How to Squat without Getting Stapled to the Floor
Whenever somebody comes to me to train, I’ll usually have them perform a series of lifts or movements so I can see how they move. The one that almost always needs the most work is the squat. This makes sense because, although people squat to chairs all the time or to pick something up, the mechanics are different when you have a big weight on your back. When you’ve got over three hundred pounds on your back, you simply can’t get away with squatting like you do to pick up the phone you dropped.
Set-up. It’s important to get this right because if you don’t it creates problems throughout the rest of the lift. Start by grabbing the bar very tightly with your hands equal distance from the middle of the bar. Once you’ve grabbed the bar, consider your hands welded to it. Do not let go and reposition your hands once the bar is on your back. You’ll be undoing all the upper back tightness you worked so hard for. Next, get yourself under the bar and place it on the shelf made by your shoulders/upper back. Using your back, pull the bar into yourself and squeeze your elbows down. Set your feet up so that the bar is over the midfoot and you’re in a squat position. Putting the feet too far behind the bar will cause you to use your low back to get the bar out of the rack. Not good if you value your spine. From here, simply brace your abs and squat the weight straight up, as if you were finished a rep. Finally, take a couple of small steps backward and get ready to squat. Notice I said “a couple of small steps” not “Frodo Baggins’s trip to Mt. Doom.” Keep it limited to two or three steps.
Descent. Now you’re ready to go down. Take a breath in and brace your abs even tighter than they already were. Actively pull yourself down and open your groin. This will get more of your hips into the movement and prevent you from looking like a dog relieving itself on the neighbor’s yard. Keep pressure through the whole foot, not letting your heels or toes come up off the ground. Don’t let your instep or the outside of the foot come up either. Remember, use the whole foot.
Ascent. It’s time to come back up. Push yourself into the bar and the bar into the ceiling. Stomp with your whole foot. It’s important to keep your chest up and keep your groin open. Some people say that if your knees tick inwards then you’re asking for an injury. As with all things, there’s an acceptable range. A slight tick isn’t something to worry about, but if it’s affecting your feet and the contact they make with the ground, then we’ve got a problem. It’s important to think about keeping your chest up so that your butt doesn’t shoot up and you’re bent forward. Nobody’s going to put a dollar bill in your waistband, so stop doing that. They might call you “Cinnamon,” though.
Rerack. After the last rep is complete, come to a full stop at the top. Now it’s time to rerack the bar. With straight legs, walk forward until the bar hits the rack, then let it slide down onto the hooks. Do not try to gently lower it onto the hooks. Almost inevitably you’ll do it unevenly and you might miss one of the hooks. The result will be one end of the bar falling down and making lots of noise with plates crashing to the floor at best. At worst, you’ll end up with a demolished spine and somebody else will have a broken foot from plates run amok.
Your squat will now be a lot more effective and injury-free than before. If you’re going to do one of the best bang for buck lower body exercises out there, then it’s best to do it right so you can get maximum performance with minimum injury. Whether you’re a fighter, dancer, powerlifter, or team sport athlete, some variation of squatting has a place in your training.
