The 12 Squat Tips of Christmas

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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Stop Destroying Your Squat - Stay Leaned Over!

Stop raising your chest early in the squat - it's making for a weaker squat. If you're trying to drive your hips up when you squat but still struggle with the concept, watch this video for a helpful fix.

(This is a Blast from the Past video originally published on 03/05/22.)

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This Simple Tactic FIXED His Squat & Deadlift in ONE Rep

Want a cue that can work wonders for your squat and deadlift? It can even work for your press, bench, snatch, and clean. Check it out.

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How to Box Squat Correctly (and why to do them!)

What are box squats, how do you perform them, and why might a lifter do them? Phil explains.

(This is a Blast from the Past video originally published on 02/28/22.)

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One Clue to Identify a Bad Squat EARLY

How can you tell that your squat is going to be harder and less efficient than it should be? Watch for this tell-tale sign on the descent and learn how to fix it.

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The Squat: Hips and Knees Together!

For heaven’s sake . . . don’t do this.

(This is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/17/21.)

A problem that sometimes shows up in the squat is that of breaking at the hips first; in other words, instead of bending the hips and knees at the same time as we start to descend in the squat (which is what we want to happen), a lifter makes the mistake of breaking (i.e., bending) at the hips first followed by bending the knees. Let’s solve this problem.

A) Becky correctly initiates her descent by bending the hips and knees simultaneously.

In a correctly executed squat, the hips and knees will start to bend at the same time. As Becky shows in Figure A, her hips travel backward at the same time her knees travel forward and outward (i.e., in the direction of her toes) - this is what we would like to see, and this allows Becky to maintain her balance over the middle of her foot.

B) Becky incorrectly initiates her descent by bending at the hips first. Becky is exaggerating the error in the image on the left, but it tends to be a bit more subtle as Becky demonstrates in the image on the right (note that her hips have begun reaching back while her knees seem frozen in place).

In contrast, in Figure B, you can see Becky incorrectly initiating her descent by reaching back with her hips - which is correct - but she’s not forcing her knees to simultaneously move forward and out early in the descent.

This error is usually accompanied by the knees moving too far forward as the lifter reaches the bottom of her squat as well.

If you notice that you tend to break at the hips first, the simplest approach is to cue yourself, “Hips and knees at the same time” or “Hips and knees together.” Not surprisingly, the first approach is to cue yourself to do exactly what it is that you want to do.

However, if that approach doesn’t work, you can use an overcue and tell yourself to go “knees first” - in other words, you’re cueing yourself to shove your knees forward and out before you reach back with your hips. This overcue (like all overcues) is a bit of a lie as we actually want the motion of the hips and knees to be simultaneous, but it can be a potentially useful lie if it does the job and fixes the problem.

If those cues don’t work, go ahead and break out a TUBOW (Terribly Useful Block Of Wood) or two and make sure that your knees touch the TUBOWs about one-third to one-half of the way into your descent. If you’ve never used a TUBOW before, check out our video on that topic - TUBOW: The Portable Squat Coach - which is also included in this article.

Becky breaks out the TUBOWs.

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

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

If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?