I made my RETURN to SQUATS

I finally made my return to squats. I haven't done squats in years because of some back injuries. The pain and the amount of time (months) I was sidelined from each lower back injury kept me very very afriad of squats. That is how I initially hurt my back in 2001. I collapsed while doing squats and was smashed, injuring my lower back. I had originally hurt it in 1996 or 1997 sometime in high school and was out for 6 months, but in 2001 I smashed it from weight training. I've re-injured it about 5 times since then.

So anyway, hopefully you can understand why it has taken me so long to get back to it. If you've had a serious lower back injury and know the pain and limitations (trouble walking, etc) then you know this fear of squatting is true.

Well, I'm ready to get back into it and for 2 weeks now I've been squatting. I haven't gone over 135 pounds because my lower back is still a bit fragile from a rack-pull mini low back injury about 6 weeks ago.

I've always been a fan of squatting and squats were my FAVORITE exericse before I got hurt. I have a lot of respect for the exercise.

If I could built my legs to look like this without squatting in years, I look forward to what they might look like in the future:

3 weeks before deciding to return to squats:

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/legs1.jpg

Squats are sooo good for overall body development.

You do have great leg development for someone who doesn't do squats. What have you done to get that?

Be careful with that back, though, I'd hate to see you reinjure it. Are you doing core work to help support the back, like "superman"-type moves and planks? Or 'prehab" exercises to make sure everything stays strong?

I workout at home, with no safety equipment, which limits the amount I can lift with many moves, but I have a Soloflex Rockit (www.soloflex.com) that allows me to do heavy 'squats' safely. It supposedly has the same pattern of movement as a squat, but is also like a leg press in some ways. I'm able to go pretty heavy on it (it takes up to 900 pounds of resistance!, but I've topped out at 250# at 20 reps so far, definitely more than I could do on a regular squat wiithout collapsing my spine line an accordeon...or maybe not!... so I'm thinking it really acts more like a leg press machine).

Have you thought about hack squats? Still a strain on the back but if you need to drop the bar quickly it only has a foot of so to fall.

I've been doing leg presses, hack squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls, calf raises, and bodyweight squats over the past few years, just no squats with weight.

I'm starting off really slowly with light weight and I'm being pretty careful so I think I'll be just fine.

I was doing deadlifts a year ago until I threw my back out again and wasn't able to walk, stand or sit very well for 7-10 days.

As far as what got my legs into shape.....I think it was the leg presses that added the size, the leg extensions that added the cuts and the bodyweight squats that helped the overall look.

Now it's time for squats and lunges.

Have you tried one leg bodyweight squats? Much safer for your back, but you can get a really good leg workout from them.

congrats on going back to squats. theyre amazing. i shall return to them as well

Just in case you don't already know, both Pilates and yoga are great for lower back strength and flexibility. You might want to give them a try. Both are known to enhance performance in other activities, weight lifting included.

Amazing legs, btw.

Have you tried one leg bodyweight squats? Much safer for your back, but you can get a really good leg workout from them.

I was just thinking that when Robert posted about doing body-weight squats.

These are VERY effective!