The squat is foundational exercise for building strength. Assuming you don’t have any issues in your knees, hips, legs, or back that would prevent you from squatting safely, it is a great exercise that benefits not only your strength, but your heart and lungs. I highly recommend doing squats if you are not already doing them, and that you refine your form as much as possible if you are currently doing them in your workouts.
One Size Does Not Fit All
It’s hard to prescribe a one size fits all squatting technique for everyone. One of the most important elements of the squat is to avoid overstressing the knee joint which can occur when the knees come too far forward over the toes while descending into the squat. Your knees may come forward a little, but they shouldn’t come forward a lot. If you are ever going to lift very much without experiencing discomfort in your knees, you will need to learn to let your hips, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and your quadriceps all take the lifting stress, instead letting your knees take most of the lifting stress. Some lifters can do this by using shoulder width stance while staying fairly upright without letting their knees track forward. Others have proportions that will require a wider stance to stay more upright, and some lifters prefer to bend forward at the hips (without letting their back round) to engage their gluteus muscles more. Needless to say, most people will need to experiment until they find a squatting technique that is comfortable, and that offers the most beneficial leverages for their own proportions.
Finding Quality Instruction
There are a lot of squat experts and each has their own view point on how to squat. There are some general similarities, but you will also find differences in advice from one coach or trainer to another. I am providing some video instruction of people that I believe can offer the most helpful advice. For extensive detailed video instructions, I recommend that you click on “Layne Norton’s Squat Tutorial” or “Perfect Squat Technique by Powerlifting to Win.”
For simpler squat instruction that covers the basics, I recommend the following video. It focuses on the type of squat that a bodybuilder or someone who just wants to improve in terms of general strength and conditioning would use. Some powerlifters may also use this technique, but they would be more likely to use it as part of their training rather than to use it for a competitive lifting technique.
Daniel Back from Jump Science gives excellent information in the following video on variations of the squat. He also discusses both how to do a squat, and how not to do a squat.
I don’t normally discuss much about exercise technique in my articles and posts, but I have done so in my last three articles because good technique plays an essential part of being able to lift a lot of weight in a safe manner. Until next time, best of training to you.