Squats are an excellent exercise for building muscle mass, losing body fat, optimizing and maintaining mobility, and improving sprint speed and jumping power. At YPSI we use over 100 variations of the squat. From regular squats to front squats, various tempi, chains, bands and hooks, narrow stance, shoulder width stance, wide stance, heels flat, heels up and even heels up.
For the last variant - with heels raised high - we use the YPSI Squat Board. This allows the heels to increase to 15cm. An advanced variation of the squat, which I also refer to as a quad squat or cyclist squat. Quad is short for quadriceps. The large, four-part muscle at the front of the thigh whose primary job is to extend and stabilize the knee. The cyclist squat is a narrow stance variant of the quad squat that recruits even more quadriceps and gets its name from track cyclists/bike sprinters who have used this variant very successfully in the past and can use resistances of 180kg.
Why quad squats?
For many lifters, especially at the advanced level, recruitment and power of the quads is a limiting factor in increasing squat performance. Performing 1-3 phase squat variations with the YPSI Squat Board is ideal for strengthening the quadriceps and breaking a plateau in squat performance, especially when the limiting factor is initiating the extension from the bottom position.
The 3 main advantages of the YPSI Squat Board:
1. Ideal for quad squats and cyclist squats - the YPSI Squat Board is designed for these two squat variants - the difference is the stance width.
2. More Squat Power Through Higher Quad Recruitment - For lifters where the quads are a limiting factor in increasing squat power, the YPSI Squat Board is an excellent tool to strengthen them and then set up new squat pos.
3. Optimal stability for more security - The YPSI Squat Board offers a wide and stable contact surface for the entire foot and thus offers maximum stability and security with this squat variant.
The YPSI Squat Board is designed for advanced exercisers whose squat performance is at least their body weight. Before that point, there are solutions and methods that are more efficient and increase squat performance.
For quad and cyclist squats in YPSI we use 4-10 sets and 4-25 reps. We also use variations like front quad squats or front cyclist squats, as well as different tempos and chains/bands depending on status and goal.
Good luck with the YPSI Squat Board!
You can get the YPSI Squat Board 2.0 right here at VA7.
Picture: YPSI Coach Goran Sirovina doing LH Quad Squats on a 180kg prototype YPSI Squat Board.