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The Squat: King of All Exercises – Part 2

‘If you ain’t got squat you ain’t got squat’ Gary Gray

‘First and foremost when it comes to squatting, if you can’t, you must!’ Paul Chek

Last month we took a holistic look at the importance of squatting in everyday life and some of the reasons why we, and some of the best strength and conditioning coaches around, think the squat is the ‘King of All Exercises’.

Today we’ll look at practical considerations when squatting as part of your workout - what makes a good squat, squatting technique, common muscular restrictions, and progressions if you’re currently unable to perform a full squat.

So why is the full squat such a great exercise?

At 3D PTS we use the full squat for weight loss, total body toning, strength training, conditioning, increasing athletic and sporting performance, increasing joint stability, and injury reduction amongst others. It’s not just an exercise for the big guys down at the gym but something everyone can enjoy whether you choose to use weights at all or throw 80kg on each side of the bar.

The reason it’s so effective is that it works pretty much every muscle in your body – and at upper end of the load and/or intensity scale it’ll even work the small muscles in your face. (1)

When pretty much every muscle in your body is getting a workout, a tremendous number of calories are burned. Squatting also adds active tissue – muscle - all over your body, and as we know adding active tissue is essential to weight loss because muscle has a high energy requirement even when not working. That muscle also aids in joint stability and injury reduction, sporting performance, and overall body tone. Not bad for a single exercise!

In short, it’s fantastic for anyone who wants to lose weight, tone up, improve their performance, is time limited or just look and feel their best.

What makes a good full squat?

The first and foremost consideration is avoiding the risk of injury through proper technique, and we can achieve that by setting ourselves up correctly, descending into the squat and ascending from the squat with good form. In figures 1 – 4 below we show good squat technique:

Fig. 1                  Fig. 2                  Fig. 3               Fig. 4

Set up:

In most gyms you’ll find squat rack with a mirror behind it so that you can get the bar on your shoulders easily and keep an eye on your form. Otherwise, adapt the following guidelines according to your situation.

• You should always stand facing the rack so that you can back out and return easily to it.
• Ducking under the bar, place it over the back of your shoulders, resting it on the thickest part of your upper trapezius muscles.
• Place your hands as close as possible the outside of your shoulders, elbows directly under the bar.
• For proper neck alignment keep your chin slightly raised, your eyes focused slightly above eye level.
• Feet should be shoulder width apart in a position you find natural and comfortable, and pointing slightly outward.
• Lift the bar by straightening your legs and take a step back with each foot to clear the rack.

Descent:

• Knees should move forward first, followed immediately by the hips being lowered (going hips first means more forward lean).
• As the hips are lowered, keep your back as erect as you can and your chest up, lowering your body until your hamstrings touch your calf muscles along most of their length.
• Pay attention to your feet – ensure that the pressure is evenly balanced between the front and back of each foot. With heavier loads more pressure should be felt at the heel of each foot. 
• During the descent, your knees should travel out over your toes.
• Inhale (preferably through your mouth) throughout.

Ascent:

• Begin by raising your hips, your body staying as vertical as possible.
• Pay attention to your feet again, never let the weight shift too far forward
• Focus on accelerating out of the fully squatted position, exhaling throughout while you do so.

What to watch out for – common muscular restrictions

Tight hip flexors (psoas), calf muscles and quadriceps can cause squat distortions, shifting the weight away from the centre of gravity and potentially leading to injury.

In figures 5 - 7 below we show some commonly observed muscular restrictions. In figure 5 you can see the load moving forward of the natural centre of gravity compared with figures 2 and 3 above. This is commonly due to tight hip flexors, quads and calves.

In figure 6 you can see how tight hip flexors can lead to a tight lower back and switched off glutial muscles: the weight shifts backwards and the knees shoot forwards. 

Figure 7 shows what happens when the iliotibial (IT) band is too tight along with tight adductors and dysfunctional glutes (external hip rotators). These imbalances to a failure in stabilising the legs properly (foam rolling/stretching the IT bands and adductors and widening your stance will help).

 Fig. 5                             Fig. 6                             Fig. 7

In figures 8 - 10 we show some great stretches for: hip flexors (fig. 8), quads (fig. 9) and the calf muscles (fig. 10)

                                    Fig. 8                                                Fig. 9                                        Fig. 10

Common faults & corrections in technique

• Never exhaust your core musculature (for instance through sit ups or lower back raises) before squatting – your stability will suffer and you may get injured.
• Lack of proper stretching prior to squatting
• Keeping your elbows directly under the bar will help to keep the load directly over your centre of gravity.
• Spinal curvature (lordosis) should be as neutral as possible, this includes your neck.
• Your hips should stay directly under the bar as much as is possible
• Buckling of your knees should not occur.
• Bouncing in the fully squatting position means poor control – don’t do it!

What if I can’t complete a full squat at all?

As Paul Chek says: ‘First and foremost when it comes to squatting, if you can’t, you must!

We just need to cheat a little bit. Not much, but by adding some external stability throughout the range of motion we can make the full squat achievable while conditioning the muscles appropriately. Then we can progress to a full, unassisted squat at some stage in the future. Here's how we aim to progress to a full squat:

1. Squat while holding a solid support or hand of another person

2. With swiss ball

3. Smith machine (2)

Below we show how to squat using a swiss ball:

Fig. 11                      Fig. 12

That concludes our two part look at the ‘King of All Exercises’, we hope you’ve found it useful, and that a squat might soon find itself a regular part of your workout or holistic well being regime.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and holiday season, and of course the very best in health and fitness - see you in the New Year!

Craig, Matt and the 3D PTS team

References:

1. Fear the Squat No More! Part I http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/07/28/fear-the-squat-part-one.aspx

2. Fear the Squat No More, PTontheNet.com articles, released 27 Sep 1999