You Don’t Know Squat! – 7 Key Steps To Maximize The King Of Exercises

Squatting is one of the most rudimentary and common movements that we perform in our lives. When it comes to squatting with a bar on your back there are quite a lot of key ways you can really maximize your strength and muscle building gains.

What I’m going to share with you are some of the keys to getting yourself to maximally recruit your prime movers for this massive lift at the same time as reducing injury risks for the back, pelvis and knees.

Step 1 – Don’t necessarily learn from the biggest and strongest.

I’ve just had the pleasure of watching the Worlds Strongest Man competition and I have to say those guys blow my mind when it comes to strength.

However, watching the Worlds Strongest Man competition is probably the worst way to learn the correct technique for squatting. If you watch those guys squatting whether they are loaded on the back or lifting something like the huge stones (Atlas stones) you are going to see some absolutely appalling technique.

Now don’t get me wrong these guys do have absolutely immaculate squatting technique when they are lifting sub maximal loads. That means if you saw one of these guys doing squats in your local gym, they would probably be lifting 500lbs for multiple reps and have amazing technique.

What is important to understand are the enormous amounts of strength needed in the execution of the Worlds Strongest Man events. These are Herculean tasks and every possible advantage that can be gained from ‘cheating’ the weight up is completely understandable.

Getting the body to the stage where it can cope with this sort of loading takes years of conditioning and an understanding of the huge risks lifting loads of this magnitude carry.

Just look at the injury history and operations that almost all competitors have had. It ranges from completely torn biceps to ACL and knee reconstruction as well as shoulder and back operations.

So if these guys aren’t squatting, what are they doing?
In most cases you will see these lifters using their quads (front of thigh) to extend the knee and then extend through their lower back to stand up (with as little hip extension as they can get away with). This is because the body wants to follow the path of least resistance.

What is the easiest for the body to do is not always the most optimal for developing big, strong functional muscles. In the example of the strong men they are trying to lift such enormous weights that the body will try to expend as little effort in reaching that goal as it can. Whilst this is fine for one off events and lifts it is not he best way to maximally recruit the most amount of muscle and explode your squatting muscles. You are squatting because you are trying to develop stronger, bigger, or leaner muscles – right?

I’ve seen this quad dominant lumber spine extension pattern in many clients and gym goers.

Key Learning Tip: The only time incorrect technique is of any benefit is during a strength or power competition or during training relating to the competition. In other words if you don’t intend entering a strength or power event then you will make the best advances with correct technique.

Step 2 – Checking your alignment.

Of all the different types of technique I see this one is quite possibly the easiest to correct but one of the hardest to concentrate on.

Let’s start at the feet. Stand with your feet somewhere between hip and shoulder distance apart. At this point I will admit that there are a lot of different stances you can adopt – narrow, wide, sumo – but in my experience, starting with your feet just wider than your hips will give you the best platform to build your technique and start maximising your potential.

Should my feet be facing straight forward or slightly turned out? To be honest, I really don’t care which you go for. Do which ever feels most comfortable and natural to you. Personally when I squat I play around with my foot positions depending on what my goals of the exercise are. Neither is right or wrong it’s just a matter of what you are trying to target. Therefore what is most comfortable for you is probably the best place to start. Although when it comes to knee alignment (see below) having your feet slightly turned out will facilitate better tracking.

What is more important is where in the foot you place most of your weight and what happens above the foot.

The majority of your weight should be in your heels. In the early stages I actively encourage my clients to curl their toes up in their sneakers so that they force themselves back on to their heels.

The reason for this is I want you to be able to maximally activate your gluteals. Research in Scotland has suggested the greatest glute activation occurs when the load is taken through the heels.

Next is probably the most important but overlooked part. The knees want to follow the direction of the toes at all times.

Ideal knee alignment is seen when the centre of the knee cap tracks in line between the 2nd and 3rd toe. You can allow yourself some small discrepancy from the true line but the general idea is that the knee tracking stays on the same line continually.

Try to always squat in front of a mirror (they’re not there to admire yourself you know!) that way you can watch for any deviation either in or out.

Try it for yourself, squat down (keep your weight in your heels remember) and watch how your knees move.

Do they buckle in?
Do they bow out?
Are they fine on the way down but change on the way up?

Are you symmetrical? The last part of alignment to look at is to check that your hips do not kick out to one side or the other. If this does occur it is going to be most apparent in the bottom of the squat.

Try holding this bottom position and looking to see if you are symmetrical. To do this you need to imagine a line hanging down to the floor from your nose. Where does the line come down to in relation to the centre of your groin? It may be that your hips are twisted or that you have more weight on one leg than the other.

Try to line yourself up so that the line bisects the centre of your chest and pelvis, with the thighs having equal angles to the line.

If you don’t see any problems fantastic. If you do you’ll need to adjust for that on every rep. Remember given free will the body will always follow the path of least resistance.

