Barbell Block Squats (Anderson Squats from Boxes/ Blocks)

Set your plyo boxes or stacked blocks to the designated height in your program. You should have records at all heights as they build different starting strength based on different joint angles and leverages. The boxes should be far enough apart so that the plates are safely supported on each box and so you have room for your stance.

Get into sumo-type stance under the bar and position the bar into the desired position (I prefer low bar). Grab the bar wider than your shoulders to your preference and shoot your head under the bar creating a pocket for the bar with your traps. Keep your elbows up and your wrists rounded so that the weight doesn’t hurt your wrists. Brace your core, take all the “slack” out of the bar by creating as much whole body tension as possible and getting as tall as you can before driving through the legs and sending the hips forward to lift the bar off the blocks. Whenever you are deadlifting or squatting try to focus on moving the hips forward as opposed to lifting the weight UP.
Trainer Tips: Anderson variations (concentric squats) build massive starting strength and can be done at all different heights to work on sticking points and generating power out of the hole. Expect your Anderson squats to be less than your free squats as you are starting from nothing. You don’t have the advantage of the stretch reflex that you get from the eccentric portion FIRST.