Topless Tuesday: The Topless Squat

Each week on the UncleBlog, we'll make a traditional exercise better by removing the inefficient movements at the top of the motion.

There's no need to pretend anyone likes doing squats. The only part of the exercise that doesn't suck is when your legs are fully extended and you get a mini-break at the top before lowering back down into Dante's 8th Circle... so we're gonna go ahead and take that part out.

To be fair, it's not JUST a break at the top of the squat; it also transfers the weight from your leg muscles (which you're trying to work) into your hip and knee joints.

When you're training for muscle with light-weights, you shouldn't be concerned with "completing" each rep for a full range of motion. Rather, your focus should be on making sure your muscles remain under constant stress throughout the movement, and that means eliminating rest/dead points that are built into so many traditional exercises.

How to perform the Topless Squat:

-Stand with feet shoulder width apart. If you're doing it without weight (which we highly recommend, especially for beginners) you can put your hands together in front of your chest, on your hips, one in your pocket and the other smoking a cigarette -- just get them out of the way.

-Keeping your back straight, slowly bend at the knees and hips until your thighs are parallel with the ground. If your knees/legs are healthy, you should go a little below parallel for best results, but you'll want to ease into it. Start with very small, shallow squats where you're barely bending at the knee and gradually go lower each rep until you find your sweet spot.

-Lift upward along the same path until your knees reach 75%-90% of full extension (see photo).

-Pause briefly at this high point before slowly lowering to the bottom and repeat.

I know, I know. It sounds kinda silly to remove a portion of an exercise and then claim it's MORE effective. But if you don't believe me - you can try this from anywhere:

Stand up and do a few regular air squats, but keep one hand on the front of your thigh (quad) so you can feel your muscles as they fle. You can feel the quad flexing as you go down and come back up, but when you lock your knees out at the top, the muscle goes flat.

Now do a few more air squats, but this time take the "top" off the movement so you're only going 75%-90% to the top. You'll instantly feel the difference in the muscle contraction when you take out the pit-stop at the top. You can apply this concept across countless lifts to maximize muscle isolation, maintain constant tension, and remove wasted/dangerous movements from your lifting regimen.

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