Athlete’s usually are introduced to squats by a buddy or, sadly, by a misinformed coach who doesn’t understand proper technique. The result? Soreness or injury and a life-long aversion to what’s likely the best exercise in a strength conditioning arsenal.
How to Learn a Squat
There’s a simple tool to help you learn-– or teach – the squat; it give a great feel for how to squat and requires nothing more than a flat wall and a little patience. It’s called the wall hug.
Stand facing a wall with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart, toes touching the base of the wall and pointed out slightly. Place your hands flat against the wall even with your ears and slightly outside your shoulders. Tilt your head back slightly and place your chin on the wall. You’re starting, essentially, as you should be when you squat. No bend in your waist, chest high and scapulae pulled together.
Then, squat, keeping your toes, hands and chin in contact with the wall. See how low you can go without falling. Do it correctly, and your knees end up over your toes; you’ll have a strong, flat back and your weight will be evenly distributed. If your knees tend to splay outward, widen your stance. If you can’t get to a point where the tops of your thighs are at least parallel to the ground, you’ll need to work on your hip flexibility.
Have a partner watch you as you set up against the wall and critique your squat. Knees aligned properly? Back flat? Deep enough? Keep adjusting until you can squat with some stability, and make sure you don’t rock onto your toes.
Take it to the Squat Rack
Now, head to a squat rack to practice your power squats. Start with a light weight making sure you set the rack correctly. You don’t want to have to get up onto your toes to unrack the weight at the beginning and end of your set. You should be able to step underneath the bar, set you feet and stand up without having to stretch, reach or hop to unrack.
Make sure you set the safety bars as well. They need to be low enough to allow you a good deep squat, but in a position that if you miss the squat you can just drop the weight.
Here’s how to squat:
- Stand facing the bar.
- Set your hands about six inches or so outside your shoulders.
- You have two choices on bar position: across the middle of your traps, which is slightly lower on your back, or higher up, on top of your posterior deltoids, just below your neck. If you choose the higher position, set the bar below the “knuckle” of your neck. But, don’t go too low on your shoulders, or you’re likely to bend too much at the waist as you squat.
- Lift your elbows up behind you slightly to help bunch the muscles of your back and shoulders, creating a ledge for the bar.
- Keep your eyes and chin up – pick a spot on the wall in front of you and “spot” it throughout your lift.
- Pull your scapulae together, stand up with the bar and take a step or two backwards into the rack.
- Make sure your feet are positioned the same as when you did your wall hugs.
- Bend you knees and hips to start the bar going down, keeping your torso upright, eyes up, chest “proud” and back flat. Continue going deeper until the tops of your thighs are parallel to the floor. Your torso will be bent slightly. Make sure your weight is evenly distributed on your feet and don’t rock onto your toes.
- Start your upward movement with a “squeeze” of your hips and glutes, making sure to straighten your hips and knees together while maintaining your torso position relative to the floor, don’t go “chest down,” as that will push your into a weaker position, and don’t favor one leg over the other.
- Return all the way to the top position and repeat.
The leg squat is the best exercise for you to do as an athlete, hands down. Whether you’re a football player looking to increase speed, a swimmer who wants a better push out of the blocks or a volleyball player looking for an extra three inches from your vertical, nothing touches it for simplicity and effectiveness.
Squatting – and its variations – is something that should be done all year long, even in season. Like any other lift, you’ll see the greatest gains if you cycle your workouts.
Young athletes should start out doing sets of wall hugs and gradually transition to free weights after multiple sessions using just their body weight.
 |
