The Zercher

One of the movements I give a lot of credit to in my lower-back rehab journey is the Zercher Squat.

The Zercher squat is a movement that if I saw (or tried) 15 years ago, I would have thought it was stupid and ineffective.

It kills your forearms at first. You can mitigate this with an axle bar or bar pad, but even so, the pressure definitely takes getting used to.

The other reason I would have thought it was stupid is because of the difficulty in overloading the legs due to the bracing required from the midline and upper body.

It’s true that from a pure quad hypertrophy perspective, the Zercher Squat probably isn’t “optimal”.

But in creating a strong, resilient, adaptable athlete, it is.

The Zercher squat was particularly effective for me in that it allowed me to reintroduce heavy squats back into my routine. The back and front squat were both aggravating my lower-back after years of relentless pursuit.

The Zercher squat strengthened my lower-back/midline and desensitised my body to the heavy squat pattern.

Now I can back and front squat again.

In my experience, exercise rotation is highly valuable for long-term performance and training longevity.

And the Zercher Squat is a big part of that.