Imma give y’all a quick squat tutorial to make sure my squad is taken care of, you know what I’m saying? You already know that squattting is my favorite movement alongside the bench press.
Squatting is one of the best things you could do. If you only had one exercise you could do, it should be the squat. The reason is that squatting is a total body muscle builder—it engages your entire body!
It’s not easy. It’s intimidating to have that much weight on your back. So, I feel like it’s also a metaphor to life—heavy stuff trynna push you down, but you stand your ground and resist.
Anyhow, let’s go through the basics of this movement to make sure you’re doing it properly for optimal results and avoid potential injuries due to mediocre technique. You just gotta know how to do it properly, and I got you.
How To Squat With Proper Form To Avoid Injury
Let’s start with a typical standard back squat. You should already be efficient at doing it with at least your body weight, although we’re trying to do a little bit more. But hey, we all gotta start somewhere, so it’s alright if you get started with just bodyweight and start working your way up.
Racking Off The Weight
When you rack the weight off, you wanna take two steps back. These steps don’t have to be too long. But, make them nice and stable. Once you take these two steps back, you’ll be ready to go after it.
Why only two steps? That should be enough for you to be the right distance away from the rack. Anything more than two steps just shows you’re not confident, and you wanna be confident, not for people watching you but for yourself. You gotta show yourself that you’re confident. Take those two steps back and then get after it.
Getting After It
Ok, as you can see, when you squat, you’re not just dropping straight down. The first thing that you should do is move your hips backward and push your knees out. The reason you wanna do this is that it takes the pressure off of your knees. Then, you go down in a controlled manner and explode on the way up.
To get into your proper squat form, don’t think legs. Think hips and knees. You can’t just start by dropping down because you’ll get injured—perhaps not right away, but over time you will trust me.
Pretend you’re sitting down on a chair to move your hips back. That’s how you should always start the movement. See below for clearer reference.
Then, push your knees out. At this point, the weight should be on your heels. Feeling the weight on your heels will protect your knees by allowing them to bow out just the right amount. This is how you alleviate the stress on your knees.
Yo Mike Rashid But Will This Not Hurt My Knees Anyway?
Listen, squatting won’t hurt your knees at all. It’s actually used in physical therapy and rehabilitation with people who have gotten their knees injured. You gotta strengthen those tendons and joints, and the muscles.
Typically, people who get knee injuries have weak muscles around that area. So that’s why squatting is used in rehabilitation—to get those muscles strong and ready to perform the movements they are meant to perform.
Why I Am Such A Fan Of Squatting
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m big into squatting. In fact, every now and then, I do a Squat Every Day Challenge. Now, that doesn’t mean I do leg day every day because that would mess me up (it’d mess anyone up).
But, I go through a squat progression to hit my top set every day for a lot of days in a row. The reason for this is that there are several benefits to squatting every day. If you wanna learn about this and perhaps try it. Here’s my Squat Everyday Day 1 post.
Anyhow, in my opinion, after training for a lot of years, doing tons of research, and trying lots of stuff, I believe squats are the foundation for a structurally sound body.
When you squat, you’re building the most muscle and burning the most amount of fat because it’s a full-body exercise—not just a leg exercise, as many people may think.
Differen Squat Variations
There are different ways to squat. Let me show you some of them so that you can go and try them out and get stronger and stronger.
Goblet Squat
Goblet Squats help you stay in perfect form. You have the weight in front of you, and it’s a counterbalance. The majority of your weight is in the back, and it drops you down into a perfect position.
Jump Squat
This is one of my favorite types of squats. Jump Squats are great for burning more fat. We do them all the time in Alpha Shred Challenge Workouts. You can do them with or without weight, as you can see below.
Standard Dumbbell Squat
Just hold the dumbbells down at a neutral position, and get after it. Here you still wanna be very conscious of your form even if you’re not lifting a lot of weight. Remember, it’s all about building a proper foundation—everything else comes after.
Go try this out on your own and let me know how it goes in the comments!