Bodyweight squats solve everything?

Try it and see

The body weight squat is a great mobility exercise and a great diagnostic test.

When I'm having trouble (ie.. can't keep heels flat) I quickly work on the cause (ankle issues or calf tightness).

When I can "grease the groove" and do them perfectly I know I'm perfectly aligned. So I'd agree with your friend to some extent but still do other exercises for strength, power and overall athleticism.

Big truth to it. From personal experience at the height of my running (70 mpw with a full time job) i was doing a lot of calisthenics and was able to stay injury and niggle free for a whopping 8 months the longest I was able to stay injury free in my life but Your friends volume seems excessive and reparative. There’s plenty of other body weight workouts for leg strengthening besides the squat like the pistol squat, lunges, jump squats or other plyos etc….

Trevie Wevie wrote:

I've recently started to feel more 'niggles' while running. Two months ago my right knee felt off. Last week my left shin felt some odd pressure for a few days. This week for whatever reason my left ankle is feeling a bit strained.

I talked to a buddy of mine who apparently was in the same exact situation before. He claims that 200 bodyweight squats a day cleared up literally every issue he was having, and is now running 80MPW without any pain whatsoever. He'll do 5 sets of 40 throughout the day. This seems too good to be true. Is there some merit to this?

The thing is that much volume also works your core. A lot of issues stem from a weak core.

Wait a second. Are you telling me strength solved a few issues? No way!

in my situation this was not sufficient. in order to rehab from ankle injury. i would say the minimal effective weight would have been about body weight plus about 1/2 body weight. and much more safety came around bodyweight plus body weight on bar. also it was a weighted calf raise, with range of motion with ankle starting lower than ball of foot, that gave me back my ankle. after simply body weight squats etc did not.

an issue to consider will be- when you apply force with one foot , how much force do you apply?

in order to run , how much force will you need to apply with an individual foot or side?

when you are applying force with both feet/legs etc at the same time, how much force does each side apply?

the basic problem, and the failure of the body weight squat is-

when you are running all your body weight goes onto one foot/side. (and when you pass your foot your heel goes lower than the ball of your foot and there is likely some element of plyometric at least some times in your stride)

the jump from 1/2 body weight to full body weight is too big of a jump.

in order to progress this jump gradually it is easiest to add weight to activities done on both feet.

until one foot/side is able to lift the whole body weight.

while you might not need to squat with an addition of 1 x body weight, there are other motions

that you will need access to in order to run. many issues for example relating to just the first 1/2 inch of ankle lift.( others relating to impact forces especially while speeding up or slowing down.)

that a body weight squat, or even a 2 x body weight squat etc, will not protect you for.

basic situation being. there are multiple injuries. that if you were to need to rehab through, that it will make sense to lift at least 1/2 your body weight , and closer to your full body weight, before its "safe" to start using light light dumbbells. for example 2 to 5lb, on one foot.

"easiest" way to think about it. and i guarantee near every program gets this wrong, is think about the force nec for one foot and the force prepared by activities done on two feet, and bridge this difference gradually by adding weight to activities done with two feet planted. to regain the power to use each individual side.

Ok, I have some input here but lately I am pretty foggyheaded and a bit dizzy/disoriented. Long-term post high dose chemo effects. Bumping up my runs to 3 miles is taking a toll. Been seeing stars thru the day and touching the wall when standing to make sure I stay oriented upright. Room spins sometimes.

So if this is garbled or if I seem dumb that's why. Sorry in advance. Here goes -

In my experience, doing a large number of bodyweight squats on a regular basis will be beneficial, and also imperfect solely on its own. Reason being, legs also should be worked individually. Slight imbalances in leg strength and/or old, partially or mostly-recovered injuries will result in one leg doing more of the work on squats, thus exacerbating the imbalance and creating other problems.

Instead of 200 bodyweight squats daily, here's what I suggest (all bodyweight):

- 100 squats

- 20 forward lunges, ea leg

- 20 side lunges, ea leg

- 20 45-degree diagonal lunges, ea leg

- 20 single leg on a stair or box, lowering slowly 4 count and raising 2 count like for physical therapy

- 20 squat-jumps

This is the same number of reps per leg, but should be more balanced / well-rounded / whatever I'm trying to say here. (It's actually a bit harder than 200 squats bc 40% of it is single leg, and 10% is jumping)

Maybe start by dividing everything above in half, and doing it every other day, or every 3 days. Work up to every day, then increase reps. (Sort of like you might suggest for a new runner - jog every other day, then every day, then go longer.)

