Squat Exercise Technique

The Squat works the muscles of the legs, abdomen and lower back making the Squat a compound exercise incorporating the use of more than one joint in the movement.

The actual muscles of these areas of the body are

Back Muscles

Spinae Erector

Legs and Hips

quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius, glutes and rectus femoris.

The squat has long been associated with building a good strong core (muscles of the abdomen) which will support your lifting in other areas. The core often gets neglected as many people do not know the exercises to use to improve the core area so the Squat is a great way to combat this.

Using a power rack set the bar at mid chest height then move up to the bar, squat down and stand up with the bar neatly behind your back resting across the top of your back (just below the bone found at the top of your shoulder blades). Place your hands in an overhand wide grip position on the bar.

Take one step backwards and engage your muscles. Push your hips back (like your about to sit on the throne in your bathroom....that's the toilet) and squat down. Always make sure your knees do not travel forward so they are no further forward than your toes.

In your lowest squat position your hips must at least be parallel with your knees, or lower if possible.

To squat up you should push from your heels ensuring that your hips travel upwards. Your hips should not move forward during the movement as this will affect your form.

Do not try carrying out squats without a powercage, if you get stuck at the bottom of your lift and do not have a powercage to support you then you are in serious trouble! Powercages are a god send for squats.

Always ensure your chest is up and you are facing forward throughout the lift as a common problem is that people do not lift their chest up which causes the lower back to round and can cause injury to the lower back.

Always make sure your hips and shoulders move in tandem, if they do not you can end up leaning forward which affects form and can cause injury.

Make sure your knees are out during the movement, people with weak knees can see their knees buckle inwards which can cause injury to the knee joints.

Always ensure your heels stay firmly on the ground throughout the whole movement. It is common for people to lift with their weight on their toes which causes their heels to come of the ground which is bad form.

Zercher Sqautt - Performed in the same way as the normal squat but with the bar resting on the inside of the arm where the elbow joint is.

Bulgarian Split Squat - Using dumbbells or a barbell the lifter puts one foot behind them on a raised platform like a bench and squats with only one leg.

Sumo Squat - Taking a wide leg stance like that of a Sumo wrestler the lifter squats down. This gives a smaller range of movement for the legs and moves the emphasis of muscles used.

Hack Squat - Performed in the same was as a normal squat but the barbell is held with straight arms behind the body (just below the bottom behind the legs).

Front Squat - The same as a normal squat but the barbell is held in front of the body resting across the clavicles and front shoulder muscles.

Overhead Squat - Squat performed as normal but with the barbell held above the head with the arms straight in a shoulder press stance.

The squat makes up one of the three lifts in powerlifting, this is because it is seen as one of the biggest tests of strength out of all weight lifting exercises.

The squat is seen as probably the most important exercise in any training regime; many people even build their whole training session around the Squat exercise.

Because the Squat is so important it cannot be neglected and one training session a week should have four or five sets of the squat incorporated to ensure you build a good strong core.

By building a good strong core from utilising the squat in your training you will find that your strength will improve in other exercises.

Make sure you get the squat in your weight training plan, add this to your leg training session and use this as your first exercise. If you do this you are sure to see great gains in a short period of time (normally six to eight weeks).