How to Squat
This guide will teach you how to squat.
First off, let’s discuss benefits of this exercise before providing instructions for how to perform this movement.
Benefits of this Exercise
Squats boost your metabolism. They also increase your muscle mass, metabolic rate and bone density. This exercise improves your posture, core stability, hip, knee and ankle mobility. This movement also improves your work capacity, anaerobic conditioning, peak power output, vertical jump and athletic ability.
This great exercise can reduce your risk for injury and prepare you for any sport.
Squatting can also improve your sports performance and athleticism.
This movement strengthens the bones, ligaments, tendons and other connective tissue. Surprisingly, squatting is good for your joints and knees.
Finally, this simple movement builds mental toughness, pain tolerance and confidence.
Muscles Worked during Squatting
This squat really is the king of all exercises. This simple exercise trains over 60 percent of the muscles in your body.
- Quads
- Glutes
- Hamstrings
- Adductors
- Abdominals
- Obliques
- Lower Back
- Upper Back
- Lats
How to Squat
- Stand with feet between about hip width with toes turned out slightly
- Tighten glutes, core and quads
- Look straight ahead
- Take a deep core bracing
breath - Sit straight down while pushing knees out to the sides
- Sit down until hips flex below knees
- Stand up tall to the start position
- Exhale at the top.
- Repeat
Different Squat Variations
Different variations of this exercise like the goblet squat, front squat or barbell back squat all have slightly different technique requirements.
How to Goblet Squat
The steps to perform the goblet squat are fairly similar to performing a standard squat. With the goblet squat, you want to nestle a dumbbell between your hands and hold it against your body. You still need to keep your core tight and your shoulders back and down.
Then you can follow the steps detailed above to perform this exercise.
How to Back Squat
The barbell back squat has a few extra steps for safety. To perform this movement follow the steps below.
- Position a bar at shoulder height
- Step under bar, position bar either on upper traps or rear deltoids
- Place hands equidistant on the bar, as close as your shoulder mobility allows
- Pull elbows down and under bar
- Pull shoulders back and down, tightening lats and rhomboids
- Position feet at hip width under bar
- Perform a core bracing breath
- Straighten legs to take the bar off the rack
- Pause one count
- Step one foot back and out
- Step other foot back and out
- Take a third step, if necessary, with first foot to set squat stance
- Pull elbows down and in, and tighten your upper back
- Take a deep breath in and perform squat as detailed above
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this guide helped you learn how to do this simple movement with perfect form. If this article helped you, please leave me a comment below.
