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The seven-minute solution: your simple fix for fast gains. This month: straighten out that squat

Men's Fitness, Oct, 2004

Think you've built ,the perfect body? Let s find out. Conjure up your third-grade math skills (or simply grab a calculator) to calculate if you're really ready for a body-building stage near you: Divide your maximum bench press by your maximum squat, then multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage. A well-trained lifter should be able to bench 65% of his best one-rep squat.

Of course, you can probably do better. And that's a good thing, right? Wrong. If the number you computed is higher than 65%--the average guy can bench about as much as he squats--it means your lower body is too weak. In other words, if you can bench press 200 pounds, you should be squatting 310.

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Don't worry, there's an upside: Your neglect has left a lot of room for improvement. Now's the time to grow some serious lower-body muscle. For most guys, a weak squat is actually caused by a lack of lower- and middle-back strength, as well as the tendency to lean forward too far on the descent, which decreases the involvement of the quadriceps. That reduces the amount of weight that can be lifted, which limits muscle growth. Use this one-two combination of the good-morning and front squat for four weeks to show your chest the true pecking order of body parts. The good-morning will strengthen your back (and hamstrings), and the front squat will teach you to keep your torso upright, increasing the load on your quads. (If you lean forward with the front squat, you'll drop the bar.)

How to do it: Perform this mini-workout once a week before one of your lower-or total-body sessions. Do two sets of eight repetitions for the good-morning, followed by two sets of eight reps for the front squat, resting 60 seconds between each set.

GOOD MORNING

* Bend your knees slightly and keep that angle the entire time.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

FRONT SQUAT

* Let the bar rest on your fingers, not your palms, and lower your body as far as you can.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The seven-minute solution: your simple fix for fast gains. This month: straighten out that squat

Men's Fitness, Oct, 2004

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