[00:00:00] Josh Kennedy: Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. Today we're talking squat strength tests for cricketers. Lower body strength is essential for athletic performance. And in cricket specifically, we're talking, you know, stronger batting strokes, faster bowling, being more dynamic in the field as well as injury reduction, would you say, James?
[00:00:20] Um, But so what do we see? Let's talk, start. What do we see in the strength and conditioning world for cricket at the moment in terms of squatting?
[00:00:30] James Breese: We see a massive emphasis on barbell back squats and barbell front squats, I think is what we're seeing time and time and time again, not necessarily directly from the SNCs themselves.
[00:00:45] But I think the athletes are thinking themselves that they need to be doing barbell back squats because everybody in the gym is doing barbell back squats. And it's like a cultural thing. If you're not squatting with a bar behind your back, then you're not cool enough. [00:01:00] Or something like that. I don't know how to explain it, but it's a cultural thing.
[00:01:04] And I think CrossFit's done a wonderful job in getting more people, particularly female athletes, using barbells. From Olympic weightlifting to all these other barbell type movements. But I think they're missing the bigger point when it comes to athletic development in terms of cricketers. The barbell has its place.
[00:01:21] I think it's a great tool for rugby, for American football. Because it's building, what's it, mental resilience I think is one thing. And this ideal of armour. I think Dan John, the great strength coach of the years, he talks about armour building for collision athletes. That's great. And you need it. But for cricketers, we're not going into collisions.
[00:01:43] Josh Kennedy: Yeah,
[00:01:44] James Breese: we need to be fast, agile, and be able to move effectively. So what we're trying to say is that I think cricketers should be getting away from the idea of using the barbell at all costs, because in our professional experience, we've seen it cause more injuries, particularly lower back problems, [00:02:00] and It's what we call loading weight on this dysfunction, loading weight onto dysfunction.
[00:02:06] Dysfunction. I can't even speak this word. Dysfunction. Loading weight onto dysfunction. And I'm seeing, seeing cricketers become slower and less powerful as a result. Because the weight of the bar is pushing down on the shoulders. Right? If you think of it in very simplistic terms, it's the weight of the bars on the back of your shoulders, on the back, on your back, pushing down, it's compressing your shoulders.
[00:02:27] Right. And you need fast, mobile, agile shoulders, whether you're batting, bowling on field and fielding. So say most
[00:02:34] Josh Kennedy: cricketers that we know and see don't have the mobility to be able to get into the ideal position. By the way, there's nothing utterly horrendous with back squats. Sometimes there's a time and place for them, but if you lack shoulder mobility and T spine extension, you cannot get into the correct position to do a barbell back squat.
[00:02:52] So you're already compromising yourself.
[00:02:54] James Breese: Exactly. And what that means is. You can't get your hands back efficiently. You can't generate [00:03:00] power when you're batting. When you're bowling, you struggle to get your hand arm vertical, you know, like the high release point, you're having to fall away for lateral flexion and it compromises your bowling speed.
[00:03:12] And then we're talking about arm care. Most cricketers I know have shoulder issues. I'm one of them, right? Because of all the throwing we do over the years. So we just compounding that effect and we've got to learn from what the best at baseball do and very rarely do they have barbells on their back. So what we've developed over the years is our system of squat development, squat strength tests.
[00:03:36] It's designed to give you proper squat form because most people I work with and you as well, Josh, you can say don't have great squat form. They can't do a great squat, right? They can't do it without weight, let alone putting weight onto it. And we're trying to build up stronger athletes because it comes down to if you, if you lack lower body strength [00:04:00] and power, it's not going to correlate to the game of cricket.
[00:04:03] You're knocking a ball, you're not going to be able to transfer that weight to bowl fast. You're not going to be able to bowl and transfer that weight to hit the ball hard. Think about it, let's use batting, I always use batting because it's easier for me to relate to it. Where do you start to generate force to smash that ball over the boundary, hit those big sixes?