Also add 3 sets of single leg heel drops / calf raises, on a stair or something, barefoot. 4-count down, 2-count up. Start with maybe just 5 reps and work up from there.

Part of this should really include drills and strides, but I've rambled enough already. Hope this made sense.

If you are wondering if BWt squats are good, you'll be amazed when you start using actual weight!

Trevie Wevie wrote:

I've recently started to feel more 'niggles' while running. Two months ago my right knee felt off. Last week my left shin felt some odd pressure for a few days. This week for whatever reason my left ankle is feeling a bit strained.

I talked to a buddy of mine who apparently was in the same exact situation before. He claims that 200 bodyweight squats a day cleared up literally every issue he was having, and is now running 80MPW without any pain whatsoever. He'll do 5 sets of 40 throughout the day. This seems too good to be true. Is there some merit to this?

Maybe it works. But I never understand why BW squats are expected to build strength. If you have ever lifted weights you know that the squat takes advantage of a heck of lot of natural strength in ones legs. Most people can squat more weight than any other lift movement (except deadlift maybe, and that too uses legs). Im classic runner build and could squat 300lbs with ease. Bench, only 200. So how is it we are using BW and expecting the largest, strongest muscle in the body to build strength? By that logic running 6 miles a day should build superhuman leg strength from all the reps? Single limb a little different.

To me BW squats are "physical activity". Great for couch potato, but a runner? Any runner, male or female who has run for more than a few months should be able to squat comfortably with 50-100 lbs and still be in the high reps and good form for strength. Legs are strong. And thats still not a muscle building weight. Single limb still better though. Why dont wall sits build strength? Same reason BW squats dont.

Great stuff in this thread. I would add, some careful knees-over-toes stuff. Like single leg half squats on decline, sissy squats, lunges (going forward calf to hamstring), all going knees past toes.

Do body weight squats "fix everything"?

No.

But doing resistance training can be very helpful for a runner. I do pullups, pushups, upright dumbbell rows, weighted lunges and supine rows. All you need is some dumbbells, pullup bar and dip bar, all which you can by cheap on Amazon.

I think this stuff probably helps my running. I think it probably helps prevent injury. But that's not why I do it. I do it because as a runner, being thin enough, I don't want to look like a toothpick. These calisthenics give me enough muscle mass and muscle tone, to look fit and athletic, without slowing me down. I don't need to look like a Hulk. But I don't need to look like Kipchoge, either, especially if I'm not going to be able to run like Kipchoge.

As a runner, weighted squats with at least some weight, are probably going to help you more than with only body weight. We work our legs with only body weight thousands of times each week, with each step. I'm not sure how much a few more reps, adds. However, adding some weight can give us some strength that simply running, or doing body weight squats, can't.

If you are mainly doing it for core/mobility reasons, you may also want to consider half or even quarter squats. Less stress on your leg muscle groups, so less impact to running workouts.

If full squats start getting easy or you really want to strengthen your core, work on slowly moving your plant feet closer (between workouts) until your ankles (or calves) touch.

200 bench is stocky for a true distance runner. It's fine though.

Sub-8 Mile wrote:

- 20 single leg on a stair or box, lowering slowly 4 count and raising 2 count like for physical therapy

...

Also add 3 sets of single leg heel drops / calf raises, on a stair or something, barefoot. 4-count down, 2-count up. Start with maybe just 5 reps and work up from there.

Good post. What do you mean in the first bullet above, the 20 single leg things? I thought you meant heel drops but you mention them separately later.

Here's one way to understand the answer - again I'm not 100% brain functioning so I'll try to make some sense.

There are different types of strength. The strength you get from lifting 3 sets of 8 reps (any exercise/lift) is different from the strength you get from 3 sets of 20 reps. And that's different from doing very high reps. Still different from that might be something like doing physical labor all day every day, like on a farm -- that's where you get what they call "farm strong."

