The Squat: You "Kneed" to Do This
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 06/03/22)
You’re ready to squat - your lifting shoes are on, the barbell is situated on your rear delts in that snug, low bar position, and you’ve got your focal point nailed down. What’s next?
Good heavens, this is painful to look at.
Reach back with your hips, point your chest down, and Shove. Your. Knees. Out.
When we say “shove your knees out,” we mean that your knees should go sideways. Of course, your knees will also go forward (after all, that’s what knees do when they bend in the squat), but we’re also going to shove them sideways.
This . . . is much better.
In other words, when you’ve taken your shoulder width stance with toes pointed roughly 30 degrees out, you’re simply going to point your knees (and thus your femurs) in the same direction as your toes. Simply put, your toes will act as arrows for your knees so that the knees go forward and out.
When we do this - when we shove our knees out and keep them out as we squat down and back up again - we force our abductors and external rotators to perform the task of keeping our knees out. As a result, we get to train that muscle mass - and this also allows our adductors (i.e., groin muscles) to contribute to coming back up again, so we get to train that muscle mass too.
Training all of this muscle mass helps us lift more weight, so we can get . . . you know . . . stronger. Getting our knees out also has the added benefit of making it easier to achieve depth in the squat.
Lots of muscle mass, a long range of motion, and lots of weight lifted . . . these sound like three very nice criteria for a lift designed to help us get stronger.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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The Squat: Are You Making This Mistake?
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 05/20/22)
Are you trying to arch your back when you squat? Knock that off. We don’t want a soft, rounded back when squatting, of course, but we also don’t want the opposite of that - an arched back, i.e., an overextended back.
Figure 1: What a fool . . . even Parker can see that, and Milo can’t bear to watch.
If a lifter has this problem, it often shows up right at the beginning of the descent. So, if you look like you’re about to twerk when you initiate your squat, pay attention.
We want a straight, rigid back when we squat; again, rounded is no good, but neither is overextended, and that’s the problem we’re addressing here (see Figure 1).
Overextension of the back is neither a comfortable nor a strong position in which to support a heavy barbell on your back. If you’re overextending your back when squatting (watch one of the included videos for a demonstration), remind yourself to clamp down on your abs extremely hard (i.e., contract your abs as hard as you can) before you start the rep and then keep them tightly contracted throughout the entire rep.
If that reminder doesn’t work, you can try overcueing yourself by telling yourself to “round your back” slightly while squatting. Be careful with this cue - we DO NOT actually want a rounded back, but if you are overextending your back, then overcueing with this exaggerated mental picture may be just what you need to achieve the straight back that we actually do want.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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3 Tactics to Triage Your Squat FAST | Get a Bigger and Better Squat TODAY
/Phil covers three major technical aspects of your squat to focus on and evaluate when trying to improve your squat.
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The Squat: You're Going to Do This Wrong
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 04/29/22)
You’ve read the Blue Book, you’ve watched the videos, the bar is sitting in that nice, low bar position, and you’ve correctly performed the Valsalva maneuver - you’re ready to squat.
Don’t be like this fool.
If you’re new to squatting, though, you’re about to do something wrong . . .
You’re going to try and maintain a vertical back angle as you descend - in other words, you’re going to try and keep your torso as upright as possible.
Everyone does this at first, so don’t worry, you’re not a mutant, but we need to correct it, and we want to correct it right away. Simply tell yourself, “Point my chest at the floor” as you start your descent. In other words, reach back with your butt and lean over as you squat (check out the video below for a demonstration).
It’s easy to accidentally confuse “vertical back” with “straight back.” We want a straight, rigid back, but we don’t want a vertical back while squatting.
This . . . is much better.
Of course, it will be vertical at the beginning and the end of the movement (when we’re standing up), but your squat will be stronger and more efficient if your point your chest at the floor as you start your descent and then keep it pointed at the floor as you drive back up out of the bottom as well.
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.)
This . . . is also much better.