Table of Contents
The squat is the only exercise that allows direct training of the complex movement pattern known as hip drive. The term posterior chain refers to the muscles that produce hip extension – the straightening out of the hip joint from its flexed (or bent) position in the bottom of the squat.
The full squat is the preferred lower-body exercise for safety as well as for athletic strength, according to experts.
If you are to squat correctly, you must use hip drive – the movement pattern known as shoving-up of the sacral area of the lower back. Every time you use this motion to propel yourself out of the bottom of the squat, you train the muscles in the posterior chain. If the bar is placed high on the back, the back angle must become more vertical to support it. This makes the back squat more like the front squat, and we don’t want to front-squat for general strength because it doesn’t effectively train the posterior chain.
Any squat that is not deep is a partial squat, and partial squats stress the knees and the quadriceps without stressing the glutes, adductors, or hamstrings. A trainee doing quarter-squats is predisposed to back injuries due to the extreme spinal loading.
In the absence of injury, everyone should learn to squat.
Learning to Squat
An excessively wide stance causes the adductors to reach the end of their extensibility early, and excessive narrowness causes the thighs to jam against the belly. Shoulder width is proportionate to pelvic width in most people, and experience has shown that this works well for most of the population.
Now assume the position you will be in at the bottom of a correct squat, without the bar. Assume the correct stance and squat down, all the way. Sometimes a lack of flexibility or a failure to point your toes out enough will alter your stance on the way down.
Next, put your elbows behind your knees, with the palms of your hands together, and shove your knees out. This will usually be a decent bottom position, and if your flexibility is not great, the position will act as a stretch if you maintain it for a few seconds.
Good depth is the difference between a squat and a partial squat. Think about a chain hooked to your hips, pulling you straight up out of the bottom. Don’t think about your knees straightening out, or your feet pushing against the floor. Just drive your hips up from the bottom position.
The squat is not a leg press. The idea of pushing with the feet provides an inadequate signal for the hamstrings, adductors, and glutes to to provide their power out of the bottom. Eye gaze direction plays an important part in this process of driving the hips.
Adding the bar
Chalk your hands before squatting. Dry skin is less prone to folding and abrasion than moist skin. If the gym is not equipped with chalk, bring your own.
The squat begins at the power rack or the squat stands, whichever is available. Set the rack height so that the bar in the rack is at about the level of your mid-sternum. Most people will want to use a position in the rack that is too high.
Always an empty bar at first. There will be plenty of time to add weight later on. A standard power bar has 16-17 inches between the ends of the outside knurl, and 32 inches between the finger marks. Grip width for the squat will obviously vary with shoulder width and flexibility.
You are now ready to squat with the empty bar. Use the same stance you used during the unweighted part of this teaching method. Don’t stop at the bottom, just go down and immediately come back up. Drive your butt straight up, not forward, out of the bottom.
The thumbs should be placed on top of the bar so that the wrists can be held in a straight line with the forearms. The elbows should be cranked up to trap the bar between the hands and the back.
The Important Things You’re Going to Do Wrong
You will squat to a position that is not below parallel. Your stance will be either too narrow or too wide, with your toes usually pointed too forward. You will lift your chest instead of driving your hips up and place the bar too high on your back. This will adversely affect hip drive and depth.
The key to learning the correct position for the lower back is to assume a position that is incorrect, and then memorize the way it feels. The best way to do this is to lie down on your belly on the floor and lift your chest up off of the floor.