[00:04:19] Starts from the ground, from your feet and your legs. Transfers through the hips, into the core, then into the hands as the bat comes through. So if you don't have a strong set of legs, powerful set of legs, And you don't have a strong core that connects the two. How is that going to translate to actual power and movement at the chain?
[00:04:38] So, it's just how we like to see things and do things. That's why we built this squat progression formula. I think it's the best way to put it. To set benchmarks for what we think progression is. Talk us
[00:04:50] Josh Kennedy: through the squat progression, what it is.
[00:04:52] James Breese: Yeah. So, first of all, we're talking about strength. But what we want to see is a really good deep squat first and foremost.
[00:04:59] [00:05:00] Right? Can you do it that way? Right. First. Yeah, so we have a we have a squat test with two actually one in the door frame where we actually put a stick above Your head and try and squat the door frame See if you can do it correctly facing like kind of like 90 degrees back to the actual door itself So if you get below parallel, it's straight from the FMS.
[00:05:18] If those want to go, go into it, look at even more. So can you do that and move well with doing that first? And then we actually ask people to sit in a deep squat. Basically, can you sit in a deep squat for five minutes? Ideally 10 minutes is the ultimate goal. Those are two little movement screens and tests.
[00:05:33] And we'll talk about them separately because we're talking about strength tests today specifically. So I do want to squat well first, but then our first squat strength test is can you squat in a goblet squat, which means a dumbbell kettlebell held in front of you. with 25 percent of your body weight for 25 reps.
[00:05:50] So if you are a hundred kilo man, we're looking at 25 kilo kettlebell or dumbbell. And can you squat 25 times with that? We're looking for basic most [00:06:00] muscular endurance motor control, which is, can you squat properly and do you have the technique required? Because if you can't do this, why are we going to load you with heavier weights going up?
[00:06:10] We need to teach you the perfect movement to allow you the control needed. And the integration of the body to connect to allow you to progress further. So that's, that's stage one, right? 25 percent body weight for that. If you can't do it, it's a teaching phase. Most of the younger athletes, we have to teach them how to squat.
[00:06:26] Most of the older guys, we have to teach them how to squat, right? Because they're lacking the mobility to be able to do it. But they also, a lot of them are lacking the strength to be able to do it. Both in forearms and the core to hold it. As well as the legs and you need them to work together. So that's the first phase.
[00:06:42] Second phase is the 50 percent body weight squat for 25 reps. That's right. So 100 kilo man will take 50 kilos holding in front of him and squatting 25 times. Again, we're just adding another layer of complexity onto this more load to make sure we have the [00:07:00] proper squat pattern in place And do you have basic muscular endurance to withstand these?
[00:07:04] These tests, they're not huge numbers,
[00:07:06] Josh Kennedy: strength, strength, endurance in their strength and muscular endurance, obviously, you know, 50%.
[00:07:12] James Breese: And there's stage three. Exactly. So you've got that. So the same thing again, but just adding more weight to see if you can reach it. If you can get here now, fantastic. We are getting into the realms of basic athleticism, right?
[00:07:26] Now some people may go. Oh my god, that's not basic athleticism in the world of sports. It really is It really is. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news But that's the basic what they call in strength and conditioning world gpp that we like to see it as all right That's our basic framework and that's doing on two legs, right?
[00:07:44] So we're teaching you how to squat well with load without a barbell on your back first You In a goblet squat position with 50 percent body weight. And that's just baseline here on two legs. But then, guess what we want to do? We're athletic. We want to be [00:08:00] dynamic. So therefore we progress into single leg work.
[00:08:03] And we're then working, once we have 50 percent body weight on two legs, we're working for the 75 percent body weight on one leg. And that's in the rear foot elevated split squat progression. Bulgarian split squats, for those who are familiar. We'll know the difference between the two almost, but that's 75 percent body weight.
