How to do a squat

How to do a Squat

This is commonly known as a bodyweight squat or an ‘air’ squat, it’s the most basic type of squat and uses just your body weight for resistance. Variations of this basic squat movement can include weights like barbels and dumbbells or objects you can find around the home, a grocery bag filled with objects a small child or anything you can hold in your arms or hands. The object doesn’t need to be heavy.

To perform a basic squat-

· Start with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart

· Keep your chest up engage your abdominals and shifty your body weight onto your heels as you push your hips back into a sitting position.

· Lower your hips until your thighs are parallel to the floor or as close to parallel you can comfortably get without pain

· You should feel the squat in your thighs and glutes

· Pause with your knees over but not beyond your toes

· Exhale and push up back to standing position

· Repeat

While generally a safe exercise if done with good form there are some safety precautions to keep in mind.

· Only lower yourself as far as you can go without discomfort. If you feel any discomfort in your hips, knees or back, stop and use that as your endpoint

· Make sure that your feet are slightly wider than shoulder width apart. This will give you a more stable base to perform the movement. A narrower stance can be less stable and requires more flexibility in your hips, knees and ankles

· Keep your eyes forward it can be tempting to look down when squatting but doing so will make you drop your head forward and round out your back. So pick a spot in front to focus on and concentrate on keeping your spine and upper back in a natural neutral posture

· If using weights only lift what you can easily handle. It is better to perform the squat with good form and technique than try to lift too much weight. Lifting too much can cause injury to your back, hips and knees

· Keep your core activated throughout the movement these muscles are your internal belt that holds everything in place

Here is a really interesting video of foot position when squatting https://youtu.be/ubdIGnX2Hfs

This one here is a video on how to perform the perfect squat

https://youtu.be/8Kls95w2jFA

Get squatting!

Next post – Squat Variations...