in modern society due to the lack of deep squatting). Particularly annoying was the mention of avoiding knees over toes but no explanation on why. At least that way you could gauge if it's misinformation or an odd way to do the exercise. To add some detail, it's been shown in multiple studies that the most effective way to train is when you load the stretched muscle length. For example for both quads and glutes the bottom of the squat, which is why quarter squats are sort of a joke in resistance training science circles. The deepest squat you can achieve with neutral back and balance is the most effective. And full range of motion on the other hand is just generally good for everyday life. And don't do grounded exercises with running shoes, they are not made for lifting or balancing. They are cushioned for comfort on the run. Many if not most of them also have too narrow soles curling up your foot and preventing from the foot to spread for good support. Lift barefeet or in weightlifting shoes so your foot has some sense of solid base. Otherwise the body senses that it's not stable and limits force production, which makes your strength training rather inefficient. Beginners at resistance training (bodyweight counts) grow a lot from basically just doing the exercises, even up to 5 repetitions in reserve can be pretty much equally effective to them as 0 repetitions in reserve. However as you progress, the most effective range is 1-3 repetitions in reserve. Training to failure is not advised because it doesn't bring noticeably more to the table, while it can make consistency and recovery difficult because it's very very fatiguing compared to leaving something in the tank. And consistency is the number one factor in results. And if we're talking about strength training as in the title, then you'd probably prefer keeping multiple reps shy from failure, but lift at 80% or higher load of your max. Which tends to result in doing 6 or less repetitions, on a load that you can do 8 or less repetitions with. Which in turn reduces hypertrophy effects compared to doing +5 repetitions 1-3 repetitions shy of failure. But this is pretty unnecessary information for someone starting resistance training.
Actually, whether you lock or bend your knees during calf raises depends on what muscles you are targeting. With locked knees you are mainly activating your superficial gastrocnemius, whereas bending your knees helps targeting your soleus muscle. As a matter of fact, the soleus muscle is more important for running overall. And when running, you should aim to never lock your knees anyway. So calf raises with a bent knee make more sense than locked knee calf raises do, although those are beneficial too.
I would also add in tib raises. Tibs are likely one of the most neglected muscles, and incredibly important to balancing the calves, and especially important if you’re running a lot of downhill. They are part of the braking system. I find when I add consistent tib raises my propensity for shin splints and lower leg pain diminishes and dissapears. Neglect them and it comes back
There is absolutely nothing wrong with one's knees going past their toes. Having foot size as some sort of arbitrary guide to a movement pattern that depends on just about everything but that makes very little sense. This is one of the strength training myths that has to die.
Correct. Glad someone pointed this out. Asians have been squatting this way since forever. Lot of fit old people who squat and have good mobility squatting all the way with butt to the ground and knees well past the toes. I've started doing it years ago with no complications.
Yes, knees over toes is not wrong. However, they never said knees over toes was wrong or bad. In their squat exercise they simply instructed not to extend the knees over the toes. There may be a specific reason they instructed this was to target muscles more specific to runners, for example. I would like a little more clarity on their specific reasoning for this squat mechanic, and like I said it’s likely they want the butt back and knees in line with the toes to directly target the glutes firing higher up in the the squat since most runners need glute strength and firing higher in the squat versus lower, since running is more upright.
@@buddylove2073 normal people have squatted like this forever. In modern society a lot of people have lost their dorsiflexion due to lack of squatting. The whole nonsense about no knees over toes came from some misunderstood study where they found out that (surprisingly to everyone) the forces in the knee increase at the toughest part of the squat. They just failed to realise that every movement has its toughest part and it's a natural movement with big range of motion. Similarly the stresses on the knee would increase when you increased the load because you got stronger and more efficient in the exercise. You'd have to ban squatting after a while to save your knees if that had any rational behind it. And you wouldn't see weightlifters squat 300 kg ass to grass (with knees over toes which is a mandatory mobility requirement for weightlifting). Even better, not squatting deep loses the most effective part of the movement, loaded stretched muscle length. At the bottom the quads and glutes are the most stretched while loaded, which is noticeably more effective than other parts of the motion. And reaching the bottom is just good for your mobility for everyday life. It's true that doing partials could be sport specific exercise, however even in partials there's no reason to limit knee travel. And there's no real reason to do partial squats for sport specific training unless you're a professional runner. Because it will limit your range of motion and make you less able in everyday life, it's a worthy tradeoff for professionals but not for general public. On the other hand focusing on glutes in squat is somewhat nonsensical when you demonstrate multiple glute and hamstring exercises, and while squats are the best quad developers. It just doesn't make much sense to use quad focused exercise to develop muscles that are developed in other ways. Furthermore the deep squat would be much more effective for glutes in any case, and you could do good mornings or deadlifts or rdl or something for glutes if that was the idea. And if glutes were your goal you'd teach low bar squat style where you lean over in the upper body to allow proper hinging. And you'd have to load the exercise anyway because those muscles are so strong. This combination just doesn't make sense.
