How to do the Speed Box Squat

Steps

1. Attach bands to the bar that are securely anchored near the ground. You may need to choke the bands to get adequate tension.
2. Use a box of an appropriate height for this exercise. Load the bar to a weight that still requires effort, but isn't so heavy that speed is compromised. Typically, that will be between 50-70% of your one rep max.
3. Position the bar on your upper back, shoulder blades retracted, back arched and everything tight head to toe. This will be the starting position.
4. Unrack the bar and position yourself in front of the box. Sit back with your hips until you are seated on the box, ensuring that you descend under control and don't crash onto the surface.
5. Pause briefly, and explode off of the box, extending through the hips and knees.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the speed box squat to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.