Key Learning Tip: Select a hip to shoulder width stance. Keep your weight in your heels and make sure your knee alignment is close to perfect – no deviation in or out. Finally, make sure you are symmetrical.

Step 3 - Selecting the right weight

This can really be a difficult one but I apply some basic guidelines to start with.

Try to learn with your own bodyweight. Many fitness coaches and trainers will tell you this is this best place to start. Most should tell you that if you can’t squat correctly with your own bodyweight then you should not start applying additional load.

In the main I agree with this principle and this is the first place to start.

It may be necessary to add weight. Contradictory to the last statement, there are times when adding weight will increase the ability to perform the movement with correct technique.

Adding external weight, such as a barbell on your back, makes the body recruit the muscles we are trying to target. The weight acts as a counter balance and actually allows for better technique in these cases.

Key Learning Tip: Start with your own bodyweight and then advance to adding weight. If you are finding it difficult to maintain alignment; adding weight may actually increase your ability to recruit the correct muscles.

Step 4 – Bar and hand positioning

Be careful when placing the bar on your back. If there is one place you don’t want to place the bar is anywhere around or above your CT junction. This is where your cervical spine (neck) meets your thoracic spine (mid back). If you’ve ever squatted with the bar in the wrong place you’ll know how painful it can get. Maybe not at the time but certainly by the next day.

Start with the bar on the shoulder blades. This means that the natural ridge made by the shoulder blades is a perfect position to place the bar.

As placing a bar (especially when it gets heavy) directly on the bony parts can be painful it is best to squeeze your shoulder blades back and together. This makes your upper traps muscles bunch up and act as a cushion for the bar. It also has the advantage of placing your upper spine in a naturally safe position.

This is the best place to start. Whilst research suggests that a low bar position will make your hamstrings and glutes work harder. It also has the effect of increasing the amount you have to lean forward (more on spine position later) which in turn increases the potential risks to the lumbar spine.

That is why in the beginning and whilst you learn to keep everything else working correctly – like alignment – a high bar position (that’s on the upper traps and not on the neck) will probably work best.

Experienced lifters are able to hold the bar in a low position and maintain a relatively upright posture which allows them to get the maximum out of the hip extensors (glutes and hamstrings). If this is you then continue with your bar placement as is.

Just be wary of placing a bar too low. Back in my pro rugby playing days I was working out with two other team mates and ended up trying to bicep curl 450lbs off my friend low back as the bar slipped and started to pin him in a stooped position.

The reason I tell you this is because even though there were two of us there to spot, the other guy was off (only 5m away) chatting up one of the instructors. It was only my screams for his assistance that actually meant we were able to remove the weight. When lifting big weights always make sure you’ve got 2 experienced spotters (who are paying attention) or that you have proper equipment like a power rack (we were using a squat rack but unfortunately at 6ft 9in even in a stooped position my friend still didn’t reach the ‘catchers’).

Hand position should be just outside the shoulders. Place your arms just outside your shoulders and pull your elbows back so that your forearm is close to horizontal to the ground.
This has two advantages. First it allows you to keep an upright mid back and secondly your rear shoulder muscle (posterior deltoids) act as an extra shelf for the bar to balance on. Increasing the amount base of contact with the bar will give you greater stability and control of the bar.

Some people like to spread the arms wide and along the length of the bar. In my experience this results in the action of pulling the rib cage down and hunching forward at the mid back.

Key Learning Tip: Start with a high position in order to maintain spine position. As you progress, and become more comfortable with controlling all the other factors, the bar can be moved slightly lower for greater gains. Place your hands close to your shoulders and raise your elbows behind you to give the most stability to the bar.

Step 5 – The hip pivot and knee glide

This is probably the most important part of the technique and the hardest to master. The path your hips take on the way down and up will make the difference in building a really strong base for getting the most out of your training.

I will first describe ideal hip and knee displacement and then the stages that will allow you to get there the quickest.

Ideally your hips should come back to proportionally the same distance as your knees travel forward. This means that as you sit back (like sitting on a chair) your knees should glide over your toes so that the front of the knee is directly above the toes.

If you find that as you descend you cannot stop the low back from rounding out you probably have a flexibility issue around the ankle. If you do not have the range of motion at the ankle joint to allow the knee to glide forward your body will have to compensate by rounding out the lumbar spine to maintain your balance.

I therefore start by breaking the movement down into two distinct phases. Initially I want you to start by sitting back as if you are going to sit down, whilst trying to keep your knees as still as possible.

To do this imagine you have broken both ankles and have a plaster cast around your foot, ankle and calf up to just below the knee. You may well find that you are unable to get much depth initially.

Secondly allow your knees to drift forward slightly (maintain all your alignment and pressure in the heels). The reason for breaking it down is that most people do not have strong enough glutes to maintain the correct posture.

The glutes are responsible for stabilising the pelvis on the leg and the pelvis on the low back. For this reason you will be unable to maximize the benefit from squatting until you have increased your ability to stabilize the low back.