Agreed. A lot of it has to do with center of gravity, ankle/hip mobility, core strength ... and genetic anatomy. If you have longer than average femur with shorter than average feet, your knee's will be well over your toes. Which is totally fine! As long as it is comfortable, within your mobility, and under control.
Does the overall body of evidence truly suggest that squatting with knees going past the toes is harmful? The general consensus that I have heard from sport scientists that focus on resistance training seems to be that it is perfectly safe.
Squats are good for the muscles that drive us forward but you can do deeper squats and no need to worry about knee over toes. I don’t see the need for the others. Running itself will build calf and quads, especially if you sprint. Get strong through running in various modes. And do squats.
lots of misinformation in this video. there's no magic width apart that your feet need to be for a squat - it just depends on what you're trying to target. a more narrow stance will target the quads a bit more, and a wider/sumo stance will target the glutes more. you also should not put all of your weight on your heels in a squat - and definitely don't lift your toes up when performing this movement. your weight should be evenly distributed over your whole foot. also, there's nothing dangerous or wrong about putting your knees over your toes - you actually get a better quad stretch (and thus a better stimulus) if you intentionally put your knees over your toes. also not sure why you would recommend 10-15 reps for squats - that's a fine rep range if you like high rep squats, but many people prefer lower reps, and for many people, anything past 12 reps and your cardiovascular system will give out before the target muscles, making it difficult to push close to failure.
Lots of misinformation here for the simple fact that running does not involve both feet planted on the ground at the same time. Eliminate the squat and glute bridge from these.
Even though running is a single leg exercise, it does not mean you should eliminate squats and glute bridges, but rather progress to single leg squats and single leg glute bridges, once you master the basic exercise.
This is probably the best troll comment. "Don't do effective strength training because you don't use those muscles" would've been more boring but clear way to say the same. Maybe you'd prefer a backpack full of rocks during a run for better strength training, to avoid misinformed exercising. Professional athletes should finally come to senses as well and get out of under the barbell. Imagine that the runners are doing power cleans and barbell squat type of nonsense.
@Yupppi It's true. Look it up. It's not me saying it but biomechanical specialists that study how the body moves. Some elites run well DESPITE doing these ineffective lifts. Eventually it catches up to them in the form of injuries and/or slower times because the fascia adapts to movements not specific to running. So, when athletes run, the body fights itself with fascia now used to non-running movements. Again, look it up.
Squats: 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Arabesque: 2 sets of 5-8 reps each side
Step-down: 3 sets of 4-6 reps each side
Glute bridge: 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Calf raise: 4 sets of 10-12 reps each side (you can do 2 sets each of locked knees and bent knees to work both the superficial gastrocnemius and soleus muscle)
Great stuff. Thanks for the summary!
thanks ... save me 15mins of bla bla bla..
I would suggest anyone who wants to do squats (especially loaded beyond body weight), or any serious strength training in general, to check out strengths training channels. As much as I value Coach Parry for running advice, I don’t think the form of strength exercises is shown or described sufficiently in some aspects.
Some cues for the squat:
- You can (and should!) absolutely drive the knees over the toes, as long as it’s pain free (!) and fits your anatomy, this will build knee resilience in this part of the range and put more load on the quads.
- go below parallel/as deep as you can on the squat. The range of motion shown in this video is more of a “quarter squat”.
- Keep your knees apart when driving up (engaging your adductors will help with that)
- as described in the video, keep the chest pushed up to avoid rounding of the upper back. Also keep your glutes engaged to avoid rounding of the lower back.
- Weight should be equally distributed in the triangle of heel and left+right side of the ball. I would not put all the load on the heel and especially not lift my toes (putting weight on your heel is more of a cue to not lift the heel). Also don’t put too much weight on your toes. The mid foot should be well planted on the ground. Different foot positions will have different effects on the targeted muscles and stability.
Most people will easily do 20+ reps of body weight squats. To progress, squats need to be loaded with weight and this can get dangerous, if form is lacking.
For calf/heel raises:
- increase range of motion: don’t stop in the shown starting position, but use the step to let the heel drop down (controlled) below your toes before you drive up again.
- for running, you can and should actually bent your knees slightly when doing the heel raise, as it will target different muscles
- If it get’s too easy, just rest the span of one foor on the heel of the other/working foot and do the sets for each side separately. If you go very slow and controlled, this will be sufficient load for most people.
In general: 10-15 reps doesn’t mean, that you just need to go through the motions for 10 to 15 times. If you could do 20 or 30 reps, doing 10 will be a waste of time. You should be barely able to do more reps, when you are done (perhaps 1-2 more, if you really tried very hard). If you could easily do more, you should load the exercise with weight, to keep you at a point of reasonable muscle fatigue at the end of your reps.