Here's another way to think about it -- why is it a bad idea to run a hard workout like, say, 8 x 200m fast with 3-5 min rec on just 10 miles per week (say, four 2-mile runs and then this session)? Many would say that you don't have the mileage to support it. What does that mean? From personal experience, it means not enough easy/moderate effort running steps to build proper muscular and connective tissue strength to do this session, which if done regularly may well result in injury under these circumstances.

Back to your question about running 6 miles per day -- let's day 5 days per week, one of which includes a 4-mi tempo effort. Now that 8 x 200m (done on a sixth day) is far less risky. The point here is, mileage isn't exclusively all about aerobic fitness. Running is a moderately plyometric activity and as such, running many many steps over a good number of miles does in fact build strength. Not stronger in the way where you would squat tons more or get a massively higher vertical leap, but stronger for the relevant muscles/tissues/movements.

Going along with that, think about the long-to-short long sprinter programs, or the long-to-short components of an ends-to-middle approach. Why start with 1200m repeats that go down to 1000m, 800, 600, 400? And why start with 12 x 200m and go down to 10, 8, 6, 4 repeats? In part, yes conditioning/fitness. But also, doing those longer/higher reps at a slower pace builds a lot of physical strength. So when in comes time to rip 3 x 200m or 3 x 300m, the athlete can do it hard, without so much risk of injury, and quite possibly faster than without this background of strength.

hmm, I'd say that's different, not the same. Isotonic vs isometric exercises each can build strength if done properly. Depends on what kind of results you're looking for.

gahh. gonna stop being longwinded now. I hope I made some sense.

CAA wrote:

Sub-8 Mile wrote:

- 20 single leg on a stair or box, lowering slowly 4 count and raising 2 count like for physical therapy

...

Also add 3 sets of single leg heel drops / calf raises, on a stair or something, barefoot. 4-count down, 2-count up. Start with maybe just 5 reps and work up from there.

Good post. What do you mean in the first bullet above, the 20 single leg things? I thought you meant heel drops but you mention them separately later.

Stand sideways on a stair, with one foot flat along the edge of the step and the other foot dangling next to the edge. If you lower yourself down, your dangling foot will touch the next lower step in about 8 inches. You'll need more than 8 inches range of motion for this exercise, so bend your dangling leg at the knee (lift the dangling foot up a bit behind you). Now you can do a half- or 3/4 squat type movement.

Got this from PT years ago, while rehabbing from an injury; they had me do it once or twice a week for a few reps. If you do it more regularly with more reps when you are not injured, it can be good for strength maintenance and injury avoidance, in my experience.

Trevie Wevie wrote:

I've recently started to feel more 'niggles' while running. Two months ago my right knee felt off. Last week my left shin felt some odd pressure for a few days. This week for whatever reason my left ankle is feeling a bit strained.

I talked to a buddy of mine who apparently was in the same exact situation before. He claims that 200 bodyweight squats a day cleared up literally every issue he was having, and is now running 80MPW without any pain whatsoever. He'll do 5 sets of 40 throughout the day. This seems too good to be true. Is there some merit to this?

My experience is that this works.

This is a much better routine. Well done!

Sub-8 Mile wrote:

In my experience, doing a large number of bodyweight squats on a regular basis will be beneficial, and also imperfect solely on its own. Reason being, legs also should be worked individually. Slight imbalances in leg strength and/or old, partially or mostly-recovered injuries will result in one leg doing more of the work on squats, thus exacerbating the imbalance and creating other problems.

Instead of 200 bodyweight squats daily, here's what I suggest (all bodyweight):

- 100 squats

- 20 forward lunges, ea leg

- 20 side lunges, ea leg

- 20 45-degree diagonal lunges, ea leg

- 20 single leg on a stair or box, lowering slowly 4 count and raising 2 count like for physical therapy

- 20 squat-jumps

This is the same number of reps per leg, but should be more balanced / well-rounded / whatever I'm trying to say here. (It's actually a bit harder than 200 squats bc 40% of it is single leg, and 10% is jumping)

This is good. Performing squats with two feet planted on the ground is not conducive to running and/or running rehab.