[00:08:21] So that hundred kilo man is then taking 75 percent of his weight, 75 kilos as close as close as you can to 75 kilos across both hands for eight reps on each leg. We give him 30 seconds rest in between, right? Just assess yourself and get set because we're nice like that. But that is where the best athletes tend to be.
[00:08:42] And you can take this research and data from golf. I think golf use mostly 50 percent body weight split squats for eight reps. Uh, we're looking at 75 percent because we feel we need to be more athletic and fit and more dynamic and have that explosive strength in the field, particularly basketball. [00:09:00]
[00:09:00] Josh Kennedy: I think I've mentioned this before.
[00:09:01] Um, good for Mike Boyle. He likes his athletes to get to 100 percent body weight for 10 reps. So we're, we're being really nice. We're only doing 75. Mike likes it at 100 percent for 10. So, you know, again, he trains some top athletes. So. You know, it's like, well, that sounds ridiculous. It's doable. It's doable.
[00:09:20] It is.
[00:09:21] James Breese: And that's the thing. It is massively doable. You may not think it is, but with the right training framework, with the right form of movement efficiency, allowing to squat better, it really is. The more efficient your body moves, the easier these squats become, right? It doesn't get easy because the weight's always high, it always gets heavier.
[00:09:38] But the point is, it gets easier because the more efficient you are. And the more efficient you are in the way you move, the stronger your legs are, the more that carries over to your technique when batting and bowling too, right? This is really important. This is why we put the physical stuff first. Your physical work impacts your technique, right?
[00:09:55] It really, really does. So,
[00:09:58] Josh Kennedy: do you want to talk a little bit then [00:10:00] about why Um, single leg movements are important and, uh, bring up Alex Natera's research.
[00:10:07] James Breese: Yeah, so that, that's, that's a key thing. So like we, we live in a single, basically on single legs all the time. We're walking, we're running, we're moving.
[00:10:15] You know, we jump off on one leg and land on one, you know, almost on one leg, but onto the other in cricket, right, when we're bowling, right? We're going from transferring weight from one leg to another when we're playing shots. So single leg work is athletic movement, essentially. That's very simple terms.
[00:10:33] Now, what the recent, we've always said, and just anecdotally over the years that we've seen that we get athletes stronger, fitter, faster by focusing more on single leg work. It's very unpopular sometimes, because people are very much married to the barbell. It's like a religious cult of the barbell, I think is the best way to put it.
[00:10:51] But we find less injuries, more athletic athletes. Athletes, okay, I'm talking about now, if you're a powerlifter, crack on, use barbells, you need it for your sport, [00:11:00] right? Yeah. Uh, but for cricket, we don't think you need it. So, more athletic, more dynamic. But now what the research and Alex Natar is now showing is that, uh, You can generate more force when using one leg than you can with the same force on two legs with a barbell on your back, for example, right?
[00:11:16] Or in the goblet squat position, which is hard with, with kettlebells. If you're doing goblet front squats with kettlebells, you can only go so far because the weight is a limiting factor, right?
[00:11:25] Josh Kennedy: Yeah.
[00:11:25] James Breese: Sometimes, but it's still good creating, you know, intra abdominal pressure. It creates core control whilst doing the squat position.
[00:11:33] It's good for the body, gets you safe, all these wonderful things. But imagine this, you know, you are, I think, what, what is it if, like, for like an 80 kilo athlete, right? You know, if you've got 20 kilos in each hand, whoa. What's, what's, what's the da, what's the, what's the data? 20 kilo eachs
[00:11:53] Josh Kennedy: of 40 kilos total.
[00:11:55] So that comes to 120 kilos, obviously for people who are good at [00:12:00] maths. , . Uh, so that's, each leg takes 60 per 60 kilos, so it splits evenly the weight, isn't it?
[00:12:09] James Breese: And now what is it? What is it then with the data in front of you? What is it then with it's on one leg? So let's take that same bilateral squats on two legs.
