with dumbell squats the more strong you get the more you put your back at risk because no matter how strong you get you cant beat the leverage of holding more weight drawing your upper body foward putting lower back at risk
the solution is heavy dumbell step-ups with one heavy ass dumbell, use your free hand for balance against a post or wall, i do the stepups on the steps to my back porch and use my free hand to balance on the banister post, the step i step up on is only about 20 inches high or so but that puts my quad a little bit above parallel wich is perfect to hit the ham and glutes
youre not only able to keep your back totally straight up and down but emphasis is shifted off of your lower back hitting some obliques wich is great for core, you still get a nice grip workout and trap workout as well, i was using one 135 pound dumbell today doing sets of 4 reps per leg over a few sets, it puts the strain into the glute muscle wich is a very sleepy muscle imo , its hard to build explosive ness from that area but with heavy weight its possible
the heavy dumbell squats made it impossible to explode out of the bottom position of the squat without hoisting the weight up with traps and lower back and end up keeping my lower back sore and too often sore. sure i couldve lighted the weight but all i wouldve acheived was just a leg pump from burn out reps, im trying to build strength not get a burn out pump
