Sumo squats and knees

S

shanks911

0
Hi, quick coupla questions about sumo squats.. Did some the other day, I'm relatively new to them, but I had a couple of questions about them if anyone feels qualified to have a go!..

1) When squatting like this, is it ok for the knees to buckle slightly? By that I mean on the bottom end of the down-swing, cuz every time I go up the knees seem to sway inwards a little and vice versa at the same point on the way down.. It's at the point just around breaking parallel.

2) Are sumo-squats designed to work a particular part of the leg that other squats don't or is the only benefit that it has some novelty value?

3) After doing them, I found that my legs stayed sore for a day longer than normal. Anyone else experience this? It seemed that there was a particular sore-spot right above the knees where the leg felt hard and taut for like 2 days after.

4) How does one avoid ripping one's boxers whilst doing these! :eek:

Thanks in advance!
 
1. knees should not cave, it's usually a weakness, but with sumo squats it could just be that you're not flexible enough. You need quite a bit of abductor flexibility to let the knees stay out. are you trying to have the knes stay right over the ankles? because if you go really wide, that can actually get physically impossible due to your limb lenghts.

2. Sumo squats should work the posterior chain more, specially hams and glutes.
It's also a good mobility drill because of the abductor mobility needed

3. If it's a new exercise it's normal to be a bit sore.

4. wear stretchy boxers ;)
 
4. I don't own any but I'll get on that!..

2. are sumo's usually used with much less weight than standard squats? I'm using about 80% of my normal w8, even that felt like a bit much..

1. may well be a flexibility issue!.. I do try to keep the knees over the toes although I obviously allow them both to point further out than usual. I see the problem though, obviously limb length prohibits this. Pretty simple but didn't occur to me at the time!

Cheers Karky..
 
I meant push the knees out, laterally, not over the toes. Though it's OK to put the knees over the toes, just make sure you keep your weight on your heel and the heel in contact with the floor at all times.

When you do really wide squats like sumo squats, weight is usually a bit less. But it depends how wide you go. A lot of power lifters go pretty wide. If you're more used to narrow squats, it will be harder, but when your posterior chain is developed, wide squats is usually easier than narrow squats. But again, it really depends how wide your sumo squat is. But don't worry about weight, just use what you need to use, be it higher or lower.
 
Right.. Shall take that all on board when I do them again.

I do keep the heel on the ground, used to struggle with that but seems to come naturally now!..

Thanks for your help on that!.. On another topic, I know you're pretty knowledgeable about this kinda stuff so thought I'd ask:

I'm on a 3x FBW (naturally lol) and I rotate one big exercise which I do with the rest being variations of the main type. So for example, one day I might do Bench, Sumo Squat, RDL, etc but the Bench will be the only exercise I do with full weight, rest are variations and usually have less weight.

Question is, on such a workout plan, is it acceptable to replace DL's with Leg Extensions?.. So, say on the day where the big exercise is Squat, followed by Inc BP, followed by Leg xts instead of any type of DL.. would that sufficiently cover the missing DL? I'm just not that aware of exactly what body part the leg extension works. (Also, shud I be lying down for L.E. or sat upright?)

Thanks again. And sorry for going off-topic!
 
leg extensions isolate the quads and deadlift is one of the biggest compound movements, so no, you can't really replace it.

what do you mean by rotate? Do you only go heavy on one exercise (the first) and the others light? you should go to fatigue and almost faliure on all lifts.
 
Right, well in that case I'll keep a DL of sorts in each workout!.. Also, hate to drag this out, but does that mean that I should not include leg extensions on a day when I'm doing standard DL's as my meain exercise?

And yes - it's basically a case of going full weight on the first exercise, and then with the others, because they're variations, for example the incline bench or sumo squat, I'll lower the weight on them a bit. Intensity is still high, its just that the numbers are lower than if I was doing, using the same example, the flat bench press.

Thanks once again!..

EDIT: Would you say that this is a bad approach?.. Just for some background, I'm currently a bulk so size gain is the goal, I'm also relatively new to weight training so I'm by no means well versed on this!.. Also, this is my Monday workout (going for a short yet effective workout):

Flat BP – 3x8
Straight Leg DL – 3x8
Seated DB MP – 3x8
Sumo Squats – 3x8
Upright BB Rows, BO BB Rows (SS) – 1x10 for each
Abs Leg Raises - 3x8
Hammer Curls – 3x8
 
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there's not enough upper back work. You do two pressing exercises, horizontal (bench pres) and vertical (military press) this means you should do two pulling exercises, one horizontal and one vertical. I recommend bent over rows or cable rows and pullups or pulldowns. I'd ditch the upright row and add bent over row all the time and add pullups or pulldowns to the routine aswell. If you feel it's too tough to have all that, then do just one upper body pressing and pulling exercise each session and vary which one you do.

And every exercise should be done hard, not just the first one.
 
Right, I'll take that on board and change my workout accordingly. Much appreciated! May even do one of those annoying "Rate my workout" posts after.

And I think I may have kinda given the wrong impression about the intensity, its definitely there!! No problems on that front!!

Thanks again for the advice, like I said, will take it on board!..
 
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