I believe you can accomplish most of what he / you mention by simply retro walking.
Great comment! I wanted to write about the exact same thing. If it's not a weird way to shift squats to do something they're not the best at and making them more difficult, you totally should extend the knees over toes if your dorsiflexion allows (many people are losing their dorsiflexion in modern society due to the lack of deep squatting). Particularly annoying was the mention of avoiding knees over toes but no explanation on why. At least that way you could gauge if it's misinformation or an odd way to do the exercise.
To add some detail, it's been shown in multiple studies that the most effective way to train is when you load the stretched muscle length. For example for both quads and glutes the bottom of the squat, which is why quarter squats are sort of a joke in resistance training science circles. The deepest squat you can achieve with neutral back and balance is the most effective. And full range of motion on the other hand is just generally good for everyday life.
And don't do grounded exercises with running shoes, they are not made for lifting or balancing. They are cushioned for comfort on the run. Many if not most of them also have too narrow soles curling up your foot and preventing from the foot to spread for good support. Lift barefeet or in weightlifting shoes so your foot has some sense of solid base. Otherwise the body senses that it's not stable and limits force production, which makes your strength training rather inefficient.
Beginners at resistance training (bodyweight counts) grow a lot from basically just doing the exercises, even up to 5 repetitions in reserve can be pretty much equally effective to them as 0 repetitions in reserve. However as you progress, the most effective range is 1-3 repetitions in reserve. Training to failure is not advised because it doesn't bring noticeably more to the table, while it can make consistency and recovery difficult because it's very very fatiguing compared to leaving something in the tank. And consistency is the number one factor in results. And if we're talking about strength training as in the title, then you'd probably prefer keeping multiple reps shy from failure, but lift at 80% or higher load of your max. Which tends to result in doing 6 or less repetitions, on a load that you can do 8 or less repetitions with. Which in turn reduces hypertrophy effects compared to doing +5 repetitions 1-3 repetitions shy of failure. But this is pretty unnecessary information for someone starting resistance training.
Actually, whether you lock or bend your knees during calf raises depends on what muscles you are targeting. With locked knees you are mainly activating your superficial gastrocnemius, whereas bending your knees helps targeting your soleus muscle. As a matter of fact, the soleus muscle is more important for running overall. And when running, you should aim to never lock your knees anyway. So calf raises with a bent knee make more sense than locked knee calf raises do, although those are beneficial too.
100%
Makes sense
Hard sole shoes would help a lot, especially for squats. Coach is really wobbling around on those running shoes.
Thanks for the great videos.
I would also add in tib raises. Tibs are likely one of the most neglected muscles, and incredibly important to balancing the calves, and especially important if you’re running a lot of downhill. They are part of the braking system. I find when I add consistent tib raises my propensity for shin splints and lower leg pain diminishes and dissapears. Neglect them and it comes back
I added tib raises to my run program recently and have less fatigue, shin splints and post-workout discomfort. A truly noticeable gamechanger for me.
I’m training for a marathon and I’ve added a medicine ball to my squat. Realllly speeds up the strengthening
1.Squats
2.Arebesque
3. Step down. 4. Glute bridge. 5. Calf raise
That squat is intense. It really engages all those strap muscles. I really feel the workout.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with one's knees going past their toes. Having foot size as some sort of arbitrary guide to a movement pattern that depends on just about everything but that makes very little sense. This is one of the strength training myths that has to die.
Correct. Glad someone pointed this out. Asians have been squatting this way since forever. Lot of fit old people who squat and have good mobility squatting all the way with butt to the ground and knees well past the toes. I've started doing it years ago with no complications.
Yes, knees over toes is not wrong. However, they never said knees over toes was wrong or bad. In their squat exercise they simply instructed not to extend the knees over the toes. There may be a specific reason they instructed this was to target muscles more specific to runners, for example. I would like a little more clarity on their specific reasoning for this squat mechanic, and like I said it’s likely they want the butt back and knees in line with the toes to directly target the glutes firing higher up in the the squat since most runners need glute strength and firing higher in the squat versus lower, since running is more upright.
The training also misses some variation of the clamshell and core strenght.
@@buddylove2073 normal people have squatted like this forever. In modern society a lot of people have lost their dorsiflexion due to lack of squatting. The whole nonsense about no knees over toes came from some misunderstood study where they found out that (surprisingly to everyone) the forces in the knee increase at the toughest part of the squat. They just failed to realise that every movement has its toughest part and it's a natural movement with big range of motion. Similarly the stresses on the knee would increase when you increased the load because you got stronger and more efficient in the exercise. You'd have to ban squatting after a while to save your knees if that had any rational behind it. And you wouldn't see weightlifters squat 300 kg ass to grass (with knees over toes which is a mandatory mobility requirement for weightlifting).
