Unlocking the Power of the Posterior Chain
By Dan Bailey, Johnson High School, Gainesville, GA

I have a passion for all aspects of strength and conditioning. What I love most is that I am blessed with knowledge and the ability to organize, relate, and help kids to understand. In doing so, I have used a trial and error format. This has never been more evident than with the format used for doing squats in the weight room. Over the years, squats seemed to remain the most consistent as far as form and technique, until recently. I am always in search of the most effective way to get the most out the student-athlete in the weight room. This does not mean that I am jumping on the next bandwagon. This means lots of research and practical application with my personal training, as well as with the students. This leads me to the title of this article,”Unlocking the Power of the Posterior Chain”.

The key to this powerful lock is that of utilizing low box squats for 95% of squat movements in the weight room. Now many people may counter this by stating, “I am not training my kids to be powerlifters.” Let me explain the reason behind this statement. I think that a majority of coaches of all sports would agree that one of the most important attributes of an athlete is in the hip flexor, glute, hamstring and spinal erector strength. This is what is often referred to as the posterior chain. We feel that the box squat is the best option for all athletes, both male and female. There were many factors involved in this decision; time in each class, number of student-athletes, training age, biological age (from 7th grade to 12th grade). There were many more factors, but these factors weighed the most.

The most important factor was the basic teaching aspect. The low box squats made it so much easier to train the motor skills of a 12 to 18 year old student-athlete. Think of the time that coaches put into just teaching the squats correctly. It takes a stringent format to monitor a young student-athlete, to ensure the form will remain consistent. The box squat eliminated the question of depth. With 6 squat racks, 6 platforms and 6 benches, and anywhere from 30 to 70 students in the weight room, it makes it more practical for the instructor to focus on other aspects of the workout. We no longer have to waste time coaching depth. We vary the height of our boxes to provide for different stimuli (10 – 12 – 14 inches).

There are numerous positive benefits from performing box squats correctly. I will try to list the benefits that we have witnessed in our program as well as any coaching points that correspond and have been used in other articles (EFS);

Trains both the concentric and eccentric power phase of the squat.
Depth is 100% consistent at all times
· Overloads the posterior chain and negates the un-due stress placed on the lower quads and knee joints.

The relaxation on the box divides the lift into 2 phases. From the box, the key muscles for explosion are relaxed and re-engaged to provide for the concentric phase.
Develops reversal strength
Doing static-overcome-by-dynamic work will build a great amount of explosive force production and absolute strength in the posterior chain on the descent.
Carry-over to the student’s desired sport that will provide the speed and strength recruitment capability of the CNS for the posterior chain.
The above mentioned are just a few of the tremendous benefits that result from utilizing low box squats and have been stated in other articles of similar content. In high school, another extremely important key is that of true force development. The vertical jump is a great indicator of this aspect, with a combination of both force production and power with the posterior chain. Why not train for this in the weight room every chance given? We do. It is very difficult to attempt to accomplish so much in the high school weight room with so little time and so many students. We know the box squats take much of the guess work out and provide a stringent format for the student to perform squats and receive maximal benefits. To make the most of the squat movement, we feel the box squat provides for true explosive development of the posterior chain. We train each athlete with the concept that we will develop both absolute and speed strength. Our pre and post-test vertical tests have been a true witness to that fact.

As many other coaches do in the weight room, we utilize video and still-shot analysis of the students performing box squats and the students provide feedback for themselves and others. This has proven to be a valuable asset as it allows our athletes to review their form and technique.

As I stated before, I am no rocket scientist and I did not discover this all by myself. I credit my desire to provide the most dynamic workout to our student-athletes, for the research and discovery that led me to this format. I give full credit to Louie Simmons (Westside Barbell), who has brought box squatting to light and brought it to the masses. Also I want to give credit to Dave Tate and Jim Wendler (Elite Fitness Systems) who have fine tuned the process for me. Most of all credit to Coach Scott Hines (Pro Performance), who has spent countless hours with me in research and discovery of how to get the most out of the training format for the high school athlete. Coach Hines and I have debated, argued, collaborated and come to some pretty good resolutions of how to make this work on the high school level. I hope that you find some thing that you can use from this article to assist you in either your personal training, or what I hold dear to my heart, the training of our high school student-athletes who choose to propel themselves in their personal training for their respective sport.