Having strong glutes will allow you to keep an upright posture as well as a low bar placement – both of which are preferable for gaining strength and muscle mass.

Have you ever noticed how big power athletes and sprinters bums are?
Do you think there could be a correlation between glute size/strength and squatting ability?

Squatting in a fashion where the quads are used the most and then the low back and hips is in my opinion a massively inferior way to train (remember my description in step 1). Yes you will probably be able to lift more weight – at least initially – but taking a long term view on squatting (not to mention the fact that most of us are over strong in our quads in comparison to their hamstrings), the best way to reduce injury and increase your bulk and strength is to get the hamstrings and glutes doing as much work as possible.

As I mentioned earlier you will also need good ankle flexibility to get the hip pivot and knee glide working in unison to develop the most amount of force and get the best training effects.

Key Learning Tip: Sit back as if you are sitting on a chair, don’t think about going straight down – we want to make the glutes and hamstrings work as hard as possible and this way they will get maximum loading. Eventually the goal is to have equal hip and knee displacement.

Step 6 – Spinal alignment

This is probably the most confused part of squat technique. Most texts will tell you to keep your back straight or flat.

Most people see this as a contradiction in terms. How can I keep my back flat and straight whilst keeping my heels down?

It is in fact impossible to keep your back vertical and squat with good technique. You have to lean forward at the hips to some degree.

The amount of forward lean of the back is determined by bar position and the glutes ability to stabilize the low spine. The way I teach people is to imagine the normal curves of the spine (look at any skeleton picture) and to maintain them throughout the lift. Just because the spine is at an angle of say 45 degrees does not mean that the spine cannot hold it’s natural curves.

That is to say you are the one who has to maintain the curves through conscious control. As I keep emphasizing I want this to be a hip building exercise. You are going to be pivoting forward at the hips not leaning forward at the low back.

You can help yourself in maintaining the natural curves. If you set your self up in the manner I have explained above you are more likely to be able to maintain a safe posture. By keeping your shoulders back your upper spine remains in the best position.

Using your abdominals to brace will help stabilize the low back. Don’t wear weight belts. They are counter productive and don’t make your abs work as hard as they can. One of the benefits of the squat is the demand it places on your torso teaching the body to stabilize and get really lean and ripped.

There is a distinct difference between bell bracing and hollow bracing. When you bell brace your abdominal contents pushes out making your belly bulge over your shorts. When you do a hollow brace you are trying to suck your abdominals in so that your belly button moves back towards your spine. Some coaches have tried to advocate the Pilates like posture of hollowing but in effect this is just not possible.

The difference between bell and hollowing is that when you hollow you increase something called intra-abdominal pressure which in turns helps to stabilize the low back.

Key Learning Tip: Maintain the posture of your back by setting yourself up correctly and using the abdominals to brace your low back. You will have to lean forward or you will not be able to squat properly. Maintaining natural curves of the spine whilst pivoting forward at the hip (not low back) will set you up correctly.

Step 7 – Muscle activation

This is probably going to be the strangest one for most people to understand.

Recent research has suggested that the mind has the power to make you stronger even if you were not to do even one single rep.

Strength was tested in subjects and then they were assigned to one of three groups –
1. Mental training – no physical movement just imagined movement
2. Physical training – trained with weights
3. No training – did nothing for 12 weeks

The results showed that the group that did nothing didn’t get any stronger. The group that trained physically got 53% stronger and the group that did mental training got stronger by 35%.

How about that, you can get 35% stronger by just thinking about training! Now I’ve taken the bold step to suggest that if you were to combine these two parts i.e. train a muscle with movement and think about engaging that muscle you may well get greater benefits.

So in the squat I make my clients initiate the up phase of the lift by consciously trying to squeeze their glutes as hard as they can.

I don’t want you to just stand up and hope the muscles fired in the right order, I want you to physically contract the muscle to make sure it is working.

Think about the muscle initiating the movement and not the movement initiating the muscle.

Key Learning Tip: Don’t underestimate the power of the mind and don’t assume that just because you are squatting that you are automatically using the correct muscles. It takes focus and concentrating to really get the muscles fired up and working maximally.

Alex Poole is passionate about training technique. With over 12 years experience in the strength and conditioning industry he has developed some coaching styles that really make a difference. His unique approach to training has helped hundreds of people reach their goals and explode past their previous personal bests by teaching them how to train with perfect technique.

After a couple of seasons of professional rugby Alex decided to use his education and personal experience to help other people maximise their potential, whatever level they were at. He has helped people from age 9 to 77 and from spinal rehabilitation patient to elite athlete

Utilising his knowledge of biomechanics and physiology his methods are being sought out and practised by fitness professionals as well as people who want expert tuition.

If you want to see how to perfect the technique visit weighttrainingtechnique.com weighttrainingtechnique.com and check out the free video.

All rights reserved. Copyright  2006 by Alex Poole.

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