24/09/2026
What does progressive training actually look like after 50?
It doesn’t necessarily mean adding more weight every week.
Progress can mean increasing range of movement.
Developing control at the bottom.
Reducing reliance on rebound.
Then adding load.
Removing the external target.
And finally demonstrating that movement in a different context.
Here, 58yo WS9 Fitness owner Jason Hughes is using box squats progressively from 18” down to 14”, with our target squat standard being the hip crease approximately level with, or below, the top of the knee.
Box squats are particularly useful for the over-50s.
They give us a consistent target for developing range of movement, encourage controlled hip loading and strengthen the glutes, hamstrings and wider posterior chain - the very muscles we need to preserve as we age to keep moving confidently against gravity.
They also develop one of the most fundamental movements for maintaining independence as we age:
Sitting down and standing back up with strength and control.
By using the foam pad and deliberately settling into the bottom position, we can also reduce the contribution of the stretch-shortening cycle - less rebound, more deliberate force production to stand back up.
We then introduce loaded box squats.
We can remove the box and reproduce the same range with a back squat.
Finally, that same squat pattern appears again during wall balls in a mixed-modality workout.
Range. Control. Strength. Transfer.
That’s what progression looks like.
And for the over-50s, that’s a much more useful definition of getting fitter than simply doing more exercise.
