The 12 Squat Tips of Christmas
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Let’s be festive, shall we? To borrow from “The 12 Days of Christmas,” below are The 12 Squat Tips of Christmas. May your squatting be merry and bright . . . but not light.
Tip #1
Get the bar on your back below your traps and resting on your deltoids (see video above). Don’t have the shoulder flexibility to achieve this “low bar” position? You still squat - OF COURSE you still squat - but you simply place it up a bit higher - specifically, you place it on your traps. In the meantime, try out the bar stretch (see video below) to work on getting that bar lower over time.
Tip #2
If you can get your thumbs over the bar (i.e., on the same side of the bar as the rest of your fingers) with a relatively neutral wrist position, do so. If you can’t, don’t sweat it - simply wrap your thumbs around the bar as you would in your other lifts, but your wrists will be in extension (i.e., bent backward), and with this in mind, you’ll probably want to wear wrist wraps.
Gage demonstrates the correct bar position (tip #1) with neutral wrists and thumbs over the bar (tip #2).
Tip #3
Get tight before unracking the bar (see video below). Don’t be sloppy here. Treat the unrack as the first rep (but no, you don’t get to count this rep as part of your work set). Shoulders back, chest up, take a breath and Valsalva hard, then stand the bar up.
Tip #4
Take one step back with each foot and establish a roughly shoulder width stance (i.e., your heels are shoulder width apart). Don’t walk a mile back from the rack. Point your toes out about 30 degrees.
Tip #5
Pick a spot about 4-6 feet in front of you on the floor and look there from now until you finish your last rep. Stare at that spot on the descent, at the bottom, on the ascent, and stare at it between reps as well.
Tip #6
Before starting your first rep, pretend you’re about to get punched in the stomach. Specifically, take a big breath and hold it by clamping down hard with your abs (really, every single muscle in your trunk) - this is a Valsalva maneuver. Keep this Valsalva until you’ve finished the rep. Then release your breath, take a new one, and start the process all over again for the next rep.
Tip #7
As you start to descend, point your chest at the floor (yes, lean over on purpose), reach back with your butt, and shove your knees apart and forward (so they travel in line with your toes).
Tip #8
When you reach the bottom of your squat, come right back up. Use the bounce. Do not pause at the bottom. To help with this, think “up” all the way down so that you get a nice, quick turnaround at the bottom of your squat.
Tip #9
Drive your hips up out of the hole. Don’t raise your chest. It will come up as you drive your hips up, and if you try to raise it early, it makes your squat weaker and harder. Stay in your lean longer than you think.
Tip #10
Squat to depth. Get your hip crease just below the top of your patella. If you don’t achieve depth, don’t count the rep. You don’t stop at the 90 meter mark and still call it the 100 meter dash, and you don’t cut your squat off high and still call it a squat.
chris hits depth on his squat.
Tip #11
When you’re done with your set of five reps, rest. How long? Longer than 2-3 minutes. Long enough to make sure that you successfully complete all the reps of your next work set. Get a magnetic kitchen timer and stick it on the squat rack if needed - that’s what I use when training at home, and it helps.
Tip #12
Wear lifting shoes - the things with a rigid sole, a velcro strap or two, and a slight heel. Not running shoes, for-crying-out-loud-not-Chucks, and not barefoot. Yes, yes, I know - you weren’t born with shoes, but you weren’t born with a barbell or clothes, either, so that logic is out.
Merry Christmas, happy squatting, and as always, we hope these tips help you get stronger and live better.
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