The Real Reason You're Ruining Your Squat - Until You Do This

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

If your squat feels weak, inconsistent, or uncomfortable, there’s a good chance you’re making the same mistakes as most lifters. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers what to change and why it matters.

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

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How to Do the Starting Strength Squat (How to Squat in 60 Seconds)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Step 1: Bar Position & Grip
Take a grip on the bar that’s as wide as it needs to be so that you can get the bar into the correct position on your back – just below your traps and sitting on your delts – but also a grip that is as narrow as it can be so that your delts are nice and bunched up and you've got a tight upper back.

Step 1: bar position & Grip

Step 2: Stance
Stand the bar up and take one step back with each foot. Assume a roughly shoulder-width stance with your toes pointed out about 30 degrees.

Step 3: Focal Point
Stare at a point on the floor approximately 4 to 6 feet in front of you.

steps 2 & 3: Shoulder-width stance & focal point

Step 4: Breathing & Bracing
Take in a big breath and hold that breath with every single muscle in your midsection tightly clamped down and contracted as if you're going to take a punch. Hold that breath all the way down and all the way back up again.

Step 5: Hips Back, Chest Down, Knees Out
As you start to descend, reach back with your hips, point your chest directly at the floor, and shove your knees apart so that they travel in the same direction as your toes.

Step 5: Hips back, chest down, & knees out

Step 6: Hip Drive
When you reach the bottom of the squat – that is, when your hip crease passes below the top of your knees – drive your hips straight back up. In other words, stay leaned over on the way up longer than you think. Drive your hips upward.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

This Mistake Will RUIN All Your Lifts!

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Want to improve every one of your lifts with one fix? Make sure you're doing this. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 05/27/23)

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

How to INSTANTLY Squat More Weight!

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Want to add pounds to your squat right away? Make sure you're utilizing the stretch reflex - the "bounce" - correctly. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers shows you how real quick-like.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 05/22/23)

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

Two Squat and Deadlift Mistakes That Seem Right But Aren't

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Lifters are making these two mistakes on the squat and deadlift — and have no idea. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers what's going wrong and what to do instead.

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro

What Lifters with Bad Knees Get Wrong About Squatting

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Here are nine squat tips that apply to everyone, but they especially apply to those of you with grumpy knees. We’ve also provided a number of short videos to help with some of these tips.

1. Bar Position
Get the bar below your traps – sitting on the nice shelf provided by your bunched up delts. This is because . . . 

2. Lean Over
. . . you’re going to consciously lean over and point your chest at the floor as you start your descent. To facilitate this . . . 

3. Hips Back
. . . you’re going to simultaneously reach backward with your hips. You squat with your knees and hips, of course, and we want to squat in such a way that we ask each joint to do its respective share of the work. The hips are larger and surrounded by more muscle mass than your knees, so reach back with your hips. In doing so, you take some of the load off the knees and shift it to the larger and stronger hips.

4. Stance and Knee Direction
Take a stance with your heels at roughly shoulder width and point your toes out about 30 degrees. You’ve now set up your toes as arrows for your knees, and with this in mind, make your knees travel in the direction of your toes (i.e., forward and out). Getting the knees out makes depth easier to achieve and also avoids any twisting of the knee.

5. Forward Knee Position
Your knees will travel forward (and out) in the direction of your toes, and about one half to one third of the way into your descent, you’re going to stop the knees roughly above your toes (possibly a half inch or so farther forward for those of you with longer femurs).

Your knees keep bending, of course, but you block the forward travel at this point.

Tip #8 will help with this, as will the video below.

6. Give Your Knees a Hug
Get yourself a pair of knee sleeves.

Knee sleeves provide a nice, warm hug for your knees, and the warmth and compression provided by a 7 mm pair of knee sleeves makes for a wonderful sensation.

Below are links to a few knee sleeve options that are popular with a number of our members at Testify:

7. Shoes
Get yourself a decent pair of lifting shoes and stop lifting in your squishy Chucks or running shoes.

The most important feature of a lifting shoe is the noncompressible sole and thus the very stable base it provides. This permits efficient force transfer between you and the floor and allows you to better execute the technical aspects that you’re working on, e.g., knee position, hips back, etc.

Below are some of the shoe recommendations and links we usually send to new members as a starting point for shopping:

8. TUBOW
A TUBOW provides excellent cueing for knee position – both lateral and in terms of setting the knees’ forward position. Because it fixes the knee position, it forces the correct hip position and back angle as well.

A video is highly useful here, so check out the one below:

9. Get a Coach
You can work on all of these things on your own, but you will fix them far faster working with a good coach. Many things that often take weeks or months to address on your own can be fixed in a single coaching session, and we see this all the time.

We’d love to work with you – whether locally or remotely – but if that’s not in the cards, I’d recommend seeking out a Starting Strength Coach (SSC) to help you improve your squat. Click here if you’re interested in working with us or click here for the link to the SSC directory.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

book a free intro