How to Squat by Greg Nuckols

• Most people should squat.
• You’d be hard-pressed to find a better exercise than the squat.
• Squats should probably be at the core of your training program.
• There are few exercises that can build or test head-to-toe strength as well as the squat.
• To produce movement, your muscles contract. By doing so, they produce a linear force, pulling on bones that act as levers, producing flexor or extensor moments at the joints they cross, with joints acting as the axes of rotation.
• The two factors that determine whether your muscles can produce large enough internal extensor moments to lift a load are the attachment points of the muscles, and the force with which they can contract.
• Attachment points play a huge role because muscles generally attach very close to the joint they move, so small variations can make a big difference.
• Unfortunately, you can’t change muscle attachment points, so the only factor within your control is increasing contractile force.
• In a properly performed squat, there shouldn’t be a meaningful amount of flexion or hyperextension taking place. Your spine should remain rigid and extended to transfer force from your legs and hips into the bar.
• The length of the shaft of your femur largely determines the moment arms you’re working with at the knee and hip.
• Each intervertebral joint is cushioned by a spinal disc, and each allows for only a little bit of flexion, extension, rotation, and lateral flexion, which add up to large ranges of motion in essentially all planes when addressing the spine as a whole.
• The gluteus maximus is your strongest hip extensor.
• “Origin” refers to the attachment point of a muscle closest to the middle of the body, and “insertion” refers to the attachment furthest from the middle of the body. When a muscle contracts, it pulls the origin and insertion toward each other.
• There are four basic challenges you need to overcome in the squat: a spinal flexor moment, a hip flexor moment, a knee flexor moment, and an ankle dorsiflexor moment.
• There are three key components of the squat: the setup, the descent, and the ascent.
• The first consideration for your setup is bar position. There are three basic bar positions for the squat: high bar, low bar, and front. In the high bar squat, the bar is resting on your traps; in the low bar squat, the bar is resting across your rear deltoids; and in the front squat, the bar is resting across your anterior deltoids or in the cleft between your anterior deltoids and your traps.
• The biggest thing you want to avoid when situating the bar for the high bar squat is letting it grind into your C7 spinous process--the little bony bump at the base of your neck.
• For both the high bar and low bar squat, you should actively pull your shoulder blades together.
• In general, for the high and low bar squat, a narrower hand position will help you keep your upper back a little tighter and more stable.
• Wrist position isn’t an overly important consideration for the back squat if you’re creating a stable enough shelf for the bar with your traps or rear delts.
• Remember, your grip should be as close as it can get without pain in your wrists, elbows, or shoulders.
• The first thing you need to square away is the height of the hooks you’re squatting out of. You should be able to get the bar over the hooks comfortably without having to half squat the weight just to unrack it, or rise up on your toes to get the bar over the hooks.
• The second order of business is getting your feet set under the bar. This is primarily a matter of comfort.
• Unrack the bar by driving your shoulders up into the bar aggressively.
• You should walk the bar out of the rack as efficiently as possible so that you waste minimal energy before you actually get down to the business of squatting. This means taking as few steps as possible.
• The next issue is finding your stance width. There are two main considerations here: comfort and carryover.
• No need to complicate this. Simply play around with your stance width and see what feels best for you.
• In general, you’ll get the best carryover if your squat width is similar to your stance width in whatever movement you’re hoping it will carry over to.
• In general, your best bet is to let your hips and knees determine your foot angle.
• You want your knees to track over roughly your first or second toe. Rather than squatting with your feet turned out to a predetermined degree or arbitrarily pointed straight ahead and forcing your knees and hips to follow along, you’re better of seeing what hip and knee position feels the strongest and most comfortable, and letting that determine how far out you point your feet.
• There are two key factors for developing torso rigidity: spinal extension strength, and intra-abdominal pressure.
• You want to create as much tension throughout your entire body as possible so that you’ll be in utmost control of the bar.
• In general, your best bet is to descend as fast as possible while remaining in complete control of the bar.
• A faster descent can help you get a little more “bounce” out of the bottom of the squat via the stretch reflex, but a little extra pop isn’t very helpful if you’re loose and out of control when you hit the hole.
• Some people are concerned that deep squats will injure their knees or their back, so they squat high and cut their squat off as soon as their torso starts inclining forward ever so slightly. However, the most thorough review of scientific literature found that deep squats posed no serious risks to the knees or spine.
• Deep squats help you gain more strength and muscle than shallow squats, and they transfer better to most athletic endeavours.
• If you’re going to squat deep, then you may as well go until you bottom out. Not only do you get the benefits of increased range of motion, but most people find they can actually lift more weight.
• The advantage you gain from decreasing your range of motion is generally outweighed by the additional effort it takes to reverse the load without the aid of the bounce.
• The ascent revolves around the single most crucial point in the lift: the sticking point.
• The #1 thing you want to avoid is getting caved forward and reaching the sticking point in a good-morning position.
• One final point: EXPLODE. Lift every rep as fast as you can while still maintaining proper technique.
• You’ll gain strength much faster if you make a point of lifting each rep as explosively as you can, from the first rep of each set to the last.
• To correct a good-morning squat, most people need dedicated quad work.
• The biggest tell-tale sign that your core is limiting you is a big discrepancy between your squat and deadlift. If your deadlift is more than 15-20% higher than your squat, it’s likely a core issue.
• The biggest factor that explains why most people can deadlift more than they squat is that people naturally brace more effectively for the deadlift.
• In other words, your squat and deadlift numbers should be pretty similar. If they aren’t, the most likely explanation for the difference is suboptimal core bracing patterns.
• There is the potential for injury with every exercise. However, on a risk scale from 1 to “snap city”, properly performed squats are a 1. The reason I say “properly performed” is that things like spinal flexion or excessive knee caving can make squats more dangerous.
• With very heavy loads (2x your body weight or more) your bar path should be very close to vertical, but you shouldn’t expect it to be with lighter loads.
• I’ll spare you the math, but essentially bar path depends on the weight of the bar compared to the weight of your body.
• In general, longer ranges of motion mean more hypertrophy.
• Any type of squat will build your quads, but high bar squats and front squats taken as deep as possible, sitting down into the lift instead of sitting back into the lift, will probably build your quads the best.
• While squats should probably be at the center of your lower body training, squatting probably won’t maximize leg development by itself.
• If you’re doing front squats...just suck it up or don’t front squat. They’re never comfortable until you eventually deaden the nerves surrounding your clavicles and AC joints.
• If you have healthy knees, letting your knees track past your toes isn’t a concern.
• Unless you’re already a very strong squatter, improving your squat will probably make you better at other sports.
• There’s almost certainly a point of diminishing returns, but aiming for a ~2x bodyweight full squat would be a good goal for most athletes who play sports that require a lot of running and jumping.
• The overall difference in whole-body training effects between all three varieties of squats is probably pretty small.
• Front squats are, hands down, the best squat variation for building upper back strength.
• In a general sense, the best bar position for you is the one that lets you train the hardest and the most consistently.
• Squat as deep as you can for general training purposes and for weightlifting.
• Squat low bar to build more hip strength.
• Squat high bar to build more quad strength.
• Front squat to build more upper back strength.
• Lift every rep as explosively as possible.
• Improve quad strength if your squats end up looking like good mornings.
• Improve core bracing if there’s more than a 15-20% gap between your squat and your deadlift.
• Improve hip extensor strength if you don’t meet the first two criteria.
• Any shoe with good traction and a solid sole is fine; with or without a raised heel is just a matter of preference, but cushion-y soles should be avoided.