[00:12:17] Look at a unilateral squat. What does it look like now when it's on one leg, like a rear foot elevated split squat?
[00:12:22] Josh Kennedy: Yeah. So in the, uh, using the same amount, same athlete, same weight, doing a rear foot elevated split squat that goes up to the load on one leg goes up to 107 kilos or 84 percent of your body weight and external load.
[00:12:37] So you are able to take. 1, is it 1. 62 times more weight on one leg than you can relatively bilaterally. So it's, you know, you are, we are a lot stronger on one leg than we are on two legs. Relatively speaking.
[00:12:53] James Breese: Exactly. And that's what we're trying to do now. So there is the data now to back it up and say there is a high correlation [00:13:00] to athletic movement and getting stronger with your lower legs by working on one leg.
[00:13:03] And also, we're trying to reduce asymmetries. So we tend to find people tend to be more biased onto one leg than the other. When they're squatting, because they haven't got the movement patterns dialed down, they shift. You see it so many times. They shift to the right or they shift to the left to help them compensate.
[00:13:21] Sounds like you were going to sing then, mate. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I feel like I'm into the rugby sadly, so. It's coming from that. But they, they, they literally, they shift to the right. Yeah. So it could end up being 60 40, compared to the legs, because they prefer a right time. You watch people in the gym, squatting with barbells, and watch how their form goes.
[00:13:39] They go down and then suddenly they kink to the right, or they kink to the left. Might as well break out the sock. Yeah,
[00:13:47] Josh Kennedy: exactly. Exactly, so obviously, you know, we're showing quite clearly that. One, you need to work on your lower body strength. Being strong in the lower body is good for athletic performance.
[00:13:56] Two, more importantly, you need to be strong on single leg. [00:14:00] Why, why does it matter for cricket? Is it, um, and how does it relate to, say, I don't know, injury prevention? Stuff like that.
[00:14:06] James Breese: Well again, looking at the data and the research, but there's a blog about this So I highly recommend checking out the blog squat strength tests for cricket.
[00:14:13] Just google it will come up so you can see Everything in date in detail here, but the research just backs it up. It shows Cricketers are athletes with stronger, longer, stronger, stronger, slower, stronger, lower body. Can't speak today. Stronger, lower bodies have more resilience to being, you know, to injury.
[00:14:33] You know, basically. That's, that's, that's as simple as it is. So you're more resilient. But the main thing is you're learning to generate more power and force. Now, strength is all good if you haven't got the speed to maybe become powerful. Because power equals strength times speed, right? Force equals mass times volume all that type of marquee So just remember we're getting stronger as a baseline as long as we hit those standards I'm happy then we can work on speed but until we get to those strength standards, right?
[00:14:59] The priority [00:15:00] is strength because that's what we can work on and we can build up to it And again, that's for men and for women.
[00:15:06] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. Could you just wrap up some a couple of key takeaways from the podcast?
[00:15:12] James Breese: Yeah, sure very quickly. Can you squat and squat well without without weight? So Can you do a deep squat, arms overhead?
[00:15:20] Can you sit in a deep squat for five minutes? Ideally 10 minutes comfortably, have a chat, have a coffee, read the paper, whatever you're going to do, sitting in a deep squat, right? Those are the first things in basic movement. And then can you pass these simple tests? Right? Very simple. Go get a dumbbell or kettlebell.
[00:15:39] Try out 25%. If you can do that, great. For 25 reps. If you can't, that's what we need to work on. Basic strength. That's your priority for strength right now. From what I'm seeing. So you can do that. Great. Move on, try 50 percent to see where you stack up. And then if you want to compare yourself with the big boys and the elite performers, 75 [00:16:00] percent body weight across both hands on one leg.
[00:16:03] Rear foot elevator split squat. That is where we want our athletes to be. And that is where most of our top level athletes, the highest performers, the biggest hitters, the faster bowlers can do.
[00:16:15] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. There we go. That's squat strength test for cricketers. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe.
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