0ni
Registered Rustler
As an olympic style squatter boxes are completely useless, can't get into position on a box since it's knee forwards and hips straight down.
Yes my experience is pretty scant, and I don't even low-bar, but I don't see why as a raw lifter you wouldn't just do deep paused squats instead of box squats?
It seems to me you can get the same benefits of training explosiveness out of the bottom etc without messing with your groove, as 0ni said.
Also many vids I've seen of people doing box squats, including 'elite' lifters are often clearly above parallel, which makes me ask why? Presumably they do SOMTHING, or people wouldn't be doing them. But for fuck sake people, a half or quarter squat is not a fucking squat, doing it on a box makes you look even more ridiculous.
Plenty of novices struggle with doing two different squats effectively, in fact some elite lifters too. For example, Matt Krozzaleski has said he stopped doing box squats for this exact reason, as did Brandon Lily, if I recall correctly
They are good for the equipped lifter because it mimics the equipped squat very well