Box squat vs free squat for mma?

[Kavn]

Which do you think has more carryover to mma? I've been box squatting for the last three months and I've been successful with box squats. I have tried free squatting but my form is terrible and I don't know if I break parallel each time.

The guys at Westside Barbell reccomend box squatting, but most lifters on my college's football/baseball teams do free squats.

So should I keep free squating until my form gets better or stick to box squats to compliment my bench/powerclean routine?

 

[Mark Limbaga]

normal squat would be better

 

[TKMaxx715]

i find box squats to lose my momentum as i try to go back up so i would suggest just having someone watch you squat and he can say the lift is good once youve gone down far enough

 

[Madmick]

Gosh, I just read an article about this a couple months ago, and I forget by whom, but it was a heavyweight (Poliquin? Verkoshansky? King?). He more or less excoriated box squats for athletes. He said they should be used sparingly to get over a plateau, possibly, but even for athletes, that wasn't his recommended plateau-breaker.

He more or less damned box squats for athletes. He said they belonged only in powerlifter programs.

 

[Madmick]

BTW, what do you mean by you've "been having success?"

For me, I rate the box squat's effectiveness according to how it affects my free squat.

 

[Kavn]

BTW, what do you mean by you've "been having success?"

I mean I've made good improvements.

 

[Devil's_Advocate]

I think that was poliquin. He stated that box squats have best results for powerlifters. No so good for other type of athletes.

I would do variations of other squats....Fronts Squats, OH, ATG, Power/Back.....

 

[AndreG]

Ive been doing box squats for along time and I personally think that they have made me more explosive on the mat.

The point of box squatting is to increase your rate of force development which can then be translated to the mat or whatever sport you are playing.

 

[Deleted member 56619]

Why does westside advocate box squats? Is it because of their unique setup with the bands? Or are they primarily a powerlifting gym? I know they train some NFL players and other atheltes, but they are mainly powerlifters right?

 

[Kavn]

Westside recommends them because they think they're safer. They also say it's harder to cheat on a boxsquat. because you have to go down to the box (which should be lower than parallel).

 

[AndreG]

Westside recommends them because they think they're safer. They also say it's harder to cheat on a boxsquat. because you have to go down to the box (which should be lower than parallel).

and because they develop explosive power

 

[GP-100]

I can see how squatting off a box (presumably dead weight) would result in more explosiveness than free squats.