Andy Baker weighs in: Squats for the elderly

[Mark Rippetoe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISgao34vNrk

[lifter285]

Holy smokes he's a big guy

[Mark Rippetoe]

A modern-day Colossus.

[Kaplowitz]

He's my favorite SS coach.

[Dana]

It'll never work. Only a leg press will help. There's a great video somewhere where a fat guy who writes for T-Nation explained all the details, but I can't remember who he was.

[Kyle Schuant]

Interesting and useful, thanks Andy for producing this.

Many trainers and coaches don't appreciate that in progressive resistance training, just as increasing weight or reps is progress, so too is increasing range of motion.

[George Cook]

He gave me some great ideas I can use with my mother. This was very helpful.

[Hank]

Andy, thanks for taking time to do this video. And thanks to Rip for posting it up. This is a big part of what makes this an actually useful website.

[quagmire]

Thanks, very useful.
Question: Assume the older person can do box squats with thighs parallel.
Should the next step be adding some weight, and do box squats, or just do normal unweighted squats? Is there a point when the box can/should be taken away?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Thanks, very useful.
Question: Assume the older person can do box squats with thighs parallel.
Should the next step be adding some weight, and do box squats, or just do normal unweighted squats? Is there a point when the box can/should be taken away?

With elderly clients the answer is always "it depends." Unfortunately there is never just a one way to do things or progress. The situations with these folks are always pretty unique and programming is highly individual. You have to really keep the end state in mind. Is your arthritic 80 year old who is also overweight ever going to be doing full ROM back squats in the rack? Almost certainly not, so there isn't a lot of pressure to take the box away or remove the DBs. Like I said in the video, keep the big picture in mind - parallel box squats with DBs is still going to help this person out tremendously.

I will also add that for many of my seniors, the deadlift is really the primary focal point of the program. I tend to focus on the things that the client CAN do well and deemphasize the areas where they really struggle. This approach tends to lead to more progress and less frustration for client and coach.