The Mindset That Changed His Squat IMMEDIATELY
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Want to squat effortlessly?
Not without effort, mind you - we are working to get stronger, of course - but actually with less effort. Instead of squatting 225 lb inefficiently - and thus with a lot of unnecessary effort - what if you could squat 225 lb more efficiently and thus with less effort? In turn, this efficiency means we can flat out squat more weight and get stronger, which is the goal.
rob knows the 4 tactics and uses them here to squat 445 lb for sets of 5.
Here are 4 tactics that will help you do exactly this. These are the basics of squatting, which shouldn’t be surprising because getting good at a task usually means becoming extraordinarily consistent at executing the basics.
Tactic #1: Stance and Knees
Start by taking a stance with your heels roughly shoulder width apart and point your toes out about 30 degrees.
As you descend, shove your knees out (i.e., apart from one another). Technically, your knees will travel forward and out, but focus on the “out” aspect as you descend. In other words, your knees should travel in the direction of your toes, and in this sense, your toes function as arrows for your knees.
Tactic #2: Reach Back with Your Hips
In addition to shoving your knees apart as you start to descend, you will also reach backward with your hips.
To keep the mechanics of this as simple and straightforward as possible, note that, in any squat, your knees will travel a certain distance forward as you descend, and your hips will travel a certain distance backward (watch yourself from the side on video to see this in action). The farther your knees travel forward, the more load they are responsible for, and conversely, the more your hips travel backward, the more load they are responsible for.
reach back with your hips like mike - even if you’re not squatting in your halloween costume.
We want to train the muscle mass surrounding both joints, and since the hips are the larger joint and are surrounded by more muscle mass, you’re going to ask them to do their fair share of the work (i.e., a larger share than the knees), so you cue yourself to reach back hard with your hips.
Tactic #3: The Lean
As you reach back with your hips when descending, point your chest at the floor.
Yes - lean over.
You will not fall over, and in fact, you need to do this to avoid falling over. Your hips reach back, so you lean over, and these two movements counterbalance each other.
Your back will still be straight and rigid because you properly performed a Valsalva maneuver and braced hard before starting the descent (if you’re not sure how to do this, watch the video below) - it just won’t always be vertical. You start at the top with a vertical back angle, and your finish at the end with a vertical back angle, but your back will move through a range of angles as you squat.
Remember, also, that getting leaned over is how your back gets strong.
With all this in mind, get leaned over on the descent and stay leaned over as you drive your hips up out of the hole. Stay leaned over longer than you think - you want your hips and chest to raise at roughly the same rate for about the first half of the ascent.
Raising your chest early makes for a harder, less inefficient, and weaker squat, so get leaned over on the descent, and stay leaned over on the ascent.
Tactic #4: Focal Point
Before you start your first rep, pick a spot on the floor about 4-6 feet in front of you. Proceed to stare at that spot with the burning intensity of one thousand suns throughout your entire set - during reps, between reps, and even while you walk the bar back to the rack at the end of the set.
note brianne’s focal point - a few feet in front of her and on the floor.
Your torso tends to follow your eyes, so if you look up, you’ll tend to not lean over on the descent, raise your chest too soon on the ascent, or some hideous combination of both of those errors.
We want to get leaned over and stay that way, so find that focal point on the floor in front of you and never waver from it.
As always, we hope these tips help you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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