But extraoridnary results are usually found outside the confines of what makes average people comfortable.
“High box squats are my favorite exercise to develop strength in athletes.
They are safe & you can get kid freakishly strong.
I like to compliment them with a variety of full ROM squat exercises.
It’s a combo that just works.
Their sprint times & jumps prove it, too.”
-Ray Zingler on X
In 15 years, with several tens of thousands of hours training thousands of athletes across the age, skill, competency, and ability spectrum, I most certainly don’t know it all, but I have picked up on a few things.
And the most important thing I’ve learned is to not be swayed by the traditionalist.
See many people think there is a figurative box and we must live within the confines of this box because everybody else is.
I’ve found that, just like the “Olympic lifting is the gold standard for athletic performance” is bullshit, so is this line of thinking.
When you look at athletes (outside of strength sports/T&F) what do they need to do?
Your first answer is probably, “improve their skill, speed, power, & strength” and I’d agree.
But how do we do that?
We must apply more force into the ground more effectively, right?
Well, to display more force, we must gain access to more force, and we do this by getting stronger.
This is where it gets interesting.
What does “get stronger” mean?
Ask any bro at the gym and he’ll tell you it’s the bench press or squat numbers going up and then tell you all about the man-made rules you have to follow for it to “count”.
And this is where many leave sports performance results on the table for athletes.
Athletes aren’t lifters.
They are athletes.
The only purpose of the weight room is to get them fundamentally stronger, or, as I like to say, “improve their force reservoirs” so that we can positively impact sports performance.
So, because S&C is general in nature, how one goes about increasing levels of force, doesn’t really matter as long as the objective is accomplished.
For us at Zingler Strength, the best weight room exercise I’ve found to improve our force reservoirs is the high box squat complimented with full range accessories.
No, it’s not traditional. Yes, the bro will say it doesn’t count.. but again, it’s not about meeting Johnny from Instagram’s man-made standards.
It’s about sprint times going down, jump times going up, and continuing to stack millions of dollars in scholarships as the kids continue to sit parallel in chairs on signing day.
The proof is in the pudding.
