Squat
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There are a lot of different ways to do squats. Back squats, front squats, goblet squats, pistol squats, the list seems to go on and on. However, the most basic form of a squat is the squat with just your bodyweight or with additional weights held at your sides. It requires minimal equipment, is incredibly functional, and is an important step to master before trying out some of the other squat variations.
The Basics
The squat is primarily used as a strength exercise. It is classified as a squat movement. It is more generally classified as a lower push movement. Since it involves significant activation of multiple muscle groups, it is considered a compound exercise.
Form
Set Up
- Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder width apart turned slightly outward
- Brace your core, keeping your spine neutral and chest up
- Your hands can be kept at your sides or out in front of you for balance
Execution
- Squat down, bending simultaneously at the hips and knees
- Keep your knees tracking in line with your feet
- Keep your weight balanced between your heel and the ball of your foot
- Think about your hips dropping down, ending up between your legs
- Keep your core braced, spine neutral and chest up
- Squat down until your thighs are at least parallel with the ground
- Push yourself back up, extending your hips and knees simultaneously
- Your hips and shoulders should rise at the same rate
Common Mistakes
Heels Coming Off the Ground
Keeping your heels on the ground important for keeping a stable, balanced position and is also a good indicator that your hips are properly involved in the bodyweight squat. If your heels are coming off the ground, you may need to work on your ankle flexibility. A quick fix is to put something like a small weight plate under them.
Stopping Before Parallel
Going down until your thighs are parallel with the ground is the usual standard for doing a full squat. Stopping higher than parallel limits your range of motion, which limits how much your muscles are worked.
Rounding Your Back
Keeping your core braced and spine neutral is incredibly important for reducing the risk of injury, especially once you move into weighted squat variations.
Knees In
Be sure to keep your knees tracking in line with your feet. Allowing them to cave inwards can lead to knee pain and injury.
Additional Info
Depth
There is some debate on the proper depth for performing a squat. However, the general consensus is that going to parallel is the minimum and going deeper can be beneficial if you have the proper mobility and can do so with good form.
Adding Weight
Once you've mastered the squat with either bodyweight or weights held at your sides, there are many different ways that you can add weight to keep progressing. The most popular is the back squat, however, it can be a little too technical for many people to jump right into. The goblet squat is a great next step for safely transitioning to higher load variations.
Related Exercises
Variation exercises are performed somewhat differently than the given exercise but are largely the same movement. They may target certain involved muscles to slightly different degrees.
Alternative exercises are good replacements for the given exercise. They develop the same fitness component and/or muscle group but do so in a different way that may work better for you.
Progression variations are primarily used to modify the difficult/resistance of a calisthenic exercise. The %s show how much easier or harder the variation is compared to the exercise. The exercise is considered 100%, so anything below 100% is easier, anything higher is harder.
Similar exercises work some or all of the same muscles, but are different from the given exercise in a way that doesn't make them as good of a replacement as the alternative exercises.
Opposing exercises target the antagonist muscles or the opposite movement pattern of the given exercise. Useful for finding agonist/antagonist exercise pairings to reduce rest time and speed up workouts.
