Sit Down, Man - Part 1: The beginner's guide to the squat

Before we get into the the meat and bones of the squat, I should say that while my technique is fairly decent, I'm no expert. As such, this guide will essentially be me presenting the advice of various actual experts in my own way.

The squat is the king. You probably already know this. If not, you do now. Everybody with 2 working legs should be squatting, no excuses; some form of squat can be performed safely and effectively by every trainee. For the ladies, do you want shapely thighs and booty? Squat. For the lads, do want some jacked quads and to build brute strength? Squat. Do you both want to crank your metabolism up for 24-48 hours? Squat. We've all spent some time flipping through a few (hundred) photos on the 'She Squats, Bro' page, either wanting to look like the girls on there or wanting a girl on there. Here is my guide to let you give it your best shot.

Obligatory booty shot. I can guarantee you this girl squats.

The Barbell Back Squat

This is the bread-and-butter squat and should be in 99% of programmes, there are two variants of back squat, high bar and low bar. We will go through high bar first as this is what will feel natural to the vast majority of people. This is a guide to good form, however there is no one correct way of squatting and you will likely have to experiment with hand position and foot width/angle until you find your ideal groove.

A quick note on footwear: Squatting in running shoes with a thick, squishy sole is a bad idea. It will cause the force that you are transmitting through your heel to the floor to be slightly dissipated and give you a less stable base, a bad idea with a heavy weight on your back. Personally I squat barefoot; there's no way to get more stable than just your foot on a solid floor. If your gym doesn't let you go barefoot, wear shoes with a thin, non-compressible sole, Converse are a popular choice here and for good reason.

High bar set up - Firstly you need to determine the height at which you will rack the bar, this should be at around upper chest level, about halfway between your collar bone and nipple, when you are standing straight. If there is a choice between two heights, opt for the lower; this bar positioning will allow for easy un-racking and more importantly, racking after a hard set.

The bar should rest on your trapezius (traps) muscle, that is the muscle that runs from the side of your neck to your shoulder. Whilst the bar is still in the rack, place your hands symmetrically on the bar at roughly twice your shoulder width apart. Get under the bar and place it in a comfortable position high on your traps, squeeze your shoulder blades together and down, push your chest up and stand up fully, lifting the bar out of the rack. Maintain this tight upper body position throughout.

Foot position - Once you have lifted the bar out of the rack, carefully take a step back with each foot and set your feet symmetrically just outside shoulder width, with your toes pointing to 11 o'clock (left foot) and 1 o'clock (right foot).

Breathing - Take a deep diaphragmatic breath (that means into your belly, not your chest), then close your throat and squeeze all your ab, obliques, lower back and lat muscles hard. This is known as the 'Valsalva manoeuvre'; here i serves to keep your 'core' stable and greatly reduce the forces acting on your spine. You will hold this breath for the entire up and down motion, releasing when you lock out the rep.

The descent -  You are going to want to 'break at the hip' first, in layman's terms this means you stick your arse back to initiate the movement, the knees then bend following the hip movement. Try not to let your knees come too far forward, this is a sign you are not bending at the hip enough. Keep your weight through your heels. Do not let your knees cave in, look to keep your knees in line with your toes at all times. Do not let your lower back round, an arch should be maintained at all times, if you are squeezing your shoulder blades and keeping your chest up (you should be) this will be easy. Keep your neck neutral, pick a point on the wall/floor and stare at it throughout. Descend in a controlled manner to the point at which the tops of your thighs are parallel to the floor.

The lift - When you reach parallel, don't bounce, but powerfully reverse your motion by pushing hard through your heels. Push hard with your legs whilst simultaneously driving your upper back hard into the bar, this will ensure that your hips and shoulders rise at the same rate and you don't end up doubled over. Watch out for knee cave again, if you find you are prone to this, think of 'spreading the floor', pushing the knees out hard as you ascend. As you come up, flex your glutes (bum) hard and push your hips through, locking out the weight. Repeat as necessary.

Everything about this picture is awesome. Platz (the one with the unreal quads) squatted 227.5kg 23 times. Respect.

The Low Bar Squat - This more advanced variation uses a lower bar placement (obviously), it generally allows people to lift more weight due to improved leverage which allows a greater contribution from the hamstrings and lower back muscles. The downsides are that many find the bar placement awkward or less secure and the stress that it can impose on the shoulders and/or biceps tendons. The majority of points outlined for the high bar squat still apply, the differences are outlined below.

The large difference come in the set up, the spot where the bar rests in a low bar squat is hard to describe, it's one of those things you have to feel out for yourself (insert lowbrow joke). Squeezing the shoulder blades together is even more important here as this is what will create the 'shelf' on which the bar rests. This 'shelf' is formed by the rear deltoids, that is, the back of your shoulder. Many (myself included) find it less stressful on the shoulders/elbows to take a thumb-less/monkey/false grip on the bar

This chick knows

Once you have found the groove, un-rack and step back as before; however, you will now want to set your feet slightly wider. You will again want to break at the hip, but in the low bar squat the hip motion is emphasised to a greater degree then in the high bar squat, with the glutes really being pushed back and as such the torso leaning forward to a greater degree. Once depth is obtained, driving the upper back into the bar is crucial (in addition to pushing through the heels), this is where you will feel you hamstrings working; look to really power your hips through by activating your glutes, all the way to lockout.

Let's have a look at some of the best in the world doing their thing. Note - these are limit weights for the most part, so there is some knee cave in some instances, also one or two are 'dive-bombed', but for the most part they squat exactly how I have outlined above:

That's all for now. In part 2 I'll go through some brutal/beautiful variations of the squat.

P.S. didn't get the title reference? It's a cult classic from Das Racist.

Bonus: It's me!
Here are videos of me busting out sub-maximal singles on high and low bar squats. Whilst the weights are nowhere near heavy enough to cause form breakdown, I'm still recovering from a torn hamstring so technique is not 100% picture perfect, it's solid enough though.

High Bar:

Low Bar: