 And now we're going to get into the raw preference section here. I personally don't barbell squat anymore. Whatever magic it has, it's just not worth the aggravation to my back. If I was, I would definitely consider a smith machine. And keep in mind that I want to protect the curve in the lower back. Probably not too much lower than this position here. And then the other thing I would do is you have to use the bottom stops. Because if you descend too low, you're going to have that big moment arm when your thigh goes vertical and you get crushed, like the poor guy I mentioned in the first slide. So really the bottom stops are probably about here, right? Not down here. They're probably about here. So your squat is as low as you can go and still keep the lumbar curve intact. Richard Wynette sent me an email saying, you know, conventional muscle thinking is that the smith machine is bad for your knees. Well, if your feet are out here and you're trying to squat with a vertical back and you go so low that your femur is horizontal, yeah, that would be bad for your knees, right? Or if your feet are here but instead of sticking your butt back as your squat, you dropped your spine straight down, yeah, that would be pretty rough on your knees. But basically if you're mimicking a free barbell squat with a good form, the smith machine will actually keep the bar from crushing you. Absent to smith machine, hip belt squat, right? Now the curve in the back isn't as obvious because the hip belt is, that's exactly what the hip belt is, all right? One of the things I like about the hip belt squat, is still loading the hips and the thighs. The spine can keep its posture and support the weight of your head, which is what it's supposed to do, all right? One of the things I don't like about the hip belt squat is you've got to be very careful about getting out. Because if you go to failure and you sit right on that 45-pound plate, you're not going to worry about hip belts, lower backs. There's no plan for how you're going to get out of the hip belt squat, okay? Either stop short of failure and unhook, or get your hands on your knees, or use a machine that allows it. But aside from that teensy detail, this actually does a pretty good job of matching up how the spine works. From congruent exercise, various split squats. So in the left one, you might hear it described as a lunge, but actually you lunge to get into position, and then you do a squat. So in that one, the forward foot has stepped forward, and then you're squatting, trying to keep your weight on this leg. And again, your spine doesn't have to support more than what it's supposed to, much more than what it's supposed to. This is sort of like a reverse lunge. So if you have the balance, you're here, and this leg comes back. And again, the front leg is doing the work. Again, you're bending over a little bit, right? But it's manageable that you can keep the curve in your spine. Not that it's perfect, but it's manageable. So a number of years ago, somebody closed some ruckus online with the squat and the leg press. Now when I said or gave presentations squat or leg press, I meant this leg press, not this leg press. The nitro leg press, you can adjust the seat back so you can mimic the body position of a squat. It's got curves in the seat back that you can fit into the curves of your back to support it. Okay, so that's the kind of leg press I was referring to. That's kind of interesting. That's kind of interesting. Yeah, okay. All right, so now more conventionally, right? So now this is from an NSCA textbook from about 2000. So this is like a very old school leg press. Now what differences do you see in the two? Well, this angle is much closer to a right angle than this one, okay? So I'm able to open up a little bit in the hips because what happens here is, first of all, her knees came so far back, you can't really see it, but it's unavoidable that her lower back flattens against the pad. So instead of having her back curve this way, as the knees approach her ribs, it has to flatten. And if you're doing the leg press to minimize the stress on your lower back, you just defeated the purpose. Especially in like the 70s where the Muscle Magazine advice was, you know, let your knees go into your armpits for that full range of motion and push out. Well, the only way you can get your knees into your armpits is if your pelvis flips and your lower back flips. Another thing about this joint angle is when she gets to a right angle, when she presses this away from her and her femurs and her torso is at a right angle, the exercise is over, right, because she can lock out. But the joint angle for where the glutes are strongest is a little bit further out than that, which you can't possibly reach here. So while this is very uncomfortable, especially at the bottom position, it doesn't necessarily, it's not exactly the right kind of challenge. It's only uncomfortable because of the compression at the hips and your lower back. The best manuals and exercises are written. So please let me welcome to the stage Bill de Simone. So you'd be a champion, but it would kill you. Would you take it? And methodology aside and whatever the quibble's people had aside, a lot of people said yes. So that type of thinking, it's not just CrossFit. It's been around for a while. A boxer, a tennis player. The reason why you don't twist is the disc is between the vertebrae. If you twist the vertebrae, it's like ringing out a dish towel. And again, it allows it, but it's not the best thing for it over time. Your office are a certain height. You can pretty much do it with all hip and quad action and not make it more complicated. Also from the 2000 NSCA textbook. Same exercise, different parts of the book. Okay? And neither part of the book identified one of these as the wrong way to do it or a risky way to do it. Perfect, but if you aim for perfect, then the natural, if you fall short, you still have a lot of margin of error.