Squats: why and how
20 September 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
This will be old and familiar terrain for longtime readers but periodically revisiting squat basics defines and reaffirms the central core of our approach to weight training. Compound multi-joint free weight exercise forms the backbone of the Purposefully Primitive approach to progressive resistance training. The squat, the deep knee bend with poundage, is the core of the core, the absolute epicenter of our progressive resistance practice. A proper squat activates more muscles in a more profound way than any other progressive resistance exercise. The sheer number of fibers activated is compounded by the amount of poundage used in relation to other exercises. This force-multiplier, poundage, separates the squat from say a front squat, clean, snatch, or a clean and jerk. These great and forgotten exercises (not forgotten by Purposefully Primitives) possess wonderfully extended range-of-motion attributes that equal or perhaps exceed the squat insofar as number of muscles activated but the difference is poundage. The squat activates just as many muscles as these extended ROM Olympic lift-style exercises but the squat allows the athlete to handle 30-50% more weight. Poundage deepens muscular inroad, assuming the range-of-motion is sufficient. Only the deadlift can rival the squat in terms of total number of muscles activated and poundage used. This is precisely why the deadlift ranks in the top three of recommended exercises. The deadlift is another progressive resistance exercise purposefully forgotten by fitness experts and its disuse can be traced to discomfort. Ditto the squat but to a slightly lesser extent.
Human nature is such that when someone tells us what we want to hear we desperately want to believe, despite evidence to the contrary. When an authority figure tells us that exercises that are comfortable to perform are as effective as exercises that involve a level of discomfort, we want to believe this fallacy. In the long experience of a Purposeful Primitive there is a direct relationship between discomfort and effectiveness. This makes sense from a physiological and empirical perspective: compound multi-joint free weight exercises pushed or pulled over an exaggerated range-of-motion (ROM) are positively excruciating when compared to isolation exercises done seated using a ball-bearing smooth machines with a short ROM. People want desperately to believe that a leg extension or a lat pulldown are the muscle building equivalents of a squat or deadlift (and there are plenty of fitness experts, personal trainers and equipment makers who willingly corroborate this nonsense) but the physiological fact is when it comes to building muscle free weights trump machines, compound exercises trumps isolation exercises and extended ROM trumps shortened ROM every single time. The proper technical execution of a squat is the subject of some controversy: suffice to say shallow squats are worthless squats. Many personal trainers try and dismiss the effectiveness of squats so as to avoid having to teach this difficult exercise. So much easier to plop the client down on the leg extension machine or some other glitzy idiot-proof leg-building apparatus, tell the client this is just as good as squatting and there is less chance of injury.
Personal trainers love invoking the less chance of injury canard because it gets them off the hook for so many things. Teach me deadlifts. Theyre dangerous. Teach me power cleans. Youll break your wrists. Teach me front squats. Youll destroy your knees. What can you teach me? I can teach you how to sit on a machine, do one or two sub-maximal sets that will make you feel good about yourself, be a paid friend and get you the hell out of here before my 11:30 appointment shows up. Proper squatting with a barbell is a logical outgrowth of proper squatting without poundage. Squatting down flatfooted and upright with nothing in your hands or on your back need be mastered before we graduate to deep knee bends with a barbell. This is logical and appropriate but you would be amazed how many trainers mindlessly commence teaching free-weight squatting using a barbell. The first step in learning how to squat is being able to establish a comfortable bottom positionall the way down on your hunches like the Vietnamese fisherman sitting and repairing a net. How do we sit in this bottommost position? Flatfooted and relaxed. Experiment with stance width. Everyone can learn to sit relaxed, low and flatfooted if they can discover the perfect stance width for their height, skeletal structure and proportion. Once we develop the relaxed flatfoot stance, its time to rep. Work up to 50-repetitions without weight and youre ready to begin barbell squatting. In martial arts a repetition sequence is called a Kata and the free-weight squat Kata is as follows: stand erect with the proper stance width. Inhale as you descend, timing the inhalation so that it is completed just as you reach the bottom-most position. The mightier the inhale the better I will use the analogy of inhaling as if you were attempting to suck all the air out of the room inhale audibly. A huge inhalation will keep tension in the upper torso and allows you to stay upright.
When you break your knees to begin the descent, push the glutes back and lock the eyes on a spot on the wall in front of you at head height throughout the descent and ascent keep the eyes locked on the exact spot. Drill a hole into the spot with x-ray vision. This is how one of my Iron Mentors described this subtle technical point. As you thrust the butt back and synchronize the inhalation with the descent, the arms are held parallel to the ground. The shins should be kept as vertical as possible throughout. Vertical shins keep the knees over the ankles and this establishes optimal leverage. The knees should never travel forward beyond the toes as this poor leverage throws the bodyweight onto the toes. Pushing upward while knees are in front of the toes and weight is on the balls of the foot is potentially injurious to the knees. In the flatfooted bottom position, maximum inhalation is achieved. Pause for a beat and arise explosively. Good squatters go down slow and under control and come erect quickly. Bad squatters go down fast and out of control and come up slowly and awkwardly. Use a precise descent, pause at the bottom-most position and come erect explosively. Exhalation is synchronized with ascent so that air is expunged totally just as you hit lockout. Thats one rep. When you can do 50 flatfooted free weight pause squats you are ready to begin using a barbell. I recommend serious trainees work up to 100-reps and I have had training partners work up to 700-non-stop weightless reps. The ultra-deep free weight squat Kata is the foundation on which all future squat efforts are built. Once this torturous exercise is learned, regular barbell squatting is a relative snap. Well leave this vital subject for now and revisit barbell squatting in a week or so.
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