Even better, not squatting deep loses the most effective part of the movement, loaded stretched muscle length. At the bottom the quads and glutes are the most stretched while loaded, which is noticeably more effective than other parts of the motion. And reaching the bottom is just good for your mobility for everyday life.
It's true that doing partials could be sport specific exercise, however even in partials there's no reason to limit knee travel. And there's no real reason to do partial squats for sport specific training unless you're a professional runner. Because it will limit your range of motion and make you less able in everyday life, it's a worthy tradeoff for professionals but not for general public. On the other hand focusing on glutes in squat is somewhat nonsensical when you demonstrate multiple glute and hamstring exercises, and while squats are the best quad developers. It just doesn't make much sense to use quad focused exercise to develop muscles that are developed in other ways. Furthermore the deep squat would be much more effective for glutes in any case, and you could do good mornings or deadlifts or rdl or something for glutes if that was the idea. And if glutes were your goal you'd teach low bar squat style where you lean over in the upper body to allow proper hinging. And you'd have to load the exercise anyway because those muscles are so strong. This combination just doesn't make sense.
Agreed. A lot of it has to do with center of gravity, ankle/hip mobility, core strength ... and genetic anatomy. If you have longer than average femur with shorter than average feet, your knee's will be well over your toes. Which is totally fine! As long as it is comfortable, within your mobility, and under control.
Thank you for this video! Strength training can be a bit of a rabbit hole for me... thank you for breaking it down nicely!!
Great stuff, going straight into my running conditioning playlist = thank you!
thank's the hamstring is also ok
Good stuff. thank you.
Thank you! Do you add weights at some point?
I would hope so. Just using body weight isn't going to do anything if you're remotely fit.
i have trouble activating my glutes in my squats is there other variants to fire up the glutes
Great i bet all runners need this
Coach Parry, Is that your amazingly cute wire-haired fox terrier wandering around? I absolutely LOVE wire-haired fox terriers!
How often do you recommend to do do this ruitine? is it daily? weekly? few times a week? (I run about 3 times a week atm if that helps for context)
When it comes to strength training, 3 times a week is pefect but 3 is better than 2, 2 is better than 1 and 1 is better than none.
Someone clean that decking !
Great descriptions and cues. Thank you.
Does the overall body of evidence truly suggest that squatting with knees going past the toes is harmful? The general consensus that I have heard from sport scientists that focus on resistance training seems to be that it is perfectly safe.
Awesome dog!
❤
Squats are good for the muscles that drive us forward but you can do deeper squats and no need to worry about knee over toes. I don’t see the need for the others. Running itself will build calf and quads, especially if you sprint. Get strong through running in various modes. And do squats.
So that's why professional runners spend time at the gym, because running develops strength and builds muscle.
lots of misinformation in this video. there's no magic width apart that your feet need to be for a squat - it just depends on what you're trying to target. a more narrow stance will target the quads a bit more, and a wider/sumo stance will target the glutes more. you also should not put all of your weight on your heels in a squat - and definitely don't lift your toes up when performing this movement. your weight should be evenly distributed over your whole foot. also, there's nothing dangerous or wrong about putting your knees over your toes - you actually get a better quad stretch (and thus a better stimulus) if you intentionally put your knees over your toes. also not sure why you would recommend 10-15 reps for squats - that's a fine rep range if you like high rep squats, but many people prefer lower reps, and for many people, anything past 12 reps and your cardiovascular system will give out before the target muscles, making it difficult to push close to failure.
Why a step down instead of a step up?
the wrong video thumbnail 🤷🏼♂
Why does 5 things take 13mins to explain 😂😂😂😂😂
Lots of misinformation here for the simple fact that running does not involve both feet planted on the ground at the same time. Eliminate the squat and glute bridge from these.
Even though running is a single leg exercise, it does not mean you should eliminate squats and glute bridges, but rather progress to single leg squats and single leg glute bridges, once you master the basic exercise.
This is probably the best troll comment. "Don't do effective strength training because you don't use those muscles" would've been more boring but clear way to say the same. Maybe you'd prefer a backpack full of rocks during a run for better strength training, to avoid misinformed exercising. Professional athletes should finally come to senses as well and get out of under the barbell. Imagine that the runners are doing power cleans and barbell squat type of nonsense.
@Yupppi It's true. Look it up. It's not me saying it but biomechanical specialists that study how the body moves. Some elites run well DESPITE doing these ineffective lifts. Eventually it catches up to them in the form of injuries and/or slower times because the fascia adapts to movements not specific to running. So, when athletes run, the body fights itself with fascia now used to non-running movements. Again, look it up.
Why should runners train the same muscles used for running. Just run and focus on muscles not used for running
Because they want to develop the muscles they benefit from?