Kenny Bednarek finished second in the 200-meter sprint at the track and field World Championships in Tokyo on Friday. His wicked strong legs and compact posture out of the blocks exemplify the biomechanical rationale for low box squats.
It’s science!
Although Bednarek will be disappointed by another loss to Noah Lyles, there was not much more he could do. The 26-year-old American gave everything he had during the second-fastest event in track and field.
Noah Lyles won gold in the 200.
Bednarek and Lyles have a history. They don’t like each other.
Sprinters are already fiery to begin with. Lyles made it personal when he stared down Bednarek at the U.S. Championships.
The tension was palpable.
The “rivalry” could probably be traced back a few years if we were really break it all down but that was the key incident and that’s not the point here. Their beef was supposedly squashed at the beginning of August anyway. It was all about Team USA. United (States) front.
I don’t think that is true!
Noah Lyles used a late surge to take gold at the track and field World Championships on Friday. Kenny Bednarek took a hard-earned silver for an American 1-2.
They didn’t even look each other in the eye after the race.
It sure looks to me that it’s all love but it’s not really. I’m just saying!
Kenny Bednarek has strong legs from low box squats.
Your legs have to be strong to be a world-class sprinter. Duh.
However, I was most impressed by Bednarek’s bend. His ability to break at a 45º angle right out of the blocks is unmatched. Johnny Pace captured an unbelievable photo of what I mean but I’m not going to post it for copyright purposes. Here is a pretty good example:
This can likely be contributed (at least in part) to box squats. Very low box squats.
An sprinter’s posture out of the blocks is largely characterized by posture: a heavy forward lean with the torso and a force vector in line with the torso, a high knee drive, and deep hip flexion. Those three things are crucial to ground force application, which basically means how hard the foot pushes against the track. Ground force application is the primary determinant of speed.
Low box squatting help to improve all of those things. It more accurately replicates the deep hip angles and torso alignment of sprinting while working to strengthen the propulsive force muscles.
According to a medical study by Paul Swinton, Ray Lloyd, Justin Keogh, Ioanis Agouris and Arthur Stewart, box squats enable more posterior displacement of the hips and a more vertical shin angle. That shifts the physical demand from the knees to hips, which mimics the joint loading patters of sprinting.
In addition, squats that are performed with wider stances and greater depths — like box squats — more effectively activate the glutes and the hammys. So you’re basically building more muscle at a position that more closely resembles what your body would be doing on the track.
If you want to get jacked and fast like Kenny Bednark, low box squats are the key!